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)

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.

Full article

Press release

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.

Source page

Official Site of Hever Castle

Picture of the Week #8

At Carew Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales. May 2003

We ended up visiting Carew Castle completely by accident. While we were on the way back to the hotel from Pembroke Castle, I noticed the sign for Carew and that it was only about a mile from the road. So we decided to see if it was still open for the day, and it was.

The castle has parts dating back to around 1100 and was transformed from a medieval defensive fortification to a Tudor mansion by Sir Rhys ap Thomas. The crests you see above are of Prince Arthur (left), Henry VII (center, with his heraldic greyhound and dragon to either side) and Catherine of Aragon (right) and are above the entrance to the great hall.

In 1507 Carew Castle was the site of the last great medieval-style tournament in Wales.

Derek Wilson’s new book on Henry VIII

From This Is North Devon:

IF YOU say Henry VIII to most people, the iconic image that is likely to spring to mind, will be the magnificent full-length portrait, painted by his contemporary Hans Holbein. In it, Henry looks impressive and imposing: jewels on his chest, codpiece thrusting forward, arms akimbo and his eyes glaring out of the canvas.

However, according to one leading Tudor historian, like many people across the ages, we have been bamboozled by this stunning image. Indeed, Derek Wilson from West Buckland goes so far as to say the portrait is probably the most effective piece of propaganda in the whole of English history.

“This is Henry as he wanted to be seen,” says the author.

“The reality was rather different. When that portrait was painted that apparently magnificent man was fat, balding and a semi invalid. He had just fairly narrowly survived a major rebellion in the country. He had been 28 years on the throne and he had no male heir. His own illegitimate son, his fall back heir, had just died. He was on his third wife and he was actually staring failure in the face.”

Henry, he contends, strikes that famous domineering pose to suggest he was a splendid and powerful king.

“This is not the case,” says Derek. “We have been deceived.”

In latest book on the Tudors, A Brief History of Henry VIII, Derek, puts forward the view that Henry VIII was a man who lived in the shadow of his own father. He was haunted by the achievements of Henry VII, a fine king who had established peace in the country after the Wars of the Roses. Henry VII won his crown in battle, saw off rebellions and was a man of considerable stature.

Full article

Amazon pre-order links (both due out soon):

Testing an Elizabethan Cannon

A replica Elizabethan cannon, based on the one raised from the wreck off Alderney that I have blogged about before, has been test fired.

From The BBC:

The English navy at around the time of the Armada was evolving revolutionary new tactics, according to new research.

Tests on cannon recovered from an Elizabethan warship suggest it carried powerful cast iron guns, of uniform size, firing standard ammunition.

“This marked the beginning of a kind of mechanisation of war,” says naval historian Professor Eric Grove of Salford University.

“The ship is now a gun platform in a way that it wasn’t before.”
…
Until now, it was thought Queen Elizabeth was using the same cannon technology as her father, Henry VIII. His flagship, the Mary Rose, was ultra-modern for its day.
…
It is known that during Elizabeth’s reign, English sailors and gunners became greatly feared. For example, at the beginning of Henry VIII’s reign, the English fleet was forced to retreat from heavily armed French galleys.

By the time of Elizabeth, even Phillip of Spain was warning of the deadly English artillery. But no-one has ever been able to clearly show why this was.

The new research follows the discovery of the first wreck of an Elizabethan fighting ship off Alderney in the Channel Islands, thought to date from around 1592, just four years after the Spanish Armada

Full article – with video
(and I’m totally amused by the fact that the volume on the video player goes to 11)

If you’re in the UK and missed the initial airing of the Timewatch episode, you can watch it at the Timewatch website.

And here is an interesting related article from The Times Online:
Mystery of Francis Walsingham and the sunken canon

Preview of music from upcoming Starkey series

I received an email from Philip Sheppard the composer for the music to David Starkey’s upcoming TV program on Henry VIII that included a short preview of one of the tracks. I think you all will enjoy it, it’s quite beautiful.

You can read more about the series and hear the preview of the music here:
Dr David Starkey series on Henry VIII announced with score devised by Philip Sheppard

A few quick links

Still trying to clear out the back log…

I follow Cooking the Books (an unofficial blog of the kitchens at Hampton Court, which would be of interest to anyone interested in Tudor food) and I just had to feature a link to this Flickr photoset with pictures of a snowy Hampton Court. So beautiful!!

And since I’m still not completely thinking clearly, I totally forgot to link to my guest blog post at Executed Today for February 13 on Kathryn Howard. I wish I had more time and concentration to make it longer and work in more primary sources, but I was trying to put it together while I was still sick. So if there are any egregious errors, blame it on the cold medicine. 🙂

And from The Edinburgh News, a short article about an upcoming celebration at Linlithgow Palace that will feature the marriage of Margaret Tudor and James IV of Scotland.
Information on the event from Historic Scotland