As we celebrate the 500 year accession of Henry VIII, we take a look at some of the AHRC funded research relating to the infamous monarch.
Conservation and display of large historic tapestries
Researchers from the University of Manchester and the Historic Royal Palaces have been examining the degradation and structural failure of historical tapestries and other large hanging textiles with the aim of improving conservation techniques. This project, part of the Science and Heritage programme, has formed part of the research behind an exhibition in which one of Henry VIII's tapestries has been virtually restored and is on display in the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace. More information about the exhibition is available on the BBC website.
Staging the Henrician Court (and previous project Henrician Court Drama)
Staging the Henrician Court is an interdisciplinary research project into John Heywood's drama, the Play of the Weather. It will be based on historical research and textual analysis and will use dramatic performances and workshops in the Great Hall at Hampton Court to research the Henrician court.
The Play of the Weather, by John Heywood, one of the leading playwrights of the period, will be used to research, through performance, the way court space was managed at Henry VIII's court. In this play the God Jupiter, representing Henry VIII, decides to come to earth and resolve the constant debates that humans have over which is the best kind of weather. The play is an allegory of the religious choices facing Henry in 1533. Staging the Henrician Court is fully supported by Historic Royal Palaces, the charity that manages Hampton Court, and is forming part of the events planned for 2009 to mark Henry's succession.
Dr Thomas Betteridge, Oxford Brookes University
Dress at the court of Henry VIII
Henry VIII used his wardrobe, and that of his family and household, as a way of expressing his wealth and magnificence. Dress at the court of Henry VIII is the first detailed study of the dress of the king and his immediate family, the royal household and the broader court circle. As none of Henry VIII's clothes survive, evidence was drawn primarily from the great wardrobe accounts, wardrobe warrants, and inventories, and was interpreted using evidence from narrative sources, paintings, drawings and a small selection of contemporary garments, mainly from European collections.
The project captures insights into what Henry wore, such as the pair of shoes he owned for playing football in, and offers a means of exploring the complex social and political interactions present within the royal household and gives context to other studies on the much more well known dress at the court of his daughter Elizabeth I. This study has led to the publication of 2 books on the subject Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII and Rich Apparel: Dress in Henry VIII's England as well as numerous presentations.
Maria Hayward is currently a Reader and Head of Studies and Research at the TCC, University of Southampton, and the Director of the AHRC Research Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies (2004-07).
The life and fall of Anne Boleyn: Politics and Religion under Henry VIII
When Henry VIII fell in love with the younger daughter of courtier-diplomat Sir Thomas Boleyn, he began a journey that was to end in England’s break with the Catholic Church. Yet, three years after Anne Boleyn was crowned his queen, she was convicted and executed for committing treasonous adultery with five men. Convention holds that she was a victim in a wider political struggle but The life and fall of Anne Boleyn: Politics and Religion under Henry VIII challenges this orthodox view.
The project uses often overlooked sources, as well as re-visiting those that are better known, to shed fresh light on Anne’s life and especially her fall. In a revisionist approach that opens up larger questions about Tudor political culture, Professor Bernard argues that she might not have been entirely innocent of the charges brought against her. In addition, Bernard looks at the nature of her early relationship with Henry, questioning Anne’s religious affiliation, and advocacy of the Henrician Reforms, suggesting instead that she may have been an accidental catalyst in the repudiation of papal authority. As Bernard says, ‘This new study constitutes a substantial reinterpretation of politics and religion in the years of Henry VIII’s break with Rome.’ The broader issues that the project opens up pose a reinterpretation of this formative period of English history that is likely to affect future scholarship of the period.
Professor G. W. Bernard, University of Southampton.
A Corpus of Renaissance Correspondence: The Letters of Elizabeth Talbot (c.1527-1608, known as 'Bess of Hardwick')
The Letters of Elizabeth Talbot will break new ground by making accessible online this important, yet virtually unedited, corpus of Renaissance letters.
Elizabeth Talbot was one of the wealthiest people of the period, and an important patron of architecture. She acquired her wealth through a succession of four progressively more profitable marriages, and through her own business acumen. Her more than 200 letters (over 70 of which are from Elizabeth Talbot, mainly written in her own hand) include over 60 correspondents and span a period of almost 60 years. No other 16th-century woman left such a large number of letters. They richly illustrate, in microcosm, the spectrum of 16th-century letter-writing activities and the functions that letters performed. Moreover, they show that Renaissance letter-writing was not an exclusively male or elite activity as many of Elizabeth's correspondents were below the ranks of the nobility and gentry, and a quarter were women.
The letters have been mined by Tudor biographers and historians for nuggets of information about political, social, and domestic life, and details relating to the building of Hardwick Hall and Chatsworth House. But they have yet to be fully examined as textual artefacts or for their linguistic information, their contents will be valuable to all those interested in the periods of the reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
Dr Alison Wiggin, University of Glasgow & Centre for Editing Lives and Letters (CELL)
Increasing audiences to Hampton Court Palace
In this Knowledge Transfer Partnership AHRC doctoral award holder Suzannah Lipscomb is working with Historic Royal Palaces and Kingston University to develop programmes that will appeal to a wider audience resulting in an increase of visitors to Hampton Court Palace. There is a video case study of Suzannah talking about the project on the KTP website.
For more information about any of these projects please contact communications@ahrc.ac.uk.
Image © istockphoto.com/duncan1890