Apologies for not writing much on here over the past week. I had to dash back to the UK for a funeral and I’ve also been preparing to publish “On This Day in Tudor History” which is coming very soon – early next week! Life has been rather hectic.
I hope those of you affected by Storm Sandy are all safe and well, I’ve been praying for you.
As its Halloween I thought I’d share with you an article I wrote back in 2009 on witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart times. I know that Halloween isn’t really about witches at all, but it’s a good excuse to read about them!
Click here to read the article now.
We also have some ghost articles:
- The Ghost of Anne Boleyn
- Monarchs Who Never Were – Hauntings at the Tower of London Part 1
- Monarchs Who Never Were – Hauntings at the Tower of London Part 2
- Monarchs Who Never Were – Hauntings at the Tower of London Part 3
- Monarchs Who Never Were – Hauntings at the Tower of London Part 4
Have a safe and happy Halloween, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, whatever you’re up to.
Although I don’t think there was any evidence that Anne miscarried a deformed fetus, I think Retha Warnicke’s book did a very credible job of showing how the accusations against Anne mimicked those made against witches. In a way, it made the charges more “believable” to the Tudors.
I am curled up on my sofa in the lounge, fire, candles and the pumpkin lit reading all of the previous years posts of ‘hauntings’ and ghostly goings on. we no longer get the streams of Guisers trick or treating any more as we live out in the country 2 miles from ‘civilization’, so Halloween is a quite affair for us now-a-days, one of the few things I do miss living where we do. But hey, I have the AB Files to keep me entertained, and piles of books to read, so no hardship really…lol.
I too am thinking of all those fighting against the elements of Storm Sandy, and wish them all the best, it must be dreadful coping with such devastation.
Glad to hear you are back amongst your family again after the sadness of a funeral.
Yet another book published, well done, you have been very productive this year Claire, don’t know how you do it… 🙂
Does Spain have there version of All Hallows eve, or do they celebrate tomorrow more being All Saints Day. It is very interesting to me how different countries celebrate the same thing in different ways.
I hope the only spirits you encounter tonight are in a glass!! lol…
HAPPY HALLOWEEN
Alas! Such a time I spent on my costume this year and it was a remarkable feat of cosmetic ingenuity and creativity! I was Queen Anne – but if she had been the witch she was accused of by Henry 8 and her other enemies. My Tudor dress – now over 15 years old and a little tattered – was perfection for the part. My new French Hood looked marvelous since I had let my hair grow all year and it is now much past my shoulders and peaked around the veil as I would imagine her hair did if not pinned up or in a snood of some sort. Having blue eyes I could not match her dark eyes but makeup gave me a smokey grey eye with the most marvelous false lashes that extened up in a curl on the end. A slightly greyed foundation with a touch of darker grey for the cheeks – very lightly applied gave me that witchy look for the occasion. When I made my entrance for family and friends, I was awarded with compliments on my “look” and managed to convince my 2 year old granddaughter it really was Gamma and I was nothing to be afraid of – it only costs me a cute little witch doll I had bought for her and hand fulls of her favorite candy (children can be rather mercenary at times). As Minnie Mouse, we didn’t match but then who says a witches familiar has to be a cat? All the time and trouble to put together this costum was well worth the effort and once I donned my cape off we went to Trick or Treat with the children. All we met along the way complimented me and I humbly accepted their accolades. The red velvet ribbon around my neck was an almost immediate give away as to who I represented; I thought that a rather subtle clue but most picked up on it. Back home with tired children all on a sugar rush, my feet aching and the chill of an October night starting to flare my arthritis, I hurried through cleaning the children’s make up off their faces and getting them into p.j.’s for their ride home so their parents could carry them straight to their beds. Once alone with my husband, we talked for a few minutes of the funny things the children said and did and I went off to my bathroom and removed “Anne” for one more year. Climbing into bed, looking forward to my hot cup of tea and a heating pad on my aching joints I suddenly realized something horrible. Of all the photos taken, I was not in one! I had no proof of my costume and it is not lost to posterity for all time – or at least until next year. Drat.
Your costume sounds wonderful, shame about you not being in the photos, but like you say theres always next year….Lol at the climbing into bed with aching bones..the things we do for kids eh, but well worth it to see the fun they have (as do the adults)
I really miss the ‘dressing up’ part. My best friend and I used to collect our little ones dressed up in some ‘spooky outfit we put together, we used to get strange looks from other parents, but they got used to it as the years went by, all the kids thought it was ‘cool’ though 🙂 We lived in a small village and we often use to say that a couple of hundred years ago we probably would have been tried as witches, or at least put on the ducking stool and dunked in the village pond lol. One good thing about it though (as the village got used to our enthusiasm about Halloween) was when we went off on our Trick or Treat journey, the villagers had plenty of ‘goodies’ for the children, and a glass of wine for us!! we were some what ‘tipsy’ when we arrived home. Good fun was had by all, I miss it so much.
oops typo….Meant ‘collect our little ones from school’