Here’s the transcript of our great livechat event with Claire Ridgway where we were discussing the interrogations of those surrounding Catherine Howard when she fell in 1541. It was a fascinating chat!
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Livechat transcript – Claire Ridgway – Interrogations of 1541
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Making Tudor History Interesting for Young People
Student and avid history fan, Emma Casson, is 18 years old and lives in the Netherlands. She contacted us as she wanted to share her experiences of learning about the Tudors and what she feels could be done to help history to flourish in the education system. Over to Emma…
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The 400th anniversary of the burial of Nicholas Hilliard, and Hilliard book news!
On this day in history, 7th January 1619, Nicholas Hilliard, the famous Elizabethan goldsmith and miniaturist, was buried at the parish church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. This means that it’s the 400th anniversary of his burial!
Hilliard is known for his beautiful portrait miniatures of the English court in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, and his paintings of Elizabeth I: the “Pelican” portrait and the “Phoenix” portrait.
Hilliard is a fascinating man and artist, and he is the subject of Dr Elizabeth Goldring’s new book, which is due to be released by Yale University Press on 12th February. Its title is Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist and here is the blurb
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7 January
In today’s “on this day in Tudor history”, I talk about the death of Catherine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII.
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6 January
Happy Epiphany! In today’s “on this day in Tudor history” video, I talk about the wedding of Anne of Cleves and Henry VIII, an event that took place on this day in 1540.
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Witches and Witchcraft Crossword Puzzle
Today’s Sunday fun is a crossword puzzle to test your knowledge on witches and witchcraft.
If you haven’t listened to Kate Cole’s excellent expert talk on the subject then you might want to listen to that first…
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5 January
On this day in Tudor history, 5th January 1531, the Pope got rather cross with Henry VIII. Find out why in my video.
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4 January
Today’s “on this day in Tudor history” video is about William Roper, son-in-law of Sir Thomas More.
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Gibraltar – the key between these our kingdoms in the Eastern and Western Seas
Tim and I had twenty-four hours in Gibraltar between Christmas and New Year so I thought I’d share with you some information about its history, as well as some photos.
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3 January
In today’s “on this day in Tudor history” video, Claire looks at 3rd January 1540 and 1541 and examines how different they were for Anne of Cleves.
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This month’s Live Chats – 4, 11 and 25 January
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2 January
What happened on 2nd January in the Tudor period? Here is today’s “on this day in Tudor history” video.
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Expert Talk – Mary I – Samantha Wilcoxson
Our expert speaker this month wants us to re-examine our thoughts and beliefs about Mary I. Samantha Wilcoxson is the author of many books about the Tudors, and her talk is an excellent reminder that we must continually look at the facts in history.
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1 January
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New Year’s Day
Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all good things for 2019. Here at the Tudor Society, we have lots planned for this year – phew!
As you will have noticed, every week I have been posting a “This week in history” article listing all of the “on this day in history” events for the current week, with links to read more where appopriate. Well, this year I thought I’d do something a bit different. I have decided to do a short daily video picking one particular event. Each video will be shared here on the Tudor Society website. I do hope you enjoy them.
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John Dudley Quiz
John Dudley is a fascinating Tudor man, but how much do you know about him? Test your knowledge with this fun quiz. Good luck!
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January 2019 – Tudor Life – Tudor Marys
Happy New Year! This month in Tudor Life Magazine, we have a bumper edition which is 94 pages long. It’s all about the Marys who made up the Tudor world…
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Childermas or Holy Innocents’ Day
Today is Childermas or the Feast of the Holy Innocents, a day that is still important in the Catholic Church and which was one of the Twelve Days of Christmas in Tudor times. Let me tell you about it in today’s Claire Chats video talk.
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Boxing Day or St Stephen’s Day
In the UK today, 26th December is known as Boxing day and has become the day for spending your Christmas money at the post-Christmas sales or going for a bracing walk. We don’t think of it as the Feast of St Stephen.
