Hello,
Welcome to Tudorstuff! This blog is (mostly) about all things Tudor and was launched on 13th January 2009.
I have always been interested in history, especially the Tudor period.
For me, this blog is part of an attempt to better understand these times. I also really enjoy looking at good photographs and this blog is somewhere to record the images inspired by this period.
I am a university lecturer in Birmingham but I don’t teach history & this blog is just a hobby! My daytime job is teaching mental health nurses at Birmingham City University.
When I started this blog I was an occasional guide at Harvington Hall in Worcestershire. Pressure of work and the demands of a Doctorate in Education have caused me to stop the Tudor related study – for now. The blog isn’t updated at the moment but I do check on it regularly, and respond to comments – it still gets a fair few hits and one day I’ll get back to updating it regularly as there is still plenty to write about.
If you find any of this interesting too, I’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to comment.
I would really like to get know who else is interested in this kind of stuff,why are you interested?, what got you started in this? what kind of things are you interested in i.e. Kings & Queens, Social History, religion ? and so on.
Are there any good Tudor links that we can add to our links? again, please let me know.
Andrew Walsh
Hi!
I’ve recently started poking around the blogging community and found the stuff on your homepage pretty interesting.
I am curious about what you mean by developing a deeper sense of your own identity through studying history, especially as a theologian. There are some theoligical historians who might take great issue with asking questions of history to find answers in the present!
Also, as someone who is primarily interested in history from the top down, did looking at the Reformation from a theology standpoint bring you into much contact with the major players like Wolsey and Cromwell much? I’d be very interested in hearing your opinion on the two, coming at the subject from a non historical background!
Also, added to my blogroll…when I can work out how to put one on…
Hello Dan,
I am very much interested in where a sense of identity might come from. Roots must be part of that (along with all sorts of other things: language, gender, family – although that is a sort of history too). I have explored this through academic study in theology and philosophy, and also in a professional context in the field of mental health – and I am still trying to work it all out!
I often remember some lines from East Coker in The Four Quartets when thinking about my own sense of who I am. My sense of identity seems to be intertwined with the countryside in which I grew up, and with a sense of continuity with my forebears. T.S. Eliot writes
In that open field
If you do not come too close, if you do not come too close,
On a summer midnight, you can hear the music
Of the weak pipe and the little drum
And see them dancing around the bonfire
The association of man and woman
In daunsinge, signifying matrimonie-
A dignified and commodious sacrament….
Earth feet, loam feet, lifted in country mirth
Mirth of those long since under earth
Nourishing the corn.
Speaking of the ‘music of the weak pipe and the little drum’ my other main interest is English folk music – and I play the melodeon which has come to inherit the old tunes of the pipe and tabor.
I don’t want to comment too much now on Wolsey and Cromwell as this is to be the subject of a post in the not too distant future!
Best wishes,
Victoria
Ooohhhh…just found your site via Facebook and oh so glad I did! I love all things Tudor as well. I run a blog where I read and review historical fiction (only), conduct author interviews (my first one was just with Robin Maxwell) and have a section for future releases!
Here’s the site if you’d like to check it out! I’ll be signing up for your feed!
http://passagestothepast.blogspot.com
Take care,
Amy
Hi Amy
Just had a quick look at your blog – it is absolutely our sort of thing!
Will also sign up for your feed & add you to the links page ( under construction)
We are pretty new actually, & trying to promote our site so don’t forget to mention us to anyone who might be interested.
By the way – I have never seen that picture of parliament (your blog header) before – it is quite strange, where is it from?
Regards
Andy
Just came across your blog – excellent stuff and puts my efforts to shame…congrats.
Your eminence,
Thank you for your kind comment about our humble blog – we also enjoy & link to your own blog & we are honoured to make your acquaintance.
Regards
Andy
( PS I had to look up how to properly address a Cardinal, not something I have had to do much of before)
Hi guys,
I just tripped over your blog because of a standing google Alert for things Elizabethan. Very nice! I thought you might like to add my web site (more of a portal, really) at elizabethan.org to your web links.
It’s the home of all kinds of good things, including our flagship site, A Compendium of Common Knowledge 1558-1603, plus Elizabethan Heraldry, a piece on sumptuary laws, and curiosities like the 2nd Viscount Montague’s (1595) Book of Orders and Rules for his household, and the trial of the Earls of Essex and Southampton.
