Picture of the Week #3

Model of the Mary Rose, from the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth. June 2000.

As most of you know, the Mary Rose was a ship in the navy of Henry VIII that sank in 1545 and was raised in 1982. A significant portion of the ship and numerous artifacts have been brought up and are on display in a museum at the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth. I enjoyed my visit in 2000 and I can’t wait to go back someday when the new museum is complete!

See The Mary Rose Trust website for more information on the ship and their plans for their new museum.

Some related older threads on the sinking of the Mary Rose:

http://tudorhistory.org/blog/2008/11/15/new-suggestion-for-what-sank-the-mary-rose/

http://tudorhistory.org/blog/2008/07/31/new-ideas-about-why-the-mary-rose-sank/

200 volumes of State Papers now online

This is not the same project that I posted about back in November and 85% of this project is available for free. See more info below:

Putting the Complete Calendars of State Papers Online
www.british-history.ac.uk

British History Online is pleased to announce that 200 volumes in the AHRC-funded State Papers project are now live. The goal of the project is to complete the digitisation of the Calendars of State Papers in verbatim transcriptions of at least 99.9% accuracy.

The Calendars of State Papers are summaries of hundreds of thousands of handwritten documents relating to the administration of England, and its foreign relations, in the early modern period. Highlights of the AHRC project are Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, State Papers Foreign, Elizabeth I, and State Papers, Colonial; these important documents are now freely accessible to the academic community and the general public alike.

In order to foster scholarly collaboration we have also included a feature which allows any interested user to update, correct, or enhance the calendars for the benefit of all. We plan to make the remaining 150 books in this project live within the next twelve months.

The total number of volumes on British History Online is now just over 800, of which 85 percent are completely free; the remainder

Picture of the Week #2

Great Hall of Warwick Castle. May 1998. Click on the photo for a larger version.

The wood buffet in the center of the photo was made in the mid-19th century from a large oak from the grounds of nearby Kenilworth Castle and shows scenes of Elizabeth I’s famous visit in 1575. The hall itself dates from the 14th century, was rebuilt in the 17th century, and then restored in the late 19th century after a fire.

Tomorrow, January 15, is the 450th anniversary of the coronation of Elizabeth I. So instead of going for something obvious like Westminster Abbey, I chose this photo of the Great Hall at Warwick. Mini trivia contest (sorry, only prize is braggin’ rights) – does anyone know the connection? It’s probably a bit esoteric, but I’ll bet some of you know why my brain linked the two. 🙂

Upgrading Word Press today

Just a warning that I’ll be upgrading WP today around noon US Central time, so things might be unavailable or look a little weird for a time this afternoon.

Updated 1:15 p.m. – Seems like everything is working okay. And of course the blasted RSS bug is still there. I spent about three hours last night trying to fix the same problem on my science blog (since it was already at the latest version of WordPress) and I still haven’t been able to find the line in the code causing the problem. It’s very frustrating since I know what the problem is, I just can’t find the offending file with the bug!

“The King’s Rose” – YA novel on Kathryn Howard

Alisa M. Libby has a second book coming out in a few months in the US and UK that is a Young Adult novel about Kathryn Howard (pre-order links below). She’s an interesting choice of subject for a book aimed at that age group. I’ve bought a few young adult Tudor novels over the years but I’m ashamed to say I haven’t had a chance to read any of them yet, even though I know that they have been driving teen readers to my website after they get hooked on the period. I’ll have to add this one to my ‘to be read pile’ and finally read some of them one of these days!

Frequently Asked Questions

Unfortunately this isn’t a big announcement that I have finally updated the FAQ pages that have languished untouched for far too long. But, it is my rough analysis of popular people and topics based on a year-and-half of submissions to the Tudor Q&A blog. I try to go through and erase the old emails about every six months (I just hold on to them for a little while in case I need to get back in touch with the original submitter), but I had gotten lazy and still had emails back to mid-2007. So, I decided it would be fun to glance through them and see what topics and people came up a lot. I also had saved the questions that I just answered directly (usually because the question had already been covered on the blog), so it did help give me a good idea of who and what piques people’s curiosity the most.

– By far the most-asked-about person was Anne Boleyn. And, specifically, her jewelry and her relationship with her daughter top the list. Her death, burial and remains were popular topics for discussion as well.

– The over-all most popular topic was Henry VIII and mistresses (and any resulting children). Someday I’m going to have to put together a timeline chart of all the known and rumored affairs (and any resulting children, real or rumored).

– I think “The Other Boleyn Girl” actually edged out “The Tudors” in number of inquiries prompted by Tudor fiction. But, I think that is good evidence that people are digging further into the real history after encountering the fictionalized versions.

– Jewelry is a pretty popular topic (as mentioned with Anne Boleyn), but in particular rings and ring-wearing customs have shown up a number of times.

– Jane Parker Boleyn, Lady Rochford (I never know which of her associated names to use so people will know who I’m talking about…) and Jane Seymour were asked about quite a bit, perhaps because of recent books and television since both Janes showed up in the second season of “The Tudors” and Lady Rochford was featured in a non-fiction book. With Jane Seymour starting out season three of “The Tudors” this year, I expect more questions on her in 2009.

