The situation of Lady Hamilton makes a brief appearance in my forthcoming novel, Mansfield Parsonage! The day after Sir Thomas’s homecoming dawn clear and mild, an ideal situation for a long walk, of which Mary and Henry took advantage. Soon after breakfast the siblings departed on their ramble, this time heading away from the River… Read more A Little More About Lady Hamilton
The state funeral of Admiral Horatio Nelson was held on 9 January, 1806 and frankly there were Roman Emperors who were mourned with less gravitas and pomp than the Hero of Trafalgar was lamented by the English. The funeral was lavish to say the least. Nelson’s body, inside of a lead coffin that was in… Read more Lady Hamilton’s Lover in Cardinal Wolsey’s Sarcophagus
I have often thought it was regrettable that the modern push for sales has moved all the emphasis of the Season to before the actual day rather than leaving that time for proper Advent and making the real Christmastide – the Twelve Days of Christmas – the time of celebrations and fun. By the time… Read more Regency Twelfth Night
People tend to associate steam-powered machinery and railroads with the Victorian era (hence the science-fiction subgenre Steampunk), but the it was the Regency that actually gave birth to the new steam engines. One of the first successful steamboat launchings happened in Glasgow, Scotland on 4 January 1803. The ship’s name was the Charlotte Dundas, and… Read more Full Steam Ahead!
When a the Jordan Lead Codices hit the news in March of 2011 there was a flurry of hyperbole, hysteria, and then dismissal. First it was claimed that the codices dated from the “1st century AD … and that they might predate the writings of St. Paul and that “leading academics” believed they might be… Read more The Jordan Lead Codices
New Year’s Day actually began at sundown on 31 December for people in Medieval times because days were counted as starting then rather than at midnight back in then. That’s also why we do our primary partying (at least when we are younger and stronger than my middle-aged butt is now) on New Year’s Eve… Read more Happy New Year’s!
On New Year’s Day of 1536 Maria de Salinas, Lady Willoughby, breached Kimbolton manor house to be with her dearest fried, Katherina of Aragon, as the former queen lay dying. Maria de Salinas is one of my favorite people of the Tudor era because few people of any time period have ever shown the unswerving… Read more Maria de Salinas, a True Friend
Elizabeth Stuart was the eldest daughter of James VI King of Scots (future King James I of England and Ireland as well after the death of Queen Elizabeth I ), and his wife, Anne of Denmark. She was the granddaughter of Mary, Queen of Scots, and like her grandmother she was famed for her beauty… Read more Elizabeth Stuart, The Winter Queen of Bohemia
Yesterday my husband and I took our children to Margam Country Park, which is near Port Talbot in south Wales. It is more than 800 acres of pretty landscape and and home of some remarkable historic buildings. To wit: the ruins of Margam Abbey, the Margam Orangery from the Regency period, and Margam Castle. Thus,… Read more Ruins and Regency
The holiday season in the Georgian era was as much like the Yuletide of the Tudor time period as it was like our modern Christmas. Regency holiday traditions sprang from the same combination of Roman and Pagan midwinter rituals as the Medieval ones. Even Oliver Cromwell couldn’t eradicate this festive ideology from the zeitgeist when he… Read more Merry Christmas!