Tudor

A symbolic eagle brings a note concerning treason, possibly relating to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, from Mischeefes mysterie London 1617, 1641. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

‘All His Spies’ and ‘Spycraft’ review

All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil and Spycraft: Tricks and Tools of the Dangerous Trade from Elizabeth I to the Restoration bring Tudor and Stuart espionage in from the cold.

Map of London from Civitates orbis terrarum, by Braun & Hogenberg, 1600-23. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

The Mystery of Thomas More’s Birthplace

Was Sir Thomas More born on Milk Street – and does it matter?

William Shakespeare’s birthplace on Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, from Shakespeare and his Birthplace, by Emma Marshall, 1890. Look and Learn/Bridgeman Images.

Shakespeare’s Sister Speaks

Could a text thought to be by Shakespeare’s father actually be his sister’s writing?

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.

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?