A team of researchers with Cardiff University, the Mary Rose Trust, HM Naval Base and the British Geological Survey’s National Environmental Isotope Facility has found evidence of racial diversity among the crew of the Mary Rose—a warship from the time of King Henry the VIII. In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, they describe their study and analysis of the remains of eight sailors recovered from the wreck of the Mary Rose.
The Mary Rose served the Tudor navy for approximately 33 years, but was finally sunk during a battle in the Solent in 1545. The wreck was discovered back in 1971 and raised in 1982. Since that time, a dedicated museum houses not only the ship but the thousands of artifacts that were brought up along with it.
In this new effort, the researchers sought to learn more about the backgrounds of the crew. To that end, they selected the remains of eight of sailors chosen by their degree of preservation and their likely stations aboard the ship. Read more.
Spending some time with my main #WIP tonight, a novel about the story of Anne Boleyn. Working on the particularly trying epic of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. He sacrificed his prized possessions in order to save his skin from King Henry VIII. Spoiler: it didn’t work.
How far would you go to save your skin? Would you give up your most prized possessions? Do any of your characters do anything crazy to try and save their own skin?
Floral tributes marking the anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s execution, 19 May, at various locations in the Tower of London: the site of the scaffold where Anne died, the Tower memorial to those executed there, and Anne’s grave in the Church of St. Peter ad Vincula.
Individual visitors to the Tower leave flowers year-round, but each year on 19 May a bouquet labeled “Queen Anne Boleyn 1536” (as seen in the top-right photo) is also specially delivered to the chapel in which she is interred. The identity of the sender, or senders, of this annual tribute remains unknown.
“As a wealthy widow, Maud Parr was expected to remarry in order to ensure that her young family had a male protector. Maud however, was an independent and spirited woman and completely dismissed this route, instead choosing to pursue her own court career, just as she had done during her marriage. Maud was held in high regard by Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and, in her widowhood, she secured a prestigious and lucrative position at court as one of the queen’s ladies. In October 1519 Maud was recorded as one of a privileged group of ladies granted a permanent room at court. She was listed again as a member of the court the following month and the next year was chosen to accompany the queen to Calais to attend the most spectacular event of Henry’s reign, the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Maud was also friendly with the king and, in 1530, made him a gift of a coat of Kendal cloth. Maud was still listed as having had lodgings at court in January 1526 and, with only five other ladies, including the king’s own sister, was given the honour and privilege of a permanent suite of rooms. Maud was rarely at home during the early years of her widowhood although she maintained her own separate establishment in which her children resided”
—Catherine Parr: Wife, widow, mother, survivor, the story of the last queen of Henry VIII, Elizabeth Norton
I’m sorry, but this is the most embarrassing fake Q&A I’ve ever seen a novelist publish on their website
I may be a Richard III enthusiast but if I see one more lukewarm take about blah blah Shakespeare forced by Elizabeth I to write RichardIII as evil because of some political ploy I’m throwing them in a lake
This is not the first time I’ve seen them compare Tudor propaganda to fake news and it just makes me wonder whether they know anything about Early Modern England at all? First, there were no big media outlets nor any effective means of mass communication to brainwash the population. Second, why did Elizabeth I even need to blacken Richard III’s name? There were no Plantagenets around to claim the throne, her dynasty was in fact on its way out and all possible successors descended from Henry VII, so it’s not like there were any practical reasons to boost the dynasty’s legitimacy. Thirdly, the usual authors they claim to have been pure Tudor minions, Polydore Vergil and Thomas More, both got in trouble with Henry VIII so they were clearly very capable of expressing their own thoughts and opinions.
They insist on a conspiracy theory that verges on anti-intellectualism and disregards everything about actual Tudor history.
Also, one of the reasons Thomas More left his history unfinished and it only circulated in manuscript among elites is likely due to his fears it was too politically subversive, particularly when discussing a Duke of Buckingham. Not only that, More came from a Yorkist family and may well have met Elizabeth Shore.
I do wonder with Edward VI and his diary and how unemotionally he recorded his uncle’s executions… is the diary as a whole a source where Edward records his emotions? Does he ever confide anything truly personal in it?
Because if the diary is just chronicling events and his political ideas, maybe we are reading too much into it.
Like we assume a diary is a place you pour out your soul, but would Edward necessarily look at a diary that way? We don’t put our emotions in a calendar or a shopping list. Maybe Edward did have feelings about his uncle’s executions but he didn’t record them because that wasn’t what his journal was for.
If you’ve read his diary in full, let me know your thoughts.
I haven’t read Edward’s journal but I have read David Loades discussing it and saying that it was not supposed to be like a modern day personal diary where one puts their emotions and feelings but rather a schoolroom exercise. I posted it here some years ago.
And yes, I think that too much is assumed of Edward’s feelings and lack of them because of this journal.
I do wonder with Edward VI and his diary and how unemotionally he recorded his uncle’s executions… is the diary as a whole a source where Edward records his emotions? Does he ever confide anything truly personal in it?
