the TUDOR TUTOR
Your cheeky guide to the dynastyThe Throne is Empty; Get in Line
Tomorrow is a wild and crazy date in Tudor history — On 28 January 1457, Henry VII was born and on 28 January 1547, Henry VIII died. Two kings in a row, father and son, same date, birth for one, death for the other, two transposed numbers at the end. Wicked!
The popular rumour (and you know how I feel about those) is that Henry VIII’s last words were “Monks! Monks! Monks!” But in reality Henry was speechless at the end of his life, although he did give Archbishop Cranmer’s hand a little squeeze when the Archbishop asked the king for a sign that he trusted in the Lord.
The only people around him in his last days were the Archbishop and the men from his Privy Council and Privy Chamber. He’d called for his last wife, Catherine Parr, a few days earlier but that was her final goodbye. The king was 55 years old at the time of his death.
I wanted to share with you the opening credits of the series finale of “The Tudors” for a few reasons. First, it is just beautifully done, as was the entire series. You can’t deny the aesthetics of that show, no matter if you think there were too many inaccuracies, too much nudity, not enough nudity! or whatever your reasons may be.
Also, you’ve got to love the Curtain Call of the Dead at the very end. The series actually did this with every episode, the final flashes of the opening credits being those we’d lost up until that point in the story. For the finale, we start with an extended shot of Katherine Howard and her girls, marvelling out the window at a snowfall, and then flash by the rest of the dearly departed favourites: Thomas Cromwell, Catherine of Aragon, Thomas More, Anne Boleyn, and Cardinal Wolsey. (Jane Seymour is earlier in the credits.)
The most poignant touches, however, are the shots of Charles Brandon (who was actually dead by then, but nevermind), Princess Mary, Edward Seymour, and Catherine Parr standing beside The Empty Throne. If you watched the series, you know that the throne motif in the opening set the tone for Henry’s place in life for that season.
For Season One, he’s in control, young, hot, doing the flashing-eyes thing, flanked by admirers and accepting reassuring touches from his loyal queen, Catherine of Aragon. For Season Two, he’s all eyes-flashing again but taking The Touch from Anne Boleyn this time round. My personal favourite is for Season Three, where he does the standing-up “surprised to see you” bit that reminds me so much of Christopher Walken’s “The Continental” skit on Saturday Night Live. “Come! Sit and have some sham-PAHN-yah!”
This weekend, you may want to raise a glass of sham-PAHN-yah yourself, first for Henry VII who started this whole big shebang, and second for Henry VIII. He may have left England with a mess to clean up after his death, but his life, loves, and legacy were so complex as to inspire books, movies, songs, documentaries, blogs, Facebook pages, and similar gates to immortality. 
Write On!
- HENRY VII
- Elizabeth of York
- Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke Norfolk
- HENRY VIII
- Sir Thomas More
- Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex
- Catherine of Aragon
- Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond
- Anne Boleyn
- George Boleyn
- Jane Seymour
- Anne of Cleves
- Katherine Howard
- Catherine Parr
- EDWARD VI
- Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset
- LADY JANE GREY
- MARY I
- Philip II
- ELIZABETH I
- William Cecil, Lord Burghley
- Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
- Mary Queen of Scots
- Sir Walter Raleigh
On My SOPA-Box
Just wanted to make everyone aware that, although I’m not blacking my blog out today in support of the SOPA/PIPA protest, it is only because I’m hesitant to download anything on this old computer! I always end up screwing something up when I do downloads and then my systems administrator husband has to deal with the aftermath.
Rest assured that I stand with WordPress and the other striking sites as far as supporting the free exchange of information on the web.
Written in the Stars
Happy coronation anniversary weekend to Elizabeth I! The lady had consulted an astrologer, who advised her that her reign would be “glorious and prosperous” should her ceremony take place on the 15th of January. Looks like there’s something to those stars after all, doesn’t it?
Here is an informative link to the chart itself and its analysis. Thanks to Robert Parry, author of The Virgin and the Crab, for this link!
Tudor Cheek Comes to YouTube
There is now a Tudor Tutor channel on YouTube and I just uploaded my first video. Oy, I need better lighting or something!!
Mary? Quite Contrary!
This not only gets up my history-nerd dander but my proofreading/editing-nerd dander as well. For crying out loud, “Bloody Mary” refers to Mary I, not Mary Queen of Scots!
(thanks to The Anne Boleyn Files and Tudor friend Sarah Butterfield for pointing this out.)
Happy 2012!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful New Year’s celebration! and not to be a downer, but in Tudor history I am reminded of a certain bittersweet event.
On New Year’s Day in 1511, Catherine of Aragon gave birth to a baby boy! Hooray, an heir for Henry VIII! …but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The poor boy would die some weeks later, on 22 February. It wasn’t noted what took the “New Year’s Boy” from this life. However, he is somehow listed as a Public Figure on Facebook, although the lil’ guy has no “likes” as of yet. How strange life can be!
Toasting with the Tudors
Feeling festive? I hope we all are, by now! So that you can enjoy the holiday season and keep our favourite historical family in mind at the same time, I give you my Tudor-inspired toastmakers to enjoy* during the Christmas season, for New Years, for the third Thursday in January, or for whenever you like. (Yes, there are generalisations of each Tudor’s personality in this piece and I realise that we can’t pigeonhole them with just a few words; please allow the descriptions for the sake of the post. Thanks!)
The Henry VII (dependable and non-extravagant) Mix a bottle of shiraz with 1 cup of orange juice, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 sliced orange, 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of cardamom pods, and about 5 whole cloves. Simmer and serve very warm.
The Henry VIII (big and charismatic) Drop 2 big scoops of dark chocolate ice cream into a frosty mug and top with cold Guinness.