But in Tudor times, it commemorated the martyrdom of St Stephen, who was stoned to death for blasphemy.
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Merry Christmas to all Tudor Society members!
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This week in history 24 – 30 December
24th December:
1545 – King Henry VIII made his final speech to Parliament. Historian Robert Hutchinson describes it as “both measured and compelling”, and writes of how Henry wanted “to impart a stern message” to all of his subjects.
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1604 – Death of Sir Thomas Cornwallis, Comptroller of the household of Mary I and member of Parliament, at the age of eighty-six. He was buried at Brome in Suffolk. Cornwallis was active in putting down Kett’s Rebellion in 1549 and in 1553, after originally proclaiming Lady Jane Grey as Queen in Ipswich, he swapped sides and swore allegiance to Mary I. -
Christmas Quiz 2018
As this is our last quiz before Christmas, I thought I’d include some Christmas trivia questions and also some questions about Tudor events that happened around Christmas. So, grab your favourite Christmas tipple and a mince pie (or a slice of Christmas cake) and have a bit of fun with this quiz. Good luck!
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Christmas Carols
Christmas just isn’t Christmas for me without listening to traditional Christmas carols, although I do like a bit of Michael Bublé! In today’s Claire Chats I talk about Christmas carols and their history.
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21 December – A marriage and a death
I just thought I’d highlight two “on this day in history” events for you today and give you links to read more about them:
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Catherine of Aragon’s halo?
Thank you to Lynne for asking this question about Michael (Michel) Sittow’s portrait of a woman said to be Catherine of Aragon. The portrait of Katherine of Aragon painted by Michael Sittow on her marriage to Arthur shows Katherine with a halo around her headdress, and I read that the halo was painted on at a later date. I always thought that it was part of Katherine’s headdress, am I wrong?”
The painting by Michael Sittow, shown here, is beautiful. We don’t actually know for certain who it is and there has been controversy surrounding it in recent years because the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna relabelled the portrait as being of Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII, based on “Henry VIII’s Favourite Sister? Michel Sittow’s Portrait of a Lady in Vienna”, an article by Paul G. Matthews. You can read more about this in Katherine of Aragon or Mary Tudor? – The Re-identification of Michel Sittow’s Portrait of a Young Woman by Nasim Tadghighi. For me, it makes more sense that it is Catherine.
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The survival of the Bridgettine Order of Syon Abbey
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This week in history 17 – 23 December
17th December:
1538 – Pope Paul III announced the excommunication of Henry VIII.
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1550 – Birth of Henry Cavendish, soldier, traveller and son of Bess of Hardwick and Sir William Cavendish. He was married to Grace Talbot, daughter of George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury. This match was arranged by his mother who had married the Earl of Shrewsbury.
1559 – Matthew Parker was consecrated as Elizabeth I’s Archbishop of Canterbury. According to “The Correspondence of Matthew Parker”, Anne Boleyn charged him with the care of Elizabeth when she saw him in April 1536, “not six days before her apprehension”. Historian Eric Ives writes that this was a request that Parker never forgot, and something which stayed with him for ever. Parker obviously came to be important to Elizabeth, because she made him her Archbishop of Canterbury in 1559. It was a post which Parker admitted to Lord Burghley, he would not have accepted if he “had not been so much bound to the mother”. Parker was Archbishop until his death in 1575. -
Christmas Wordsearch
Our Sunday puzzler this week is a fun wordsearch. How much do you know about British Christmas traditions? Lots, if you listened to Claire’s talk on Friday! Test yourself with this wordsearch. Be warned, the words can go in any direction!
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Christmas Party reminder (15th December!) and January live chats
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British Christmas Traditions
Our family’s Christmas is now a real mix of British and Spanish traditions, with an Icelandic tradition thrown in for good measure! In today’s Claire Chats video talk, I look at the popular Christmas traditions of the UK, and I’d love it if you could tell me about your country’s traditions, or those that are personal to your family.
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