historicall.y

The Battle of Hastings was triggered when Edward the Confessor died on 5th January 1066, with no heir to the throne. There were many men for the job, but Harold Godwinson had himself crowned as soon as possible because he was the only one of those men in England at that time!  This made some certain people very angry and so in April of that same year William of Normandy prepared to invade England from France. One reason why William won was because he was very prepared and he invested a lot of money into the battle.  For example William brought a mixture of foot-soldiers, archers and cavalry.  William was also a great commander of his troops.  This means that he was much stronger and had a better chance of winning. The timing of William's arrival was pure luck for him.  William arrived in England when Harold was busy fighting off Harald  Hardrada (Viking leader and also one of the men who yearned for the throne of England) for the crown. Th...

Hever Castle Hever Castle, with its beautiful gardens and well- kept walls, is about 700 year old. It was originally built as a medieval house in 1270.  In the 15th and 16th centurys the castle was residence to one of the most powerful families in England, the Boleyns, who added the Tudor style architecture and furnishings within the walls. Hever Castle is located in Kent, England.  Anne Boleyn , the second wife of King Henry VIII of England, her brother George and their sister Mary spent their early childhood at Hever castle. Their father, the nobleman Thomas Boleyn, inherited the castle from his father in 1505.  Anne of  Cleves  Anne Boleyn was executed in 1536, along with her brother George, for incest and adultery and, worst of all, high treason. The court put shame on Thomas Boleyn, and he lived for two more unhappy years until his death in 1538. The castle was then given to the crown. It later formed part of the settlement of  Henry VI...

When we do Kentwell Hall Tudor re- enactments, there is specific dress we must wear. Our costumes are identical to the adult women and are made up of lots of layers of garments. This is a description to what a working class woman would have worn in the 1500s. The kirtle The kirtle is a thick woollen dress which is worn on top of the linen shift. The bodice is laced either at the front or the sides. It must be laced extremely tight in order to support the chest... The colours of the wool were natural colours because to dye cloth they used plants and natural substances such as woad and onion skins. This was because synthetic dyes were only invented in 1856 by William Henry Perkin. The darker or brighter the garment the more expensive it was because there would have to be more of the actual dye included in the process, therefore only the wealthy Tudors could afford colours like black, crimsons e.t.c. The poor would have to put up with colours such as browns, brick reds, greens and ...

Rumours have always surrounded the life of Anne Boleyn, the young woman who became King Henry VIII’s second wife in 1533 only beheaded three years later. But among the many mysteries the queen, maybe the most odd one is the claim that she had six fingers on one of her hands. A book was written called the Catholic propagandist Nicholas Sander this is most likely to be the source of this rumour.  Nicholas Sander wrote a few decades after Boleyn’s death, he noted that the queen '' six fingers on her right hand.” Sander described Anne as quite an ugly woman, claiming she had an overhanging tooth and a cyst on the front of her neck These stories slowly wormed their way into Anne Boleyn's reputation.  Sander never saw Boleyn in person.  A Lot of people argue that it’s unlikely that such a  ugly woman would have captured the eye of Henry VIII.  Also in the medieval era, moles and other bodily imperfections were often viewed as signs of devilry and witc...