16th Century - Tumblr Posts
It is true that John Hawkins masterminded the first English transatlantic slaving voyages in the 1560s, but he was, in an awful sense, ahead of his time. After his final voyage returned in disarray in 1569, the English did not take up the trade again in earnest until the 1640s. Elizabeth I did not ‘expel’ Africans from England in 1596; rather her Privy Council issued a limited licence to an unscrupulous merchant named Caspar Van Senden, who was only allowed to transport individuals out of England with their masters’ consent: a consent that he utterly failed to obtain.
Black Tudors: The Untold Story
John Blanke was not the last African to serve King Henry VIII. As a French diplomat remarked to his English counterpart in the summer of 1545: ‘King’s hearts are in God’s hand and he turns them as pleases him from peace to war and from war to peace’. During his final war with France, instead of a skilled musician King Henry required the services of a man versed in an art that was at this time little practised by Europeans, but which people from West Africa were taught from birth: swimming and diving.
Black Tudors: The Untold Story
Harriet Green as Anne Boleyn in Six Queens of Henry VIII.
The christening of lady Elizabeth, daughter to King Henry VIII., the 25th year of his reign, A.D. 1533.
On Sept 7, between three and four o'clock p.m., the Queen was delivered of a fair lady, for whom Te Deum was incontinently sung. The mayor, Sir Stephen Pecock, with his brethren and 40 of the chief citizens, were ordered to be at the christening on the Wednesday following ; on which day the mayor and council, in scarlet, with their collars, rowed to Greenwich, and the citizens went in another barge.
“The Henry of 1521, who received a papal title for writing in defense of the faith, was no more. The young zealous Catholic had undergone a transformation from seeing the papacy as an institution of veneration to one that had little relevance for his personal faith or rule. It was partly the influence of the sack of Rome and the character of Clement VII, but largely the result of Henry’s developing awareness of questions raised by the new learning which he could harness in the hope of reaching his own goals.”
— Catherine of Aragon: An Intimate Life, Amy Licence
What better time to upload my Renaissance-inspired Princess Peach than Mario day? I've always thought it would be fun to combine historical fashion with cosplay, and maybe one day I will, but for now this is a much easier way to get my fix.
I primarily focused on mid-16th century Italy for inspiration with the silhouette and style details, and that's about where any "historical accuracy" ends. The hair is entirely anachronistic, as is the bright pink color of her dress, but Peach's bangs are so iconic that she seemed naked without them.
Had a last minute notion to make an Elizabethan-inspired embroidery pattern to celebrate the eclipse. I originally thought of doing a coif pattern, but thought the eclipse would get lost in the folds of the cap, so I ultimately went with a sweet bag. Since it was cloudy throughout totality, I thought it would be fun to incorporate the stars & clouds embroidery from a c.1600 waistcoat at the Bath Fashion Museum. The sun design is inspired by various period illustrations of sun motifs, minus the face they always seemed to put on every sun/moon design because I just couldn't make it not look silly.
I have no idea what stitches I would use for this bag, since sweet bags tend to use all sorts of different stitches. The original stars & clouds design is in blackwork, but I haven't seen any evidence of blackwork used on sweet bags. I'd probably do the background in a black or darkest blue metallic gobelin stitch (also ahistorical, but pretty!), the clouds/stars in silver stem stitch, the corona and rays in satin stitch or plaited braid, and the moon in black detatched buttonhole or some other fill stitch. Or I'd do the entire thing in blackwork except the corona and rays of the sun, which I'd do in gilt, documentation be damned.
Mary Stuart's Football; 16th Century
Probably the world's oldest surviving football - discovered behind wall panels in the royal apartments at Stirling Castle in Scotland.
Dating back to the 1540s, it probably belonged to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots - who was crowned at the castle in 1543 and subsequently visited it on numerous occasions. The queen was known to be keen on football, golf, horse riding and other sports; her diaries contain entries of games of football in the courtyards and on the lawns of the castle, in which she and other aristocrats, as well as commoners, took an active part.
Why the queen left (or forgot) this ball behind a wall panel in her apartments will probably forever remain a mystery.
Wondering what to get your Renaissance-era baby? How about a rattle — complete with a wolf’s tooth?
The top example in the imageset above is described further in a blog post from The Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum:
After two years in Spittal Street, the internationally important Neish Collection of British Pewter will be displayed in the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum, later this year. Shown here is a small item from it, a baby rattle dating to the 1540s. The rattle opens into a ball shape with 4 copper alloy bells attached. Under this there is a long stem which ends in a whistle. At the whistle end are the pewterer’s initials cast as part of the design – A.B. or A.I.B. The whole object is covered in cross hatching except the ball which has an Elizabethan-style design around it. This type of rattle was common, until the end of the 18th century, but with one difference: the hard ‘teething’ piece, on which the baby could cut its first teeth was usually a piece of coral, imported from Africa or the southern Mediterranean. The ‘teething’ piece here is the canine tooth of a wolf, which the baby could press to its gums, to relieve the pain. The rattle will feature in the book The Tudor Child: Clothing and Culture 1485 to 1625, by Jane Huggett, Jane Malcolm-Davies, Ninya Mikhaila, and Perry Michael, published this month.
For examples of the 18th & 19th century rattles with coral teething pieces, see V&A M.18-1996 or M.18-1973 or Met 1978.287.
Archduke Ernest of Austria (c. 1580) by Alonso Sánchez Coello. Museo del Prado.
"A Meat Stall with the Holy Family Giving Alms" (The Butcher’s Stall) by Pieter Aertsen (1551). North Carolina Museum of Art.
Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici portrait by Pontormo (c. 1520). Uffizi Gallery.
Venetian Lovers (c. 1530) by Paris Bordone. Pinacoteca di Brera.
Louis XII, King of France (c. 1514) by Jean Perréal. Hampton Court Palace.
Portrait of Barbara Radziwiłł, Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania (c. 1551) by Lucas Cranach the Younger. National Museum, Kraków.
Portrait of Johann Georg, prince-elector (Kurfürst) of the Margraviate of Brandenburg (1564) by Lucas Cranach the Younger. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister.
An old piece A historical character Chairman Zara Lilli kinda made as Pokemon au that my good friend funky-universal-nerd made.
More of Zara and also her successor Bruce. He was basically like a son to her. In order Arphen Stalk (basically a galarain ponyta), Brue stalk (old), Bruce (young), Zara Lilli (old), Zara (mid-aged), Zara again (young), Zara’s mother, and Zara’s husband Wolfram (Corviknight)