Tudor

The Tower of London, etching by Wenceslaus Hollar, c. 1647. Rijksmuseum. Public Domain.

‘The Specter of the Archive’ by Nicholas Popper review

The Specter of the Archive: Political Practice and the Information State in Early Modern Britain by Nicholas Popper explores the Elizabethan revolution in record keeping.

Gilbert Talbot, 7th earl of Shrewsbury, by William Segar, c.1590. Christies Images/Bridgeman Images.

Nottinghamshire’s Bitter 1593 Election

A Nottinghamshire election in 1593 descended into farce, violence and, ultimately, futility.

Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, line engraving by B. Reading after S. van der Passe. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

‘Shakespeare’s Sisters’ by Ramie Targoff review

Shakespeare’s Sisters: Four Women Who Wrote the Renaissance by Ramie Targoff refutes the claim by Virginia Woolf, that the women of Tudor England left only empty bookshelves.

Portrait of Anne of Cleves, by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1539. The Victoria & Albert Museum.

Challenging the ‘Ugliness’ of Anne of Cleves

Anne of Cleves became known to posterity as the ‘Flanders Mare’ and Henry VIII’s ‘ugly wife’, thanks to disparaging descriptions by ambassadors and diplomats. What motivated them?

Tokugawa Ieyasu – shogun at the time of William Adams’ voyage to Japan – by Kanō Tan’yū, hanging scroll, early 17th century. GL Archive/Alamy Stock Photo.

William Adams: English Adviser to the Shogun

How an English navigator became one of the shogun’s most trusted advisers.

The monastic seal of Chertsey Abbey during the reign of Henry VIII, April 1525. The National Archives.

The Lost Tudor Domesday Book

Once maligned as a record ‘of the dullest kind’, a 1535 audit of Church wealth – the Valor ecclesiasticus – offers a unique view of England’s religious, social and cultural life just months after the break with Rome.

Portrait of Henry VIII, from the studio of Hans Holbein the Younger, c.1543. Bridgeman Images.

Syphilis and Scurvy: Diagnosing Henry VIII

There is an enduring obsession with understanding the body and mind of Henry VIII, but how sound are diagnoses past and present – and do we need them?

‘The Courtship of Anne Boleyn’ by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, c. 1846. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Public Domain.

Hunting the Falcon by John Guy and Julia Fox review

Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and the Marriage That Shook Europe by John Guy and Julia Fox is a well-told account that shies away from debate.