The Tudor Fair Blog
Cambridge, and the draining of the Fens
It’s October, which means that I’m in my head planning for another year spending November in a NaNoWriMo haze in addition to the tryptophan-induced sleep coma of Thanksgiving. In case you don’t know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, wherein participants pledge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.…
Gesualdo: when Really Bad Men write Really Good Music
I’ve been communing with a crazed murderer lately, and it’s actually been an uplifting experience. It’s not often I write something like that. We often put composers and artistic performers up on pedestals. They are somehow closer to the angels. More in touch with Source. A channel for divinity. And this…
Writing about Writing: Publicly Opening Your Guts
I’m going a little bit off topic here, but I can do that; it’s my blog. Don’t worry, we’ll get back on schedule with history and music tomorrow. I’ve already cleared 5 hours of writing time tomorrow with my coparent (ie husband). But something has happened today which takes precedence…
John Dee: Brilliant Scientist and Occult Philosopher
I’ve just recently uploaded a new episode of my Renaissance English History Podcast, which focused on trade and exploration in Elizabethan England. While researching it, I came upon several interesting men who had major roles in the creation of the Age of Discovery. One was Sebastian Cabot, the son of…
Elizabeth I’s Working Holiday in Kenilworth
It’s not much of a secret that Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley had a Sort Of Thing going on in her court. The famously-Virgin Queen had one possible True Love – Robert Dudley, the 1st Earl of Leicester. In 1575 Elizabeth was on one of her summer progresses through the…
Bess of Hardwick: An Elizabethan Woman Who Created Her Own Smart Luck
History can often seem intimidating because it seems like only the stories of dead white men. And there’s a reason for that. The white men were the ones who kept most of the records, being the ones who were educated and literate, and so they are the ones about whom…
5 Reasons Cirencester is a Hidden Magical Gem (aka History Travel Tuesday)
There are a handful of cities in Europe that were once major epicenters of the universe, but are now snoozy little hamlets who betray nothing of their illustrious pasts. Cordoba comes to mind. The place was once pretty much the center of the universe, and the most populous city in…
Melancholia and Euphemisms from the 17th century to now: John Dowland and Sting
Lasting art is startling in its provocativeness and sensuality, whether it’s just been released, or if it’s 500 years old. Music is especially striking because it is living – each time it is performed it is renewed, recreated, regenerated. No two performances are exactly the same, and it’s that living, breathing…
Medieval gay royal scandals, buddhist David Hume, and a really boring Queen: a roundup of history articles online this week.
Three of the best history-themed articles I’ve read this week. Scandal, drama, buddhism in 18th century Europe, and boring vanilla queens. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. From historytoday.com: http://www.historytoday.com/js-hamilton/menage-roi-edward-ii-and-piers-gaveston For nearly 700 years people have been debating whether a) Edward II was gay, and b) if he was…
Medieval Monks and Nuns weren’t as Promiscuous as We All Think They Were
I recently came across a post on medievalists.net about a thesis by Christian D. Knudsen concerning sexual misconduct in convents and monastic houses. The idea that the monasteries were corrupt, and in “decline” just before the Dissolution is a narrative that has been largely unchallenged for 500 years, and in…
Richard Hakluyt: England’s first Travel Writer
I’m working on a new Renaissance English History Podcast about trade and exploration (because of course the two were linked – without the possibility of new trading markets, there could be no exploration of new lands). It’s impossible to read much about any of the early English explorations without stumbling…
Ronda Explorations: Arab Baths and Roman Ruins
I posted last week about the history of Ronda, the town where I’m living right now, and how its history spans pre-Roman Celtic times, through Christians, Moors, and back to Catholic with the Reconquista. Over the weekend I dove deeper into two of the epochs, Roman and Muslim. After spending…