On January 30th 1649 Charles I parted company with his head. The Tudor connection here is that he was born in 1599 when Elizabeth was still on the Throne of England and it was Charles's father James I that followed her onto the throne.
It's incredible to think that after Elizabeth reigned for 45 years, it took less than that time, less that two generations, for the country to tear itself to pieces in a civil war. Even more incredible is that the after being King for 24 years Charles should lose his head after losing the war.
Curiously, long before 1649 when the population was more religious and more superstitious, it was considered horrendous bad luck if Lady Day 25th March ( the annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel told Mary that she would bear the Christ Child 9 months later) fell at Easter. The last time that happend was...1649. Check your diaries we're OK this year.
www.tudorhistorytours.com
Monday, 1 February 2010
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
The Staffordshire Hoard
GOLD and lots of it!!
Went to the British Museum yesterday for some research, but got distracted by the Staffordshire Hoard. A truly amazing find of over 1500 pieces of gold and silver dating from 600-700 AD and found by a amateur metal detectorist in a field in the middle of England. Ok not Tudor but never-the-less worth mentioning. The pieces on display are simply incredible, the workmanship of the gold with garnets inlaid together with enamel designs. Getting up close and personal with such a find was a truly mouth open experience. The pieces still haven't been cleaned of dirt yet because there is so much of it and it will take at least a year to evaluate it all. In all the weight is more than eleven pounds of gold and three pounds of silver, all hidden in the ground probably,left there by somebody fleeing a battle 1300 years ago.
Worth a look if you are in London.
www.tudorhistorytours.com
Went to the British Museum yesterday for some research, but got distracted by the Staffordshire Hoard. A truly amazing find of over 1500 pieces of gold and silver dating from 600-700 AD and found by a amateur metal detectorist in a field in the middle of England. Ok not Tudor but never-the-less worth mentioning. The pieces on display are simply incredible, the workmanship of the gold with garnets inlaid together with enamel designs. Getting up close and personal with such a find was a truly mouth open experience. The pieces still haven't been cleaned of dirt yet because there is so much of it and it will take at least a year to evaluate it all. In all the weight is more than eleven pounds of gold and three pounds of silver, all hidden in the ground probably,left there by somebody fleeing a battle 1300 years ago.
Worth a look if you are in London.
www.tudorhistorytours.com
Friday, 8 January 2010
St Peters Church Firle
Nestling at the foot of Firle Beacon on the south downs lies St Peters Church in Firle village very close to Firle Place the ancestral home of the Gage family.
It's a flint built 13th Century Church but evidence suggest that the present site is much older, even before 1066.
There are 3 Alabaster tombs with effigies dating from 1595 in the Knave and contain, John Gage(1556) and his wife Phillipa, he was constable of the Tower of London and responsible for planning the execution of Catherine Howard.
His son Edward (d1569)and his wife Elizabeth, he was responsible for planning the burning at the stake the protestant martyrs in Lewes during the reign of Mary Tudor. Edward had two wives, 9 sons and 5 daughters, a very busy man!.
Lastly another John (1595) grandson of the first John, he had two wives too but not such gory credentials. Also buried in the family plot is Thomas Gage, he of the American war of Independence fame or infamy because he had a bit of a failure and was replaced. Firle is one of the places we visit on our tours.
The church has a list of the parish vicars dating from 1197. There is also a John Piper window installed in 1985 in homage to William Blake's Book of Job in memory of Henry 6th Viscount gage and depicts the tree of life in heavenly Jerusalem.
Today would have been Elvis Prestley's 75th Birthday if he was still alive. I mention this because there is a gargolye of Elvis at Canterbury Cathedral. Really there is, one of the stone masons a few years ago was an Elvis fan and chisseled the likeness on a replacement stone gargolye during renovations and it's still there high on the roof.
www.tudorhistorytours.com
It's a flint built 13th Century Church but evidence suggest that the present site is much older, even before 1066.
There are 3 Alabaster tombs with effigies dating from 1595 in the Knave and contain, John Gage(1556) and his wife Phillipa, he was constable of the Tower of London and responsible for planning the execution of Catherine Howard.
His son Edward (d1569)and his wife Elizabeth, he was responsible for planning the burning at the stake the protestant martyrs in Lewes during the reign of Mary Tudor. Edward had two wives, 9 sons and 5 daughters, a very busy man!.
