Yesterday my first offering to the Made Global’s “History in a Nutshell” series hit the shelves and I am happy down to my toes. It’s entitled Henry VIII’s Health in a Nutshell and it’s available in paperback and ebook format. It also has a highly complimentary blurb. I really like highly complimentary blurbs. I’m needy… Read more Book Release!
On this day in 1537 Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII, gave birth (not by cesarean section) to a little boy who would briefly rule England as Edward VI. He became the boy-king at the age of nine when his father passed away in January of 1547, and after some squabbling for power Edward’s… Read more Edward VI
A mumpsimus is person who clings to something even after it has been shown to be wrong, or the action of clinging to incorrect belief. For example, when someone insists on saying irregardless regardless of the fact it is NOT a word, then that person is a mumpsimus and his act of using the word… Read more Mumpsimus
Mary I successfully overthrew Jane Grey, Edward VI’s legitimate and legal heir, and was officially declared queen of England on July 19, 1553. This is my article in this month’s Tudor Society Magazine (which you should totally subscribe to) about the historical rewriting of the legitimacy of Jane Grey’s reign. Sometime during the life… Read more Mary I, Usurper and Queen
MadeGlobal’s History in a Nutshell Series aims to give readers a good grounding in a historical topic in a concise, easily digestible and accessible way. In Thomas Cranmer in a Nutshell, Beth von Staats discusses the fascinating life of Thomas Cranmer, from his early education, through his appointment to Archbishop of Canterbury, his growth in… Read more Welcoming Beth von Staats, author of Thomas Cranmer in a Nutshell!
Amy Licence and I invite proposals for papers to be included in a multidisciplinary edited volume entitled Envisioning the Tudor Woman: Historical and Modern Representations of Women from the Tudor Era. Please submit a proposal before July 1 2015; the final deadline for complete essays will be December 1, 2015. Papers must be between 4000… Read more Submissions for Envisioning the Tudor Woman
*SPOILERS for Game of Thrones* Today is Henry Fitzroy’s birthday, and if he were alive he’d be 496 years young. Sadly, the king’s baseborn child with Bessie Blount passed away at the tender age of 17. Fitzroy was actually being eyed as a potential heir to the throne, illegitimate or not. Henry had recently declared… Read more Happy Birthday to Henry Fitzroy
I published this last year, but it bears repeating. Her murder was one of the worst acts in Tudor history. On this day in 1541 the Countess of Salisbury, Lady Margaret Pole, was executed by order of Henry VIII. This was shocking, even for a populace who had become accustomed to the murder of famous… Read more Remembering Margaret Pole
*NB – this was supposed to go out yesterday but Fun With Kids happened instead* On the last week in May of 1553 Lady Jane Grey married Lord Guilford Dudley, the fourth son of the duke of Northumberland (John Dudley), at the urging of the increasingly ill King Edward VI. Contrary to myth, there is… Read more Lady Jane Grey Marries
One of the things I discuss in my book on Edward VI is whether or not there was likelihood that Arthur, Fitzroy, and Edward all received a mutated CRFT gene (inherited an atypical cystic fibrosis) from both parents. After a quick romp in the genealogy I am slightly surprised that royal babies weren’t born three… Read more Was everyone an offshoot of the Plantagenets??