Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving, Tudor Style...


Five Family Feasting Tips from 'The Tudors'

This came from BBC America on Facebook    (This is from the series "The Tudors" that was on Showtime)
*How quickly time flies, I posted this twice: once on 11/24/11 & last year 11/22/12





Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Philipa Gregory & "The White Queen"

       

A picture taken with Philipa Gregory with her new book coming out today ("The White Princess").





I had the great experience of attending a lecture by bestselling Author, Philipa Gregory.  As most of you know, Philipa Gregory has written many historic fiction novels, a number of which take place around the Tudor era.  She is widely known for her novel "The Other Boleyn Girl".  

Within the last five years or so, P. Gregory has written novels that are referenced as "The Cousins' War", aka "The War of the Roses".  I, recently, completed "The White Queen", which was the first book of her trilogy of "The Cousins' War".  The White Queen is about Elizabeth Woodville.  Woodville's children included the Princes in the Tower & Elizabeth of York.  By the latter, Elizabeth Woodville was the grandmother of Henry VIII, great-grandmother of King Edward VI, Queen Mary I of England & Queen Elizabeth I.  She was the great-great-grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots.  Through Elizabeth Woodville's daughter, Elizabeth of York, she is the ancestor of every English Monarch since Henry VIII, every Scottish Monarch since James V of Scotland and every British Monarch from James VI & I.  

I am not going to summarize the book.  If you love the Tudor era, this book is for you.  Yes, there are inaccuracies.  Yes, it is a fiction novel.  However, the book sheds some light to the reader what is was like during the "The War of the Roses" (AKA, The Cousins' War).  When we think of the Tudors, most of us think right away of Henry VIII & his wives & Elizabeth I, etc.  However, there is a lot of history of how the Tudors became one of the greatest dynasties in the world.  It all starts from somewhere.  By reading "The White Queen", it helped me understand some history behind the Tudors.  I also learned a lot about the House of York & Lancaster & much about "The Cousins' War". 

I highly recommend reading "The White Queen".  Additionally, at the lecture, we saw an advanced screening of "The White Queen" that will be airing on Starz.  The first episode was very good and followed the book to a tea.  Not only do I recommend reading "The White Queen" but also suggest watching the series, which starts 8/10/13 in the USA.  It has already started in the UK & can most likely be found on YouTube.  


Enjoy!

Monday, July 22, 2013

Your's Truly Will Be Attending The Philippa Gregory Advanced Screening of "The White Queen"



Today, I will be seeing bestselling author Philippa Gregory for an advance screening of the first episode of "The White Queen," a Starz Original series adapted from her current book series The Cousins' War, followed by a discussion about the show and her new novel (The White Princess).

I completed reading "The White Queen", the first of P. Gregory's books about the War of the Roses: AKA The Cousins's War.  In the upcoming weeks, I will be writing my opinion of "The White Queen" & will post my experience of the advance screening.  

Philippa Gregory is an authority on the history of women and their struggle for power. She is the author of over 20 books which explore this theme, including The Other Boleyn Girl. The Starz Original series "The White Queen" (premiering Sat, Aug 10 at 9 pm ET/PT) is adapted from her current book series, The Cousins' War, which follows the blood feud between the houses of York and Lancaster before they gave way to the Tudor dynasty.












Sunday, March 24, 2013

The Tudors are close to the current royal family (Quite Fascinating)

The Tudors are closer then we think to the current royal family.  To be honest, I did not even realize there was a link between the Windsors & the Tudors.  But, after much research by V. Catoggio, an English Literature Teacher, the Tudors are still "around us".  It can be very confusing to follow, but here is how:

Elizabeth II is Daughter of George VI
George VI is Son of George V
George V is Son of Edward VII
Edward VII was the Son of Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria was the Daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent & Strathearn
Prince Edward was Son of George III
George III was Son of Fredirick, Prince of Wales
Fredeirck was Son of George II
George II was Son of George I
George I was the Son of, Sophia of Hanover
Sophia of Hanover was the Daughter of,  Elizabeth of Bohemia
Elizabeth of Bohemia was Daughter of James I
James I was the Son of Mary Queen of Scots (MQOS)
MQOS was the Daughter of James V of Scotland
James V of Scotland was the Son of Margaret Tudor
Margaret Tudor was the Daughter of Henry VII Tudor

End Result
Elizabeth II is the GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT Granddaughter of Henry VII TUDOR...

A thought that came to mind, it's ironic that Elizabeth I executed MQOS for treason & that currently MQOS descendant is the Queen of England.