Lastly another John (1595) grandson of the first John, he had two wives too but not such gory credentials. Also buried in the family plot is Thomas Gage, he of the American war of Independence fame or infamy because he had a bit of a failure and was replaced. Firle is one of the places we visit on our tours.
The church has a list of the parish vicars dating from 1197. There is also a John Piper window installed in 1985 in homage to William Blake's Book of Job in memory of Henry 6th Viscount gage and depicts the tree of life in heavenly Jerusalem.
Today would have been Elvis Prestley's 75th Birthday if he was still alive. I mention this because there is a gargolye of Elvis at Canterbury Cathedral. Really there is, one of the stone masons a few years ago was an Elvis fan and chisseled the likeness on a replacement stone gargolye during renovations and it's still there high on the roof.
www.tudorhistorytours.com
Monday, 4 January 2010
Tower of London
The discovery Channel over the last weekend was turned over completely to the Tower of London. A series of hour long programs looking at the Tower, it's history and it's people.
It is the most visited historic site in the country and has something for everyone.
It was fascinating to learn that the Yeoman of the Guard have a intense training period before they can be let loose on the general public. The Red uniforms they wear as seen on the home page of our web site,date back to Henry VII and they cost over £7,000 each with all that gold braid.
The challenge to the Queens Keys is the longest running military ceremony in the world. At 10pm precisely every night the shout goes out from a young sentry " Halt- who comes there?" only once in the last few hundred years has it been delayed. During the WWII Blitz a bomb landed within the Tower and blew the escort and Yeoman off their feet. The governor to the Tower wrote an appolgy to the King who replied that under the circumstances the officer should not face any punishment.
The Tower holds many historic features including the Crown Jewels that were once stolen by a Colonel Blood in 1637, a very interesting plot because he was pardoned by King Charles II. Who would want to be the person that actually gets to cleam them?
The Tower was also a very famous prison holding many historic and imfamous people right up to after the second world war. It even held the Kray twins ( for readers not from the UK the Kray Twins were notorious gangsters from London in the 1950's and 60's).
Once a year at low tide people are allowed on the river foreshore to scavenge amung what was the Tower rubbish dump for centuries. The piles of rubbish reveals some surprising finds like a gilded spur or a medieval door lock or a tile or a piece of masonary centuries old.
Lets hope that the discovery channel reapaets the series soon.
www.tudorhistorytours.com
It is the most visited historic site in the country and has something for everyone.
It was fascinating to learn that the Yeoman of the Guard have a intense training period before they can be let loose on the general public. The Red uniforms they wear as seen on the home page of our web site,date back to Henry VII and they cost over £7,000 each with all that gold braid.
The challenge to the Queens Keys is the longest running military ceremony in the world. At 10pm precisely every night the shout goes out from a young sentry " Halt- who comes there?" only once in the last few hundred years has it been delayed. During the WWII Blitz a bomb landed within the Tower and blew the escort and Yeoman off their feet. The governor to the Tower wrote an appolgy to the King who replied that under the circumstances the officer should not face any punishment.
The Tower holds many historic features including the Crown Jewels that were once stolen by a Colonel Blood in 1637, a very interesting plot because he was pardoned by King Charles II. Who would want to be the person that actually gets to cleam them?
The Tower was also a very famous prison holding many historic and imfamous people right up to after the second world war. It even held the Kray twins ( for readers not from the UK the Kray Twins were notorious gangsters from London in the 1950's and 60's).
Once a year at low tide people are allowed on the river foreshore to scavenge amung what was the Tower rubbish dump for centuries. The piles of rubbish reveals some surprising finds like a gilded spur or a medieval door lock or a tile or a piece of masonary centuries old.
Lets hope that the discovery channel reapaets the series soon.
www.tudorhistorytours.com
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Wesminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey was first consecrated December 28 1065 about nine months before the Battle of Hastings. William the Conqueror was crowned here and it has used ever since for the coronation of the Sovereign.
It houses the last remains of 10 Royal Soveriegns, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots and Anne of Cleves to name but a few of the Britains most powerful and Pious.
It was stripped of its consecrated status by Henry VIII during the Dissolution but was converted by Elizabeth into a " Royal Peculiar" a church responsible to the Sovereign.
It is very much a modern church too, keeping up with the times. Above the main door there are statues of 20th Century martyrs that includes Martin Luther King jr.
