#William tudor

[martianbugsbunny]

How could he be so capable of cruelty to someone he loved so much

[softhenrycavill]

Henry Cavill and Hector 🐴❤

[jamesfrain]

'Do you hold grudges?' well... me:

Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light 2x01 | 2x05

[thepastisalreadywritten]

By Leslie Patrick

1 August 2023

Anne Boleyn (c. 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536), King Henry VIII's second queen, is often portrayed as a seductress and ultimately the woman responsible for changing the face of religion in England.

In reality, she was a fiercely intelligent and pious woman dedicated to education and religious reform.

But after her arrest and execution on false charges of adultery and incest in May 1536, Henry VIII was determined to forget her memory.

Her royal emblems were removed from palace walls, her sparkling jewels tucked away in dark coffers, and her precious books disappeared from the pages of time.

One of Boleyn’s books that has reappeared is the Book of Hours, a stunning prayer book, printed around 1527 with devotional texts designed to be read throughout the day, features hand-painted woodcuts — as well as a rare example of the queen’s own writing.

In the margins of one of the beautifully decorated pages, she penned a rhyming couplet followed by her signature:

“Remember me when you do pray, that hope doth lead from day to day, Anne Boleyn.”

The book vanished with Boleyn’s execution in 1536, then resurfaced around 1903 when it was acquired by the American millionaire William Waldorf Astor (31 March 1848 – 18 October 1919) after he purchased Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn’s childhood home in the English countryside.

The hiding place of the disgraced queen’s devotional tome had been a mystery for centuries, until recent research by a university student uncovered hidden signatures that helped trace its path through history.

The discovery

The book’s whereabouts in the 367 years between Boleyn’s death and its reemergence remained puzzling until 2020 when Kate McCaffrey, then a graduate student at the University of Kent working on her master’s thesis about Anne Boleyn’s Book of Hours, found something unexpected in the margins of the book.

“I noticed what appeared to be smudges to the naked eye,” recalls McCaffrey, assistant curator at Hever Castle since 2021.

Intrigued, she borrowed an industrial-strength ultraviolet light and set it up in the darkest room of Hever Castle.

Ultraviolet light is often used to examine historical documents because ink absorbs the ultraviolet wavelength, causing it to appear darker against the page when exposed.

“The words just came through. It was incredible to see them underneath the light, they were completely illuminated,” the curator recalls.

McCaffrey’s theory is that the words were erased during the late Victorian era when it was popular to cleanse marginalia from books or manuscripts.

But thanks to her extraordinary detective work, these erased words turned out to be the key that unlocked the tale of the book’s secret journey from certain destruction at the royal court to safety in the hands of a dedicated group of Boleyn’s supporters.

The guardians

Indeed, various pages throughout the text reveal the names and notations of a string of Kentish women — Elizabeth Hill, Elizabeth Shirley, Mary Cheke, Philippa Gage, and Mary West — who banded together to safeguard Anne's precious book and keep her memory alive.

While it’s unclear how the book was initially passed to these women, Anne Boleyn expert Natalie Grueninger suggests it was gifted by Anne to a woman named Elizabeth Hill.

Elizabeth grew up near Hever Castle, and her husband, Richard Hill, was sergeant of the King’s Cellar at Henry VIII’s court.

There are records of the Hill’s playing cards with the king, and there may have been a friendship between Elizabeth and the queen that prompted Boleyn to pass her prayer book on before her execution.

“This extended Kentish family kept the book safe following Anne’s demise, which was an incredibly brave and bold act considering it could have been considered treasonous,” says Grueninger, podcaster and author of the book The Final Year of Anne Boleyn.

Anne’s Book of Hours was passed between mothers, daughters, sisters, and nieces until the late sixteenth century, when the last name makes its appearance in its margins.

“This story is an example of the women in the family prioritizing loyalty, friendship, fidelity, and a personal connection to Anne,” says McCaffrey.

“The fact that the women have kept it safe is a really beautiful story of solidarity, community, and bravery.”

The book, currently on display at Hever Castle, is a touchstone of the enigma that was Anne Boleyn.

Castle historian and assistant curator Owen Emmerson points out that the book contains Anne’s DNA on the pages from where she touched and kissed it during her daily devotions.

“This was a really beloved possession of hers,” says Emmerson.

“Because of what happened to Anne Boleyn, we don’t have a vast amount of information in Anne’s own words. But the physical remnants of her use of the book, and the construction of that beautiful little couplet, have her identity in them.”

While Anne’s Book of Hours has finally found its way home, the research into this intriguing historical mystery is not yet over.

McCaffrey continues to chart the book’s provenance through the centuries to find out where it was hiding all this time.

The discovery of the inscriptions illuminates the book’s furtive journey, providing us with a glimpse into the controversy, loyalty, and fascination that Anne Boleyn has engendered for the past 500 years.

[shakespearenews]

Elizabeth Russell was just as fiercely territorial in London, where she maintained a mansion in the upmarket district of Blackfriars. In 1596 the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the playing company to which William Shakespeare belonged, was facing a crisis. The lease for the land where the acting troupe’s main venue, the Theatre in Shoreditch, stood was about to expire. Facing an uncertain future, the impresario James Burbage, who had created the Theatre, sunk a fortune into a new venture: a playhouse in Blackfriars. It cost a colossal £1,000 to purchase and renovate the property.

