Tudortastic

Westminster Abbey’s junk room has the best view in Europe

happyhelen — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:29:43 +0000

From the Telegraph:

You may remember the wedding we had here in April,” says the Very Rev Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster, standing on a gallery 70ft above the Abbey floor. “Well, this is where the cameras were.”

Two bland bars of scaffolding mark the spot from where images of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were broadcast to two billion viewers worldwide. Someone has chalked up the word “pulpit”, with a helpful arrow. Follow it downwards and the vertiginous view of the Abbey is still, as Sir John Betjeman recognised, the best in Europe. Yet turn around, and you’re standing in a dusty old junk room of rusty ladders and hidden treasures – and very few people have seen either these or the view for themselves.

Dr Hall wants that to change. He is currently spearheading an ambitious £12 million project to turn the triforium, as this first-floor space above the nave is known, into a public museum by 2016. On Monday the project received a boost when the Prince of Wales became patron of the fund-raising appeal.

There’s still rather a lot of work to do. Architects will have to start by designing an external lift – access to the triforium is currently via a shabby, private door in Poets’ Corner in the south of the Abbey, under the bust of Ben Jonson. Seventy-six windy stone steps, punctuated by intriguing signs such as “To library roof”, bring you panting to the top. Once there, you’re met by a not-entirely-welcome blast of hot air from the Victorian heating pipes.

You’d run up those stairs a dozen times, though, as the triforium actually offers several of the best views in Europe. There’s the classic BBC one, of course, straight back down the aisle towards the west door. But there’s also a unique perspective immediately below on the beautiful Cosmati Pavement, fashioned from Purbeck marble in the 13th century and restored last May. Move 30 paces north on the spacious balcony and you’re offered a stunning angle on Wilberforce, Gladstone and both Pitts. Or turn your gaze east, out of a window filtering dappled Autumn sunshine, and you can look the Palace of Westminster in the eye.
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Eerie Evening Tours of Enchanted Palace

happyhelen — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:04:39 +0000

At Kensington Palace:

Does Queen Mary II weep in the Room of Royal Sorrow for the babies she never had? Does Peter the Wild Boy still run amok in the Room of the World? Who stands at the window waiting for the ships from home?

As you are guided through the shadowy world of Enchanted Palace in the 17th and 18th century State Apartments, our Eerie Evening Tours of Enchanted Palace will regale you with chilling tales of mysterious sights and strange stories in these rooms over the centuries. Book yourself on these limited and exclusive tours in order to enjoy the unique atmosphere of historic Kensington Palace at night. Please note these tours are history based and are not concerned with paranormal investigation.

The Eerie Evening Tours of Enchanted Palace will run over the Halloween weekend – Friday 28, Saturday 29, Sunday 30 and Monday 31 October 2011 only. There will be one tour per night 18.45h – 20.15h. The price will be £20.00 per person and tickets will go on sale soon. There will be a maximum of 25 places per tour.

Buy tickets here: http://www.hrp.org.uk/kensingtonpalace/WhatsOn/EerieEveningToursofEnchantedPalace

BBC History magazine August issue

happyhelen — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:52:19 +0000

BBC History Magazine’s August issue is all about TUDORS!!

“In our Tudor special, Professor Eric Ives considers the lasting appeal of England’s most celebrated Royal household, while Tudor historians Anna Whitelock, GW Bernard,Susan Doran, Steven Gunn and Ralph Houlbrooke explain why they believe their choice of king or queen left the greatest legacy.

John K Walton takes a look at Britain’s love affair with the seaside holiday and reveals how growing prosperity and the birth of the railways brought the delights of the coast within the reach of the masses.

Clare Makepeace examines the role of prostitutes and brothels for soldiers during the First World War.

Mike Esbester investigates changes in health and safety messages over the 20th century.

Dr John-Paul Ghobrial looks at early modern British attitudes to Islam and perceptions of Turks during the 17th century.

Jon Stobart describes how bills and account books can reveal fascinating insights about Georgian mansions – from fashionable furniture to expensive soap.

Marc Morris examines eight places linked with Edward I’s brutally thorough subjugation of the Welsh.”

Check out the podcast page for their latest Tudor podcasts!

Get your own Tudor calendar for 2012!

happyhelen — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:10:14 +0000

Hey everyone!

