Question from Merlin - Name of Ferdinando Stanley

I have a query about Ferdinando Stanley (great grandson of Mary 'Rose' Tudor via her daughter, Eleanor). Why the name 'Ferdinando'? It seems most un-English and unusual. Does anyone have any information about how or why the name was chosen?

[I have to admit that I've always wondered about that too! - Lara]

Question from Hope - Passing of estates to sons or wives

I have a question on inheritance laws. If a lord died would his estate pass to his wife or his eldest son? And if the wife wasn't the son's mother, would she be sent back to her family? Or stay with her stepson?

Question from Haven - Bothwell's kidnapping of Mary Queen of Scots

I'm reading "The Other Queen" by Philippa Gregory, about Mary Queen of Scots. She mentions her husband Bothwell kidnapping and raping her, and yet she writes a letter to the king of Denmark demanding him to release her husband. I'm very confused about the relationship they had.

New posts in a moment - possible small blog address change in a few weeks

Sorry to the people who submitted questions in the past couple of days - they'll be posted shortly.

As for the address change... Google/Blogger is going to be dropping the ability to publish blogs via FTP, which is how I publish all the blogs that I run through their service. So, this presents me with a couple of choices - use their migration tool or move all the blogs to WordPress. Either option has its own pros and cons, but I think I'm going to try the Blogger tool first (which will change the URL for this blog, but the tool is supposed to include auto-forwarding). I'll experiment with it on one of my other blogs on my personal domain before I try it here, since this blog has a lot more traffic. The tool was originally supposed to be ready this past week, but now it looks like it won't be available until next week. Since they won't be cutting off FTP support until May, I'll probably wait until spring break to mess with it since I'll have time to fix anything that goes pear-shaped!

Question from Elizabeth M - Henry VIII's interest in marriage potential of Jane Grey

I am currently reading the new biography of Lady Jane Grey by Eric Ives. It seems that interest in Jane as a marriage pawn really started up after the death of Henry VIII, when Thomas Seymour and her father, the Marquis of Dorset, were hoping to marry her to the young King Edward. While Henry VIII was alive, did he ever express any interest in the marriage potential of his great-niece? She was nearly ten when he died, and so were there any possible matches bandied about that King Henry had a hand in?

Question from Lee - Lost Faces catalogue

Hello, I have been trying to get hold of the 'Lost Faces: Identity and Discovery in Tudor Royal Portraiture' catalogue however have been unsuccessful on ebay and amazon. Does anyone have an electronic copy of the chapter regarding Lady Jane Grey they could email me. This would be much appreciated as I have been dying to read it.

Question from Orla - Books or websites on Arthur Tudor

I was wondering if anyone knew of a book or website about Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales. Most things I read on the internet it says he was both weaker and less attractive than Henry VIII while in some books about Arthur and Henry's family the authors say he was tall and was good looking. I'm hoping to find some research which will actually tell me about the forgotten prince.

Question from Rachel - Catherine of Aragon and the excommunication of Henry VIII

In the Tudors series on Showtime it is depicted that Katherine of Aragon wrote to the Pope personally to have Henry VIII excommunicated if he did not send Anne Boleyn from court and take Katherine back as his true and rightful Queen. Now I know Henry VIII was actually served with a letter stating exactly this from the Pope but I am not so sure that Katherine put was brazen enough to send the Pope a letter asking for this and cannot find this info anywhere. Does anyone here know if this is true or just another Showtime inaccuracy?

Question from Rachel - Death of Anthony Knyvett

I have a question concerning Sir Anthony Knyvett. He has said to have died in 1549 and I had read somewhere on a message board that he died in a shipwreck. Does anyone know if this is true? And if so was it a war ship? I have tried to research this but have been unable to find out much information about him using the internet.

Question from Elizabeth M - Full-length bios of Mary Tudor (sister of Henry VIII)

Has there ever been, or are there any plans in the works, to publish a full-length biography of Mary Tudor, King Henry VIII's sister? She led an amazing life, and it seems there is enough material for her to have a bio just on her. I have the two books, The Rose and the Thorn, and the book by Maria Perry, in which she and her sister Margaret are written about in the same volume. But she is surely deserving of her own volume.

Question from Jessica - Lord's Prayer in England

I am curious about the Lord's Prayer in England. Was it changed during the 1530s, and if so, how? How was it phrased before this time? Thanks!

Question from Evelyn - Anne Boleyn's intentions

So I have seen the movie ''The other Boleyn girl'', and read the books, Mary, bloody mary''
and ''Doomed queen Anne''. What is everyone's veiw on what Anne Boleyn's actual intentions were? It seems to m like she wanted to be queen, but some have told me it was completly the king's idea. Thanks!

Evelyn

Question from Helen - Touching prisoners on their way to execution

I've been watching "The Tudors" show and have a question re: the execution of Anne Boleyn. In the series when she was taken to the execution block people from the crowd were trying to touch her dress. Why were the crowds eager to touch the person to be executed? Some were trying to hand the accused the cross, etc.

Question from Memory - Travel and children of ladies in waiting

When a lady in waiting to the Queen wanted to go home to see her family, how did they travel? Who was responsible for arranging and paying for the trip. Also, if they lady was married and had children, where did the children stay when the lady attended her duties with the Queen?

Question from Sarah Anne - Tudor clothing recommendations

In need of suggestions!

A friend of mine, who is a costume designer (we are both college theatre majors) has asked to make a Tudor style gown for me since she knows how much I love the Tudors.

In order to help her, I have decided to buy a french hood that she can use as a concept for the dress' color and accessories/ornamentations.

Does anyone know of any websites/stores where one can buy accurate/quality french hoods? (style Anne Boleyn/younger Elizabeth wore) Or websites that sell particulary good Tudor clothing?

Thank you!

Question from Marilyn R. - Portrait of Catherine of Aragon as Mary Magdalene

Wikipedia is showing a portrait it claims to be of a young Katherine of Aragon as Mary Magdalene, and Wikimedia Commons also shows this and another of the same sitter as the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child. They claim both are by Michael Sittow around 1501, but to my mind this is not the girl in the famous 1502 Sittow portrait of a rather pensive young Katherine wearing a magnificent gold chain and necklace, although it could be said there are some facial similarities.

I think the second one, the Virgin & Child, dates from a few years later and is now in a museum in Berlin. Can anyone shed any light on a Katherine connection with these two paintings?