In addition, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (Son of Prince Charles & Princess Diana), will be the first descendant of Charles II. Here is how:
Charles II was Son of Charles I
Charles I was Son of James I
Charles II had no legitimate heirs, therefore his Brother, James II succeeded him.  
James II was succeeded by his Daughter Mary II who died childless and left her Sister Anne, Queen of Great Britain. 
Anne also died childless.  
Therefore, the line of Charles 1 would be extinct, however his Son, Charles II had several illegitimate children.  

End Result
Charles II's Son Henry Fitzroy, was the GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT Grandfather of Diana of Princess of Wales, making William a direct descendant of Charles II.

Quite Fascinating..........
Thank you Mr. Catoggio for your research.  Our site appreciates it very much.

*Wikepedia was very helpful for putting this information altogether *


Monday, March 18, 2013

Tudor Oscars 2013 - A Closer Look!

First & most important,  I want to thank all the followers on the The Tudor Dynasty FaceBook Page that voted & contributed to the Tudor Oscars 2013.  I had such a blast doing this and according to the responses, others did too.  The below provides how many followers voted for each category, some information about the nominees, and of course, my opinion!  Enjoy.....

Best Tudor Movie:

The nominations were Anne of Thousand Days, Elizabeth (the first movie with Cate Blanchett), Elizabeth I (with Helen Mirren), A Man for All Seasons, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Elizabeth R, Anonymous, The Other Boleyn Girl, Lady Jane, & The Virgin Queen.

92 Facebook followers voted for this category.  The winner was Anne of Thousand Days.  Anne of Thousand Days made its debut in 1969.  It was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe for best picture for a drama film.

At a very close second, was was Elizabeth with Cate Blanchett.  Elizabeth made its debut in 1998.  It won a BAFTA award (British Academy of Film & Television Arts) for best motion picture and was nominated for an academy award.

Other movies that had quite a few votes were, A Man for All Seasons (made its debut in 1966).  A Man for All Seasons won an academy award for best picture & a BAFTA award for Best British Film.  The Six Wives of Henry VIII aired in 1970 and was nominated for an Emmy, Outstanding Drama Series.  Elizabeth I with Helen Mirren came out in 2005 and won an Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries and a Golden Globe for best television miniseries.  Elizabeth R aired in 1971 and won an Emmy for Outstanding Series.

The Virgin Queen with Anne-Marie Duff came out in 2005, Anonymous 2011, The Other Boleyn Girl in 2008 & Lady Jane in 1986.

I was very pleased to see a movie from 1969, Anne of Thousand Days, win this category.  In fact, I was surprised that Elizabeth with Cate Blanchett did not win.  It comes to show you that older movies are still very well respected and highly watched.  Most of these movies were great, some not so much.  One movie that I find very underrated is, The Virgin Queen with Anne-Marie Duff.  The Virgin Queen was a wonderful version of Elizabeth's life from beginning to end.

Best Actor that played Henry VIII:

The nominations were Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Richard Burton, Keith Mitchell, Ray Winstone, Eric Bana, Sid James, Robert Shaw, & Charles Laughton.

94 Facebook followers voted for this category.  This category was very close between two actors, Jonathan Rhys Meyers & Richard Burton.  By one vote, Jonathan Rhys Meyers won.  Jonathan Rhys Meyers was nominated for a Golden Globe for best actor in a television series.  Richard Burton was nominated for an Academy Award & a Golden Globe for his role as Henry VIII in Anne of the Thousand Days.

Keith Mitchell won an Emmy for best actor in a miniseries or movie & a BAFTA award for best actor.
Robert Shaw was nominated for a Golden Globe & an Academy Award, for best supporting actor.

I have not seen Sid James or Ray Winstone as Henry VIII, so please keep that in mind.  In my own personal view, I believe Keith Mitchell played Henry VIII to the tea.

Best Actress that played Elizabeth I:

The nominations were Cate Blanchett, Quentin Crisp, Helen Mirren, Miranda Richardson, Glenda Jackson, Bette Davis, & Anne-Marie Duff.

67 Facebook followers voted for this category.  Cate Blanchett won by a large margin.  Ms. Blanchett won a BAFTA & a Golden Globe for Best Actress & nominated for an Academy Award, for her role as Elizabeth I.

The closest contenders were Glenda Jackson & Helen Mirren.  Glenda Jackson won an Emmy under the category outstanding lead actress in a drama series & was nominated for a BAFTA award.  Helen Mirren won an Emmy for lead actress in a miniseries or TV movie & a Golden Globe.