I am thrilled to say that two of my photos have been chosen for the Tudor Places 2012 calendar! I am “Miss January” and “Miss March”. My photos are of Lord Leycester’s Hospital and Old Palace at Hatfield House. All thanks to The Anne Boleyn Files!

Please visit the “Tudor Calendar” section of my website for more details and get your very own for only $11.99!

Sales of this calendar will help the Mary Rose 500 appeal (UK charity number 277503) with $1.50(£1) from each sale going tohelp build a new museum for Henry VIII’s flagship, which sank on 19 July 1545 and was raised again 11 October 1982.This museum will finally allow many of the 19,000 Tudor artefacts to be displayed with the fully conserved hull of theship.

GO GET YOURS TODAY! http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/products-page/stationery/

Tudor coroners’ records give clue to ‘real Ophelia’ for Shakespeare

happyhelen — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:09:40 +0000

How coool…

From BBC:

“Dr Steven Gunn has found a coroner’s report into the drowning of a Jane Shaxspere in 1569.

The girl, possibly a young cousin of William Shakespeare, had been picking flowers when she fell into a millpond near Stratford upon Avon.

Dr Gunn says there are “tantalising” links to Ophelia’s drowning in Hamlet.

A four-year research project, carried out by Oxford University academics, has been searching through 16th century coroners’ reports.

These have revealed a treasure trove of information about accidental deaths in Tudor England. The coroners’ reports revealed the story of Jane Shaxspere. But Dr Gunn says they were taken aback to find an account of the death of a girl who might have been a young cousin of her contemporary, William Shakespeare.

“It was quite a surprise to find Jane Shaxspere’s entry in the coroners’ reports – it might just be a coincidence, but the links to Ophelia are certainly tantalising,” he said.

The coroners’ report, originally written in Latin, describes the death of two-and-half-year-old Jane Shaxspere, who drowned picking marigolds in a stream beside a millpond.

The translation of the report records the cause, time and place.

“By reason of collecting and holding out certain flowers called ‘yellow boddles’ growing on the bank of a certain small channel at Upton aforesaid called Upton millpond – the same Jane Shaxspere the said sixteenth day of June about the eighth hour after noon of the same day suddenly and by misfortune fell into the same small channel and was drowned in the aforesaid small channel; and then and there she instantly died.

“And thus the aforesaid flowers were the cause of the death of the aforesaid Jane.”

The biographical gaps in William Shakespeare’s life make it impossible to know if this was the death of a cousin or other relation when the playwright was a boy living in Stratford upon Avon.”

Mary Rose artefact on space shuttle Endeavour

happyhelen — Thu, 26 May 2011 13:43:10 +0000

From BBC news:

“Part of the Mary Rose sail mechanism is being taken into space on the final flight of US space shuttle Endeavour.

The 3in (7.5cm) wooden ball from Henry VIII’s flagship, raised from the Solent in 1981, is on board during the 14-day mission.

The artefact was given to a Nasa crew during a visit to Portsmouth in 2010.

The Mary Rose Trust’s John Lippiett said: “We are thrilled that she will be making history once more on the final mission for Endeavour.”

Endeavour is due to blast off for the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2047 BST.

The wooden ball, known as a “parrel” continues a tradition of astronauts taking commemorative objects into space.

Mr Lippiett said: “The Mary Rose was as revolutionary in technological advances 500 years ago as the space shuttle was in the early 1980s.

“Both have helped pioneer exploration and advance the sciences.”

A new £36m museum complex to house the hull of Mary Rose and display the artefacts found within the wreck is due to open in autumn 2012.”

Leamington exhibition looks at Queen Elizabeth I favourite Robert Dudley

happyhelen — Mon, 16 May 2011 01:13:59 +0000

From Coventry Telegraph:

“AN EXHIBITION on the life and legacy of the man Queen Elizabeth I fancied but never married is taking place in Leamington this summer.

The display about Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester will be at the Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum telling the story of the relationship between the married earl and the Virgin Queen.

The exhibition will feature the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Kenilworth Castle in 1575 when there were 19 days of entertainments known at the time as the princely pleasures.

The display also explains how Robert Dudley founded the Lord Leycester Hospital, a place to live for retired servicemen, which survives in the original picturesque buildings in Warwick.

