The news cycle is fast, and it’s hard to keep up with our favorite interests and topics! That’s why I regularly I make up this post with the top stories that have caught my attention.
A Calvinist woman poet, 30 years before Sidney Anne Vaughan Lock was writing and publishing poetry in the mid 16th century, so why don’t we know more about the first poet to publish an English sonnet? Lock was a poet, a translator, and a Calvinist religious figure, and as “the first English author to publish a sonnet sequence,” called “A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner,” in 1560—that is, more than thirty years before Sidney.
Anne Boleyn’s Grave
The grave of Anne Boleyn has long been shrouded in mystery and uncertainty because there are conflicting descriptions of where the gallows were.
But there is a new memorial marking her execution: “The traditional spot was marked until recent years by granite paving but a new poignant memorial has been placed there, designed by the artist Brian Catling with the inscription – “Gentle visitor pause awhile, where you stand death cut away the light of many days. Here jewelled names were broken from the vivid thread of life, may they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage: under these restless skies“.”
Read more about Anne’s execution and her grave here:
https://royalcentral.co.uk/features/the-grave-of-anne-boleyn-128242/
The English dominated European warfare in the medieval period thanks to their archery.
But what makes the yew longbow so special?
” In the early centuries of the first millennia, Britain was occupied by the Romans, Atilla the Hun was rampaging across Eastern Europe and China was coming to the end of the Han dynasty. And someone was carefully placing prototypes of what we would now recognise as a longbow inside a ritually buried Saxon warship in Nydam Moor in Denmark.
The bows found there during an excavation in the mid-1800s were made of yew. Some savvy Iron Age bowyer had noticed that the wood had useful properties when shaped and bent.”
Read more about English archery here:
https://worldarchery.org/news/172958/history-english-longbow-crooked-stick-and-goose-wing
Travel
Speke Hall Character Trail
“The summer holidays have arrived and with them comes a new family trail at Speke Hall. The popular National Trust attraction is hosting a range of events this summer including some old favourites – and some new surprises.
New for this summer is Speke Hall ’s huge outdoor trail featuring characters from Tudor times, like Queen Elizabeth I and William Shakespeare. Families can go on an adventure filled with ‘mischief and merriment’ through the gardens to find all six ‘Trailblazing Tudors’ this summer.”
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/speke-hall-launches-huge-new-16650101
The King’s Legacy is opening…
The Amazing Michael Radi’s musical The King’s Legacy is opening soon! If you’re anywhere near Bristol Valley Theater in NY, you need this in your life. 🎶
https://www.mpnnow.com/news/20190808/radi-returning-to-bristol-valley-theater
The Perfect Sussex Weekend Walk
“This route takes you between the downland village of Lodsworth and the market town of Midhurst. It passes through Cowdray Park and past the ruins of a Tudor manor house which played host both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I before being destroyed by fire in 1793.”
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/17828796.sussex-weekend-walk-august-10/
And Just for Fun
Which Medieval Humor dominates your cat? Take this quiz!
http://www.medievalists.net/2019/08/which-medieval-humour-dominates-your-cat/
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop. She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.