Portrait of Lady Margaret Beaufort by Meynart Weywyck (circa 1510).
National Portrait Gallery
Beaufort’s presence at Collyweston formed part of a strategic plan, devised by mother and son, to exert royal influence both locally and nationally.
Baron Cobham and family around the dinner table, 1567.
Master of the Countess of Warwick
During the Tudor period, religious beliefs shaped people’s attitudes towards food and food waste.
AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino
News of King Charles III’s cancer is unexpected: it is unusual for the royal family to release details of medical conditions to the public.
Wikimedia
The court would laugh at rather than with the fool.
Henry VIII’s copy of Katharine Parr’s Psalms or Prayers.
The Trustees of The Wormsley Fund/Reproduced with permission from The Wormsley Estate.
Henry had always been a theatrically pious king and in his last years he turned to religion with melancholy intensity.
Dutch delftware with a double portrait of William III and Mary II, ca. 1690.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
From lockets for Henry VIII’s wedding to tea cups for Charles III’s coronation, there is a long history of royal souvenirs.
Peter Kramer/HBO
When is a four-figure handbag a fashion faux pas? When you’re a character in Succession, rubbing shoulders with some of the richest and snobbiest elitists ever committed to screen.
Neither George Washington nor Thomas Jefferson would have approved of this bacon cheeseburger.
zoranm/Getty Images
The celebration of generous portions, meat and fat as masculine and patriotic would have been alien to Washington and Jefferson, who advocated vegetables and moderation as American ideals.
PA Images / Alamy
A short guide to the Wolf Hall author’s remarkably varied back catalogue.
Caliban implores his fellow island dwellers to listen to the noises in “The Tempest.”
The Print Collector/Getty Images
Scholars have scoured the works of the great playwright for clues about his faith. A scholar of theology and Shakespeare’s works says it isn’t as simple as that.
The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon by Edward Burne Jones.
Wikimedia
It’s a malleable mythos that has been adapted by kings and queens as well as artists and filmmakers.
Ian McKee/St John’s College
New scientific research reveals how Thomas Cromwell’s Machiavellian manoeuvring influenced his own depiction on the front of The Great Bible.
Thomas Cromwell by Hans Holbein.
The Frick Collection
Mantel’s prize-winning novels put imaginary flesh on the skeletal historical record and gives us the complete picture of the Tudor courtier.
Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits, exhibition view.
Bendigo Art Gallery
A new exhibition illustrates the British monarchy’s transition from global powerhouse to modern celebrities. But idolised images reign.
Abraham Ortelius’s 1570 world map.
The Library of Congress/Wikimedia
Humphrey Llwyd quite literally put Wales on the map.
Monument of Martin Luther in Eisleben, Germany, the town of his birth.
Shutterstock/dugdax
Martin Luther’s Reformation resulted in Henry VIII making law changes which are still having an effect on today’s Brexit negotiations.
St Cecilia’s Hall.
Wikimedia
The Scottish capital is reopening a well kept secret: one of the world’s finest collections of vintage sound machines.
The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei via Wikimedia Commons
Under the Tudors, parliamentary sovereignty became paramount.
Two Hungry Dudes
Henry VIII’s Spanish queen, Catherine, introduced him to them and he is said to have eaten 20 at one sitting. Food for thought this Thanksgiving.
Chris Ison / PA Archive/Press Association Images
Historical insight is not the only thing that has been raised with the Mary Rose.