Title: Thomas More Series: Reputations Author: John Guy Genre: History Publisher: Arnold Release Date: 2000 Pages: 252 In opening the impeachment trial of President Clinton on 14 January 1999, CongressmanRead More
Archives: Resources
Thomas More Quiz (Non Members)
Thomas More: A very brief history
Saint or Sinner? A brief life, timeline and my thoughts on great courage and a little hypocrisy
The Creation of Anne Boleyn
Fresh, invigorating, passionate – an extraordinary and distinctive book on Anne Boleyn and the way culture has perceived her
Tournament Quiz
A quiz designed to go alongside Shedcast 11a and 11b on the medieval Tournament. Good luck!
Family Tree: The House of Tudor
Nice family tree …lots of confusing marriages.
Henry VIII’s Westminster Tournament 1511
The Medieval king When he came to the throne as a teenager, Henry VIII chose the traditional view of monarchy, a very medieval view of the role of the kingRead More
Medieval tournaments illustrated glossary
Here is a quick fly-by of some of the words and events that went to make up the favourite social pastime of the medieval knight and lady – the tournament. There’s alsoRead More
St Bartholomew the Great
My tale of the Church of St Bartholomew the great. Available in podcast format too, if you become a member ! An Oasis discovered There I was in Smithfield. Frankly itRead More
11b Transcript
Now then, sometime before 1150, Geoffrey of Monmouth produced his book, the History of the Kings of Britain. Even at the time some people considered it to be fluff and…well,Read More
11a Transcript
Now, depending on when you joined and where you are in the History of England, obviously, you may well have heard an awful lot about the tournament. It’s kind ofRead More
HoS7 Transcript
So let’s start where we left off. Northern Britain near the end of the 6th century was a hotch potch of British kings and forming English kingdoms. It’s a bitRead More
Henry VIII and his Beard
Henry changed the royal attitudes to beard, but almost caused a diplomatic incident in the process
Cardinal Wolsey and the Historians
Wolsey has had a hard time of it at the hands of the historians. This article gives a brief survey of his reputation through the ages, and is taken from theRead More
Cardinal Wolsey: A Timeline
The famous Cardinal was born in 1571, and died about 60 years later. It was a rags to rags story. Here is a simple timeline charting his personal rise toRead More
9a Transcript
As I believe I have mentioned in the free podcast, one of the delightful things about Tudor England is the rich pageant of individuals about whom we can now writeRead More
Transcript for Episode 9b
Hello everyone, and welcome to the second installment on Wolsey. We now have an idea hopefully of the rewards and practice of power for our hero; but the bigger historical question really, IRead More
The Minions of Henry VIII
One of the delightful things about the passion for Tudor history is the quality of information freely available about the characters that inhabited Henry VIII’s world. So this page givesRead More
Sixth Century Scotland
People and places of Scotland in the 6th Century The Gaels of Dal Riata
Pictish Stones
Pictish stones, their symbols and images are both fascinating and inspiring
HoS 3 Transcript for Roman Interlude II
The small town of Clackmannan, population 3,348, sits just over on the north side of the river Forth, over the Kincardine Bridge. It is therefore north of the line ofRead More
Scotland: Ptolemy’s Tribes of Northern Britain
Claudius Ptolemy lived from about 100 AD to about 170 AD, and lived in the Roman province of Egypt, in the city of Alexandria. Historians use Ptolemy’s text to work outRead More
Transcript for HoS Ep 1
So, this first episode will have 3 parts. One will be about the prehistory of Scotland, before the Romans come to Britain. Another will be about the regions and topographyRead More
Scotland: Regions and Topography
Scotland Topography and Regions Read More
Henry VII’s hatchet men: Empson and Dudley
Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley earned a reputation as extortioners. But it was the king’s policy they executed.
