Some of the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, dissolved in 1539 under Henry VIII. Photo May 1998.

* Historic glass windows go on display in Nonsuch Mansion

* Wolfson History Prizes (for books published in 2012) – Congrats to Susan Brigden for winning for her book Thomas Wyatt: The Heart’s Forest!

* Penry Williams obituary – His book Life in Tudor England was one of the first Tudor history books I ever bought

* A History of Classical Music – A series of posts with embedded Spotify playlists covering the history of classical music, starting with Medieval and Renaissance music. The link goes to the introductory post and they have up through late Renaissance right now. (Apologies to whomever I saw this link from – it was either on Twitter or a blog and I can’t remember now who it was. Sorry!)

Entry to the Traitors’ Gate, seen from across the Thames. Photo June 2000.

The big news in the Tudor/Elizabethan art realm this past week was the announcement that the National Portrait Gallery has purchased a portrait of Elizabeth I from a house sale and that it would be included in the gallery’s forthcoming exhibition Elizabeth I & Her People (opening in October).

Here are a few of the articles about the painting from last week:

* Elizabeth I portrait found in house clearance sale – BBC article with a video discussing the painting with the NPG’s Tarnya Cooper

* Elizabeth I portrait to be displayed after being hidden for centuries – From The Telegraph

* National Portrait Gallery buys postcard-sized portrait of Elizabeth I – From The Guardian

Several stories related to Mary Queen of Scots came along last week:

* Mary, Queen of Scots death warrant to go on show – It will be part of an exhibition that I’ll post more about in an upcoming round-up

* Mary, Queen of Scots statue call – If Mary gets a statue, I hope this prompts Pembroke to grant the request for one for Henry VII.

* The CW Picks Up ‘The 100′, ‘Reign, ‘Star Crossed’ & ‘The Tomorrow People’ To Series – “Reign” is the television series based on the teenage years of Mary Queen of Scots in France. I probably won’t watch the whole show, but I might at least tune in for the pilot episode out of curiosity.

Anglotopia has a round-up of British TV coming to PBS in the US this summer, including a show on Hampton Court Palace:

* PBS Reveals Summer Programming of British TV

And finally, I previously linked to the page about the upcoming Tudor Court Season on BBC2, and now they’ve put together a short trailer for it (embedded below):

The Great Hall (far, closer to the river) and old Norman Hall of Pembroke Castle seen from the Great Keep. Photo May 2003.

* Historic milestone for 500-year-old wreck of Mary Rose warship – Scientists have stopped spraying the 500-year-old wreck of the Mary Rose with a protective wax for the first time in nearly two decades, an historic milestone in the conservation of Henry VIII’s Tudor warship.

* My poignant journey in search of the martyrs – Article by Nancy Bilyeau for the Catholic Herald on her research for The Crown and The Chalice

* ‘Evil May Day’: Re-examining the Race Riot of 1517 – Article from the History Today archives

* Lacey Baldwin Smith’s book about Anne Boleyn – Book review from Krya Cornelius Kramer

* Help Fund the World Premiere of The King’s Whore: The Anne Boleyn Story – An Indiegogo campaign to produce a play about Anne Boleyn in New York City.

* TannerRitchie’s Featured Series of the Month for May is the all 38 volumes of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic from the reign of Henry VIII. You can get the whole batch for a lot less than buying each individually. It’s still not cheap, but a great resource!

* English Architecture Lecture – Simon Thurley – A great find by The Tudor Tattler of another informative lecture from the Gresham College series that I’ve linked to before.

* The Children of Henry VIII by John Guy – Podcast from the National Archives

* BBC2′s Tudor Court Season – These are some of the programs that I’ve mentioned in a few previous posts, all gathered together in one convenient place.

And finally…

* Shakespeare and Henry VIII given 21st Century makeover – I’m sure a lot of you have seen this already, but how could I NOT link to it?

Stained glass window of Katherine Parr with Henry VIII (right) and Thomas Seymour (left), her third and fourth husbands. Photo May 1998.

I can’t believe it is just a few weeks from the 15th anniversary of my first trip to the UK!

Books

From last month – In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion was released last month in the UK and will be released on May 15 in the US. More about the related exhibition below. And John Guy’s Children of Henry VIII has been moved up in the US and is now due out on May 8 (and actually appears to already been in stock).

The Tudor Rose: Princess Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s Sister by Jennifer Kewley Draskau is due out May 1 in the UK and September 1 in the US:

Anna Whitelock’s Elizabeth’s Bedfellows is due May 23 in the UK. US publication information is unavailable at this time, but I’ll update when I hear more.

And the same with Bosworth: The Birth of the Tudors from Chris Skidmore. I’m really looking forward to this one, so it’s a good thing I have a review copy coming.

And finally for the books this month, Elizabeth I is finally getting a biography in the Yale English Monarchs series! It will be authored by Simon Adams and is simply titled Elizabeth I: A Biography. It is due out May 28 in both the US and UK.

Exhibitions

As mentioned above with the book news above, the exhibition In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion debuts this month in the The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. It opens May 10 and runs through October 6. More information is available at the Royal Collection website, which also includes an online gallery of exhibition highlights and a TEDx talk by the exhibition curator.

Events

* The next Sudeley Castle Tudor Fun Day will be on May 19. Check out the website for more information!

* Marilyn emailed to say that Alison Weir would be speaking at Gainsborough Old Hall on May 11. I went to the website and saw that Ms. Weir had a whole bunch of events scheduled the year, so if you’re interested in seeing her speak check the whole calendar of events!

* Suzannah Lipscomb posted on her blog that she participated in a new BBC2 program on the last days of Anne Boleyn that is scheduled to air in mid-May.

And finally…

I think I’m the last person in the Tudor blog-o-sphere to post about the play Fallen in Love: The Secret Heart of Anne Boleyn, which I have heard excellent things about. The play will be performed at the Tower of London and Gippeswyk Hall, Ipswich at various dates in May and June. More information and links for tickets are available at their website.

* Bess of Hardwick’s Letters – The Complete Correspondence c.1550-1608 – I think this site just came online this past week and is a great resource! In addition to the text of the letters (which can also be downloaded in PDF form), many entries have images of the originals. There is also a background section with essays, tutorials for reading early modern handwriting, podcasts and more.

* Richard III church to be revealed in excavation – The University of Leicester archaeologists plan to return to the site this summer and to uncover more of the church where Richard III was buried.

* BBC History Magazine’s History Weekend – This isn’t until October, but I wanted to go ahead and post about it now before I normally would (late September for the October books and events post) in case it sells out early. Not surprisingly they have put together a great line-up of speakers on many topics (Tudor era included!).

Chester Cathedral. Photo May 2000.