The Tudor Fair Blog
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,…
England’s First Shopping Mall – the Royal Exchange
I was thinking about shopping in England because I’m making a grocery run to Gibraltar tomorrow – it’s nearly 2 hours on two main roads, and I need my passport to get to the giant Morrison’s supermarket, but once there I can easily read the labels since they’re in English,…
Fashion and Sumptuary Laws, November 2015
November 2015’s first episode was on fashion in Tudor and Renaissance England. It’s something that has been requested a number of times, but Lindsay’s text to the listener feedback line (801) 6TEYSKO inspired me to finally do the research and get an episode out about it. So, if you’re going…
How to have a really crappy day in Seville (hint: it involves not being able to find parking)
So. We went to Seville this past weekend. It’s about a 2 hour drive, and I hadn’t been there before. So we piled into the car, had screenshots of the directions saved (since we don’t have good data plans on our Spanish phones), and we were off. Getting to Seville…