Posted By Claire on August 20, 2018
As many of you will know, I’m involved in MedievalCourses.com, a company offering online history courses taught by downloadable or streaming audio lectures or videos. Well, I just wanted to let you know that MedievalCourses.com are commemorating the anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth this week by offering 25% off all of their history courses from today until the end of 24th August 2018.
For Tudor history lovers, the courses available include my course on Anne Boleyn, Gareth Russell’s course on Henry VIII’s six wives, and Toni Mount’s courses on the English Reformation and the roles of Medieval and Tudor women, but there are also many other interesting courses.
All you have to do is choose your course (or courses!) at https://medievalcourses.com/overview/ and use coupon code BOS at checkout. You can use the code on as many courses as you like and what’s great is that the courses don’t have a set start or end date, so you can buy courses now and then start them when it’s convenient for you.
Here is a list of the courses on offer:
- The History of the Medici Family
- The Roles of Medieval and Tudor Women
- The History of the Borgias
- The English Reformation: a religious revolution
- England’s Crime and Punishment through the Ages
- The Life of Anne Boleyn
- The Six Wives of Henry VIII
- Warrior Kings of England: The Story of the Plantagenet Dynasty
- Everyday Lives of Medieval Folk
- Heroes and Villains
- Richard III and the Wars of the Roses
As the courses are completely online, they are open internationally and you will be sent a certificate by the course teacher on completion. Each course also has end of unit quizzes and resources, such as a further reading list. Start when you like and finish when you like, just make sure you enrol before the end of 24th August to save 25%. Use coupon code BOS at https://medievalcourses.com/.
Category: News
Tags: online history course
Posted By Claire on August 16, 2018
I’ve just come back from a two week holiday travelling through Spain and France to the UK, and while I was in the UK I was lucky enough to attend David Starkey’s talk “Henry VIII: The First Brexiteer” at the Festival Theatre at Hever Castle. It was a wonderful talk, both entertaining and educational, and in it Dr Starkey shared his view on the dating of Anne Boleyn’s acceptance of Henry VIII’s proposal of marriage. It is something that he has mentioned before in his book on the six wives, but I haven’t discussed it here on the Anne Boleyn Files before so I thought I’d share it with you.
As Dr Starkey explained, and as many of you will know, Henry VIII’s love letters to Anne Boleyn, which are held now in the Vatican Archives, are not dated. There are several theories regarding the order in which they were written and when they were written, but only David Starkey, I believe, goes as far as to give a firm date for Anne’s acceptance of the king’s proposal, which she signified by sending him a jewelled trinket. Henry VIII described it in his letter as “the costly Diamond, and the Ship in which the solitary Damsel is tossed about”. Henry thanked Anne for the gift, “but chiefly for the fine interpretation, and too humble submission”, i.e. for her submission to his will. Eric Ives explains that “For centuries the ship had been a symbol of protection – the ark which rescued Noah from the destroying deluge; the diamond – as the Roman de la Rose had said – spoke of a ‘heart as hard as diamond, steadfast and nothing pliant’.”
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Category: Anne Boleyn General, Henry VIII
Tags: Anne Boleyn accepts Henry VIII's proposal, Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn love letters, Anne Boleyn's gift to Henry VIII, Henry VIII love letters, Henry VIII's courtship of Anne Boleyn
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