Familiar Refrain

Permalink tudortidbits:

quiz yourself, see if you know all the tudors (via tudortutor.com)
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Permalink thenewanneboleyn:

R.I.P. Catherine of Aragon - January 7th 1536 - the first wife of Henry VIII 

“In this world I will confess myself to be the King’s true wife, and in the next they will know how unreasonably I am afflicted.”
Permalink arthistorita:

Hans Holbein the Younger, Henry VIII, 1537, Walker Art Gallery
Known for his many wives and ostentatious fashion sense.
Permalink achildofdust:

King Henry VIII and Queen Anne Boleyn of England.
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Blood group incompatibility between Henry VIII and his wives could have  driven the Tudor king’s reproductive woes, and a genetic condition  related to his suspected blood group could also explain Henry’s dramatic  mid-life transformation into a physically and mentally-impaired tyrant  who executed two of his wives.
…the numerous miscarriages suffered by Henry’s wives could be explained  if the king’s blood carried the Kell antigen. A Kell negative woman who  has multiple pregnancies with a Kell positive man can produce a healthy,  Kell positive child in a first pregnancy; But the antibodies she  produces during that first pregnancy will cross the placenta and attack a  Kell positive fetus in subsequent pregnancies.
The precise number of miscarriages endured by Henry’s reproductive  partners is difficult to determine, especially when various mistresses  are factored in, but the king’s partners had a total of at least 11 and  possibly 13 or more pregnancies. Only four of the eleven known  pregnancies survived infancy. Whitley and Kramer call the high rate of  spontaneous late-term abortion, stillbirth, or rapid neonatal death  suffered by Henry’s first two queens “an atypical reproductive pattern”  because, even in an age of high child mortality, most women carried  their pregnancies to term, and their infants usually lived long enough  to be christened.
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Pendant Reliquary. 1350, Italy. This lid of this pendant reliquary fashioned from silver, silver gilt and enamel and depicted Christ’s crucifixion would have opened to contain a small personal holy relic. Pendants such as these were said to have protective powers.
Find more stunning historical jewellery
[Request by Anon]
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Rings. 1300s, Europe. Engraved gold set with sapphires and a latin phrase on the inner ring.
Find more stunning jewellery
[Request by Anon]
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