You might find the Related Sites page interesting as well.
Fondly,
Maggie
Very interesting site!
I’m certainly linking to you as I’m working on the music for the new C4 Henry VIII series. There is a track on my site to give you an example of what it will sound like.
best wishes
Philip
Great site and idea. When my parents and I first moved to California we lived in an “English Tudor”. As I entered my time at University I found a new love for architecture – that just so happened to be, bolstered by the love of the Tudor House.
It is these early impressions and surroundings that have such a profound resonance throughout our lives.
Keep Up the Good Work.
I’ve been interested in the period for most of my life. I’m a total Shakespeare fanatic, and in my first attempt through university I was a history major, at University of California, Santa Barbara. That was where I took my first serious Tudor and Stuart history class, from Professor J. Sears McGee. I loved it! There was also an extra tutorial class that went along with the main lecture, and I attended that. As part of the tutorial, we read things like the contemporary biographies of Sir Thomas More (by his son-in-law) and Cardinal Wolsey. And studied the English Civil War in detail. I loved that class and so much of it has stuck with me, even though my interest in history turned out, in my second (more successful) bout of higher education at Marlboro College, to be Victorian history, specializing in the costume history of the period.
I’ve done a bit of re-enactment here in the States, at our local Renaissance Faire. I was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, so I got to wander around a hot Vermont summer in hoopskirt and tight Elizabethan bodice!
What more can I say? I love this period, and I have seen many Elizabethan sites on my many trips to England, and I look forward to hearing more interesting things from your blog in the coming weeks!
Your blog is one of the most interesting I follow. I quite enjoy it. I gave you an award. You can find it at my blog.
This is a great site!
I’ve spent ages browsing through the different sections, fascinating stuff!!
Thanks for this information. Was doing a Google search and came across this place. I enjoyed it so much that I bookmarked it. Additionally, I will be coming back for more so be sure to keep posting!
Hello, you may be interested in a mystery the National Portrait Gallery has re: an Elizabeth I painting. I wrote about it on my blog today:
http://www.artsjournal.com/realcleararts/2010/03/elizabeth-i-snake.html
The British Library would like to archive the following website:
http://tudorstuff.wordpress.com/
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I have always been a “history buff” (as were my parents). I think because there is so much to learn about ourselves by studying and contemplating our roots; how we’ve arrived at this point in time. American, I was introduced to Tudor England via the BBC series, “Henry VII”I and “Elizabeth R” which were aired on Public Television when I was about 12 yrs. old. I watched them with my mother and was hooked immediately. I have continued to read extensively and am presently delving into French Renaissance history (the Valois, in particular).
I am especially interested in several aspects of the period:
clothing (I’m a seamstress by trade; work in drapery, slipcovers, interior design)
architecture (evolution of styles and building techniques)
gardens (we are avid gardeners)
art (always looking for inspiration for my floor cloths)
geneology (family connections and political alliances; more grimly, Hapsburg genetics)
I am skeptical of religion (the inherent danger to mankind when it’s given too much precedence in state policy), and therefore find the Protestant Reformation fascinating. Again, it serves to underscore the importance of how we’ve become the societies we are today; good and bad! The dangers of Tudor times are not that much different than the dangers presently in play in other parts of our present day world, as well as our own.
I am dazzled by the number of capable and intelligent women who, in spite of social mores, were able to influence policy and leave lasting marks in history. The Tudors were notable in their willingness to educate women and revere learning in the greatest tradition of the Renaissance.
This site has been a delightful find for me. I stumbled on it by googling Richard Topcliffe; the links to present day torture strike close to home as the scandalous use of water boarding offended this American greatly!
Hi There!
My name is Kate, I’m the producer of “The King’s Whore: The Anne Boleyn Story,” an original play about Anne Boleyn’s life and death coming to NYC in July.
We are currently running a fundraiser to get the last of the money we need to bring this fabulous production to life, and we have $10k to raise by June 1st: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-fund-the-world-premiere-of-the-king-s-whore-the-anne-boleyn-story/x/1409604
Would you consider posting about it so that Anne Boleyn fans everywhere can help us get this production off the ground? We would be happy to give you free tickets to the show in exchange.
Thank you so much for the consideration!
Kate