Monday, June 29, 2009

New Museum for the Mary Rose


A new high tech museum dedicated to the unseen treasures of the Mary Rose will be built at Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard hopefully in time for the 2012 Olympic games.

"The Mary Rose was the pride of her day, being the first vessel capable of firing broadside. It went down in the Solent (strait of the English Channel) with more than 400 crewmen aboard, but the exact cause of the sinking has never been ascertained. This Tudor time capsule has been likened to Pompeii, and funds have now been granted that will provide a noble and pristine home for the spectacular warship and its treasures untold."

The Hull of the ship was salvaged in 1982 and has been on display ever since.

Construction will start in September 2009.

Read more:
Mary Rose Gets 21 Million for New Home
New Museum for Mary Rose

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Tudor History Tours


Check out Tudor History Tours!

This site offers a variety of Tudor History related tours in the UK, with 5 day and 7 day packages.

What a wonderful idea and I totally would like to do it at some point, if I can find people to go with!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Tudor River pageant

A Tudor River pageant took place this past Saturday, in celebration of the 500th anniversary weekend of Henry's coronation. It starts from the Tower of London and goes down the Thames and ends up at Hampton Court.

"As part of the Living Weekend of re-enactments planned in conjunction with Historic Royal Palaces as part of the Mayor's Story of London festival, an elaborate flotilla of traditional oared skiffs will accompany 'Henry VIII' and 'Kateryn Parr' as they travel aboard the Royal Shallop Jubilant from the Tower of London to a party at Hampton Court Palace. "

Watch youtube video here!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Acton Court opens to public

A house where Henry VIII once stayed is now open to the public.

"The house offers rare examples of 16th century royal décor as the west wing was added in 1535 to welcome the king and his second wife Anne Boleyn.

It was lavishly decorated to show that the owners of Acton Court, the Poyntz family, were loyal to the king. Henry’s own en suite garderobe is still on public display."

Full Article

Monday, June 8, 2009

Metal Detector finds coin from Elizabeth era

Some 75 year old man, with his metal detector, found a sixpence coin from the era of Elizabeth's reign. It was found in a pasture in East Surrey.

Apparently it's not valued very high and the man is allowed to keep it.

Read more: Metal detector unearths 400-year-old sixpence in grazing land

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Book of Common Prayer Marks its 460th Birthday!

Book of Common Prayer Celebrates its 460th birthday!

Info below is according to Virtueonline (such a random website),

"It wasn't until 1549, two years after Henry VIII's death, when Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, is believed to have written the Book of Common Prayer, the first complete liturgy for the English Church.

The historical work contains the calendar of daily morning and evening prayers as well as epistles and "gospelles" in the old English" style.

It includes the traditional Church of England instructions for the celebration of the "lordes Supper and Holy Communion through the yere, with proper Psalmes and Lessons, for diverse feastes and dayes."

I believe Edward VI started using it during his reign.

Monday, June 1, 2009

On this day...

On this day in 1533..

- Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, was crowned as queen consort.

On an unrelated note, here's an interesting article about Whitehall Palace. Briefly discusses Wolsey.