Transcript for Shedcast 8b
Hello everyone and welcome to Shedcast 8b. In 8a we set out something of the historiography of Nationalism. We ended with constipation, or rather the removal of the blockage thatRead More
Transcript for Shedcast 8a
Let me start with a story. We are standing outside the walls of many towered Illium, the most magnificent city in the ancient world – otherwise known as Troy. ButRead More
Transcript for Shedcast 7
There are 4 documents, then; the first in 1497 from unknown Italian visitors; the second from a Venetian called Andrea Trevisano in 1500, then John Mair, a Scot in 1521Read More
Early Tudor Court
The king was the government. His household was to serve all his needs – and provide a properly magnificent ceremonial setting for his glory and power.
New Learning: England’s first Humanists
Some early proponents of the new learning in England – and their mentor Erasmus
Catherine Gordon and Perkin Warbeck
In November 1495, the Pretender (from the french for ‘claimant’) Perkin Warbeck arrived at the Scottish court, looking for allies in his attempt to win the English throne. Which of courseRead More
Transcript for John Morton
I promised faithfully that I would deliver to you some biographies of leading lights; and my intention really was not to highlight the likes of monarchs and so on, sinceRead More
Transcript for The Great Earl and his Arm
In the 15th century, Ireland is divided into 3 communities; the native gaelic Irish; the Anglo Irish or Old English, the descendants of the 12th century Norman invaders; and theRead More
Medieval Prices and Wages
Medieval prices and wages are basically impossible to know. I can hear you fighting against this as a write but there are so many vagaries. Just for example – board and lodging wouldRead More
Transcript: Fun with Wills
We tend to assume, or at least I have, that this has always been the way of it – wealth gets passed down generation to generation; but of course that’sRead More
Regnal Lists: 1500-1714
Mountjoy, Henry VIII’s Humanist Mentor
William Blount was Prince Henry’s mentor who’s culture and learning helped form England’s first Renaissance king
Fotheringhay
Given its size, it’s really rather remarkable what has happened at Fotheringhay. In this lovely stone village with its magnificent perpendicular church across green fields and the River Nene, theRead More
Henry VII and his loyal Councillors
The men who made Henry’s government work no longer came solely from the ranks of the nobility
Transcript for The Practice of Diplomacy
Shedcast 1: The practice of diplomacy in the Middle ages and the Renaissance There was I, sitting around in Far Far Away, eating bonbons and cavorting with every little lastRead More
Henry VII and the historians
The Tudor myth When looking at how historians have dealt with Henry VII, the startingpoint has to be the story that Henry VII told about himself, and that his successorsRead More
Henry VII Character and Portraits
Personality of the king By and large, Henry impressed those people, especially foreign visitors, who have left us opinions. But firstly, Polydore Vergil again: His spirit was distinguished, wise and prudent;Read More
The Family de la Pole
The story of the de la Pole family – from ‘rags to rags’ over 6 generations between 1290 and 1525, is evidence that there were ways to escape the rigidityRead More
The Epitaph and Tomb Henry gave Richard
I must admit that I had heard pretty consistently of the need to honour the body of a dead king; and therefore I assumed that, outrageously, Henry never provided aRead More
St Bees
We arrived at the delightfully named St Bees in Cumbria on the North West coast of England, and we found a load of things; a saint with all the delightful mythsRead More
The Fate of the Princes – Suspects
This page gives a few of the arguments about the possible motivations of some of the players discussed in the podcast episode 193 on 4th September 2016 – just ifRead More
The Fate of the Princes – Evidence
I join a long list of people writing and talking about this murder mystery. This page supports episode 193 of the podcast with a bit of background information about whatRead More
The indispensable John Morton
John Morton was at the very top of Henry VII’s government, and a man with a high reputation – and yet now is largely forgotten. Morton’s reputation suffers I think for 3Read More
William Hastings – Victim or player?
The rise of Hastings William Hastings’s father Leonard had been a follower of Richard of York; so when he died, William naturally followed his father and became part of theRead More
Contemporary Sources
On the Richard III section, I have put a few pages with contemporary content- there are links below so you can use this as a contents page, as well asRead More