Happy New Year to you all and let's raise our glasses to another year jam-packed with Tudor history!
In the medieval and Tudor periods, New Year was the traditional time for gifts to be exchanged between the monarch and nobles. Here are two Claire Chats talks I did on this topic:
The following video is the one I mention and is a wonderful video looking at books that were given to and by Tudor monarchs at New Year - fascinating!
In this video, I mention John Nichol's early 19th century book The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth and you can read the lists of Elizabeth I's New Year gifts at https://archive.org/stream/progressesandpu01nichgoog#page/n38/mode/2up, pages xxxiii to xxli
Anne Boleyn gave Henry Viii a pair of biscian Boar Spears for her present, only the best quality.
Happy New Year.
What else do you give the man who has everything?
Interestingly, in Russia, because the Orthodox Church follows the Julian Calendar, Christmas is 7th January, BUT they exchange presents at New Year so my son and his family have just had their big gift-giving day.