Anne-Marie Duff was nominated for a BAFTA award for her role as Elizabeth I.

As I stated above, Anne-Marie Duff in The Virgin Queen is very underrated and I recommend Tudor lovers to watch that film.  Most of the actresses/actors from the above that played Elizabeth I did a phenomenal job.

Best Actress that played Anne Boleyn: 

The nominations were Natalie Dormer, Genevieve Bujold, Natalie Portman, Helena Bonham Carter, Dorothy Tutin, & Merle Oberon.

69 Facebook followers voted for this category.  Natalie Dormer won by a very large margin.  The closest nominee was Genevieve Bujold who won best actress for a Golden Globe for her performance as Anne Boleyn in Anne of the Thousand Days.

I hope you enjoyed both Tudor Oscar posts!



Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Tudor Oscars 2013

   THE TUDORS 

Since "The Oscars" were on 2/24/13, I decided to have The Tudor Dynasty FaceBook Page vote for the categories (categories are below); Hence, THE TUDOR OSCARS 2013.

The Categories are:
Best Tudor Picture
Best Actor That Played Henry VIII
Best Actress That Played Elizabeth I
Best Actress That Played Anne Boleyn
Best Tudor Author

BEST PICTURE:
Winner - "Anne of the Thousand Days"

Nominees:




 Best Actor That Played Henry VIII:

Winner -
Jonathan Rhys Meyers 
Nominees:

Richard Burton

Keith Mitchell

Ray Winstone

Eric Bana

Sid James 

Robert Shaw 

Charles Laughton
 Best Actress That Played Elizabeth I:

Cate Blanchett - Winner

Nominees:

Quentin Crisp

Helen Mirren

Miranda Richardson 

Glenda Jackson

Bette Davis

Anne-Marie Duff

Best Actress That Played Anne Boleyn:
Natalie Dormer - Winner

Nominees:

Genevieve Bujold

Natalie Portman 


Helena Bonham Carter  
Dorothy Tutin

Merle Oberon




Best Tudor Author:
Alison Weir  - Winner 

Nominees:
Eric Ives 
Phillippa Gregory 
Margaret George 
Brandy Purdy  
David Starkey 
CJ Sansom 
HFM Prescott  
Antonia Fraser

I will provide my personal feedback about the above within the next week or so.  Also, if I come up with other categories, I will post it.  I want to thank my Facebook Page for their participation, MUCH APPRECIATED!!! Hope you all enjoyed.


























Tuesday, January 29, 2013

"Why the Queen is never going to abdicate" by The Telegraph


"The Telegraph" had this article on their site:

Why the Queen is never going to abdicate

The House of Windsor won’t follow Queen Beatrix’s example in the Netherlands. Our monarch believes the job is God-given and for life

