Time to begin exploring the history and culture of Wales! And where better to do that than the free, open-air, 40 acre walk though the Welsh past that is St. Fagan’s national history museum? It’s lush, it is! It is in a beautiful park and woodland nature paths between the buildings, which have been meticulously… Read more St. Fagan’s National Museum
Queen Mary I of England wed King Philip II of Spain on 25 July 1554 at Winchester Cathedral, and although she was personally very happy, it was one of the worst political moves should could have made. Mary’s Lord Chancellor, Stephen Gardiner, and the entire House of Commons begged the queen to wed an Englishman… Read more Merry Mary Marries
The Mary Rose was the prized flagship of King Henry VIII’s navy. She was a carrack-type warship who was in service for 33 years before she sank in action on 19 July 1545. The Mary Rose would slumber in the deeps of the Solent, the straits north of the Isle of Wight, until she was… Read more The Mary Rose Visits Davy Jones
The fiercely maternal and profoundly strong-willed Margaret Beaufort died peacefully in her bed on 29 June 1509. Founder of the Tudor Dynasty, she was buried in Westminster Abbey with every honor and an Italian sculptor was commissioned to create the effigy on her tomb. The famous humanist scholar Erasmus honored her by composing her epitaph,… Read more The Passing of Margaret Beaufort
I love the meme that goes around social media roughly wondering, “If May the Fourth is Star Wars Day, and the next day is Cinco de Mayo, then is the day after that the Revenge of the Sixth?” Ah, the pun is very punny. Notwithstanding the joke, some pretty bad stuff has gone down on… Read more The Dark Side and the Sound of Silence
This date is a big one, vis-à-vis English monarchial history. Henry VII died on 21 April 1509 and Queen Elizabeth II was born on the same day in 1926. When Henry died, an ungrateful nation rejoiced because he had rebuilt their stability and standing in Europe via badly needed tax revenue. His son Henry… Read more The King is Dead, Long Live the Queen
Today, January 25, is the day Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII wed in secret for the second time in 1533. From the Catholic perspective, it was bigamy, in that the Pope had not released Henry from his first marriage. The marriage was also wildly unpopular with his subjects because Anne was thought of as a… Read more An Anne Boleyn Analog in Modern China?
I’ve posted about Maria de Salinas before, on more sites than this one, but she DESERVES multiple posts because she was awesome. On this day in history Maria Willoughby, nee de Salinas, defied a king and arrived at Kimbolton manor house to comfort Katherina of Aragon on her deathbed. Maria de Salinas is one of… Read more Once More About Maria de Salinas
Welcome to Niki Incorvia, who is here on my blog to tell us all about her first book, Monarchial Roles: Redefining Religion and Family under Henry VIII and Mary I! Henry VIII and Mary I are a bit of a mystery to us in the twenty-first century, their lives and personalities are crafted together from… Read more Monarchial Roles by Niki Incorvia
Some of the students and staff at Cambridge University suggest the school should remove famous historian David Starkey from a university promotional campaign, since Starkey keeps saying racist things. For instance, during “an appearance by the historian on BBC Newsnight in 2011 when he referred to Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech as being right… Read more David Starkey, Bluff King Hal, UKIP, and Donald Trump