The King’s Daughter by Sandra Worth

Sandra Worth, who has written several novels set in the period of the Wars of the Roses has a new book coming out in December on Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor Queen.

Here is a link to more information about the book on Sandra’s website.

And as a special treat, I will be hosting a thread here on the blog where readers can ask Sandra questions and she will respond. We haven’t set an exact day for it yet, but keep your eyes open!

Last but not least, here are the Amazon links (US on the left, UK on the right) to pre-order the book:

Totally off-topic

But I couldn’t let another big spam milestone go by without a note:

So, I moved the blog to WordPress in April and hit 1000 spam comments in August. Now I’ve hit 5000 in November. This doesn’t bode well for the future.

Actually, one of the reasons that I posted this is to apologize in advance for any delays in the appearance of real comments. The spam-catcher is actually quite good at getting the spam, but unfortunately it also catches some non-spam from time to time. I try to check the spam queue at least twice a day, but sometimes I get a little behind and then I find that I have to wade through a couple hundred comments checking to see if there is a legitimate message buried in between the ads for drugs, pics of naked celebs and other things that I won’t mention but will leave to your imagination. (I personally I don’t care what people’s private fetishes are, but really, I don’t need some of those mental images.)

One quick additional note – I’m going to be working at a science conference for the rest of the week, so things might be a little spotty. I usually find that my days at meetings like this are quick bursts of activity sandwiched between lots of equations and plots (which is when I usually check my email since these conferences are rarely on the topics that I’m most interested in).

Exhibition on Henry VIII’s 500th anniversary in New York

The Grolier Club in New York will be holding an exhibition from March 4 to May 2, 2009 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne. This is the first big exhibition I’ve heard about to celebrate the anniversary here in the States, so I hope some of you get a chance to see it. They are going to have some really neat things there!

I have three PDFs with information about the exhibition, which you can download at the links below:
Press Release
Exhibition Highlights
Image Sheets (2.3 MB file)

Open thread – Suggestions for future book discussions

After the success of Foose’s “live blogging” of Starkey’s new book on Henry VIII, I’ve had a couple of folks suggest we do some more. If you have a suggestion for another book that we can do as a group discussion, please post it in the comments and I’ll work out a proposed schedule. To start with, I’d like to stick to NON-fiction books, although if this is successful and we continue it for a while we can certainly branch into fiction.

[The discussions will actually take place on the Q&A blog]

Update on Kenilworth Gardens

As most of you probably know by now, I’m a big fan of the project to recreate the Elizabethan gardens at Kenilworth Castle, based on archaeology and the accounts from Elizabeth’s famous visit in 1575.

Here’s an article from Building Design online about the architecture firm doing the gardens and the project in general, including some neat pictures (small version of one of them above).

In 1575, Elizabeth I

Telegraph article on Syon monastery and Katherine Palmer

From the Telegraph Online:

Among the eminent people added this month to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (that endless labyrinth stuffed with curiosities) is a woman from the Tudor age who stands out for the strength of her perseverance against calamities. Her name was Katherine Palmer.

She was born early in the reign of Henry VIII. Her mother’s family had lived at Ightham Mote, the stone, timber and moated house in Kent, now in the care of the National Trust. Katherine gave up life among the gentry to join the monastery of Syon at Isleworth, on the Thames, where the Duke of Northumberland’s house now stands.

Syon was unusual because it was ruled by a woman, as a double foundation of 60 nuns, and a separate house of 24 brothers, some of whom acted as chaplains to the nuns. At this abbey, each half walled around in its own cloisters, nuns and monks lived a life of contemplative prayer.

…

These houses of prayer, trusted by successive kings and least in need of reform, were among the first targets for Henry VIII’s resentment over the matter of the divorce of Katharine of Aragon and his desire for plunder. Richard Reynolds, a monk of Syon, was hanged, drawn and quartered along with the Prior of the London Charterhouse and his fellows on May 4 1535.

