Henry VIII gets a flattering portrait

Plus, Aethleflaed gets the spotlight shone on her in History After Dark, join us for Nathen Amin's Q&A and get a discount on history festival tickets

Hello fellow history lover,

I hope you are having an enjoyable Easter weekend.

In this newsletter:

• Up close with a 1541 pencil portrait of Henry VIII (see end of this blog)

• Join the Gloucester History Spring Festival from wherever you are in the world, and grab a 10% discount on digital tickets.

• Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians was my pick for ‘People you should know from history’ on History After Dark.

• Nathen Amin will be joining our next book club meeting for a Q&A on his book ‘Son of Prophecy’ - Join in too!

Earlier his week I published a video and podcast on the incredible treasures of Gloucester Cathedral Archives which Cathedral Archivist Rebecca Phillips kindly introduced me to. These are going to be the subject of this month’s blog for paid subscribers and Patreon members, along with accompanying high resolution pictures so you can see the detail of them but I have included Henry VIII’s portrait here today for you :-).

Philippa with Cathedral Archivist Rebecca Phillips during filming

Thank you to everyone who subscribes to my Substack and an extended special thank you to those who have chosen to take a paid subscription. I thoroughly appreciate your support, it helps me continue bringing history and history travel to you.

Gloucester Cathedral

---

Historian and writer Nathen Amin will be joining us straight after the next book club meeting, on Sunday 4th May, for a Q&A on his book ‘Son of Prophecy. The Rise of Henry Tudor.’

Nathen joined us on ‘The Rise of the Tudors’ Tour last September to give a talk relating to the subject matter in his book. That is available to watch in my Patreon along with a library of other talks from eminent historians including Tracy Borman, Gareth Russell, Kate McCaffrey and James Clark, click the button above. If you are not a member but would like to watch the talks, you can purchase the ‘Tour Talks’ Collection on my Patreon for a one-off fee - click here.

Talks already available in Patreon.com/BritishHistory

---

Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians on History After Dark

Click to Watch - Youtube.com/History_After_Dark

The new series of History After Dark has begun on Youtube and here on Substack, where the girls and I highlight some characters from history that we think are less well known about than they should be! I led the opening episode with my first pick, Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, a 9th century princess of Wessex who went on to rule the neighbouring kingdom of Mercia and lead military campaigns to recover land from Danish settlers. Click Here to watch on Youtube.

---

Gloucester History Festival Spring Weekend

I’m looking forward to next weekend when I will be spending three days in Gloucester at the Gloucester History Festival. The festival are live-streaming all 18 talks so you can join from wherever you are in the world. There is also a full weekend digital pass.

Paid Substack subscribers and members of my Patreon get a 10% discount on digital tickets - click here for Patreon, scroll to the end of this article if you are a paid Substack subscriber.

Click Here for the Festival Programme.

---

Portrait of Henry VIII

Gloucester Cathedral was created in 1541 and the Cathedral still hold the ‘Deed of Endowment’ issued by Henry VIII complete with a hand-drawn portrait of the king on his throne holding the orb and sceptre. The document also still boasts the original green and white silk cord on which Henry’s great seal once hung (now lost).

The deed, centre of the image below in between Abbot Parker’s Book and Bishop Hooper’s reliquary, also has the symbol of the Prince of Wales drawn onto the document. Archivist Rebecca Phillips talked about this in my interview with her and told me that this was Henry VIII making the line of succession visible and asserting Edward as king-in-waiting.

The Cathedral’s Deed of Endowment 1541

Henry VIII is drawn within a large stylised black ‘H’ which begins the latin wording across the top of the document which translates to ‘Henry VIII, by the grace of God King of England, France and defender of the faith’. Henry is depicted wearing a crown and holding in his left hand the orb and in his right hand the sceptre, sitting on a throne beneath the canopy of state. Above are the latin words VIVAT REX, ‘Long Live the King’. To his left you can see the badge of the Order of the Garter, the English order of chivalry established by Edward III in 1348.

Henry VIII depicted on Gloucester Cathedral’s Deed of Endowment, 1541

Close up of Henry VIII

He sports a well kept beard and a slim waist. By 1541 Henry was on his 5th wife, who would be executed early the following year, and was corpulent and in almost contact pain with an ulcerated leg.

Close up of the badge of the Order of the Garter of St George.

On the top right corner of the deed the Prince of Wales’ fleur-de-lys, flanked by the initials ‘E’ for Edward and ‘P’ for Prince, is set within a roundel with a sunburst surround.

I will be writing a full, paid, article about the artefacts I saw when visiting the Archives, along with images so you can also take a closer look. These will include;

• the oldest items in the archive, Anglo Saxon pages dating to c1000AD,

• an embroidered King James Bible,

• the Cathedral’s ‘Historia’ written in the 1390s, and

• a Chapter Act book created by the famous Civil War Bishop, William Laud.

If you’d like to access that article when it is published please consider becoming a paid Substack subscriber. Alternatively, and as with all articles, it will also available in my Patreon, Patreon.com/BritishHistory.

Have a great Easter!

Philippa 💜