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?
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
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
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
I have great news! (At least, it is great from my perspective. Y’all just jump on my train, okay?) I have a release date for my second non-fiction book, The Jezebel Effect: Why the slut shaming of famous queens still matters. It will be officially released into the wild on February 27, 2015. That’s right!… Read more Release Date for The Jezebel Effect!!
This post is for the lovely lady who admins the Tudor Fan Page on Facebook, who wanted to give her readers a quick & dirty summation of the theory that Henry VIII’s blood was positive for the Kell antigen and that he subsequently developed McLeod syndrome. Most people don’t know it, but red blood cells… Read more Hello Tudor Fan Page!
I recently stumbled across a historical blog whose post reduced me to tears of mirth. Literally, I laughed out loud and scared my dogs. The post was titled “The Support Group For People Unfairly Maligned In Historical Fiction” and it was one of the most hilarious tongue-in-cheek takedowns of semi-historical fiction I have ever read.… Read more How to make Edward II funny!
Although the general public remembers Henry VIII as a tart-chasing tartar, many modern historians such as Lacey Baldwin Smith have defended the king as a rather “prudish” man with more wives than mistresses. In her new book, The Six Wives & Many Mistresses of Henry VIII: The Women’s Stories, Amy Licence disagrees. She argues that… Read more The Six Wives & Many Mistresses of Henry VIII: The Women’s Stories
A friend of mine, Claire Ridgway, who writes non-fiction books about the Anne and George Boleyn and who does not agree with the Kell/McCloud syndrome theory but is a nice person nonetheless, has launched The Tudor Society. It is “an exclusive membership club for all those who love Tudor history and who want to keep… Read more The Tudor Society