At the risk of making myself immensely unpopular, I finally watched Reign and I enjoyed it. There, I said it. It bears no resemblance to history, the costumes are ridiculously anachronistic, more than half of the characters never actually existed, the storylines are insane, there isn’t a chaperone to be found, and yet, I love… Read More Everything Wrong with Reign (Season 1)
The problem with the Tudors is that they’re all too interesting for their own good. The colourful lives of Henry VIII and his children somewhat overshadow those who came before them, though their lives were no less interesting. The royal claim of the Tudors came through John of Gaunt, son of Edward III, who after… Read More The Life and Times of Owen Tudor
If you’re here looking for the answer to that question: no. No, he didn’t. We don’t know for certain of course, but no. It is highly, highly unlikely that he did given that by the standards of the time Henry VII and Elizabeth of York had an affectionate and loving marriage.
The most frequently asked question of 2017 (on this blog at least, I missed it at Prime Minister’s Questions) was: Did Henry VIII have sex with Anne Boleyn? Now I’m assuming that this refers to premarital sex as we can say with some certainty that they slept together after Anne became Henry’s Queen in 1533.… Read More Did Henry VIII sleep with Anne Boleyn?
While we know her as the ‘Nine Day Queen’, Lady Jane Grey would probably have passed into history as an irrelevant, albeit intelligent, Tudor cousin had it not been for the ambitious machinations of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. Having schemed his way to the position of Lord Protector during the reign of young Edward… Read More The Nine Days of the Nine Day Queen
Conspiracy theories are a way of life, they’re everywhere. Chances are you could find a conspiracy theory about anything and the Tudors are no exception. Forget wondering whether Elizabeth and Leicester were an item, here we see how not only were they an item, but parents to, amongst others, Shakespeare himself. These are not the… Read More Was Elizabeth I a man and other theories…
I love The Tudors, I probably shouldn’t, but I really do. The history is so ridiculous and mashed together and I wonder why at various times they make up stuff when the actual history is far more interesting and dramatic, but the acting is good and the costumes are stunning. It would take far, far… Read More The Tudors, Artistic Licence and Outright Fictions
It’s almost Halloween! Therefore break out the ghost stories! Yay! Given that Henry VIII and his six wives are still immensely popular centuries after their deaths, it is hardly surprising that people still claim to have seen them, haunting various palaces and castles. Ghosts are thought to remain in places of importance, especially if a… Read More Henry VIII and his Six Ghosts
A rather late review considering I read and finished the book within twenty-four hours of its release. I wish that I could say that was because it was such a compelling read. Unfortunately I just wanted to get it out of the way. The Cousin’s War started as one of the more entertaining series I… Read More The White Princess
Recently I watched The Last Days of Anne Boleyn, part of the BBC Tudor season. It is a documentary but also a debate between historians and authors of historical fiction, trying to piece together what happened to cause Anne Boleyn’s downfall and the events of her last days. While looking at the hows, whys and… Read More Sidelining Jane Seymour
History in the (Re)Making 