My new book is OUT NOW!

 Drumroll please!

My new book "The Forgotten Years of Anne Boleyn: The Habsburg & Valois Courts" is out NOW in paperback, hardcover & eBook formats. I would be honoured if you buy the book, and happy if you glean new insights into Anne Boleyn's forgotten years.

The Forgotten Tudor Women on Not Just the Tudors podcast

Hello everyone,

This is just a quick post to let you know that the new episode of Not Just the Tudors podcast with Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is out now and I'm in it!

I was invited to talk about the forgotten Tudor women Anne Seymour, Jane Dudley & Elisabeth Parr.

Please take a listen & enjoy!

My article in the newest issue of History of Scotland magazine

I wrote an article for the newest issue of History of Scotland magazine , focusing on the relationship between Anne Boleyn & Henry VIII's elder sister Margaret Tudor, Dowager Queen of Scots.

While researching my newest book "Ladies-in-Waiting: Women Who Served Anne Boleyn", I came across a letter Margaret wrote to Anne in 1534 so I decided to explore it further.

The relationship between the two queens is rarely mentioned so I think it's going to be an interesting read for Anne's fans.

Did Katherine of Aragon suffer from prognathism?

Did Katherine of Aragon suffer from prognathism? 

This is an excerpt from my book "Medical Downfall of the Tudors: Sex, Reproduction & Succession" (pp. 111-113).

"In 1519, Francis I quipped that Henry VIII “has an old deformed wife, while he himself is young and handsome”.[i] It is generally assumed that the French King was referring to Katharine’s corpulent figure; several years later one eyewitness described her as “of low stature” and “rather stout”.[ii] Yet there’s evidence that Francis was referring not only to Katharine’s bulky figure but also to a deformity of her jaw—a deformity that has been overlooked by modern historians until now.

In the vast collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, there is a boxwood draughtsman that bears a portraitof Katharine of Aragon, dating to c. 1535.[iii] She is depicted in profile to the left, with her head covered by a hood of English making, and wears a dress with a low-cut décolletage that emphasises her ample bosom. Around her neck, she wears a chain with a pendant. The feature that draws the viewer’s attention is the half-opened, jutting jaw. 

This is not the only depiction of Katharine with a pronounced jaw. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna holds a set of twenty-seven boxwood-on-walnut game pieces, dating to c. 1535, depicting various historical personages of the sixteenth century.[iv] Katharine of Aragon is one of them: She is depicted wearing similar headdress, clothes and pendant as in the Victoria & Albert boxwood draughtsman but faces the viewer with her eyes turned to the left. Like in the Victoria & Albert piece, her jaw is half-opened and pronounced. 

The National Portrait Gallery in London preserves a miniature of Katharine, dating to c. 1525-26, wherein her jaw is more pronounced that in other known portraits.[v] Finally, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has a portrait of the Queen wherein her jaw is closed but clearly jutting.[vi]

The abovementioned evidence suggests that Katharine of Aragon suffered from mandibular prognathism, much like her Habsburg nephew Charles V (Katharine’s sister Joanna married into the Habsburg dynasty in 1496, espousing Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy). The so called “Habsburg jaw” refers to the inherited trait which was present and clearly evident in the Habsburg family, Maximilian I and Charles V being the most prominent examples in the sixteenth century. This condition manifests itself as a jutting of the jaw. Yet the Habsburgs were not the only ones who suffered from prognathism. The Trastámara dynasty, from which both of Katharine’s parents descended, had several members who suffered from prognathism. Katharine’s half uncle, Henry IV of Castile, was the most prominent example, as evidenced by his skeletal remains. John II of Castile, Katharine’s maternal grandfather, also suffered from prognathism, as did the first Trastámara King of Castile, Henry II. Clearly, prognathism ran in Katharine of Aragon’s family and was a trait she inherited."

 

Sources:

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[i] Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 2, 1509-1519, n. 1230.

[ii] Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 4, n. 694.

[iii] Catherine of Aragon, gamesiece, Museum number: A.35-1934, http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O96204/catherine-of-aragon-gamespiece-kels-hans

[iv] The Kunsthistorisches Museum, KK 3851-77.

[v] Katherine of Aragon, attributed to Lucas Horenbout (or Hornebolte), watercolour on vellum, circa 1525-1526, NPG L244, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw191234/Katherine-of-Aragon

[vi] Catherine of Aragon, 48.1142, https://collections.mfa.org/objects/33353