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Anna of Denmark: Queen, Patron, and Matriarch

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Written by Dr. Steven Veerapen Historically, Anna (or Anne) of Denmark has not received a great press. To too many, she is an unknown quantity – a name, glimpsed as an adjunct to King James: a non-speaking background figure, literally, seen in dramas as varied as 2017’s Gunpowder and Disney’s direct-to-video Pocahontas 2. She has, moreover, enjoyed unfavourable comparisons to her predecessors as queens consort, especially of England. Whilst bookshop and library shelves [More]

Lady Katherine Grey: Tudor Heiress

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According to the last will and testament of Henry VIII, the throne of England should have been inherited by the descendants of Lady Katherine Grey when Henry’s younger daughter, Elizabeth I, died on 24 March 1603. A somewhat obscure figure in Tudor history, Katherine was the second daughter of Henry, duke of Suffolk and his wife Frances, the elder daughter of Mary Tudor, queen of France and subsequently duchess of Suffolk. Mary was the youngest surviving daughter of the first [More]

Shaw House: Berkshire’s Hidden Gem

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  Guest post by Sarah Somerville  Shaw House is an Elizabethan manor built in 1581 for Thomas Dolman II, who had made his wealth through the cloth trade. The House is a prodigy house, built to impress, show off wealth and with the hope of attracting a visit from royalty. Indeed, Queen Elizabeth I did visit Shaw House in the summer of 1592. Beyond this time the House has survived Civil War battles, become a Dukes retreat and, in more recent times, was [More]

Queen and Mother: Mary I the woman behind the legend

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Written by Peter Stiffell When we discuss England’s first queen regnant the history books and documentaries usually first recall the break with Rome, the struggle of a princess against her autocratic father, and the burnings. Yet Mary I’s reign is not seen in the same regard as her father or half-sister despite Henry executing c.72,000and Elizabeth hanging, drawing, and quartering around two hundred Catholic priests. Though Geoffrey Elton once described Mary as ‘arrogant, [More]

Cecily Neville: A 15th century woman for our time

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    Guest article by Annie Garthwaite Writing a novel about the matriarch of the house of York, prompted Annie Garthwaite to consider what makes Cecily Neville one of the 15th century’s most compelling women, the role she played in her family’s dynastic struggles, and why – at last – historians and novelists are fixing their gaze upon her. -- Cecily was born in the year of Agincourt, lived into the early years of the Tudors, mothered a dynasty, and [More]

Misremembering Mary I: History’s Largest Misconceptions about England’s First Crowned Queen

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Guest post written by Johanna Strong Mary I, England’s first crowned queen regnant (1553-1558), is often popularly remembered as either a tragic figure or as a tyrannical one. While traditional histories such as G.R. Elton’s focus on the religious persecution undertaken throughout Mary’s reign, others attempt to soften her character by narrating her phantom pregnancies and the frequent absences of her husband, Philip II of Spain. Both of these approaches and styles of [More]