“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

Sisters Who Would Be Queen thread at Tudor Q&A

Leanda de Lisle’s new work The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine and Lady Jane Grey will be coming out January 19, 2009 in the UK and is expected in September 2009 in the US. PhD Historian has offered to blog his reading of the book over on the Q&A blog. He and I both received advance copies, but I’m already in the middle of reading a couple of other books so I don’t think I’ll be getting to this one for a while!

Here’s the Amazon UK pre-order link. I don’t have one for the US release yet, but I’ll post it when it comes along.

Big sale of ebooks and CD-ROMS at TannerRitchie

Thanks to kb for alerting me to this sale from TannerRitchie Publishing! If you aren’t familiar with them, they publish hundreds of rare and out of print historical sources as ebooks and specialize in British History, especially Tudor and Stuart England, British Colonial history (especially in North America and the Carribean), Medieval history and Scottish medieval and early modern history.

TANNERRITCHIE’S AMAZING YEAR END SALE!!

* ALL DOWNLOADS $10 (CAD)
* 50% off all CD-ROMs

Beat the credit crunch blues with TannerRitchie Publishing! All eBook downloads are an incredible $10 each, and all CD-ROMs are half price. Build up your personal library or treat yourself to an entire series of eBooks. Don’t miss out on this limited time offer. Buy now – this sale will end on 1 January 2009!

2008 Ghost Story contest winners!

The winner and an honorable mention for this year’s ghost story contest have been selected!

Here’s the report from the judge, Sandra Worth:

So nice to see so much talent! The stories were an amazingly good crop of entries and it was difficult to choose from amongst them, especially for Honorable Mention. I feel they were so good, they all deserved that. The winner of the contest wrote a story that was gripping the first time I read it, and also when I re-read it and knew what to expect. The winner also displayed a flawless grasp of fundamentals such as dialogue, structure, word choices, characters, point of view, all of which were expertly handled in a complex and tense story of time travel.

The winner is Innocent Ghost

I have also chosen Why, This is Hell for Honorable Mention.

You can read the stories at the links above on Wendy’s site or here on this site:

Innocent Ghost by Madeline Martin

Why, This is Hell by Kathy Marcella

Congrats to the winners and thanks to Wendy for organizing the contest and to Sandra for judging!