On 16 July Talking Tudors turns 4! To mark the occasion, I invited a number of historians to share their thoughts on why the public is insatiable when it comes to the Tudors. Why do they still captivate the imagination of millions of people worldwide?
You’ll find a number of responses on my YouTube channel and contributions by Dr Wendy J. Dunn, Dr Estelle Paranque, Dr Linda Porter, Michael I. Ohajuru and Jack Beesley below.
Here’s to the next four years of Talking Tudors!
Why do the Tudors continue to fascinate us? I ask why shouldn’t they fascinate us? For myself, they have fascinated me since I was a child of ten. First, Elizabeth captured my heart. Her story of the unwanted daughter spoke to me—her life’s triumph encouraged me to seek my own life’s triumph. Reading her story led me to her mother’s. Even as a child I recognised a woman of true courage—a woman brave enough to refuse silence in a time when their world refused women the right to a voice. The Tudors provide us with so many inspiring stories—stories triumphing over death. But it is the stories of Tudor women that truly fascinate me and inspire me to write. Tudor women navigated a dangerous world—their destinies determined by the men closest to them. They prayed to survive birthing their children. If they survived their child’s birth and held a living child, they knew how soon that could change. Death was a daily proposition for the Tudors. I am fascinated by their true bravery—and how so many of them carved out a successful life despite so many things put in their way. How, like Katherine of Aragon, they surmounted tragedy following tragedy. I am fascinated by their passions—and the love of these women that shines down the centuries to our own. I am forever grateful that Elizabeth hooked me forevermore as a ten-year-old, as she was wont to do in her times. Studying the Tudors has taught me much about what it means by making a brave death. But what they have really taught me is to make a brave life.
Dr Wendy J. Dunn
“The Tudors continue to inspire us to this day because truly it was the rise of incredible female power. Without Elizabeth of York there is no Tudor dynasty. Each one of Henry VIII’s wives were a force to be reckoned with and challenged the patriarchy in their own individual and unique way. Mary I and Elizabeth I ruled the second half of the sixteenth century and proved that regnant queens could be as astute and intelligent as their male counterparts.”
Dr Estelle Paranque
The Enduring Fascination of the Tudors
As a historian who has written about both the Tudor and Stuart periods, I remain surprised by the continuing obsession with the Tudors. Perhaps my outlook is coloured by the fact that, despite having written five books on major figures of the 16th and 17th centuries, I still find the eighteenth century more interesting. Tudor England seems a very distant time. Many people will be surprised by this view, I suspect. After all, haven’t numerous historical novels, television documentaries, films, podcasts and books brought the Tudors into our lives in all sorts of colourful ways? Perhaps, but I think we should resist the ‘Disneyfication’ of the past. One of the reasons the Tudors remain so popular is that there is money to be made from them. So we have imprinted on our consciousness that the Tudors were somehow just like us, but in all those fantastic costumes and jewels. The emphasis on a few figures of the era has also obscured what life was actually like for millions of ordinary people. Who among us would really like to have lived in the 16th century, a time rife with warfare, disease and intolerance? We also project our own 21st century preoccupations on this glorified past. Anne Boleyn, for example, was not a modern woman, neither was she ‘empowered’. I sometimes wonder if, amidst all the hype, anyone stops to consider what the Tudors would think of us. My strong suspicion is that they would be horrified at our secular society and our political system, though ambition and greed were certainly emotions that they would have recognized. The real fascination of the past is surely that it is very, very different from the present. Why else would it be interesting? Until we accept this about the Tudors, we will always have a lopsided view of who they really were.
LINDA PORTER, June 2022
Why do I love the Tudors? Easy – the portraits! English portraiture came to mean something, Tudor portraits were not just images but most times some sense of the back story of those depicted could be inferred from their image. Who cannot look at Holbein’s famous depiction of the Henry VIII standing upright, broad shouldered, assertively looking direct at the viewer, with his left hand on his dagger, right holding his glove, legs firmly apart on that precious Eastern carpet against a backdrop of what looks like silk or satin…and that codpiece! Every part of this portrait says look at me, I’m in control, I’m in power, I’m the King! Prior to the Tudors nobles, including the king were known not by their portrait but their coats of arms seen in their banners and shields. Famously, in Henry VII’s death bed scene those surrounding the dying king have their coat of arms by their image. Their arms are the only way we have of recognising for example, the church’s presence through Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester or Henry VII‘s gentleman usher’s presence William Fitzwilliam. We know them both from their attendant coat of arms similarly, we know the names and titles of others surrounding the deathbed by their coat of arms. These are not portraits to give us a sense of the emotional state or character of any of those in attendance, the figures are essentially stock images of a nobility with absolutely no sense of a sentient human. From the death scene we have no sense of the gravity of the situation as power changes hands as the king dies. From Tudor court records and personal correspondence, we have insights into characters and the relationships of members of the court. What the portraits do is to add a whole new layer to our understanding of those portrayed, giving us insight into their hearts and souls. Henry VIII’s portrait makes manifest to all his subjects his temporal and spiritual power, in the words of the French ambassador, making him ‘not only a King to be obeyed but an icon to be worshipped [1]’ an interpretation that endures and even resonates to us today almost half a millennium later – that’s I why love Tudor portraits.
Michael I. Ohajuru FRSA
Thursday, 30 June 2022
[1]The Tudors: Passion and Politics ed Charlotte Bolland, Published by the National Portrait Gallery , January 2022
Why do the Tudors Continue to Fascinate Us?
The Tudors remain Britain’s most celebrated and infamous royal dynasty. Their 118-year reign, from 1485 – 1603, witnessed vast political and religious upheaval, with two of our most famous monarchs, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, presiding over the English Reformation and the foundations of the British Empire. It was this legacy that enthralled the Victorians as they chased a British identity which vindicated Britain’s role as a colonial power. The Victorians were not, however, big admirers of Anne Boleyn or Elizabeth I, who both conflicted with Victorian ideals of womanhood. Charles Dickens wrote that Anne was “very worthy of the fate which afterwards befell her”, while Elizabeth was commonly portrayed in painting as an old and decrepit spinster, having rejected her true role as a wife and mother. I think that the reasons for this Victorian condemnation are part of our fascination with the Tudors today.
Due to female emancipation, we can connect with Anne and Elizabeth’s stories in ways that was not possible for previous generations. Anne Boleyn used her ambition and intelligence to become one of the most influential women in history and is a role model for modern feminism. Moreover, her daughter, Elizabeth, decidedly rejected the patriarchal expectations placed on her and became one of our most successful monarchs, defying all odds. These women are the fundamental reason for my fascination with the Tudors. Combined with other monumental women, such as Margaret Beaufort, Margaret Tudor, the six queens, Mary I and Mary, Queen of Scots (the list could continue), the Tudor era represents an age where women tore up the patriarchal rule book and rose to occupy positions that had previously been denied to them. It’s this break from the norm, and the drama that followed, which is just one of the reasons why the Tudors still captivate us today.
Jack E. Beesley
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