Royal River: Power, Pageantry and the Thames – guest-curated by David Starkey  - at the National Maritime Museum starting April 27

Magnificent gilded barges, liverymen in their finest uniforms, the splendour of lavish celebrations: the Thames is the ‘royal river’, used for centuries by British monarchs to involve the people in ceremony and festivities displaying their regal status. For hundreds of years this famous royal river has been host to the pageantry of coronations, processions of boats, and other events which helped tie people closer to the Crown and to London as Britain’s capital.

This spectacular exhibition, a landmark heritage event of the year, brings together nearly 400 beautiful, fascinating and often unique objects, including one of the largest-ever loans of Royal Collection objects to any museum. Created to mark Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and guest-curated by historian David Starkey, Royal River presents the historic Thames in all its glory, from British royal and City events to London’s famous watermen, and the river’s transformation after the notorious ‘Great Stink’.

Make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime moment during the Diamond Jubilee year and see the spectacular story of the Thames brought to life at Greenwich in Royal River.

Visit website

“AN EXHIBITION on the life and legacy of the man Queen Elizabeth I fancied but never married is taking place in Leamington this summer.

The display about Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester will be at the Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum telling the story of the relationship between the married earl and the Virgin Queen.

The exhibition will feature the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Kenilworth Castle in 1575 when there were 19 days of entertainments known at the time as the princely pleasures.

The display also explains how Robert Dudley founded the Lord Leycester Hospital, a place to live for retired servicemen, which survives in the original picturesque buildings in Warwick.

Robert Dudley’s career as a villain in fiction, particularly in Sir Walter Scott’s novel Kenilworth, is also covered.

The exhibition runs from Saturday, June 25, to Sunday, September 18, at the art gallery and museum in the town’s Pump Rooms in The Parade.

Entry is free.”

• Friday 28th January at 10.30am
  Katharine of Aragon Commemoration Service
  Our annual service which commerates the life of Henry VIII first wife, Katharine. This uplifting service is open to all with primary schools from across the Peterborough region and historical musicians Hautbois performing.
• Friday 28th January at 5.00pm
  Candlelit Procession and Vespers
  This service is in part a candlelit procession of honour of Katharine through the Cathedral grounds and up to her tomb. The procession harks back to her funeral and the 1000 candles lit for Katharine by approximately 200 mourners in 1536.
• Friday 28th January at 7.30pm in the New Building
  Talk on the Life and Times of Old Scarlett
  Tickets are £5 or £3 concessions and available from the Cathedral Shop or Peterborough Destination Centre on 01733 452336.
• Saturday 29th January 9.00am
  Roman Catholic Mass by the grave of Katharine of Aragon
  This moving Mass, held each year in her memory, is led by Father David Jennings from All Souls Park Road.
• Saturday 29th January 10.00am to 3.00pm
  Tudor Living History Day in the Cathedral and its grounds Free admission. Tudor Living History Day at the Cathedral, with a chance to meet Katharine and Henry Vlll, Tudor dancing and music, Tudor crafts, archery, surgery and much more.
• Saturday 29th January at 7.30pm
  The Sixteen in concert
  The Sixteen are recognized as one of the world’s greatest choral and period instrument ensembles. This unique concert which will only ever be performed this evening will feature music Katharine would have heard at court, and also a piece reputedly written especially for her by Henry VIII. Full concert programme details can be found on the Cathedral website. Tickets are £20, £12, £8 and are available only from the Cathedral Shop or Peterborough Destination Centre on 01733 452336. Early booking is recommended as these concerts usually sell out.

  Full programme details:

• Sunday 30th January at 2.00pm
  Tudor Walk around Peterborough city centre
  This historical walk is guided by Stuart Orme. Tickets are £5, £3 concession and available from the Peterborough Destination Centre on 01733 452336.

From the Guardian:

“There will be a rare chance this week to compare two famous portraits of Queen Elizabeth I as they are displayed together for the first time in 25 years, after art detective work proved both were painted on timber from the same two oak trees, in the same studio and almost certainly by the Tudor genius Nicholas Hilliard.

The two paintings, which show the queen magnificently dressed and festooned with pearls and gold chains, are known as the Phoenix and the Pelican portraits, after the jewels hanging on her breast. They are normally hundreds of miles apart, the Phoenix owned by the National Portrait Gallery but on long loan to the Tate, the Pelican in the Walker collection in Liverpool. The Pelican is on the left, above.

For one week from today they will be on display at the NPG in London, after experts spent months poring over them to resolve the mystery of their origin.

