I found it through this page on E!Online, but I’m also pasting the direct video link below. I have no idea if people outside the US will be able to see this or not though.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid16752303001/bctid16739530001
Reverse-engineering Henry VIII
I came across this article about some of the technology used to scan four suits of Henry VIII’s armor from various times in his life.
From TCT Magazine:
Henry VIII Reverse Engineered by The Scan Team & Konica Minolta
Royal Armouries are staging an exhibition in conjunction with Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) at the Tower of London to mark the 500th anniversary of his coronation. The exhibition will offer an accurate illustration of the King throughout his reign. Fortunately a number of Henry
Fourth Blogiversary!
I missed the exact day (March 14), but this is close enough. It was four years ago that I switched my old “News and Updates” page to what it obviously needed to be – a blog. It basically had been a “manual” blog (with no comments other than email feedback to me) since July 1997, and I was able to pull in some of the more interesting old posts to fill out the new blog.
Thanks to everyone who stops by!
Picture of the Week #11
Model of the Tower of London. May 2003.
Although I have several photos of this model from three separate trips to the Tower, I’ve never remembered to take a photo of the information on it. If you know what year in the Tower’s history this model is supposed to recreate, please add a comment! I want to say it was supposed to be some time late in Henry VIII’s reign, but I just can’t remember for sure.
While I was searching the page for the Tower at Historic Royal Palaces, I noticed that they have a model of the medieval Tower from the time of the Peasant’s Revolt, which sounds neat. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t there on my last visit (2003).
More “discovered” Shakespeare
This time it is some written works –
From The Telegraph:
Academic ‘discovers’ six works by William Shakespeare
An academic claims to have discovered six previously unrecognised works by William Shakespeare.
Dr John Casson claims to have unearthed Shakespeare’s first published poem, the Phaeton sonnet, his first comedy, Mucedorus, and his first tragedies, Locrine and Arden of Faversham.
He also explores the plays Thomas of Woodstock and A Yorkshire Tragedy, and claims to prove that a ‘lost play’ called Cardenio is a genuine work by Shakespeare and fellow playwright John Fletcher.
Dr Casson spent three years studying writings thought to be connected to Shakespeare and poring over the life and letters of aristocrat Sir Henry Neville, considered by some academics to be the latest candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays.
He has published his findings in a book, titled Enter Pursued by a Bear.
“Some people have said, ‘we don’t know if this is by William Shakespeare’, so I’ve been able to study them and say ‘yes, here’s the evidence for Shakespeare but here’s also the evidence for Neville,’ so I’ve been able to link the two,” Dr Casson said.
“I started off looking at works where we weren’t sure whether they were by Shakespeare or not and I tested them to see if there was any evidence for Henry Neville.
“I’ve found evidence pouring out and I’ve been able to show Shakespeare’s development from his early days.”
…
Dr Casson, an independent researcher and psychotherapist, said: “The folio on display contains what many think are the complete works of Shakespeare, but I have discovered six new plays that are all by the Bard, but which never made it into this 400-year-old collection.”He added: “What we thought were the first plays by Shakespeare appeared anonymously in the early 1590s.
And for anyone interested in getting the book, here are the Amazon links from my affiliate store:
Follow up on Shakespeare portrait
There were a lot of follow-up articles on this possible new portrait, but I thought this particular one (with some interesting comparison images) was good.
From The Times Online:
Shakespeare Unfound(ed)?
The real identity of the sitter for the new “Shakespeare” portraitA claim by the eminent Shakespearean Stanley Wells that a Jacobean painting from the family collection of Mr Alec Cobbe, long held in Ireland, is a
Henry VIII “a real mummy’s boy”
From The Daily Mail:
King Henry VIII was a real mummy’s boy, his handwriting suggests.
According to historian Dr David Starkey, his handwriting was so similar to his mother’s it can be assumed he was emotionally dependent on women.
An exhibition opening next month at the British Library compares and contrasts his handwriting to his younger sister Mary and their mother, Elizabeth of York.
Dr Starkey revealed to the Sunday Times: ‘Henry was brought up very, very unusually, in a female household.’
All have the same bold, square and rather laboured forms of writing, which is unlike the writing of most men in the royal court of that period.
Dr Starkey has deduced that the young prince must have been taught to write by his mother in what were unheard of circumstances for nobility, let alone royalty, in those times.
Elizabeth I’s translation works published
These two volumes continue the work started with the excellent Elizabeth I: Collected Works edited by Leah Marcus, et. al. and Elizabeth I: Autograph Compositions and Foreign Language Originals, edited by Janel Muler et. al.
The first volume is already out and covers 1544-1589 and the second volume is to be published soon and covers 1592-1598. I’m hoping that these will someday come out in paperback like the Collected Works eventually did, since they tend to be cheaper and not take up as much room (both of which are big issues for me!).
And of course, Amazon affiliate store links below (just for the new translation volumes… if you want to support the site and buy the other ones, you can click through the links on the right.)
Follow-up on Elizabeth of York portrait
The link above from the BBC News site has a video of the unveiling.
As expected, it is a variation on the Elizabeth in the red dress portrait that we’re familiar with. In fact, I think I was correct in my guess that Hever bought this portrait. When they show a close-up of the portrait in the video you can see the painted round bottom, the same as the link above.
I’ll add additional links in this post as they come in.
New Book – Mistresses of Henry VIII by Kelly Hart
I received an email from The History Press about this upcoming book, which sounds interesting. And it will save me the trouble of trying to assemble that “mistresses timeline” I mentioned in a thread on the Q&A blog! It is due out on April 6 in the UK and June 1 in the US (according to Amazon). Text from the information sheet is copied below.
