Elizabeth I
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As you can read here—A Brief History of Pearls -Story of Pearls, Facts about Pearls (americanpearl.com)—pearls have found favour with mankind for a very long time, and rightly so, for they are truly beautiful. That sheen. That cool-yet-warm glow. That delicate shade of….of whichever pearl you happen to be admiring at the time. For they…
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… ie dating from the era immediately after Richard III, in particular from Mary I and Philip to Charles I. These were found under the floorboards of a West Dorset house by Robert and Becky Fooks, having been hidden during the Civil War, to be auctioned shortly for about £20,000.
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On 7 September last year on the Sky History channel was the first series of Royal Autopsy. It dealt with Charles II and Elizabeth I, and was excellent, if a little gory. I reviewed it on the following link: https://murreyandblue.org/2023/09/07/royal-autopsy-a-documentary-series-dealing-with-the-recreated-post-mortems-of-charles-ii-and-elizabeth-i/ Now the second series is soon to commence, and there are four monarchs having the…
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We all know the well-trodden vistas of the kings and queens of England but what about those of the kings and queens we nearly had? In my new book, Uncrowned: Royal Heirs Who Didn’t Take The Throne, I charter the lives of twenty-five heirs apparent and presumptive who nature had destined to one day wear…
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“Becoming Elizabeth”
Admiral Thomas Seymour, Alicia von Rittburg, Amy Robsart, Anglo-Scottish Wars, beards, Catherine Parr, Channel Four, David Starkey, Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, executions, Henry Grey Duke of Suffolk, Henry VIII, heresy, Jane, John Dudley Duke of Northumberland, Kett Rebellion, Lord Guildford Dudley, Lord Protector of the Realm, Mary I, Mary Stuart, Norwich, Oliver Zetterstrom, Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, ScotlandThis drama series, from Starz but now broadcast on Channel Four, follows the momentous but unheralded reign of Edward VI through the eyes of the future Elizabeth I. It features the literally fratricidal feud between the Seymour brothers as the elder, the Duke of Somerset, becomes Lord Protector but also the King’s governor, powers that…
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I am heartily sick of certain historians – or ‘historians’ in some cases – who use the ‘tyrant’ word as a badge to stick on the rulers they dislike as a sort of badge of disgrace. These people invariably gloss over the similar – no, let’s be plain, worse, far worse! – deeds of the…
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This article is courtesy of one Sean Cunningham, historian. 😠 The article is informative about various National Archive documents that concern past coronations. They are very interesting. For instance, they reveal the preservation of “….bills submitted to the exchequer for the robes worn by past monarchs such as Elizabeth I when she was crowned in…
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Is it just me? Or does this house in Pirton, Worcestershire, which dates back to the Domesday Book and is described as Elizabethan, actually look merely Victorian/Edwardian? Ignore the black-and-white exterior, because even with the original more natural colours the house just does not look 16th/17th century, even though it is. To me it appears…
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Royal Autopsy, a documentary series dealing with the recreated post-mortems of Charles II and Elizabeth I….
Alice Roberts, autopsies, Bethlem, Bezoar, blood letting, Brett Lockyer, bronchopneumonia, Charles II, Chelsea Physic Garden, clocks, Edmund King, Elizabeth I, emetics, executions, four humours, hair analysis, Hartshorn, Henry VII, James VI/I, John Dee, Jonathan Goddard, malaria, Mary Stuart, microscope, Nell Jones, parotitis, Rainbow Portrait, renaissance, Richmond Palace, Robert Cecil, Royal Autopsy, Royal Society, scars, sepsis, Sir Charles Scarburgh, Sky History, smallpox, Spanish fly, stroke, succession, sugar, syphilis, teeth, toxicology, Wellcome Collection, white leadI confess to having doubts about watching this two-part series on the Sky History channel because I envisaged CGI overkill with odious (but hopefully by then dead) parasites etc., and so I started viewing with the firm intention of stopping the moment it became too horribly wriggly and gory. No wriggles, but the gory…
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Here’s an interesting take on Shakespeare‘s Richard II. Please note, NOT Richard III. There is a myth that this play was written to flatter the Tudor queen Elizabeth, and yet one scene came so close to the bone, so to speak, that she had it excised from every performance! Amused she was not. The scene…