Where It All Began
August 2nd, 2009 | Categories: Entertainment, Question of the Week | 6 CommentsI have always been a huge fan of history; my favorite historical period if the Tudor era, which was famous for people such as Henry VIII, Mary “Bloody Mary” Tudor, and Elizabeth I. My absolute favorite person from the Tudor era is Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife and mother of Elizabeth I. She’s actually my most favorite person throughout history!
Unlike so many of the things I am passionate about, I can pinpoint exactly where my fascination with Tudor history began. When I was in fourth grade, my mother bought me a book by Kathryn Lasky titled Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor. It was the first book in a new series called The Royal Diaries and each book in the series was a fictional account of a young princess who would grow up to be a historically significant member of royalty1. Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor was my first introduction to the Tudor era and the fictional account of Elizabeth’s days in her father’s court as the daughter of Henry VIII and his despised second wife fascinated me. Her voice was so real, so true, and historical accounts were woven into her fictional diary with such power that I was mesmerized by Elizabeth’s life. In fact, I very clearly remember crying when I finished the book, because once it was over I felt like I had lost a best friend as that was what Elizabeth had become to me as I read the book.
At the end of the diary, there was an epilogue, a historical note, a family tree, and assorted photos with corresponding captions of Elizabeth as well as important people in her life. That more than anything helped me separate fact and fiction and allowed me to put names to faces2. I have been hooked on Tudor history ever since and while the rest of the books I had in The Royal Diaries will eventually be given away or donated to libraries, I will never, ever let go of my copy of Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor. I just love it too much to ever part with it!
Question of the Week: Can you pinpoint the exact moment/time when one of your passions/interests began?
- Other royal girls in the series included Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette, Isabella of Spain, Anastasia Romanov, Queen Victoria of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Princess Kaiulani of Hawaii. [↩]
- There was a chart with Henry VIII and his six wives represented with drawings and under each name was a quick summation of what impact that particular wife had on Henry, the English court, and overall history [↩]
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Hi, I'm Manda. I'm a college student studying communications and languages. I like to read, shop, bake, and travel. I have a tendency to listen to my favorite songs on repeat for hours on end. Sometimes I catch myself thinking in a language other than English. 
I wish I could say something so significant has happened to me but I don’t really remember having a big passion for one thing as you do with the Tudor era. I mean I liked a lot of things but never loved one things. Which is quite like my life today really.
I remember when I became obsessed with Stargate though I was 15 in the middle of my GCSEs I watched it everyday on Sky One.
It was around that time that I become obsessed with names….
That is really interesting! I must say that I never was interested in history. I had a lot of boring nuns teach my history and it never stuck. My husband absolutely loves all things historical, though, and he sometimes goes off with little stories about times or places. I find it interesting when he explains it like that.
I have a lot of interests. Most of them I really don’t know when they started but the first thing I thought of was Friendship Bracelets. I have been making them since elementary school and I can remember that when I was in second grade, there was a fifth grader out on the playground that was making bracelets. I thought she was the coolest thing ever and she was my friend’s older sister. I went home that day and begged my mother to take me to the craft store to get me embroidery thread and a Klutz book on friendship bracelets. That’s where that started. :)
Oh wow, this could have been written by me if I was that eloquent aged ten. xD (I’ve even read Lasky’s book!) When I was about seven or eight my mother introduced me to Tudor history, and I thought it was the most fascinating thing ever. I seem to recall that Anne Boleyn was my favourite Tudor figure as well, but I could sympathise with everyone… except Jane Seymour, I never really liked her all that much. But I felt quite sorry for Katherine of Aragon after how poorly she was treated, and then I felt sorry for Anne Boleyn when she was discarded even more brutally than Katherine of Aragon had been.
The whole religious fanaticism aspect interested me too, and its repercussions for the English population is still probably the most interesting aspect of Tudor history for me (more so than the fiasco that was Henry VIII’s personal life, that’s for sure). The fact that Henry VIII changed his entire country’s religious authority from the Pope to him, based on the fact that he wanted to annul his marriage with Katherine, thought the scriptures were pretty clear on the matter and the Pope wouldn’t obey the scriptures… ah, interesting. And then he oppressed the English population, making them swear oaths of loyalty to him in the new social order that followed. I guess the horrors of Mary I’s regime lead on logically from that. She wanted to restore England to her vision of the One True Religion (Catholicism), and the burnings began when she felt that the situation had become urgent and that she couldn’t fall pregnant (and birth an heir) until England was purged of “heretics”… it’s horrifying, but really interesting.
I’m sorry for rambling, but seeing this post got me all excited! :) Despite that, Tudor history isn’t really my “thing” any more. I really love ideological/political history, and although there is religion as ideology in the Tudor period, non-religious-based ideologies only seem to appear later on. Still, the Tudor period can still be interesting. :D
My interest in the Tudor era started the same way! :o The book made me like Elizabeth I, but I love Anne even more because she’s shrouded in mystery. Ever since I read “Falsely accused of adultery, Anne was beheaded” in that Royal Diaries book, I’ve believed that Anne’s only crime was failing to give Henry a son, no matter what some historians like to say :D And although Elizbeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor never made me cry, the movie Anne of the Thousand Days definitely did!
To delve back even more, I think my childhood obsession with the Royal Diaries (I own Elizabeth, Isabel, Kaiulani, and Nzingha, and that’s the order in which I like them) began when I discovered them as sort of a branching off of the Dear America series (and I don’t know when I started liking that series; I only remember I was obsessed with the ribbons :p).
I share the same passion for Tudor history and for me that came at age 8 when my parents bought me a book on the dynasties on England. It was pretty basic but I was hooked on the information on Henry VII until James I and mostly on Henry VIII. I guess it was the number of wives and therefore amount of information available that got me hooked, kind of weird because his lifestyle isn’t really something I’d praise, but fascinating nonetheless. When I was younger I preferred the story of Jane Seymour but now I see her in a bad light, preferring the two Annes.
I’m noting down the books you read. Have you ever read Alison Weir’s books? She’s just about to publish one on the fall of Anne Boleyn.
I have heard of Alison Weir, but haven’t read any of her books. I’ll have to make note of her next time I am at the bookstore.