Picture of the Week #1

Panorama of the outer ward of Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales. May 2003. Click on the photo for a larger version.

It seemed appropriate to start the Picture of the Week with the birthplace of the first Tudor monarch – Henry VII.

The first castle on the site dates back to the last 11th century, but the earliest stone buildings date to the late-12th to early-13th century when William Marshall became the Earl of Pembroke. The impressive Great Tower (the round tower at the left of the photo) dates to that period.

In the mid-15th century, the earldom and castle became the property of Jasper Tudor, half-brother to King Henry VI and it was in 1457 that the young, recently-widowed Margaret Beaufort gave birth to Henry Tudor, her only child, in her brother-in-law’s castle. The tower to the far right of the photo is known as Henry VII’s tower, since he is thought to have been born in a room in that section of the castle.

New blog feature – Picture of the Week

I’ve been wanting to start this for a while and I decided that the beginning of the year is just the time to get going on it. The reasoning behind this is similar to part of the reason I started the (still temporarily on hold) podcast – forcing me to do a little research for things on a regular basis. I don’t think I’ll be doing lengthly write-ups for most of the photos, but even starting to write some short captions will be helpful for updating my photo gallery information. Or in the case of the first photo (coming in the next post), starting from scratch on pages that I’ve been putting off for going on 6 years now!

16th century wood carvings from Stirling Castle studied

From The BBC:

Researchers are working to uncover the mysteries of 33 wood carved medallions which would have decorated the Royal Palace at Stirling Castle.

Historic Scotland is trying to find out why the works, known as the Stirling Heads and carved between 1530 and 1544, were created and whom they depict.

The carvings are thought to feature monarchs such as James V and England’s Henry VIII.

The research is part of

Christmas Greetings from Henry VIII (and me!)

Check out the Historic Royal Palaces’ YouTube Channel for more videos
(Tip of the Tudor flat cap to Tim for the link)

And from me, a repeat of last year’s Christmas image (sorry, I didn’t get a chance to make a new one this year!). I’m not traveling this year so I won’t be taking any lengthy breaks from the site or blogs during my time off.


(click for a larger view)

No matter what you celebrate at this time of year, all the best from me to you!

500th anniversary celebrations page

I’ve been compiling a “master list” of events, exhibitions, conferences, etc. taking place to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession. I’m going to put a permanent link to it over on the side bar and I’ll update it as new information comes in. Please email me (lara [at] tudorhistory.org) or post a comment if you know of things that I don’t have listed. I haven’t gone looking for stuff yet (just posting what people have emailed to me) so I’m sure there are things out there I’m missing.

And… If anyone gets a chance to attend any of these, I’d some write-ups to post here on the blog. I seriously doubt I’m going to get to any of these so I’ll have to live vicariously though all of you who do get to them!

http://tudorhistory.org/files/henry500.html

(edited July 2013 – the page was removed a couple of years ago after the events had passed)

An update

Since I’ve been getting a few emails of late about the podcast, I thought I would go ahead and post a short update here for anyone who stumbles by. As you can see, I didn’t get around to starting the podcast back up in the fall, and now I’m just not sure when it will be. There are a lot of things competing for my time these days. But, with the big 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne in 2009, I feel that I have to do something with the podcast in the months to come, so keep checking back or stay subscribed. 🙂

In the meantime, I’m still updating things on the website here and there and actively updating and moderating both of the blogs on the site – the main News blog and the Tudor Q&A blog.

[Comments are closed on older posts. If you wish to make a comment, please contact Lara via the link in the sidebar.]

New meaning to an old Christmas carol

It’s later than our period, but I have to agree with Kathy (who sent this in) that it is fascinating.

From The Daily Mail:

It has been sung at carol services across the country but a centuries-old secret political code has been found in a popular Christmas song.

According to one musical expert, O Come All Ye Faithful, also called Adeste Fideles, is actually a birth ode to Jacobite pretender Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Born on December 20 1720, Bonnie Prince Charlie was the grandson of England’s last Catholic monarch, James II.
…
‘Fideles is Faithful Catholic Jacobites. Bethlehem is a common Jacobite cipher for England, and Regem Angelorum is a well-known pun on Angelorum, angels, and Anglorum, English.

‘The meaning of the Christmas carol is clear: ‘Come and Behold Him, Born the King of Angels’ really means, ‘Come and Behold Him, Born the King of the English’ – Bonnie Prince Charlie!’

Professor Zon said there were other clues to the subversive political message contained in the carol.

Full article

Windsor Castle Henry VIII exhibition in 2009

I’ve started making a page to keep track of all of these events and exhibitions. I’ll upload it over the holidays and update it as more news comes in.

From the BBC:

A special exhibition to mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne is launching at Windsor Castle, the monarch’s one-time home and final resting place.

Henry VIII was proclaimed king on 23 April 1509, just before his 18th birthday, and reigned for almost 38 years until his death in 1547.

The exhibition explores the life of one of the most significant figures in the history of the English monarchy, bringing together treasures from the Royal Collection and the archives of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Full article

Information from the Royal Collection