history
Historical Fiction and Its Impact on History

This is a topic that I am extremely passionate about - historical fiction, and history. Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir are quite possibly the most well-known authors on Tudor history. Both women are historians, both women are authors. While Gregory appears to only write historical fiction, Weir began her popular career writing non-fiction, and then transformed into what I would consider fiction/historical fiction. Before I delve into the topic I must confess that I am a [More]
Why The Tudors?

I was having a difficult time coming up with a topic for this week's podcast. I reached out to my followers on Facebook and a couple of them mentioned that they would be interested in finding out what got me interested in The Tudor dynasty in the first place. I thought it was a fantastic idea and so I ran with it. This episode begins talking about Henry VII and the Battle of Bosworth as well as Elizabeth of York and leads up to the birth of Prince Arthur. I discuss my [More]
Drugs and The Tudors: Drug Use Isn’t a New Phenomenon (Guest Post)
Guest post by Sharon Torres The Tudor dynasty is pretty well known in history having been popularized by icons like Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII, and Edward VI. While we may have much of the Tudors in history books, there remains one question that lingers in minds of people: “Was drug use common in times of Tudor?” There have been speculations that William Shakespeare may have used drugs after an investigation of clay pipes that were found near his house showed trace [More]
Katherine of Aragon: In All Her Glory

Early on in her marriage with the King of England Katherine of Aragon found herself very loyal to Spain and her father, Ferdinand of Aragon. Author, Alison Weir states in her book The Six Wives of Henry VIII, that Katherine greatly influenced her husband on the interests of Spain – sometimes more than the interests of England. It was obvious that Katherine was still very loyal to her father and her home country. At this point in their marriage Katherine was Henry’s “go-to” [More]
The History of Playing Cards in England

When was the last time you actually sat and thought about when or how something was created, or wondered where it came from? Recently I was watching a program about the Tudors that depicted them playing cards and I thought, I wonder what the history is behind playing cards? Playing cards originated in 9th century China during the Tang dynasty.ą During the same time in England, Alfred the Great was the King of Wessex and had become the dominate king in England. Fro [More]