To hear carols or evensong in the Abbey is a moving experience and to think that services have been held here for nearly a thousand years.
www.tudorhistorytours.com
It houses the last remains of 10 Royal Soveriegns, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots and Anne of Cleves to name but a few of the Britains most powerful and Pious.
It was stripped of its consecrated status by Henry VIII during the Dissolution but was converted by Elizabeth into a " Royal Peculiar" a church responsible to the Sovereign.
It is very much a modern church too, keeping up with the times. Above the main door there are statues of 20th Century martyrs that includes Martin Luther King jr.
To hear carols or evensong in the Abbey is a moving experience and to think that services have been held here for nearly a thousand years.
www.tudorhistorytours.com
Sunday, 27 December 2009
I Like her Not !
It was on this day in 1539 that Henry VIII first set eyes on Anne of Cleves. It was at the Bishops Palace in Rochester Kent and Henry was impatient to see his intended bride. He was in disguise which fooled no one but they all played the part anyway. He came away from the meeting crestfallen and said "I like Her not." He then met her formally on New years day but I think by that time the image had been created of her as the Flanders Mare.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there is no accounting for taste. All sorts of cliches could be made but in the Henry VIII special exhibition still on at Windsor castle there are some water and pin colour sketches of his wives painted by Holbien on display. These are magnificent in detail and Anne of Cleves does not look unattractive at all in comparison to the others. This could be the brush deceiving the eye or she could have been exactly as portrayed either way Henry just did not fancy her but went through with the marraige for the good of the country.
Anne of Cleves out lived all the other wives but after Henry died she was treated very poorly by Parliament depiving her of the money that was rightfully hers by the divorce settlement. She is entombed in Westminster Abbey.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there is no accounting for taste. All sorts of cliches could be made but in the Henry VIII special exhibition still on at Windsor castle there are some water and pin colour sketches of his wives painted by Holbien on display. These are magnificent in detail and Anne of Cleves does not look unattractive at all in comparison to the others. This could be the brush deceiving the eye or she could have been exactly as portrayed either way Henry just did not fancy her but went through with the marraige for the good of the country.
Anne of Cleves out lived all the other wives but after Henry died she was treated very poorly by Parliament depiving her of the money that was rightfully hers by the divorce settlement. She is entombed in Westminster Abbey.
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Wolf Hall
Wolf Hall, not the new Booker Prize winning novel by Hillary Mantel about Thomas Cromwell. Wolf Hall in Wiltshire is the home of Jane Seymour third wife of Henry VIII and mother of Edward VI. Wolf Hall was recorded in the Domesday book of 1086 as Ulfela. Unfortunately there's not much left of the original building. The present building dates from the Victorian period. It's a large house set back from the narrow twisting road surrounded by large trees with a number of farm buildings all around.
The great barn that held the Wedding feast of Henry VIII and Jane survived until the 1920's and was destroyed by fire, there are photos of the Barn showing what it was like still available.
St Mary's church at Great Bedwyn a couple of miles away holds the tomb of Jane's father John. Above him is a stained glass window commemorating the wedding of Henry and Jane and dating from that time which came from the original house and was reset into the Church in 1901. John was also father to Thomas who married Catherine Parr after Henry died and was uncle and Protector of Edward VI.
Great Bedwyn is a Roman settlement but there is a chalk barrow indicating that the place has been inhabited for centuries before that. It was a city under the Saxons and appears in the Domesday book but was not assessed or tithed.
Jane was not high born but achieved the one thing that Henry wanted above all else, a son.
www.tudorhistorytours.com
The great barn that held the Wedding feast of Henry VIII and Jane survived until the 1920's and was destroyed by fire, there are photos of the Barn showing what it was like still available.
St Mary's church at Great Bedwyn a couple of miles away holds the tomb of Jane's father John. Above him is a stained glass window commemorating the wedding of Henry and Jane and dating from that time which came from the original house and was reset into the Church in 1901. John was also father to Thomas who married Catherine Parr after Henry died and was uncle and Protector of Edward VI.
Great Bedwyn is a Roman settlement but there is a chalk barrow indicating that the place has been inhabited for centuries before that. It was a city under the Saxons and appears in the Domesday book but was not assessed or tithed.
Jane was not high born but achieved the one thing that Henry wanted above all else, a son.
www.tudorhistorytours.com
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