The Catherine of Aragon (long-lasting and loyal) For white sangria, mix 1 bottle of white Rioja with 1/4 cup sugar, 1 sliced peach, 1 sliced mango, 1 cup sliced strawberries, 2 sliced apples, and 1 sliced lime in a large punch bowl. Add ice.
The Anne Boleyn (spicy and spirited) In a martini glass, pour 2 oz vodka, 2 0z ginger brandy, and 1/4 cup lime juice; mix.
The Jane Seymour (low-key and family-oriented) For non-alcoholic eggnog, slowly heat 1 cup of milk and a 1/4 cup of condensed milk with a pinch of cloves and cinnamon in a saucepan. In a separate bowl, whisk 2 egg yolks with 1/3 cup sugar. Very slowly, whisk some of the the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture drop by drop, then add it all back to the saucepan with a sprinkle of nutmeg and 1/2 cup heavy cream, whisking constantly.
The Anne of Cleves (pleasant and barely noticeable) Pour a tall wine glass of cold riesling and garnish with a lemon wedge
The Katherine Howard (light and bubbly) Add just a drop of peach nectar to a Champagne flute, top with Champagne or sparkling wine, and float a few fun raspberries at the top
The Catherine Parr (a strong ending) To a cup of hot coffee, add 1/2 cup Frangelico or other hazelnut liqueur. Top with a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkling of ground cocoa.
The Edward VI (small and a bit salty/sour!) Make a mini-margarita by combining 1/2 cup of lime juice with 1 oz tequila and a splash of triple sec, over ice. Be sure to salt the rim!
The Lady Jane Grey (over in an instant!) Mix 1/2 oz of amaretto with 1/2 oz of Kahlua, add a splash of cream, down as a shot, finished!
The Mary I (old-fashioned and staunch) Pour a dash of Angostura bitters and an equal amount of water over 1 tbsp sugar, add 1 1/2 oz whiskey and set a twist of lemon peel on top.
The Elizabeth I (the center of attention) Pour 1 1/2 oz peppermint schnapps into a heat-proof glass, add 1 1/2 oz of Bacardi 151 and a splash of pomegranate juice, stand well back and carefully light with a long match or lighter, blow out after a few seconds.**
*Enjoy responsibly and if you’re of-age, of course. **Obviously, do not drink this whilst it is still flaming and I have no responsibility for complications that come from this process. ***Silly that anyone needs to add disclaimers such as these but at the present time it seems the norm.
Food, Glorious Food!
Just a reminder that, for our UK friends, the Yesterday channel is airing “A Tudor Feast at Christmas” tonight, 20 December, at 9:00 pm, so try to catch it if you can. The description is as follows:
“Historians and archaeologists forego the convenience of modern equipment and turn back the clock to re-create a feast with the ingredients, recipes and methods that would have been used more than 400 years ago. Part of the Medieval season.”
Maybe they’ll mention that superduper Tudor masterpiece, the Christmas pie: A pigeon shoved into a partridge shoved into a goose shoved into a turkey…all baked up in pastry dough. (Sure, why not at that point?)
(Thanks to our friend Amy on the Tudor Tutor Facebook page for the heads-up regarding this series on YouTube, for those outside the UK who cannot watch tonight: Part 1, 2, 3, and 4.)
So to carry on the food-theme and because I’m trying to make a blog a bit more, well, bloggish, I’m taking the liberty of sharing just a few of my fave places to grab a bite or enjoy a leisurely meal. When the holidays have worn off and you’re ready to have another nosh out and about, give one of these a try if one is nearby you:
- Osteria, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Fresco’s, Cape May, NJ, USA
- The Mad Batter (breakfast), Cape May, NJ, USA
- Illiano’s, Hammonton, NJ, USA
- Luigi’s Pizza Fresca, Marlton, NJ, USA
- Felidia, New York City, NY, USA
- Cafeteria, New York City, NY, USA
- We the Pizza, Washington DC, USA
- Mitsitam (in the National Museum of the American Indian), Washington DC, USA
- Cambridge Chop House (formerly Number 1 King’s Parade), Cambridge, UK
- The Texas Embassy, London, UK
- L’Olivade, St-Remy-de-Provence, France
- Tre Scalini, Rome, Italy
- ‘t Brugs Beertje (beer), Bruges, Belgium
A Tudoriffic Christmas!
Are there really six days left until Christmas?? I’m usually a good planner, list maker, and so on, but this year I have found myself with less than a week remaining and loose ends left to wrap up! At least I have completely my Christmas post for you: giftwrapped and tied with a bow, here are some Tudor Christmas goodies.
Check this out for commentary on Tudor-era Christmases mingled with holiday pics from the Showtime series “The Tudors.” For a Christmas 1536 scene via the series, here’s some Joyeux Noel from Henry VIII and his une grande heureuse famille, apparently. And as if the Transiberian Orchestra’s brilliant “Christmas Eve / Sarajevo” needed any further angst, here is a well-made fan vid using scenes from “The Tudors.”
Step this way for all the details on the swank Henry VIII/Katherine Howard Christmas bash at Hampton Court palace. and have a look at this 4-minute video from Historic Royal Palaces regarding a genuine Tudor Christmas as it would have been in the Massive Monarch’s day.
When I visited the Vivat Rex! exhibit in Washington DC’s Folger Shakespeare Library last fall, I was treated to the scrolls featuring Henry VIII’s holiday shopping list from 1539; you can see them here.
For the marvellous Tudor Advent Calendar from the Anne Boleyn Files, click here. Although there are not many days left, you can still click on days past to discover the treasures behind the numbers.
Imagine you have stepped into a Tudor Christmas celebration with this angelic performance of the Conventry Carol. And why not have some fun as the Muppets take on that popular 16th-century carol, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”!