Syon held together until 1539, when it was suppressed through Thomas Cromwell’s energy. Alone among English nunneries of which we have records, the sisters continued to live as best they could under the rule of their foundress in small groups, at first in England, then abroad. Katherine Palmer was a leader in these attempts.

Full article

Tip o’ the wimple to Foose for the recommendation of the article

Portrait of Elizabeth I from early in her reign re-discovered

Makes me wonder what other treasures are still waiting to be found in these country houses!

From The Times Online:

A portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, completed just months after she came to the throne, has been found in a dusty and dirty condition in a country house in East Sussex.

Elizabeth became queen 450 years ago next month. The picture shows her as a simply dressed woman in her mid-twenties with a pale face. It is a far cry from later portraits where she is depicted in full regalia after defeating the Spanish Armada.

Its discovery is being hailed by historians because only two other portraits of Elizabeth in the first few years of her reign are known to exist. There are many from later in her reign, including 10 in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Even more tantalising is that x-rays of the painting have revealed another, earlier picture of the queen beneath.

Full article (with photo of the portrait and the x-ray)

Archaeologists find medieval foundations at Hampton Court

From Mail Online:

Archaeologists working at Hampton Court Palace have uncovered the earliest foundations ever found at King Henry VIII’s famous royal residence.

The significant 13th century building remains predate any other finds made at the palace by nearly 200 years.

The unexpected discoveries were made during excavations as part of a project to recreate Henry VIII’s Tudor 16th century courtyards.

Stone foundations and walls of a substantial medieval structure measuring 10metres by 25metres were found in Base Court, the largest interior courtyard of the Tudor palace.

….

The project to represent Base Court for the 500th anniversary of King Henry VIII’s accession to the throne will be complete by March 2009.

This will then herald the beginning of a series of exhibitions, events and activities to mark the historic anniversary.

Full article (with some neat overhead pictures of the excavations)

Renaissance Faces exhibit at the National Gallery in London

From Metro.co.uk

If portraits capture not just appearance but the soul then what are we to make of the cherubically grinning, charmingly animated features of a young Henry VIII? Guido Mazzoni’s Laughing Boy is believed to be a bust of the chubby-faced prince – and if the portrait’s soul-penetrating properties are to be believed, moral corruption seems a long way off.

Full article (short, but I chose this one because it has a nice photo of the bust mentioned above)

National Gallery website

Member of the Scottish Parliament seeks return of MQOS’ body

I was going to pass on this particular story since it will probably end up being one that is a bunch of talk that nothing ever comes of, but I couldn’t resist pointing out the historical error at the start of the article.

From the BBC:

A Nationalist MSP has called for the remains of Mary Queen of Scots to be returned to Scotland.

The Catholic monarch’s body has lain at Westminster Abbey in London since she was executed on the orders of her cousin Elizabeth I of England in 1587.

South of Scotland MSP Christine Grahame is to make a motion to the Scottish Parliament later this week demanding the body be repatriated.

Composer James MacMillan and Lib Dem MSP Hugh O’Donnell backed the call.

The phrasing implies that Mary was buried at the Abbey right after her execution, which isn’t correct – she was originally buried at Peterborough Cathedral. Her body was moved to Westminster Abbey during her son James I’s reign. Oh well, I guess I should just be glad that they didn’t call her “Bloody Mary” or say that she was Elizabeth I’s sister, both of which are errors I’ve caught in news articles before.

Full article

Edited to add: Just in case anyone reads the sentence up at the top and thinks that I *do* want something to come of it, I want to clarify that I don’t. James wanted his mother buried in the Abbey and that’s where I think she should stay. 🙂

The Forty-Year-Old Virgin Queen

Regular readers will know that I get a kick out of Tudor/Elizabethan references in popular culture, so I thought this little bit of “The Starter Wife” where Debra Messing imagines herself as Elizabeth I was cute. You can see the clip here or by clicking on the screen capture above.

Tip of the red-colored wig to Sonja Marie for the link!

(original link no longer works and was removed because it was bringing in a lot of spam)