The Tudor Chest - The Podcast The Tudor Chest Podcast

When we think of the Tudors, one of the first things that springs to mind is the fashion! From Henry VIII’s codpieces to Anne Boleyn's French hoods and Elizabeth i’s voluminous gowns, Tudor fashion is a huge part of the wider Tudor story and was incredibly important to the Tudors themselves, so much so that king henry viii famously introduced laws which mandated who could wear what and where! To discuss all things Tudor fashion with me today, I am thrilled to welcome Eleri Lynn onto the podcast. Eleri is a fashion historian and expert in Tudor attire. She was responsible for the discovery of the bacton alter cloth, a piece of fabric which may very well have once formed part of a dress that queen Elizabeth I wore. Eleri is a genuine expert in Tudor dress, and is here to bust some myths about the French hood, to unpick all of the different aspects that went into Henry VIII’s iconic outfits, plus much more!

Anne Seymour was married to the most powerful man at the court of King Edward VI, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and as such, ruled supreme, briefly, as the most powerful women in England, but, this precedence was hard won and challenged by another grand dame of the royal Tudor court, the dowager queen Katherine Parr, with whom Anne tried to continually usurp. A bold and fascinating character, she was committed to religious reform and patronising writers, and yet has become something of a villain to modern audiences, but who actually was she? What was her early life like? How did she come to be married to an uncle of the king and exactly how did her falling out with Katherine Parr come to pass?

He was the younger son of a relatively modest family from the midlands, far from the royal court and high favour, but would eventually rise to become the leading churchman in England, thanks in no small part to a close relationship with the Boleyn family. Thomas Cranmer, would be the man who finally annulled Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and oversaw the installation of Anne Boleyn as queen, but in addition to this, Cranmer was a committed reformist who was determined to overhaul the church and move England into the protestant faith. He would eventually go on to become perhaps the most famous of the victims of Queen Mary’s I’s burnings, and ever since has been viewed as a protestant martyr, but who was this man? What was his early life like? How did he come to the attention of the Boleyn family and why, in the end, did he die in agony at the stake?

David Smith is King Henry VIII reborn! He is now a full time impersonator of a young King Henry VIII. With a perfect replica of one of King Henry VIII’s most iconic outfits from hat to codpiece, David certainly looks the part, but goes a level deeper and looks to recreate how the king himself would have behaved. David is committed to educating people on the young king henry, before the bloated tyrant of memory, a young king famed for his affable nature and good looks, David, as Sir Loyal Heart, seeks to bring this part of Henry’s story back to life, and remind us all that at one time, Henry VIII was every bit the king the 16th century looked for.

What was the white rose network? These were the families who made up much of the royal Tudor court, but crucially and often to their detriment, had royal blood running in their veins, for these were the houses who traced their descent into the Yorkist branch of the house of Plantagenet, which also meant that generations prior, they had a common ancestor, King Edward III. They were a huge spiders web of siblings, cousins and kin who held greater prestige and popularity with the common people than Henry Tudor could ever aspire to. So who actually were they? How were they related and what became of this group, a group of people who by virtue of their birth should have ruled England, but would instead invariably end their lives on the executioners scaffold?