Question from Patricia - Portrait of Amy (Anna) Seymour

On a portrait of Amy(Anna)Seymour, at Trerice Manor, Cornwall, dated 1623, she is wearing a ring on her left little finger with a black thread attatched and tied round her wrist.
I understand she was not widowed at the time the portrait was painted, what would be the significance of the ring and thread?
If this is a mourning ring who would she be mourning?

Question from Tudor fan - Role of Lord Chancellor

During Tudor times, was Lord Chancellor like President/Prime Minister?

Question from Tudor fan - Jane Fitzwilliam

Who was Jane Fitzwilliam in the mid-16th century?

Question from Hannah - Book recommendations for daily Tudor life

Hi, I was hoping for book reccomendations. I want to learn more about the way of life during tudor times, I have been reading a lot about the Tutor times so I don't want any biographies or anything. I want to know about the various titles and what they mean, different roles of people in tutor courts, meals, educations ect. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Question from Henry - Salisbury and Landsdowne manuscripts

What are the Salisbury MSS and Landsdowne MS and can I acess them online?

Question from Sara - Sir Henry Vernon

Can anyone give me more detail on Sir henry Vernon 1441-1515 "Govenor" to Arthur Prince of Wales (he is not mentioned in your list of bods in Trdor Age)

Question from Anon - Privy Councillor Lord Russell

Who was the Lord Russell in Henry VIII's Privy Council?

Question from Tracey - Bessie Blount and Catherine of Aragon

Bessie Blount and Catherine of Aragon...

According to Philippa Jones in her work "The Other Tudors", Henry's wife visited Bessie Blount upon the birth of Henry Fitzroy...and offered her congratulations.

There are source notes used by Ms Jones, but nothing which pertains to this particular sentence.

What do other historians think? Did the visit occur?

I will say, there are quite a few statements in this book that cause me to frown. This sentence shouted out at me for some kind of clarification.

Question from Lauren - Mary Fitzroy's position in widowhood and precedence order

Mary Howard Fitzroy - did she retian her position in the hierarchy (i.e. as first lady in the land) after the death of Fitzroy? Did dowagers usually keep their places? And was the Duke of Richmond given precedence over Norfolk, and then Norfolk over Suffolk?

Question from Rio - University study suggestions

Hello,
I am 17 years old and starting to look around universities. Does anybody know if there is a course specific to the Tudor period, or 16th century in general? I have looked on the UCAS website to no avail and I would really love to study this as I have had such a strong interest all my life.

[We've had this question a few times before, but it never hurts to revisit it since programs have probably changed since the last time it came up. - Lara]

Question from RW - Resources for writing historically accurate fiction

I'm intersted in writing historical fiction, set at the Tudor court and historically accurate. Can anyone recommend a book which will give me the information I need to make it historically accurate?

Question from Guy - Study of changing opinions of Henry VIII

I heard that someone is doing a study of how historians' opinions of Anne Boleyn have changed over time - how the culture we're in influences how we see past figures. Has anything like this been done on Henry VIII?

Question from Anon - Catherine Parr's mistress quote

Did Catherine Parr really say, better to be his mistress than his wife?

Question from Anon - Henry Manox

Was Henry Manox ever in serious danger of execution?

Question from Anon - Information on Dr. Chamber

I am looking for any information on "Dr Chamber", I think he was a royal physician?

I'm grateful for anything people might know, even a first name. Thanks.

Question from Anon - Consequences of Henry VIII's excommunication

Did the Pope invite English people to rebel and foreign rulers to invade when he excommunicated Henry the Eighth?

Question from Lauren - Catherine Parr quote

"They curse and ban my words everyday, and all their thoughts be set to do me harm....
I am so vexed that I am utterly weary."

Did Catherine Parr really say this? I thought she was popular.

Question from Guy - Catherine Parr's mother and Catherine of Aragon

I've read lots of times that Catherine Parr's mother was good friends with Catherine of Aragon. Is there any evidence that they had a friendship?

Blogger seems to be back

Apologies for anyone who has tried to leave a comment for the past day or so. As some of you might have already heard, Blogger had a big outage that stemmed from some data corruption during a planned maintenance period (more details here if you want them). At the time I'm posting this, some of the posts and comments that were temporarily removed during the outage are still gone, but Blogger says they will be back up in the next few hours.

Thanks for your patience!

Question from Lou - Henry VIII's progresses

Are there records of where Henry VIII went/stayed on his summer progresses during the years of his reign? (I have attempted to look for this information in Letters & Papers but haven't been successful.) I'm particularly interested in the summer of 1538.

Question from Marie - Noblewomen marrying outside England

In Elizabethan England, could a noble woman marry outside of the country? I mean, would it have common for English woman to marry someone that lived in France? I am asking this because it seems that Europe is very close together, it seems like traveling to another county to find a husband or bride wouldn’t have been out of the question.

Question from Nia - Even more crime and punishment

im a high school student studing social life in tudor england and i need to learn more about the case of laws orders/crimes and punishment in the area as its my first time studing this area.