Unfortunately for Burbage and the players, the theatre was just over 120 feet from Elizabeth’s doorstep. Neither she nor her neighbours had objected to a previous theatre nearby, which had operated under the guise of a ‘private’ rehearsal space for the queen’s choristers (even though the paying public had attended performances there). But when she discovered that a ‘common playhouse’ was about to open in her elegant neighbourhood she was furious.

Galvanising her local community into action, Elizabeth got up a petition against the opening of the Blackfriars Theatre. Among its 30 signatories were Richard Field, Shakespeare’s first publisher, and Sir George Carey, the playing company’s patron. Neither dared object to Elizabeth’s anti-theatrical uprising.

[elizabethan-memes]

A common comment on Shakespeare's Richard III is that nobody wants to play Richmond because he's flat and boring.

I think an interesting way to play Richmond would be to show that he's putting on a brave face, but he's terrified. He's risking everything against a formidable and ruthless opponent. He knows he's inexperienced. He's saying all the right things, he's a good leader, but he's shitting bricks.

[isabelleneville]

𓅃 ANNE BOLEYN WEEK 2024 𓅃

day two | favourite historical Anne quote (either by Anne herself or about Anne)

"Remember me when you do pray that hope doth lead from day to day." - Anne Boleyn in her book of hours

[livesunique]

Glen Eyrie Castle, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States

[annabolinas]

May 18, 1536 - Anne's Last Confession and "A Little Neck"

"This morning, she [Anne] sent for me that I might be with her at such time as she received the good Lord [i.e. the Eucharist], to the intent I should hear her speak as touching her innocence … In the writing of this, she sent for me. And at my coming, she said, 'Master Kingston, I hear say I shall not die before noon, and I am very sorry therefore, for I thought then to be dead and past my pain.' I told her it should be no pain, it was so subtle. And then she said, 'I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck', and put her hand about it, laughing heartily. I have seen many men and also women executed, and … they have been in great sorrow. And to my knowledge, this lady hath much joy and pleasure in death." - William Kingston, Constable of the Tower, to Thomas Cromwell, May 18, 1536

"She confessed and took the Sacrament yesterday. No one ever showed more courage or greater readiness to meet death than she did, having ... begged and solicited those under whose keeping she was to hasten the execution. When orders came from the King to have it delayed until today, she seemed sorry and begged and entreated the governor of the Tower ... for God's sake, to go to the King, and beg of him that, since she was well disposed and prepared for death, she should be dispatched immediately. The lady in whose keeping she has been sends me word, in great secrecy, that before and after her receiving the Holy Sacrament, she affirmed, on peril of her soul's damnation, that she had not misconducted herself so far as her husband the King was concerned." - Eustace Chapuys, May 19, 1536

[personinthepalace]

A list of team ups I would like to see in My Lady Jane S2:

Edward and Guildford (give us a bonding trip!)

Fitz and Petunia (dog vs cat)

Charles and Rupert (I feel like they could be great friends haha)

Bess and Margaret and Stan (they start a network of spies)

Jane and Fitz (the guy who tried to rob me at my wedding is now my cousin's boyfriend??)

Susannah and Guildford (let them have a sass off)

Guildford and Stan (we haven't seen enough of them together in s1)

Bess and Edward and Petunia (I just want to see them all reunited!)

Jane and William (how will Jane react to finding out that he and Katherine are married)

Susannah and Petunia and Margaret (let them train and charge into battle together)

Guildford and Margaret (we haven't seen Guildford interact much with his sister-in-laws yet)

Katherine and Fitz (idk why but I think they would get along well)

Jane and Stan (I want to see how well they work together haha)

[burningvelvet]

Tullus Aufidius to Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, from Shakespeare's Coriolanus (1608):

"O CORIOLANUS, CORIOLANUS!

Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart

A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter

Should from yond cloud speak divine things,

And say 'Tis true,' I'ld not believe them more

Than thee, all noble CORIOLANUS. Let me twine

Mine arms about that body, where against

My grained ash an hundred times hath broke

And scarr'd the moon with splinters: here I clip

The anvil of my sword, and do contest

As hotly and as nobly with thy love

As ever in ambitious strength I did

Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,

I loved the maid I married; never man

Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here,

Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart

Than when I first my wedded mistress saw

Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell thee,

We have a power on foot; and I had purpose

Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,

Or lose mine arm fort: thou hast beat me out

Twelve several times, and I have nightly since

Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me;

We have been down together in my sleep,

Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,

And waked half dead with nothing."

[softhenrycavill]

Henry Cavill for GQ Germany | 2019 😍

[richardiiiepqblog]

Ok so first poll 🤞🏻🙏🤞🏻 (you can give me feed back if you think I could phrase anything better)

Please reblog and/or follow to help with my EPQ

Thanks y’all ☺️

[ghw-archive]

William Scrots, Elizabeth I when a Princess (1533-1603), 1546/1547

[elizabethan-memes]

On a scale of 1 to the Bond of Association, how vengeful and bloodthirsty is your life insurance policy