Robert Dudley’s career as a villain in fiction, particularly in Sir Walter Scott’s novel Kenilworth, is also covered.

The exhibition runs from Saturday, June 25, to Sunday, September 18, at the art gallery and museum in the town’s Pump Rooms in The Parade.

Entry is free.”

Bess of Hardwick’s life of letters to go on display

happyhelen — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:02:54 +0000

From BBC:

“More than 200 letters sent and received by a prominent Derbyshire noblewoman are to be revealed to the public.

Bess of Hardwick, who became the Countess of Shrewsbury in 1568, was regarded as one of the most capable and ambitious women of the Elizabethan age.

The 230 letters have been transcribed by a team of experts at the University of Glasgow.

The exhibition at Hardwick Hall near Chesterfield will allow visitors to see their content for the first time.

The letters include exchanges with friends, lovers, royalty and spies.

Bess of Hardwick married four times before becoming the Countess of Shrewsbury.

In that time she helped build and restore many houses and halls, including the Chatsworth estate in Bakewell.

Troubled marriageOne of her letters deals with the preparation of Tutbury Hall for a visit from Mary, Queen of Scots.

Others provide candid detail about Bess’s troubled marriage to her fourth husband, George Talbot.

Nigel Wright, Hardwick Hall’s collections manager, said: “The nice thing about these letters is that they reveal the real lady.

“She may have been a very rich countess but she still had problems with her children and her final marriage ran into trouble.

“These letters help to humanise the people involved.”"

All the World’s a Stage

happyhelen — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 05:08:38 +0000

From the Telegraph:

“London 1612: Shakespeare’s Theatre of the World, will open in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics and will explore the role of the capital as an emerging international city 400 years ago, interpreted through his plays.

The blockbuster show will include more than 150 exhibits, including important paintings from national and private collections, rare jewels and manuscripts including a First Folio of Shakepeare’s plays.

Leading Shakespearean actors, including Simon Callow, are also expected to take part in a “performance” section of the exhibition, where actors will be filmed and recorded performing excerpts from Shakespeare’s works.

Objects linked to Shakespeare’s plays that will go on display include the Ides of March coin, a rare a gold coin dating from 43-42 BC commemorating the murder of Julius Caesar on March 15, 44 BC, one of the most famous political assassinations in history.

Shakespeare dramatised the killing for his play Julius Caesar, which includes one of the most memorable lines in literature when Caesar turns to his friend Brutus and says: “Et tu, Brute?”"

Did Blood Cause Henry VIII’s Madness and Reproductive Woes?

happyhelen — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 03:20:44 +0000

Henry VIII

From the History Channel:

“Why did Henry VIII have so many wives and mistresses yet so few children? What caused the Tudor monarch’s descent into mental instability and physical agony in the second half of his life? A rare blood group and a genetic disorder associated with it may provide clues, a new study suggests. And, if Queen Elizabeth grants the researchers permission to unearth Henry’s body, definitive answers may be on the horizon.

The life of England’s King Henry VIII a royal paradox. A lusty womanizer who married six times and canoodled with countless ladies-in-waiting in an era before reliable birth control, he only fathered four children who survived infancy. Handsome, vigorous and relatively benevolent in the early years of his reign, he ballooned into an ailing 300-pound tyrant whose capriciousness and paranoia sent many heads rolling—including those of two of his wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard.

A new study chalks these mystifying contradictions up to two related biological factors. Writing in “The Historical Journal,” bioarchaeologist Catrina Banks Whitley and anthropologist Kyra Kramer argue that Henry’s blood group may have doomed the Tudor monarch to a lifetime of desperately seeking—in the arms of one woman after another—a male heir, a pursuit that famously led him to break with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s. A disorder that affects members of his suspected blood group, meanwhile, may explain his midlife physical and psychological deterioration.

The researchers suggest that Henry’s blood carried the rare Kell antigen—a protein that triggers immune responses—while that of his sexual partners did not, making them poor reproductive matches. In a first pregnancy, a Kell-positive man and a Kell-negative woman can have a healthy Kell-positive baby together. In subsequent pregnancies, however, the antibodies the mother produced during the first pregnancy can cross the placenta and attack a Kell-positive fetus, causing a late-term miscarriage, stillbirth or rapid neonatal death.”