“Everybody thinks they know the story of the Spanish Armada,” says historian and novelist JD Davies. Yet, as he tells Historia, this is a story that has been reinterpreted and embellished for over 400 years. Which made his own retelling of the Armada story in his new novel, Armada’s Wake, both an opportunity – and […]
A False Hawksman
John Pilkington’s short story, A False Hawksman, is taken from Royal Blood, the HWA collection of Tudor-era stories by well-known historical fiction writers. He says: “The Thomas the Falconer books have proved to be my most successful historical series. I’m very fond of Thomas and was keen to bring him back, choosing a pivotal moment […]
Sultana Isabel: Elizabeth I and the Ottoman Empire
Historian and award-winning author Jerry Brotton on Elizabethan England’s alliance with the Islamic world. Historical events have a way of overtaking a book. When This Orient Isle was published in March 2017, I hoped that it might enable some calmer reflection on the status of today’s British Muslim community by seeing it within a much longer […]
The Countess and the Crown
Our guest this month, Morgan Ring, on the extraordinary life of Lady Margaret Douglas and her crucial role in the Tudor succession. In July 1536, Henry VIII found himself — for the first time in twenty years — with neither a legitimate child nor a pregnant wife. In the absence of a boy born in […]
Lewd Strumpets!
Towards the end of Elizabeth I’s long reign rumours ran rife about the promiscuous behaviour of the ‘flouting wenches’(1) in the royal household where affairs, illegitimate births and shot-gun marriages abounded. The Queen, concerned that her own reputation would suffer by association and beset by deep anxieties about her position, meted out stringent punishments for […]