Exciting new Tudor find!
Another new Tudor discovery and how my tour group will get exclusive access.
Hello fellow history lover!
What a week for Tudor history with yet another incredible discovery with the identification of Thomas Cromwell’s Book of Hours, by the Hever Castle curatorial team; Kate McCaffrey, Owen Emmerson and Ali Palmer.
A little while ago I shared with you, my visit to Hever Castle to see the wonderful exhibition for 2023 on Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn which focusses on what unites the women as opposed to the more oft theme of what divided them. A key artefact in the exhibition was Catherine’s Book of Hours, which assistant curator, Kate McCaffrey had been able to identify as belonging to the same printed batch as that of Anne Boleyn’s own book!
Catherine of Aragon’s book was on loan from The Morgan Library, New York, and was in the exhibition from its opening, on 8th February, until 4th June. When I visited Hever Castle, Curator Ali Palmer and Assistant Curator Kate McCaffrey (on whose work the exhibition is based) told me they had an incredible artefact to take the place of Catherine’s book, once it had to go back. They couldn’t tell me what it was but I could tell they were very excited!
No wonder the curatorial team at Hever Castle were excited! Not only had they secured another Book of Hours from the same batch as Anne Boleyn’s and Catherine of Aragon’s, but it had belonged to another prominent member of the Tudor Court, Thomas Cromwell, AND it’s the one which features prominently in the famous Holbein portrait of Henry VIII’s Chief Minister!
Kate McCaffrey will be talking on The Private Life of Anne Boleyn Tour, this July, about her research into the Books of Hours of Anne Boleyn, Catherine or Aragon and Thomas Cromwell! Following the talk, the group will be taken on an exclusive, out of hours tour of Hever Castle, in which the Books of Hours of Anne and Cromwell will be on display. The evening culminates with dinner in the Great Hall, where Kate McCaffrey and Owen Emmerson will be joining us for the meal.
Like the sound of my tours? Join my Patreon to get early booking access. With Patreon membership comes many benefits, including priority booking for all tours with 7 days to book before they go on general release.
Also this week:
Who were the Diggers? Scroll down, or find out in this week’s Tea Time History Live. Watch Now
Samuel Pepys on History After Dark.
The Rise of the Tudors Tour, September 2024 - Get a sneak peek of the itinerary
The Diggers
Following the bloody English Civil Wars of the 17th Century, where one time friends, and even family, had been pitched against each other, the country was left in a desperate state. The often promised freedom from tyranny and from an oppressive system which favoured only the hereditary elites, did not seem to be transpiring. The sacrifices people had been forced to make and endure had not reaped the rewards expected.
The country was impoverished and starving but, sensible people would ponder, it would take a while to realise the benefits of a new way of doing things. It would take time to create new, fairer systems of governance both locally and countrywide.
In amongst all this, a small movement of people, led by a one-time City of London cloth merchant called Gerrard Winstanley, and William Everard, who had served in the New Model Army, began growing food on a piece of idle land on St George’s Hill, Surrey. The idea was simple, with the execution of the King (January 1649), ideas of hierarchy had take their ultimate challenge and now all sorts of unfairness could, and should, be tackled. People were starving, and had been for years. Combined droughts one year and floods another with the unjust expectation that people should feed the army’s horses before their own family, had meant years of hardship. Surely now, the hardship was over! What was needed now was a common will to make things better, to put in the effort to create a fairer country from the ashes of war. No one should go hungry now!
The Diggers quickly put their belief in the new country into practice, common land should now be used to feed an impoverished population.
What a great idea! Who could object to otherwise starving people making use of land left useless to grow their own food? They were doing all the work for themselves, not relying on the state, and encouraging anyone who wished to join them to come along.
Well, it turned out that fairness only extended so far and the peaceful, unfortunately idealistic ‘Diggers’, were violently opposed by land owners and their paid mob. Their opponents also took legal action, making full use of their influence to ensure that the leaders were convicted of trespass and imprisoned. Emboldened by their victory, more attacks on the diggers came including one attack which particularly upset Winstanley in which cows belonging to the group were set upon with clubs to scare them away and scatter them.
Despite these set backs, Winstanley remained positive, strong in his belief that this was a good social enterprise and one which made sense in post-monarchy England. The tide, however, was against them and for reasons out of their control. Another, more radical and political, group called ‘The Levellers’ were demanding, among other things, legal system reforms. But, another system of hierarchical power had quickly filled the vacuum left by the monarchy, and were not interested in seeing their own positions of power challenged, The Levellers were ruthlessly cut down. Had ‘The Diggers’ (who also referred to themselves, rather unwisely as the True Levellers) not been contemporaries of the radical ‘Levellers’ would they have stood a chance? Perhaps.
Winstanley began questioning what the abolishment of the monarchy had been for. There had been a high price to pay and little benefit. In the Summer on 1649, Winstanley now asked of the new government of they had cut of the king’s head only in order to establish themselves in the chair of government! The idealist had become confronted with reality.
I was alerted to the existence of The Diggers in a fantastic book called ‘The Restless Republic’ by Anna Keay. I thoroughly recommend it for anyone wishing to get a good understanding of what life was like in Republican Britain!
The Rise of the Tudors
Sneak Peek at the Itinerary and how to get Priority Booking Access
‘The Rise of the Tudors’ Tour is a 6 night/ 7 day tour and will take place from Saturday 21st - Friday 27th September 2024.
This tour will visit historically fascinating and enthralling locations, include expert guided tours and talks from eminent historians, who will join us along the way to explore the rise of the most famous royal dynasty, The Tudors.
You will stay at luxury hotels, travel in our comfortable private coach and be escorted for the entire tour by your tour manager and tour historian. You tour manager will be myself, Philippa Brewell, and I’m very happy to confirm that the tour historian will be Gareth Russell.
After picking up from a convenient London meeting point, we will head to our first luxury hotel. Over the following days you will visit:
Pembroke Castle
Raglan Castle
Gloucester Cathedral
Winchester
Ludlow Castle and St Laurence’s Church
Worcester Cathedral
This tour will be launched next Sunday, 18th June, when priority booking will be open to members of my Patreon, ‘British History’. Bookings will be open to everyone on Sunday, 25th June.
Who were the Diggers? Discussed on Tea Time History Chat Live
Samuel Pepys on History After Dark
Until next week, take care!
Philippa
Website: www.britishhistorytours.com