Anne of Cleves’ House

Here it is, the house in Haverhill that the “sister” of Henry VIII lived in for a few years, as part of their non-consummation annulment settlement, only six months after the “marriage” in Greenwich to follow a betrothal at Rochester. She outlived Henry, Holbein who painted her, Cromwell who arranged the wedding, Cranmer who presided…

THOMAS CROMWELL’S HOUSE IN AUSTIN FRIARS

Reblogged from A Medieval potpourri sparkypus.com Thomas Cromwell c.1532.  Minature attibuted to  Hans Holbein the Younger. Oil on panel. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Following on from my earlier post on Perkin Warbeck and his burial at Austin Friars where I touched upon Thomas Cromwell’s house in the Austin Friars precinct I was happy to come across this…

MISIDENTIFIED HISTORICAL PORTRAITS INCLUDING TUDOR QUEENS…

Reblogged from MISIDENTIFIED HISTORICAL PORTRAITS INCLUDING TUDOR QUEENS… Does anyone else like me get irritated by misidentified portraits of historical characters?  Is it that difficult to get correct? It’s quite sloppy to be honest as just a quick glance at them tells you something ain’t quite right here!  It’s particularly common around  16th century portraiture when…

THE PASSING OF ELIZABETH OF YORK – A ROYAL COINCIDENCE

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri sparkypus.com A young Henry weeping on the empty bed of his dead mother Elizabeth of York.  His two sisters Margaret and Mary sit at the foot of the bed.  From the Vaux Passional, in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth As an enthusiastic amateur I do love all the minutiae of history…

ROYAL PECULIARS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri sparkypus.com The glorious ceiling of the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court.  Photo James Brittain . Historic Royal Palaces.  The main reason, and perhaps the only reason,  why the bones in the urn in Westminster Abbey supposed to be those of the sons of Edward IV known as the “Princes” in the Tower, Edward of Westminster and…

The Tudors were a “typically Welsh family”….!

 Today in 1495 marked the death of Henry VII’s uncle, Jasper Tudor, and so seems an appropriate day for me to post the following extract, which is from The Country Gentry in the Fourteenth Century by N. Denholm-Young, published in 1969. “…It is a crying fault among English historians that they pay only lip-service to…

Leslau, Holbein, More and Clement

Before I begin, I have two words of warning. The first is that a huge spoiler for my novels Loyalty and the sequel Honour unavoidably follows. Just so that you know! Secondly, the following is my telling of the theory researched and expounded by Jack Leslau, an amateur art enthusiast who believed that he stumbled…

Which King Henry is this….?

Here is an illustration that perplexed me when I came upon it at  The writing at the top says “Henry, by the grace of God, King of England”…but which Henry? By the clothes, it has to be VI, VII or VIII. I think. Then it was pointed out to me that there’s a Tudor rose…

Where Did You Get That Hat?

For those interested in such things, Macy’s online is offering a  portrait of a ‘man in a decorative hat.’ Ideal for any room…especially your bathroom/washroom/toilet! (Just not the bedroom, please; those little mean eyes would doubtless follow you.) The picture in question happens to be by Holbein…and wait, the ‘man’ depicted, hat or no hat,…

A visible difference

This Mail on Sunday interview with Jonathan Rhys Meyers is sadly, mostly about his current personal problems. However, one or two paragraphs towards the end, should be of interest: But it was his lead role in TV drama The Tudors, as the criminally charismatic Henry VIII, that made everyone take note, even though Rhys Meyers…