Getting My Tudor On

I love all things Tudor.

Seriously.

Tudor England is my favorite time period in history.

Not only because of all the castles and kings and princesses and fairy tale shit.

But because real life history is so much more interesting than fairy tales sometimes.

Henry VIII married for love 4 times out of the 6 times that he was married. And those same 4 marriages were to English women. Kind of unheard of in times where royal marriages were all about political alliances and thus kings almost always married foreign princesses.

And even though he chopped off 2 out of those 4's heads, it is still SO ROMANTIC that he married them for love and not because it was beneficial to England.

So, in honor of my love for all things Tudor and most especially my love for Henry's ill-fated second wife Anne Boleyn we stopped off at some Tudor castles as we drove around the countryside.

First up:

Hever Castle - Anne Boleyn's childhood home.

Obnoxiously we were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle, BUMMER! But I must say, if you ever just happen to be in Kent, stop off at Hever Castle, it was well worth the 15 pounds and has an awesome maze/labyrinth out in the garden as well as just being uber cool to be in the same place as Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII once were.

Drawbridge over the moat into the castle and that's as far as we were allowed to photograph =(

Next up is Hampton Court Palace.

Henry's lavish 2nd palace he used as a residence after Whitehall.

My initial impression was...underwhelming.

I think I was expecting it to look like Versailles...and it didn't.

Much less extravagant, much smaller, just not as lavish as I was expecting.

That being said, it was still unbelievable and I'm so happy we took the time to visit.

Please disregard the craptastic nature of these photos as I stupidly left my camera in the car and was left with just the iphone to document the awesomeness of Hampton Court.

Much to my chagrin there was scaffolding everywhere, so this is the only bit of the outside I managed to capture that didn't have scaffolding covering it.

In this craptastic photo we have an H and an A entwined. After Henry had Anne beheaded he ordered these all to be removed but somehow one was missed. What? You can't see it? That's because it's an iphone photo...you'll have to just trust me that somewhere in that darkness is an H and A entwined.

Very famous portrait of Henry VIII.

The other wing of the palace that was designed for William and Mary, thus not Tudor and much more modern and...ornate if you will.

A fantastic photo of ourselves.

Verdict: Hever and Hampton Court Palace both get a big thumbs up from me!

UK Bound

This Sunday we're off for our annual trip to the UK. Since my husband is British and thus my in-laws we try to make it out to the UK at least once a year. This year our trip includes a wedding in Bath as well as some family time.

Our trips usually consist of London and Bath, the fam is in London and Bath being where we were married and where Dom went to University and thus a special place in the UK for us both.

Rarely do we manage anything beyond these two places.

But this time, this time we're off to Liverpool!

The hubs daddy's side of the fam is Liverpudlian and thus a plethora of family members still live in Liverpool and after 2 years of marriage and a fair amount of time spent in the UK I have yet to see Liverpool.

We are also going to make time to do a few things that I have always wanted to do but just have't made time for during our previous trips.

1. The British Museum. Famous museums of the world include the Met, Louvre, Smithsonian, Cairo Museum and The British Museum, yes? I have been to 3 out of 5 and since I've never been to Washington DC to see the Smithsonian it's ok that I haven't been there, but the British Museum is in London, I'm in London every year, I MUST go to the British museum!

2. Kensington Palace - My mother-in-law lives pretty much right next door to the palace, which is where we stay EVERY time we're in London and I have yet to do more than walk through the gardens outside the palace on my way elsewhere. Princess Di lived here when Princes William and Harry were young and it was her official residence up until her death. It is also, according to Wikipedia anyway, the official residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

source

3. I need to do some Tudor sightseeing. I've been to the Tower of London several times, LOVE btw, but that's the extent of my Tudorness that I've taken the time to experience. I'm thinking since we're driving to Liverpool and thus have a car I gotta include a Tudor castle or something into the itinerary. I have a few contenders on the list so far.

Hever Castle - This is Anne Boleyn's childhood home and you know how I love me some Anne Boleyn. And bonus...it's only 30 miles outside of London.

source

Hampton Court Palace - Henry VIII's longed for son Edward VI was born here, his third wife Jane Seymour died here and Henry's ill-fated fifth wife, Catherine Howard's ghost is said to haunt here. I love haunted anything. Also, it is again super close to London.

source

Thornbury Castle - Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII spent a week here soon after they were married. This castle is a hotel and apparently you can stay in the actual room that Henry and Anne stayed in during their visit. COOL. Another bonus for Thornbury is that it is part of the Von Essen Hotels, which "our" hotel Ston Easton (where we were married) is also part of the Von Essen Hotels. This castle is close enough to Bath/Bristol that we can hit it on the way up to Liverpool.

source

Berkeley Castle - Another castle that Henry and Anne stayed at during their very brief 3 years of marriage. Also Berkeley Castle was the where Edward II was imprisoned and murdered. Not Tudor in any event, but I like famous murder houses as well as haunted ones! This castle is also on the way from Bath up to Liverpool.

source

Assume I've done the other touristy things that you come to mind when you think of England/London, ie. Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly, Stonehenge etc. Anyone have anything fabulous in England that I should include in my itinerary? Some Liverpool Beatles fantasticness maybe?

