The Tudors

By Michelle Rosenberg

Everything you never knew about the powerful Tudor dynasty - from Henry VII to the glorious Elizabeth I. From Battles at Bosworth to battles for supremacy of the royal bedchamber, marriage, war, murder, divorce, religious dissent, Renaissance letters, science and art, political alliances, the Reformation, treason, a Virgin Queen, phantom pregnancies, global exploration, bloody beheadings and a fresh look at why Henry VIII became such a terrifying tyrant.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Jun 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781473897946

Michelle Rosenberg

Michelle Rosenberg is a writer and passionate women’s historian with a great fondness for her two daughters, bawdy humor and inappropriate language (in that order). She is on the Advisory Board of the East End Women’s Museum.

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Tudors in the News

1. In 2010, Henry VII’s first state bed was discovered in the car park of a hotel in Chester. It had been dismantled and discarded, and sold at auction as a Victorian bed to an antique dealer for just £2,200.

The headboard depicts Henry VII and Elizabeth of York as Adam and Eve and is believed to have been made at the time of their wedding on 18 January 1486. Estimates put the value of the bed at around £20 million if it proves to be where their sons Henry and Arthur were conceived. Dendrochronology has confirmed that the wood was cut in Germany in the 1480’s.

Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.

2. In 2017, a metal detecting enthusiast searching a farmer’s field near Market Harborough discovered what he initially thought was a crumpled piece of gold foil. After closer inspection and further digging, he found a 2.5 inches tall, heavy solid gold and enameled figurine. Identified as a depiction of Henry VI and worth around £2 million, it is thought to be the lost centre-piece of a crown worn by Henry VIII during processions marking the Feast of the Epiphany, and also worn at the coronations of Edward, Mary and Elizabeth, and then of James I and Charles I. Historians theorise that the location of the find is on the same route taken by Charles I as he fled the Battle of Naseby in 1645. The item is still being authenticated by experts at the British Museum.

3. A treasure trove of golden Tudor coins, dedicated to three of Henry VIII’s wives was found in a family garden in the New Forest in 2020. A British family discovered 63 gold coins and one silver coin; four of them dating from the reign of Henry VIII. At the time of their burial, the coins were collectively valued at around £24 – translating to around £14,000 today.

4. Archivist and Tudor expert Sean Cunningham discovered a passage in a warrant book in the National Archives in 2020. A warrant book is a catalogue detailing the bureaucracy of sixteenth century crimes. In this particular passage were instructions from Henry VIII detailing exactly how and where he wanted Anne Boleyn to be beheaded. In what would have been seen as a huge kindness at the time, Henry decided to spare Anne from death by fire – which would have been horrific, slow and agonizing. What he did command, however, was:

‘that… the head of the same Anne shall be… cut off.’

He wanted her place of death to be upon the Green within our Tower of London. Her head was to be ‘cut off ’ – meaning with a sword as opposed to beheading by an axe.

Tudor historian and joint chief curator for Historic Royal Palaces Tracy Borman says the discovery reinforces the idea of Henry being a ‘pathological monster. What it shows is Henry’s premeditated, calculating manner. He knows exactly how and where he wants it to happen.’

5. Fresh analysis of a picture long thought to be of Henry’s fifth wife Catherine Howard, strongly suggests it is more likely to be Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife. This miniature painting by Tudor court painter and artistic genius Hans Holbein, has long been simply known as ‘Portrait of a Lady, perhaps Catherine Howard’.

Art historian Franny Moyle has re-evaluated the painting, taking into consideration that Holbein was well known for leaving clever clues in his work. The miniature is mounted on a playing card – notably the four of diamonds – likely indicating the ‘fourth’ queen. To bolster her claims, Moyle points to the fact that Holbein put the ace of spades on a miniature of Thomas Cromwell, (Henry’s consigliere), and the ace of hearts on a miniature of the Lord Chancellor’s new wife, Elizabeth Audley.

6. Further analysis of the wreckage of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s favourite war ship, has shown that the crew was much more ethnically diverse than previously thought. The vessel sank during the 1545 Battle of the Solent, which was fought between English and French forces. The majority of the 415-man crew drowned. Scientists used innovative new methods to analyse the teeth of some of the victims and discovered details of where they originally came from as well as their childhood diet. It’s thought that at least two of the sailors came from the Atlas Mountains of Africa and possibly even from Katherine of Aragon’s native Spain in southern Europe. It’s not known why the Mary Rose sank, just a few miles short of the Portsmouth coast, although eyewitness accounts describe a strong wind forcing the vessel to suddenly turn. She was returned to the surface in an historic televised event in 1982.

The Mary Rose.

Henry VII (28 January 1457–21 April 1509)

Between 1154 until 1485, England was ruled by the Plantagenet family. They brought England out of the Dark Ages, participated in the Hundred Years’ War, survived the Black Death and the Peasants’ Revolt and featured such fascinating royal figures as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II and Richard the Lionheart.

By the 1450’s however, war had broken out between two rival Yorkist and Lancastrian factions of the family. The first Tudor King, Henry secured his crown by defeating his Yorkist rival, Richard III, the last of the Plantagenets, at the Battle of Bosworth.

In doing so, he was also the last King of England to win his crown on a battlefield. He adopted the white and red rose as his emblem, to signify the union of the houses of Lancaster (red rose) and York (white rose).

An artist’s impression of Henry VII.

Pembroke Castle.

Born in Pembroke Castle, Wales on 28 January 1457,