Adam Pennington
Queen Mary I on Screen
When compared to the countless portrayals of Queen Elizabeth I, her half-sister Mary is often consigned to the fringes of film and...
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Adam Pennington
- Sep 19, 2021
Elizabeth I and her cousins - Lady Katherine Grey and Lady Mary Grey
I have always revered Elizabeth I. As the daughter of undoubtedly my favourite character from history, Anne Boleyn, and viewed by many as...
Adam Pennington
- Sep 4, 2021
Game of Thrones - the history behind the masterpiece. Part 2.
I wrote part one of this blog back in March and had planned for part two to follow shortly thereafter, so my apologies that I have only...
Adam Pennington
- Aug 21, 2021
Lady Margaret Beaufort - The Queen who never was.
Lady Margaret Beaufort is one of the most fascinating and at times unfairly maligned characters from English history. Thanks to fictional...
Adam Pennington
- Mar 25, 2021
Game of Thrones - the history behind the masterpiece. Part 1.
Game of Thrones, the television drama adapted from George RR Martin's book series "A Song of Ice and Fire" has been called the biggest...
Adam Pennington
- Mar 13, 2021
Jane Boleyn - villain or victim?
Very few high profile women in Tudor England met their ends on the executioners scaffold. Countless common folk did of course die in...
Adam Pennington
- Feb 8, 2021
The death of an anointed Queen - The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.
On the 8th February 1587, Mary Stuart, formally Queen of Scotland was led to a scaffold in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle. Shortly...
Adam Pennington
- Jan 15, 2021
A Tudor tragedy - The life and death of Lady Jane Grey
On the 12th February 1554, a girl of just seventeen was led from her rooms in the tower of London to the place of execution within its...
Adam Pennington
- Dec 28, 2020
Was Anne of Cleves Henry VIII's most successful queen?
On December 27th 1539, Princess Anna von Jülich-Kleve-Berg, more commonly known as Anne of Cleves arrived at Deal in Kent in preparation...
Adam Pennington
- Dec 19, 2020
Who was the love of Henry VIII's life?
Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. These six words are as famous as the six women that they reference. I realise...
Adam Pennington
- Dec 11, 2020
The Fall of Catherine Howard
On the 13th of February 1542, Catherine Howard, fifth wife of King Henry VIII was executed at the Tower of London. Eustace Chapuys, the...
Adam Pennington
- Dec 4, 2020
Anne Boleyn on the Big Screen, plus...., is she the original gay icon?!
I would say with some confidence that more films, tv shows, books and plays have been made about Anne Boleyn than the other five of Henry...
Adam Pennington
- Nov 26, 2020
Did Queen Mary I simply need more time?
In the shadow of her infinitely more famous and successful sister Elizabeth I, it's easy to overlook the fact that Queen Mary I was...
Adam Pennington
- Nov 23, 2020
Did Henry VIII seriously consider marriage for a seventh time?
Whenever anyone discusses Henry VIII, four words invariably follow his name - "and his six wives". The stories of Henry's six Queens are...
Adam Pennington
- Nov 19, 2020
The Exeter Conspiracy and the destruction of the White Rose of York
One thing that unequivocally brought some semblance of stability to England in the late middle ages was the marriage between Henry Tudor,...
Adam Pennington
- Nov 16, 2020
The exhumation of Anne Boleyn and restoration of the Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula
In 1848, a historian by the name of Lord Thomas Macaulay visited the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the grounds of The Tower of...
Adam Pennington
- Nov 14, 2020
Will the real Anne Boleyn please stand up?
Ugggghh, the eternal mystery that is what on earth did Anne Boleyn really look like. It's perplexed historians and fans alike for...
Adam Pennington
- Nov 13, 2020
How old was Anne Boleyn at the time of her execution?
Nothing seems to divide historians more than determining how old Anne Boleyn was when she died in 1536. For the most part, historians are...