Henry VIII
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It’s official, folks. Late in his reign Henry VII was “a creepy old man”! It’s true, because Factinate.com says so! Henry VIII, was “a nasty middle-aged and old man”. In my opinion anyway, and Factinate agrees, more or less. Oh, and Catherine of Aragon was quite a woman! She had some pretty bloodthirsty ideas,…
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Today in 1495 marked the death of Henry VII’s uncle, Jasper Tudor, and so seems an appropriate day for me to post the following extract, which is from The Country Gentry in the Fourteenth Century by N. Denholm-Young, published in 1969. “…It is a crying fault among English historians that they pay only lip-service to…
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What were our medieval kings’ voices like….?
accents, Alice Perrers, Azincourt, Battle of Bosworth, definitions, Edward III, Edward IV, Edward the Black Prince, Edward V, George Duke of Clarence, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Jane Shore, language, minority kings, monarchs, Phillippa of Hainault, promiscuity, Richard II, Richard III, Stanleys, Thomas Lynom, WydevillesToday I once again heard Henry VIII described as Bluff King Hal. Well, this is usually said almost affectionately, which the Henry VIII we all know does not warrant. He was a monster. I think his voice was probably stentorian. Eventually he was downright nasty and needed to be approached with an excessively long bargepole.…
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Leslau, Holbein, More and Clement
“Princes”, Dr. John Clement, Duchy of Lancaster, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, Erasmus, esses, Fleet prison, fleuur-de-lys, flowers, Germany, Hans Holbein, Henry Patterson, Henry VIII, infrared photography, Jack Leslau, John Dudley Duke of Northumberland, John Fisher, John Harris, jousting, Latin, Louvain, Matt Lewis, Mechelen, peonies, Pilgrimage of Grace, rebus, Richard III, Rowlandas Lockey, royal arms, Seneca, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Edward Guildford, The Family of Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas More, Thomas Wolsey, Tower of London, Utopia, William CecilBefore I begin, I have two words of warning. The first is that a huge spoiler for my novels Loyalty and the sequel Honour unavoidably follows. Just so that you know! Secondly, the following is my telling of the theory researched and expounded by Jack Leslau, an amateur art enthusiast who believed that he stumbled…
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This is another Legendary Ten Seconds production, principally about the ancient building in Torquay, but it is one track on an album about the wider history of Torbay. Torre Abbey, which dated from about 1096, was dissolved without significant resistance in 1539 and is principally an art gallery as well as part of the Agatha…
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Completing the Set (2006) – Henry VIII’s other “wives”
“wives”, Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, Blanche of Lancaster, Catherine de Valois, Catherine Howard, Catherine of Aragon, Catherine Parr, Edward I, Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, John Ashdown-Hill, John of Gaunt, Ricardian, Ricardian Bulletin, Richard of Salisbury, Royal Marriage Secrets, Wendy Moorhen{as adapted from the Ricardian Bulletin: December 2006} Introduction The Ricardian article The Lancastrian claim to the throne (John Ashdown-Hill, 2003) showed Henry’s relationship to Catherine of Aragon, both descended from Blanche of Lancaster, the first wife of John of Gaunt. Genealogical conundrums (Wendy Moorhen, 2006) illustrated the descent of Anne Boleyn, her first cousin…
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Bishop John Fisher, born in Beverley, Yorkshire in October, 1469, was Margaret Beaufort’s confessor, a similarly dour man who liked to stick a skull on the altar at mass to remind you of mortality. He noted, marvelling, Margaret’s habit of weeping and wailing in emotional distress behind closed doors, as well as in public–such as…
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Recently it was reported that a secret staircase some 600 years old was unearthed at Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire. Immediately the reporter leapt on the idea that ‘Maybe Henry VIII walked down these stairs?!’ as if that ultimately was the most exciting thing about the new discovery. (Why, why, why, are there so many newspapers…
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Here is an illustration that perplexed me when I came upon it at The writing at the top says “Henry, by the grace of God, King of England”…but which Henry? By the clothes, it has to be VI, VII or VIII. I think. Then it was pointed out to me that there’s a Tudor rose…
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Well, it’s hard to imagine now, because the Fleet is underground for most of its lower length, but Henry VIII once had a palace here, where the Fleet flows into the Thames. Bridewell Palace was favoured by him early in his reign, but later became the notorious Bridewell Prison, on account of which many institutions…
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