Sometimes I get ridiculously fixated on knowing more about a lost Tudor building; it gets under my skin and won’t leave me alone until I have researched and written about it. There are a few on my list, including Margaret Beaufort’s ‘Collyweston’; William Cecil’s ‘Theobalds’ and Baynard’s Castle in London. Then there is one more; …
What if you could time-travel to Tudor London? What places would be on your ‘must see’ list? I have a few; Whitehall Palace, the Old Palace of Westminster, Old St Paul’s, Cheapside, The Tower of London and The King’s Manor at Chelsea to name but a few. However, one iconic building that would have to …
Early on what must have been a cold February morning in 1542, just after sunrise, a young woman walked out of her lodgings and made her way towards a scaffold and the executioner who awaited her. She had been condemned to die on account of her adultery and treason. The king had washed his hands …
Perhaps there was never such a sad and desolate figure in Tudor history as the diminutive Lady Jane Grey, the child unwillingly groomed and manoeuvred towards the throne of England by her ambitious and self-serving parents. It was a game of political chess in which Jane was the principal pawn – and which would leave …
There is something strangely compelling about making a pilgrimage to the site from which your Tudor heroine or hero departed this earthly life. It is the place in which they last drew breath and uttered their last words – often with a good deal of drama surrounding the occasion to boot. To stand where a …