Random Tudor News Article :)

[magog_83]

Mum just alerted me to an amazing local news story! A couple seeking to renovate a room in their home in Somerset have uncovered a twenty foot high mural of King Henry VIII on plaster behind some wooden panels! Apparently the house was the summer palace of Thomas Cranmer when he was Archdeacon of Taunton, so the mural probably dates from the 1530s (Cranmer went on to be Henry's Archbishop of Canterbury and was executed by Mary I in the 1550s).

BBC Somerset article on the discovery with video of the mural.

Apart from the fact that Henry looks slightly cross-eyed (and not AT ALL like Jonathan Rhys Meyers), the mural is pretty damn impressive and very well preserved. What a thing to discover in your house :D :D

Comments

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

No house of mine would either :( I can dream! I think we'd be lucky to find a copy of the Daily Mirror circa 1974 (left behind by the builders) if we were doing any remodelling here.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers was certainly an unusual choice, more so now he's playing a gross, sickly, middle aged Henry who is probably impotent. Oh wait... NO HE ISN'T ;) But we still love him.

Did you ever see this spoof trailer? I would watch those other shows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdgy1J7cKJU

[siptah57.livejournal.com]

I've seen a couple of his suits of armour in the Met. One from earlier in his life and another from later. Huge size difference. He was just a slip of a thing in his youth!

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I remember reading he was supposed to have been the handsomest Prince in Christendom in his youth (sorry Arthur), a far cry from the images of him later!

[snottygrrl.livejournal.com]

this is something one never has to worry about in the states, especially if one lives on the west coast. the most interesting thing one might find under the paneling is bones from some unsolved mystery that is no more than 50yrs old.

what i want to know is what happens to it now? do they just have this historically amazing thing in their living room?

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I presume they do! It's in their house after all. In the video you see them just sitting in their lounge reading the newspaper, with this amazing mural on the wall behind their sofa - which must be odd. Apparently they had help from the university of Bristol to restore it and I'm sure historians are going to want to go in and take a record of it.

Near where I went to uni, the owner of a 16th century coaching inn was doing some repairs to the upper floor and he uncovered a whole series of 16th century plaster murals, not as grand as in this case, but rather the equivalent of early modern wallpaper. They just carried on living in the rooms and if you went to the pub you could ask to see them and the landlord would show you upstairs :D

I think a mystery under the floorboards would be pretty exciting too! Though perhaps not a body (although I'm sitting here watching CSI and am now visualising it as an episode...)

[opusnone.livejournal.com]

Well at least it seems to coordinate with their general color scheme - think of the bother if they had to redecorate. Kidding. It really is quite remarkable and amazing that it has been preserved for so long.

I remember going "adventuring" as a wee one with my siblings and"discovering" all sorts of "hidden treasures": 75 year old graffiti, "ancient" newspaper and magazine bits, and most especially the pull string toilet.In my most recent abode i discovered a Starbucks mug - while not necessarily as exciting, it has proved quite useful.

[siptah57.livejournal.com]

I remember just one such adventure in the victorian era house I grew up in. In the basement I discovered an entire small bathroom, the end of a staircase that no longer went anywhere and newspapers from the thirties (not in the bathroom, that would have just been too funny)

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

:D :D If you'd discovered newspapers in the bathroom it would have been an amazing new discovery about the secret lives of pre-war society!!!

I am most intrigued about the staircase that no longer went anywhere... that sounds like the beginning of a story!

[opusnone.livejournal.com]

I love that about old houses that have been lived in - there is usually something behind, beneath, or above what is already there.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha, I have to admit I hadn't thought of that, but now you come to mention it, what WOULD you do?? Henry's working some blues and reds there, and your living room might be a lovely peach hue! It's certainly something to bear in mind if your purchase an old house...

I love that sort of adventuring! There was an attic room at my gran's house full of old birthday and Christmas cards, magazines and knick-knacks from years ago and us children were always fascinated by it :D

[archaeologist-d.livejournal.com]

That is really quite amazing. I would worry about it being so close to the windows and fading with sunlight. But it's wonderful. What a discovery.

[siptah57.livejournal.com]

That was my first thought too but they can probably treat the glass to block to UV.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

Yes, you imagine they'll have to get a screen or something! It would be awful to have to actually cover it up again after finding it. I can only dream of owning a house like that!! With my very own original Tudor mural :D

[giecast.livejournal.com]

Whoa! That's really kinda awesome. And also a bit weird, to have something like that in your living room I mean haha. It would probably make me feel uncomfortable, like there's someone looking over my shoulder all the damn time. But yey for surprise discoveries!! =)

[siptah57.livejournal.com]

Especially Henry VII! He would always make me a little nervous. :-D

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

Yes, he's certainly an imposing figure to have looming over your sofa... :/ Imagine if you bought a converted medieval church though and happened to uncover wall paintings of devils or demons, THAT would be worse. You'd never go in your lounge again!