Because if the diary is just chronicling events and his political ideas, maybe we are reading too much into it.
Like we assume a diary is a place you pour out your soul, but would Edward necessarily look at a diary that way? We don’t put our emotions in a calendar or a shopping list. Maybe Edward did have feelings about his uncle’s executions but he didn’t record them because that wasn’t what his journal was for.
If you’ve read his diary in full, let me know your thoughts.
Love it when Thomas Seymour stans use snarky gifs at me like I don’t know what I’m talking about and then I proceed to decimate their arguments lmao
Always using the same insipid “Oh but didn’t you know?” tone of writing when I have a literal Master’s degree in this topic like I beg you, fuck off with your condescension
Also don’t you just love how they unfailingly bring up Margaret Beaufort.
And they never stop to ask themselves WHY Margaret Beaufort is the one example they can think of for a mother that young
Didn’t she also face chronic health issues because of the early experience of childbirth?
Certainly she never conceived again, and she was very lucky to survive at all. The Tudors weren’t stupid, they could join the dots when it came to tween mothers.
(I’m going to be cheeky and say they were smarter than the twitter users saying ‘but Margaret Beaufort’)
Love it when Thomas Seymour stans use snarky gifs at me like I don’t know what I’m talking about and then I proceed to decimate their arguments lmao
Always using the same insipid “Oh but didn’t you know?” tone of writing when I have a literal Master’s degree in this topic like I beg you, fuck off with your condescension
Also don’t you just love how they unfailingly bring up Margaret Beaufort.
And they never stop to ask themselves WHY Margaret Beaufort is the one example they can think of for a mother that young
It really annoys me when people tweet things like “Am I the only one who doesn’t get the gushing around Elizabeth I” especially when it’s historians because it’s so disingenuous. There has been about 30+ years of revisionism surrounding Elizabeth and her reign and half the people talking about her in documentaries these days don’t like her so no you’re not the only one and if you’re a historian you know this perfectly well.
I’ve seen a lot on internet history circles about “Read the primary sources!! Don’t trust historians!!”
I’m all for reading primary sources but the thing is you can’t just dive headfirst into early modern sources.
Take language, for instance. Words like nice, shrewd, buxom, determined, con (verb), lover, awful. These words had different meanings- or different connotations- in the early modern period. Unless you know these differences, you’re going to immediately misinterpret a source.
You also need to know the conventions, the motifs, the set models that people used in speaking to each other. Otherwise you’ll end up like Alison Weir, thinking Elizabeth of York was in love with Richard III for pledging herself ‘body and soul’ like that isn’t just the conventional way for a subject to honour a monarch.
The Tudors in Love: The Courtly Code Behind the Last Medieval Dynasty, Sarah Gristwood (23 September 2021)
The dramas of courtly love have captivated centuries of readers and dreamers. Yet too often they’re dismissed as something existing only in books and song – those old legends of King Arthur and chivalric fantasy.
Not so. In this ground-breaking history, Sarah Gristwood reveals the way courtly love made and marred the Tudor dynasty. From Henry VIII declaring himself as the ‘loyal and most assured servant’ of Anne Boleyn to the poems lavished on Elizabeth I by her suitors, the Tudors re-enacted the roles of the devoted lovers and capricious mistresses first laid out in the romances of medieval literature. TheTudors in Love dissects the codes of love, desire and power, unveiling romantic obsessions that have shaped the history of this nation.
Woodsmoke and Sage: The Five Senses 1485-1603: How the Tudors Experienced the World, Amy Licence (31 August 2021)
Using the five senses, historian Amy Licence presents a new perspective on the material culture of the past, exploring the Tudors’ relationship with the fabric of their existence, from the clothes on their backs, the roofs over their heads and the food on their tables, to the wider questions of how they interpreted and presented themselves, and what they believed about life, death and beyond. Take a journey back 500 years and experience the sixteenth century the way it was lived, through sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.
Usurpers, A New Look at Medieval Kings, Michele Morrical (30 September 2021)
In the Middle Ages, England had to contend with a string of usurpers who disrupted the British monarchy and ultimately changed the course of European history by deposing England\x27s reigning kings and seizing power for themselves. Some of the most infamous usurper kings to come out of medieval England include William the Conqueror, Stephen of Blois, Henry Bolingbroke, Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry Tudor. Did these kings really deserve the title of usurper or were they unfairly vilified by royal propaganda and biased chroniclers? In this book we examine the lives of these six medieval kings, the circumstances which brought each of them to power, and whether or not they deserve the title of usurper
The Boleyns of Hever Castle, Owen Emmerson and Claire Ridgway (1 August 2021)
In The Boleyns of Hever Castle, historians Owen Emmerson and Claire Ridgway invite you into the home of this notorious family.