Booktastic: The Sixth Wife

I told you I was on a Tudor kick and I wasn't joking. At least I veered away from Anne Boleyn for a little while and moved on to Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth and final wife.

The Sixth Wife by Suzannah Dunn

Another book by Suzannah Dunn, I didn't even realize it was the same author as my last book until just now.

Anyway.

This book is fiction and takes place after Henry VIII has already died and Katherine Parr is left a very rich widow. She subsequently married Henry's third wife's brother, Thomas Seymour, who she supposedly had a thing for long before she met and married Henry. Ultimately he betrays her and she dies days after giving birth to his child from childbed fever.

The narration is from the point of view of the Duchess of Suffolk, which if you've ever watched HBO's The Tudors, she's the 14 year old wife of the Duke of Suffolk, who is yummy! On the show he is anyway, Henry Cavill = pretty.

Anyway, this is after the Duke has already died as well (he died before Henry VIII, so that would be obvious to history scholars, but I'm just gonna go ahead and assume that is probably NOT who's reading my blog, though you never know, history scholars could totally be interested in me talking about myself...no?) so the Duchess is a widow and the best friend of Katherine Parr. And a dirty cheating liar! In this book she has an affair with Katherine's husband Thomas, which I totally think is completely made up and bothered me a bit.

I think after reading and learning about the real history, these historical fiction novels have lost their luster a bit for me, so while this book has sparked a bit of interest for me in the real Katherine Parr, this historical fiction novel was not my favorite and not recommended.

I know I haven't liked the last few books that I've posted, but I promise I have some good ones coming up!

Booktastic: The Queen of Subtleties

As I mentioned I've been on a Tudor kick, so my next book was:

The Queen of Subtleties by Suzannah Dunn

This is another Anne Boleyn novel, but this one is completely fiction. Unfortunately I read it right after the The Lady in the Tower and that book was so good and so accurate that I had a bit of trouble getting into this one. I did however enjoy reading from the point of view of Anne herself, interesting new take on an old story.

Not highly recommended from my point of view, but it was a quick and easy read.

Booktastic: The Lady in the Tower

While I was in New York I had a friend ask me if I'd read any books lately and I realized I've read about 10 books since the last book I posted about...so, here goes, booktastic is back in action.

I totally got on a Tudor England kick again, Anne Boleyn specifically and I read 2 or 3 books pertaining to Henry VIII's ill fated 2nd wife.

The Lady in The Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir

This is a non-fiction historical account of the last few weeks of Anne Boleyn's life. The book begins with the day before Anne's arrest and takes a look at all the historical documentation regarding Anne's arrest, the time she was held in the tower, and her execution. Alison Weir definitely believes Anne is innocent of the crimes she was accused of and has obviously put a lot of effort into clearing Anne's name, even if it is nearly 500 years later.

Anne Boleyn is my favorite of Henry's 6 wives. She was by all accounts headstrong, feisty, quick witted, unafraid to speak her mind. I, much like the author of this book, also believe Anne was innocent and while foolish for many reasons, she did not deserve her fate. Though perhaps it's her fate that may make her so interesting and who knows if she would be so infamous had she lived to a ripe old age. Would Elizabeth I still have been Queen had Anne lived? Would she have remained the Virgin Queen if she hadn't lived through her father killing her mother?

I highly recommend this book if you share my interest in Tudor England or if you enjoy nonfiction historical novels. Alison Weir is considered an expert on Henry VIII and his 6 wives, this book is very well researched and very well written and I plan on reading more from her in the future.

Quick note about books in Oz, did you know new books are RIDICULOUSLY expensive here? Like $40 for a new book, BUT there are some pretty amazing secondhand book shops which I just discovered and have now begun spending too much time in. I only say too much time in because each time I go I come back with 3 or 4 new books and well, I don't know how I'm going to get all of these books home!

If you're ever in Sydney and you need a book but don't want to spend $40, I highly recommend Elizabeth's Bookshop and Gleebooks.

Happy Reading!