Elizabeth would have been in her 40s, halfway through her reign, when they were painted in the 1570s – but not a line or wrinkle shows. She rigorously controlled her image, and continued to be portrayed as a red-haired, fresh-faced young woman into old age when she was toothless and bald.”

If you can’t go, like me, read more here

From Portsmouth Historic Dockyard:

“During their visit to Portsmouth, the Atlantis Space Shuttle crew were presented with a piece of the Mary Rose, the flagship of King Henry VIII, with a view to sending it up to space on a future mission.

The presentation took place at a gala dinner Sunday 27th June, on board HMS Warrior 1860, another ship that accompanies the Mary Rose at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. John Lippiett, Chief Executive of the Mary Rose Trust, who made the presentation to the astronauts, commented:

“It is really tremendous to have the opportunity to present this little piece of the Mary Rose to the visiting Shuttle crew to take back to Houston, in the hope that it will be taken into space on a future mission.

This parrel, in effect a wooden ball-bearing measuring some 3×3”, was part of the mechanism used to hoist the yards carrying the sails up the mast. It was therefore fundamental to the propulsion of this our first true warship.

The Mary Rose was as revolutionary in technological advances 500 years ago as the Space Shuttle was in the early 1980s. Both have helped pioneer exploration and advance the sciences. It is most appropriate to mark their place in history in this manner.”

The last Atlantis mission from which they have just returned, saw the crew take a 4-inch long wood sample of Sir Isaac Newton’s apple tree. The piece from the original tree that supposedly inspired Newton’s theory of gravity, along with a picture of Newton, was taken into orbit by British-born astronaut Piers Sellers. The wood is part of the collection of the Royal Society archives in London, and will be returned there at the end of their tour. On a previous spaceflight, he took a commemorative medallion that the group presented to the physicist Stephen Hawking.

This won’t be the first time the Mary Rose has had links to space – Michael Foale CBE, the first Briton to perform a space walk and record holder for cumulative-time-in-space for a UK citizen, was a volunteer diver on the excavation of the Mary Rose in 1981.

The Mary Rose sank in 1545 in the Battle of the Solent. She was raised in 1982 with her artefact collection of 19,000 objects presenting a unique time capsule and one of the world’s most precious heritage icons.

The Mary Rose 500 Appeal are currently fundraising to secure the building of the new Mary Rose Museum to open in 2012, which will reunite the hull with her artefacts and ensure completion of the conservation in 2016 providing visitors with new and unique views of the vessel – visit www.maryrose500.org“

This is adorable!

“Yesterday, Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a new statue of Queen Elizabeth I at Westminster Abbey. The unveiling was part of a visit during which the monarch opened a new education center at the Abbey. The Queen wore a deep pink outfit for the removal of the statue’s purple drape.

Queen Elizabeth I gave her Royal Warrant to Westminster Abbey in 1560, so the date chosen was the 450th anniversary of this event. The new statue is eight feet high, made from stone and brass with a large marble ruff. Prince Philip reportedly chuckled and pointed at the sculpture.”

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Author Leanda de Lisle is giving a free lunchtime lecture at the National Portrait Gallery in London on Thursday at 1.15 pm. The title of the talk is:

A Picture of Innocence:  Lady Jane Grey and her sisters.

Behind the legend of the Nine Days Queen lies a history of religious propaganda,  sado-masochism, sexual prejudice and forgotten tragedy.

If anybody goes, please feel free to send a review and I’ll post it here.

This is hilarious.  You can be part of the archaeological dig! It’s already started, so those of you living in UK- somebody please tell me if you’ve done this and what it’s like.
Dig for Shakespeare

From the telegraph:

“The 16th century sea dog acquired the nickname after divers discovered her remains near the sliding hatch door of the ill-fated ship’s carpenter’s cabin, where she had lain since it sank in 1545.

Hatch’s skeleton will be on display at this year’s Crufts as the special guest of the Kennel Club, along with a selection of other Tudor artefacts.

The mongrel was most likely on board as the ship’s ratter – superstitious Tudor seamen did not have cats on board as they were thought to bring bad luck. According to experts, analysis of Hatch’s skeleton suggests she spent most of her life within the confines of the ship.

“We are delighted to bring Hatch, the world’s oldest lost sea dog, to the world’s premier dog show, so that visitors can meet an ancestor of their much loved pets,” said John Lippiett, Chief Executive of the Mary Rose Trust and Hatch’s guardian.

Read more

Somebody please go and tell us all about it!