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]
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]
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]
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]
Exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Open 28th May to 31st October 2021. Written by Melanie V. Taylor for TudorsDynasty.com On Tuesday 25th May I got on a train to London for the first time in a year. Suitably masked I was heading off to my favourite London museum for a preview of the Tudors to Windsors exhibition being held in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. For those who have never visited this museum, it is part of the Royal Museums [More]
How we know the Tudor Royals from 1485 – 1558; and who painted them. Guest article by Melanie V. Taylor A recent article in various publications, including The Smithsonian magazine, looked at Franny Moyle’s suggestion that Holbein left clues regarding the identification of one of his sitters of his miniatures being of Henry VIII’s fourth wife, Anna, Duchess of Cleves. It is not the first time this possibility has been discussed. Heather Darsie describes how Anna [More]