Travel back in time to those 77 years of Boleyn ownership. Tour each room just as it was when Anne Boleyn retreated from court to escape the advances of Henry VIII or when she fought off the dreaded ‘sweat’. See the 16th century Hever Castle come to life with room reconstructions and read the story of the Boleyns, who, in just five generations, rose from petty crime to a castle, from Hever to the throne of England.
Fêting the Queen: Civic Entertainments and the Elizabethan Progress, John Mark Adrian (30 December 2021)
While previous scholars have studied Elizabeth I and her visits to the homes of influential courtiers, Fêting the Queen places a new emphasis on the civic communities that hosted the monarch and their efforts to secure much needed support. Case studies of the university and cathedral cities of Oxford, Canterbury, Sandwich, Bristol, Worcester, and Norwich focus on the concepts of hospitality and space―including the intimate details of the built environment.
Hidden Heritage: Rediscovering Britain’s Lost Love of the Orient, Fatima Manji (12 August 2021)
Throughout Britain’s galleries and museums, civic buildings and stately homes, relics can be found that beg these questions and more. They point to a more complex national history than is commonly remembered. These objects, lost, concealed or simply overlooked, expose the diversity of pre-twentieth-century Britain and the misconceptions around modern immigration narratives.
Hidden Heritage powerfully recontextualises the relationship between Britain and the people and societies of the Orient. In her journey across Britain exploring cultural landmarks, Fatima Manji searches for a richer and more honest story of a nation struggling with identity and the legacy of empire.
The Dissolution of the Monasteries: A New History, James Clark (14 September 2021)
Drawing on the records of national and regional archives as well as archaeological remains, James Clark explores the little-known lives of the last men and women who lived in England’s monasteries before the Reformation. Clark challenges received wisdom, showing that buildings were not immediately demolished and Henry VIII’s subjects were so attached to the religious houses that they kept fixtures and fittings as souvenirs. This rich, vivid history brings back into focus the prominent place of abbeys, priories, and friaries in the lives of the English people.
Catherine of Aragon: Infanta of Spain, Queen of England, Theresa Earenfight (15 December 2021)
Despite her status as a Spanish infanta, Princess of Wales, and Queen of England, few of her personal letters have survived, and she is obscured in the contemporary royal histories. In this evocative biography, Theresa Earenfight presents an intimate and engaging portrait of Catherine told through the objects that she left behind.
Devil-Land: England Under Siege, 1588-1688, Clare Jackson (30 September 2021)
As an unmarried heretic with no heir, Elizabeth I was regarded with horror by Catholic Europe, while her Stuart successors, James I and Charles I, were seen as impecunious and incompetent, unable to manage their three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. The traumatic civil wars, regicide and a republican Commonwealth were followed by the floundering, foreign-leaning rule of Charles II and his brother, James II, before William of Orange invaded England with a Dutch army and a new order was imposed.
One of the last scenes of the Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses, based off William Shakespeare’s play “Richard III”. After winning the crown at the battle of Bosworth on the 22nd of August 1485, he marries the beautiful Elizabeth of York and proclaims: “We will unite the white rose and the red.”
In real life, the battle was won on that day but Henry didn’t marry Elizabeth until January of the following year. The reason for that was that Henry didn’t want to be seen as dependent on his wife to rule. His wife’s claim was stronger than his. Because of her gender she had been overlooked in her uncle and now her future husband’s favor. However, by December, two months after he had been crowned, many of the Edwardian Yorkists who had fought for him were becoming angry. Some of them were suspicious that Henry would not honor the promise he had made two years before on Christmas day at Brittany, when he swore that he would return their fortunes and marry their late King’s eldest daughter. As a result, parliament was summoned and he renewed his vows to marry Elizabeth.
Henry had another reason to delay the wedding. Papal dispensation had been promised some time before but it had not been granted or made official until the end of that year when a copy of it finally reached England.
The marriage was seen as the union of the red and white rose, but unlike what Henry says in Shakespeare’s play and the last episode of the Hollow Crown when he takes Elizabeth’s hand, they weren’t the sole heirs of each house. There were many with stronger claims than theirs. Throughout his entire reign, Henry had to battle pretenders and rid himself of potential threats. His mother, another survivor of the wars of the roses, refused to die until her grandson had outlive his minority and was well-established.
Elizabeth of York was loved by all of her subjects, including her husband. Yet, she wasn’t crowned Queen of England until after she had given him a son whom he named Arthur after the mythical Welsh hero and King whom he claimed to descend from She and Henry were married for seventeen years until her death in 1503. He died six years later. The two remain buried at the Lady Chapel in Westminster Abbey.
For more information, I recommend the following books: Tudor by Leanda de Lisle; Henry VII by SB Chrimes; The Winter King by Thomas Penn; The Private Lives of the Tudors by Tracy Borman; Tudor Treasury by Elizabeth Norton and The Tudors by John Guy.
![“Garden Scene” - Tudor England [x]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/7f5b17744a4c8bfcb8551c548a000798/tumblr_msbbbubNia1sff208o1_1280.jpg "“Garden Scene” - Tudor England [x]")