1: how were laws reated to their importances and punishment and how are they compared with morden laws?
2: why were laws fabricated who made the decisions for punishments and how did laws effect the people positively or negatively?
3: how were laws enforced and what methods were used to overcome this process and what were the outcomes?

thanx for helping :)

[I've lot track of the number of "Crime and Punishment" questions we've had, so I'll point everyone to the search box at the left to get to previous threads. If anyone has good recommendations for new resources that haven't come up before, please post them! - Lara]

Question from Glenda - Sir Francis Bryan

Sir Frances Bryan: Was he a close friend and advisor of Henry VIII?

Question from Candice - Differences in The Six Wives' coats of arms

When comparing the coat of arms of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn to those of him and his other wives, I noticed that the lion supporter is different. It is an uncrowned lion that is chained with a crown around the neck. All his other coat of arms have a crowned, unchained lion. Do you know why there is a difference? What is the significance of the chain? I also noticed that only Anne Boleyn's falcon, Jane Seymore's unicorn and Catherine Parr's lioness are chained. Thank you.

Question from Anonymous - Death of Mary Tudor

What did Mary Tudor, Queen of Portugal and France, die of? Was she ill for long?

[I didn't have an email address to reply directly to this question, so I'll just do it here. - There were a couple of previous threads about her death, which I will post below. And I should point out that Mary Tudor wasn't Queen of Portugal, only France, as well as the Duchess of Suffolk. There may have been some confusion caused by "The Tudors" television series and I've included a link to a previous post about that as well. - Lara]

http://queryblog.tudorhistory.org/2008/07/question-from-kelly-cause-of-death-for.html

http://queryblog.tudorhistory.org/2008/12/question-from-lara-mary-rose-tudors.html

http://queryblog.tudorhistory.org/2007/04/to-pre-empt-any-further-questions-about.html

Question from Anon - Witchcraft and paganism in Henry VIII's reign

I was watching the film "Black Death" and it got me thinking. Are there any good books about witchcraft, paganism etc. in the reign of Henry the Eighth? I had read that there were parts of England that had only the most basic understanding of Christian beliefs, and were still essentially pagan. Can anyone suggest further reading on this?

Question from Katie - Sources for story of Wolsey's dog biting the Pope

Oddly, since I have studied Tudor history for years, I have just come across a bizarre anecdote floating around the internet. I wondered if there were any factual evidence for it, beyond dog-afficionado websites.

The story goes that when Cardinal Wolsey traveled to Italy to plead the annulment case to the Pope, he met with said Pope and they were just about to reach agreement on the annulment. Wolsey's greyhound Urian, who (probably in defiance of every protocol in the history of time) had somehow been included on the guest list for the meeting. As Wolsey knelt to kiss the Pope's shoe (again striking me as odd; this was not the normal way of saying "thanks a ton" even to the Pope), Urian freaked and bit the Pope for being too close to his master.

My understanding (flawed though it may be) was that Wolsey never even got to meet with the Pope in person, given that whole being-besieged-by-the-emperor nonsense that made personal audiences impractical, if not lethal.

I am, of course, familiar with the popular story of Anne's hunting dog Urian killing the cow, and Henry reimbursing the farmer. I am just having a lot harder time buying the idea that the entire Reformation sprang from the Pope being bitten (and thereby offended) by a dog who evidently missed one too many obedience lessons.

Any reliable sources?

Question from Michelle - Henry VIII's accent and books on History of the English Language

I'm wondering if there is any academic information on what type of accent Henry VIII would have had? What regional accent would it be most similar to in today's world?
Also, can anyone recommend a book about the history of the English language (written and spoken)? I'm hoping for something specific to Tudor times, but a broader scope would be just fine too.
Thank you!

Lara - I searched the blog because I thought I remembered reading something about Henry's accent before, but all I managed to find was a post about Henry VII's accent. Thanks for your help!


[One related link below for general Tudor accent information. - Lara]

http://queryblog.tudorhistory.org/2009/05/question-from-michelle-reconstructing.html

Question from RW - Henry VIII quote on Lincolnshire

I have read so many times that Henry VIII called my home county, Lincolnshire, "the most brutal and beastly in the realm." Did he really? Every book I've seen it in doesn't back it up with a reference, just states it as generally accepted fact.

Also, was it worse than other counties? In what way?

Thanks

Question from KK - Unchaperoned men and women

In Tudor times, could a man and woman talk together unattended?

Question from Guy - Tudor descent of Prince William

Which Tudors is Prince William descended from?

[This has been covered by several related questions linked to below, but I'm sure there are other lines we haven't covered. - Lara]

http://queryblog.tudorhistory.org/2008/02/question-from-monica-current-royals.html

http://queryblog.tudorhistory.org/2009/04/question-from-haven-descent-of.html

http://queryblog.tudorhistory.org/2008/02/question-from-colleen-queen-elizabeth.html