Firm favourite: it is really the popular respect that keeps the Queen on the throne
Firm favourite: it is really the popular respect that keeps the Queen on the throne Photo: Geoff Pugh
Prince Charles must sometimes wish he could go Dutch. Aged only 74, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has just chosen to hand over the throne to her 45-year-old son, Prince Willem-Alexander. Meanwhile, our 86-year-old Queen shows no signs of passing on the top job to her 64-year-old heir, the oldest ever Prince of Wales.
Is there any chance our Queen will follow Dutch precedent? Not an earthly, is the consensus among royal insiders.
“She won’t abdicate,” says Sarah Bradford, author of Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Our Times. “That’s not what she does, or what the British monarchy does. There’s no tradition of abdication here – it goes against the informal rules of our constitutional set-up. But it is what the Netherlands Royal Family does.”
Queen Beatrix is the third Dutch queen in a row to hand over power voluntarily. In 1948, the 68-year-old Queen Wilhelmina, Beatrix’s grandmother, abdicated due to ill health, after 58 years on the throne. Her daughter, Queen Juliana, reigned for 32 years until she was 71, when she handed on the throne to her daughter.
Abdication is fast becoming a tradition in Holland. But it’s a tradition that’s in no danger of catching on over here.
“The links between the British and the Dutch royal families are strong – Queen Beatrix’s grandmother, Queen Wilhelmina, was evacuated to Britain during the Second World War,” says Bradford. “But that doesn’t mean they share the same attitudes. In fact, when you got a Dutch king coming over here, like William III, he stuck to the English ways and didn’t abdicate.”
Britain hasn’t just had a monarchy that’s lasted more than a millennium, it’s also had monarchs who keep ruling right to the end.
That might be a sticky end – whether it’s Charles I losing his head in 1649; or William Rufus, with an arrow through his lung in the New Forest in 1100; or Richard III, killed on Bosworth battlefield in 1485 and thought to be buried beneath a municipal car park in Leicester.
British monarchs are allowed to go mad, like George III. They can turn hermit, like Queen Victoria, dubbed the Widow of Windsor after her self-enforced seclusion in Windsor Castle on Prince Albert’s death. But one thing runs through their blue bloodline – they keep hanging on, until death parts them from the throne.
“I do feel sorry for the Prince of Wales, waiting and waiting, while his mother looks better and better,” says Bradford. “She’s not staying on because of any concern about his abilities as a king. The Queen simply feels she must do her duty, and she’s never even contemplated abdication.”
Ironically, one of the factors that keeps the Queen resolutely in harness is the only voluntary abdication in British history: that of her uncle, Edward VIII, in 1936. The crisis rocked the country, the monarchy, the Church of England and the Queen’s personal life.
It was because of an abdication that the Queen went from being a 10-year-old girl, with a relatively small chance of inheriting the throne, to becoming the most famous woman in the world.
It was because of an abdication and the pressures of office – or so the Queen Mother thought – that her gentle-spirited husband, George VI, died at the premature age of 56. You can see why the Queen doesn’t much like the A word.
The British taste for long-term monarchs is unusual, not just in Holland, but across the Continent, too. Jean, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, now 92, also abdicated in favour of his son, Henri, in 2000.
In fact, they’ve been pretty keen on getting rid of monarchs altogether across the Channel. France’s last monarch, Napoleon III, was deposed in 1870; Portugal’s went in 1910.
The Second World War did for several kings. The communists forced Peter II of Yugoslavia to stand down in 1945. Italy’s last king, Umberto II, ruled for a month before he was kicked out in a 1946 referendum. The last king of Romania, Michael I, now 91, was forced to abdicate in 1947 by the Communist Party. The Greek monarchy was abolished in 1973.
Spain has jumped from monarchy to republic, and back again. When Juan Carlos became king in 1975, Spain hadn’t been a monarchy since 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was declared. To make things messier, Juan Carlos’s grandfather, Alfonso XIII, didn’t abdicate his rights to the throne until 1941. So Juan Carlos’s father, the Infante Juan of Spain, Count of Barcelona, never ruled, despite only dying in 1993, aged 79.
Across the world, however, the Queen does have a few long-lived rivals, who don’t go in for abdication either. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is 88. King Rama IX of Thailand, 85, who succeeded to the throne in 1946, is the only monarch to rule longer than our Queen.
Generally speaking, though, the British are unusual. The truth is, we don’t like change much.
We don’t like revolutions – the Civil War apart. And we like to hang on to our monarchs for as long as possible, with the exception of Catholic James II; we kicked him out in 1688, to be replaced by the Protestant Dutch king, William of Orange, and Queen Mary.
The lack of English revolutions has astonished those who are used to them abroad. Otto Hintze, the pre-war German historian, said England was made up of living fossils, dependent on a feudal system that had been toppled practically everywhere else in Europe.
The monarch’s landholdings have been extraordinarily robust. The Duchy of Cornwall – owned by Prince Charles and set up by Edward III in 1337 – still has 160 miles of coastline, most Cornish rivers, the Isles of Scilly and more than 54,000 hectares of land.
This continuity of land ownership, and sustained hereditary power, by royal – and aristocratic – families is uniquely British. Other monarchies – and individual monarchs – have been brought down by economic crises, invasions, putsches, wars and civil wars.
But British monarchs have largely survived until the end of their reign because of the tempering effect of parliamentary democracy. Louis XVI paid for an absolute monarchy with his head; our monarchs survived by handing over much of their constitutional power.
The royal powers that remain are considerable, particularly during times of political uncertainty – like after the 2010 election when, for four days, it wasn’t clear that any party leader could form a sustainable government.
Despite the political vacuum, there was no danger of anarchy on the streets. While the Coalition thrashed out its terms, a much-respected ruler was already in place, as she had been for the previous 58 years.
For all her constitutional power, it is really the popular respect that keeps the Queen on the throne, and will keep her there until she dies.
She could, theoretically, abdicate tomorrow if she wanted. But ultimately she won’t because we don’t want her to – as the spontaneous outburst of popular support showed at last year’s Diamond Jubilee.
Her constancy and steadfast adherence to a job she believes is for life instils in us a nation-defining sense of confidence.
The longer our Queen stays on the throne, the more secure we all are.
Harry Mount is the author of 'How England Made the English’ (Viking)