The Mistresses of Henry VIII by Kelly Hart
April 2009 is the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII
Picture of the Week #10
Stage of Shakespeare’s Globe in London. June 2000.
In honor of the possible new portrait and the additional news from the dig at the first theater, I decided to post this photo from one of my visits to the Globe. I took the tour on my trip in 1998, but didn’t get to see a play that time. However, when we were planning the big Tudor Talk meet-up in 2000, one of the list members who also volunteered at the Globe got us tickets for Hamlet, which was fabulous. We had two separate boxes for the approximately 20 people, split into two groups opposite each other. I was in the box on the middle level and second from the right of the stage in the photo. They were the fancy seats… no groundlings in our group!
More informative trailer for Season 3 of “The Tudors”
This one actually gives more of an indication as to what events they are going to be taking on in Season 3 – namely the Pilgrimage of Grace and the fall of Cromwell (whom I guess will be the big “head chop” of this season).
More on Shakespeare’s ‘First Theater’
This is an update to a story that I blogged about last summer:
From the BBC:
A team from the Museum of London found the remains of what they believe is also Britain’s first purpose built theatre in Shoreditch last summer.
Built in 1576, it is thought the Bard acted there and that it also hosted the premiere of Romeo and Juliet.
The site is now owned by the Tower Theatre Company and a new playhouse is due to open there in 2012.
Taryn Nixon, from the Museum of London, said her team had found part of the original curved wall of the playhouse, which was believed to be polygonal in shape.
A metre and a half below street level, it has also uncovered the gravel surface, gently sloping down towards the stage, where the bulk of the audience would have stood.
But the archaeologists fear the stage itself may be buried underneath a housing development.
Full article (with a short video that has a nice overview of the site)
Two possible new views of The Bard
First up, from The Times Online:
Is this the real Shakespeare at last?
A PORTRAIT owned for nearly 300 years by a family will tomorrow be claimed as the only known picture of William Shakespeare painted during his lifetime.
No other image, executed at first hand, is thought to exist of Britain
Picture of the Week #9
Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset, England. May 1998.
Glastonbury’s first stone church dates to the 8th century, but it was demolished and rebuilt in Norman times. Building and expansion continued through the early 16th century, including a special apartment on the Abbot’s House built for a visit by Henry VII. The Abbey met its end in 1539 during the Dissolution of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII.
This photograph is one of my favorites from my first trip to the UK, and it happened totally by accident. I was getting near the end of my roll of film (yes, film – this was 1998) so I sat down on a little rise under a tree along the path to change out the roll. I saw I had a couple of shots left, so I just took a photo of the view in front of me, which is the photo you see above.
Creative Spaces – Museum social networking
I got an email about this yesterday (thanks again Tom!) and here is a BBC article about the new service (currently in beta testing):
A group of the UK’s most famous museums, including the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum, is creating a collective website.
As well as finding information about exhibits, museum lovers can use the website to create communities based on their historic and creative interests.
The National Museums Online Learning project is to be launched this week.
The
Next live blog/read-along book!
Going on the past successes of the Henry: Virtuous Prince and The Sisters Who Would Be Queen threads, here’s the next one!
When I posted about Derek Wilson’s new book A Brief History of Henry VIII, PhD Historian generously offered to do a “blog as you read” for this one. Since this book is inexpensive, this would be a good one to also do as a read-along for anyone who is interested. It is currently listed as “dispatched in 1 to 3 weeks” by Amazon UK and is “In Stock” at Amazon US (although the release date is technically March 9). And full disclosure, if you order through the links on the post above, it goes to my affiliate store and I get a small portion of the sale, which goes towards paying for web hosting and research books.
Thomas Boleyn Letter donated to Lincoln Cathedral
From This is Lincolnshire:
A 500-year-old letter written by the father of one of Henry VIII’s six wives has been donated to Lincoln Cathedral.
Visitors will now be able to see the note about Anne Boleyn which is said to have started a chain of events radically altering the course of English history and ended with her being beheaded.
International opera singer Jane Eaglen, from Lincoln, has donated the letter.
It will go on display at the cathedral’s Medieval Library in September to commemorate the 500th anniversary of King Henry’s ascension to the throne.
The letter was penned on August 14, 1514, by Sir Thomas Boleyn
Celebration of London in June
With, of course, some celebrations of the Henry VIII anniversary rolled in. I’d love to see this!
From This is London:
A TUDOR pageant is to take place on the Thames to mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s coronation.
Actors playing the king and members of his court will be aboard a magnificent flotilla sailing from the Tower of London to Hampton Court Palace. The pageant will be the highlight of a month-long series of cultural activities celebrating the history of London, which was launched today by Mayor Boris Johnson.
Starkey to unveil portrait of Elizabeth of York at Hever Castle
From This is Kent:
TELEVISION presenter David Starkey is set to unveil a rare royal portrait in Hever in March.
The Tudor historian will unveil the 16th century portrait of Henry VIII’s mother Elizabeth of York, which will mark the start of Hever Castle’s celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the famous monarch’s accession to the throne on March 13.
A spokesman for Hever Castle said: “The portrait will form part of the Henry VIII: The Pampered Prince exhibition, which will provide an insight into a mother who spoiled and doted on her son, which had a great affect in shaping Henry VIII, famous for his pursuit of fame, indulgence and women.” Visitors will also see a representation of the complete collection of portraits of the six wives of King Henry VIII.
Hever Castle re-opens on March 1 and is open Wednesdays to Sundays.
