Please check your spam box if you don't receive a confirmation email.
PLEASE NOTE: Your privacy is essential to us and we will not share your details with anyone.
Claire | February 7, 2016
On this day in history, 7th February 1526, the traditional Shrovetide joust took place at Greenwich Palace. The joust’s theme was unrequited love. Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, and his team of men wore green velvet and crimson satin embroidered with burning hearts. Above these hearts, a lady’s hand was depicted coming out of a […]
Claire | November 30, 2015
On 30th November 1529, Henry VIII was reproached by the two women in his life: his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and the woman he wanted to marry, Anne Boleyn. An angry Catherine of Aragon confronted her husband regarding his treatment of her, which she considered “the pains of Purgatory on earth”, and then when the […]
Claire | June 12, 2015
According to Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, on Sunday 12th June 1530 Catherine of Aragon had words with her husband Henry VIII, “exhorting him to be again to her a good prince and husband, and to quit the evil life he was leading and the bad example he was setting.”1 Catherine went on to tell […]
Claire | February 14, 2015
If you haven’t noticed (quick, buy a card!), today is Valentine’s Day, the day of love. Contrary to what many people believe, Valentine’s Day was celebrated in Tudor England. Alison Sim, in her excellent book Pleasures & Pastimes in Tudor England writes of how it is mentioned three times in the Paston Letters (a collection […]
Claire | February 7, 2015
Shrove Tuesday 1526 was celebrated with a “solemn joust” at Greenwich Palace. According to the chronicler Edward Hall, Henry VIII rode out in cloth of gold and silver “richely embraudered, with a mannes harte in a presse, with flames about it, and in letters were written ‘Declare I dare not’. The Marquis of Exeter and […]
Claire | September 17, 2014
The Tudors series would have us believe that Henry VIII first noticed Anne Boleyn at the Château Vert Pageant, just after Anne had made her debut at the English court, but the first solid evidence we have of Henry VIII being in love with Anne is Henry’s request to the Pope in August 1527 for […]
Claire | February 21, 2014
I know that many of you were unable to watch last night’s programme, Henry and Anne: The Lovers Who Changed History, so I took notes for you. My TV did go wrong a couple of times, so I missed a few minutes – sorry! The programme opened with Anne Boleyn preparing herself for her execution […]
Claire | February 20, 2014
Those who have access to UK TV will be able to watch this new two-part series, Henry and Anne: The Lovers Who Changed History, presented by historian Suzannah Lipscomb. The first part is on Channel 5 tonight at 8pm and the second and final part will be aired on 27th February. Here’s the blurb: “Historian […]
