New discoveries, tours and visits
Dear Fellow History Lover!
Hampton Court Palace, the Mary Rose, HMS Victory and the Warrior…all this week, as well as a new studio in the making!
This week:
The Armada Maps, nearly lost!
Elizabeth I - New Discovery
The Anne Boleyn Tour - NEW DATES RELEASED
Dr Estelle Paranque and Dr Joanne Paul at the Mary Rose Museum
The House of Dudley in Book Club tonight - which book is next? Find out how you can join in ready for our next book, Houses of Power by Simon Thurley.
The Armada Maps
This week I travelled the 3 hour car trip to Portsmouth. Dr Estelle Paranque and Dr Joanne Paul, both of whom I have interviewed (I’ll put the links below), were doing a joint talk at The Mary Rose Museum. I visit the Mary Rose, at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, at least once per year and so this was a perfect opportunity to make my trip.
I will tell you more about the talks shortly but if you would like to hear the fascinating interviews with Estelle (please click here), and Joanne (please click here), go to my Youtube channel where you can find theirs, and many other great videos.
Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is a fascinating place, home not only to the Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII, but HMS Victory on which Vice Admiral Nelson died during the Battle of Trafalgar. Victorian warship The Warrior is also docked there. With those incredible ships to explore, I admit the ‘The National Museum of the Royal Navy’ had passed me by. What a mistake that would have been, for though the gift shop, two exhibition rooms, a corridor and a further exhibition space, was a display of the most incredibly significant maps of Elizabeth I’s reign.
I will be writing this month’s blog in Patreon, and here on Substack, on the maps and what they tell us about one of the most famous events in Tudor and British History, where England was almost invaded by the Spanish.
There are 10 maps in the set, telling a step by step story of the fight, which occurred from the 19th July (although the map says June, more of that in the blog), until the Spanish were finally seen off on the 2nd August, escaping over the top of Scotland and south west past Ireland where a westerly wind blew many onto to rocks.
The maps are on paper, which bear a watermark indicating that they potentially came from the area of the Rhine, and were drawn by Flemish cartographers. Centuries later they were embellished with colour to make them more saleable.
The maps may have been created to accompany a written account of the English victory, for Elizabeth I. They tell a much more involved story than ‘English luck and bad weather’ accounting for the Spanish loss.
If you’d like to read my upcoming blog on the maps and their link the Elizabeth I’s famous Tilbury speech, become a paid subscriber here or, even better, join my Patreon where you get so much more included - Join Patreon.
Another new discovery!
You may have seen in the news this week the discovery of new passages in an existing text which reveals more context and information about the reign of Elizabeth I.
Yet again, we owe this discovery to the curiosity of a young historian, curious about a long known and assumed exhausted source, in this case William Camden’s Annals. Camden’s Annals were completed in the reign of James I of England, who became King on the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. The content of his work has been an invaluable source for historians ever since but the original text has now been reexamined by PhD student Helena Rutkowska who has found passages that were rewritten. Why were they rewritten? In some cases possibly to please the new patron of the work, the new King, in others maybe to avoid offending him.
I am hoping we get to see more of the detail of Helena’s work in the future but for now, there is a good write up on it on Fine Books Magazine online - click here.
Join The Anne Boleyn Tour
30th April - 4th May 2024
Due to the huge demand for The Anne Boleyn Tour, I am running a second one next year.
The tour will begin on 30th April, when we meet in our convenient pick up point in London and head for Hever Castle, where we stay in the Astor Wing (where the Queen Mother was once entertained), for 4 nights. We have exclusive use and so you can enjoy the billiard room, music room, private lawns and even the heated swimming pool! Each bedroom is individually decorated and unique, giving you a feel for how it would have felt to be a guest of the Astors in the 1920s.
During the tour we will visit Hampton Court Palace, the Tower of London and have a day at Hever Castle where you will have the option of dressing as Tudor Royalty before an evening exploring ‘Hidden Hever’ and dining in the Great Hall of the castle itself!
Our visit to the Tower of London will coincide with the anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s arrest and incarceration at the Tower. It’s an incredibly poignant day.
Gareth Russell, will be our tour historian and we will be joined along the way by other historians and expert guides, to explore the intrigues and happenings around Anne Boleyn’s fall.
Ensure you get first “dibs” by joining Patreon, where spaces will be available to Patrons from tomorrow. Any remaining spaces will go on general sale on Monday 24th August!
Dr Estelle Paranque and Dr Joanne Paul at The Mary Rose Museum
On Wednesday night I attended a talk by two historians, each giving a new perspective on the Tudors. Estelle talked about Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici, powerful women and contemporaries. Catherine had once, and for quite a long time, pursued Elizabeth as a daughter-in-law, offering up her sons one at a time, always holding out hope of an alliance. With the breaking down of the final marriage negotiations, to Catherine’s youngest son, Francis, their relationship was broken forever and she felt humiliated at Elizabeth’s long, drawn out rejection.
Joanne talked about the Dudleys role in supporting their Tudor monarchs and, fittingly for our venue, how John Dudley had been central in the initial efforts to raise the Mary Rose after she sank during the Battle of the Solent, on the 19th July 1545.
Both Estelle and Joanne will be speaking at this Autumns’ Online History Festival, along with other esteemed Tudor historians. Click here for more information.
See you in Book Club?
This evening is the third of our Book Club meetings and we will be discussing Joanne Pauls’ book, ‘The House of Dudley’. All member of my Patreon are automatically members of Book Club. Join Patreon for only £5 per month and Book Club, as well as early access to tour tickets and 10% discount on online history festival tickets, are just some of the benefits!
Our next Book Club meeting will be Sunday 17th September when we will be discussing Simon Thurley’s book ‘Houses of Power. The Places that Shaped the Tudor World.’
Until next time, take care
Philippa x