The Tudor Fair Blog
Giveaways and MiniCasts
I know I’ve been lax in writing lately – there’s a lot going on though! If you haven’t signed up for this yet, do so right away! Your chances of winning are really good: https://www.englandcast.com/giveaways/kings-college-choir-cd-dvd-giveaway/ It’s my giveaway of a CD and DVD from the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge.…
Travels in Spain: Gaucín, My new Favorite Place
This past Saturday I discovered what might become my favorite place in Spain so far: Gaucín. Gau-huh? Yeah, you’ve probably never heard of it. It’s a teeny tiny town of about 2,000 people in the mountains, all whitewashed, on the road from Ronda to Gibraltar, the A369. Apparently it used to be…
Advent!
It’s here! Advent! The time when we light candles on advent wreaths and open calendars with chocolate! Woot! If you’re looking for a fun way to celebrate the Holiday, might I invite you to sign up for my newsletter, and I’ll send you a fun digital Advent Calendar with fun…
Henry’s Navy
I just put up another Renaissance English History Podcast on Friday (I’ve been sticking to my schedule of putting out two a month – proud of that) on Henry VIII’s Navy. I’ve been wanting to podcast on this for a while, mostly because I wanted to learn about it for…
It’s that time of year! The Trinity Carol Roll and caroling in general
The Caroling season is beginning! A month from now, many of us will be attending candlelight Christmas Eve services where, if you’re like me, you’ll end up a bit weepy as the church goes dark, and you try to sing Silent Night in your voice part because you’ve sung it…
The Tudor Navy, November 2015
Episode 36 of the Renaissance English History Podcast, from November 2015, was on Henry VIII, shipbuilder, and the rise of the Tudor Navy. Listen or read the transcript below. November 2015’s second episode (Happy Thanksgiving, Americans!) is on the rise of the Tudor Navy. In two generations England went from being…
5 Tudor Scholars who changed Learning in England
The Tudors lived in a world that was at least several generations ahead of the Enlightenment. But the seeds of that revolution in scientific thought were being sown in the Renaissance when society started to value classical and secular learning for the first time in a millennium. The Renaissance became firmly…
Shakespeare the rabble-rouser (aka how to screw your landlord)
Everyone loves an underdog story. And when the underdog wins because of his wit and smarts, beating out someone who is supposedly more powerful, it just makes things even better. This was what seemed to happen in 1598 when The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the theater company employing Shakespeare and managed…
Kett’s Rebellion: Land Enclosures were a Really Big Deal in Tudor England
They say that there are three things you shouldn’t talk about at a family dinner table: Sex, Religion, and Politics. Keep that in mind for Thanksgiving, my American friends. Please. Turkeys everywhere right now are saying, “seriously, I’m not giving up my life so that you can argue over me…
The Queen’s Men: Propaganda in Elizabethan Theater
I’ve been listening to a book called Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt which is a biography of Shakespeare from a holistic world-view perspective. How did a provincial young boy, who was the son of a glover, who may or may not have been a…
From the Archives: Venus Transit Edition
I found this on my old blog from 2012, and it seemed interesting and relevant, and worth re-posting. Enjoy! Did you watch the Venus Transit this year? You know, when Venus’s orbit makes it appear that it’s going across the sun, and it happens every 110 years or so? Well,…
Tudor and Elizabethan Fashion, Clothing, and Sumptuary Laws
I just posted a fresh Renaissance English History Podcast on Fashion, Clothing, and Sumptuary Laws in Tudor and Elizabethan England. Below is the audio to listen, and the show notes are on the podcast website, englandcast.com. Here are some fun things I learned this episode: Decorating a fur with jewelry,…