What Got You Interested in the Tudors?

I first got interested in the Tudors because of the BBC series, "The Six Wives of Henry VIII." I was eight years old and PBS was re-broadcasting the Jane Seymour episode... I saw Henry VIII riding up on a great white horse to meet Jane and I was instantly and irrevocably enchanted ... it was way past my bedtime that night but I begged my mother to let me stay up and for some inexplicable reason (because usually she was very strict!) she permitted it this time... from then on I was hooked!

The funny thing is, I don't remember how I got interested in Elizabeth Tudor, because I didn't make the immediate connection that she was Henry's daughter. I just remember how thrilled and delighted I was to discover one day that she was the daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn, my very favorite of Henry's wives... After that I read every children's biography I could get my hands on and then I started raiding the adult stacks... Remember Mary Luke's biography of Catherine of Aragon? And Carolly Erickson's first book, much better than her later ones, about Mary Tudor? I soaked up all of them. It was only later, thanks to Josephine Tey's "Daughter of Time,"  that I became interested in the Plantagenets, and read Costain's books about the dynasty. But as Tey says, the Plantagenets "are awfully hard to follow" compared to the Tudors (all those blasted children and grandchildren of Edward III!), so I suppose I have never devoted as much study time to them. Maybe that will change now that I have read Anya Seton's novel, "Katherine"...

i am interested in some plantagenets... the plantagenets are a longer dinasty and a longer period of time... i don't have the same interest in all of them

I LOVE the Plantagenets! Passionate, firey people all who all put their heart and soul into everything they done! Such characters as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry III, the Empress Matilda, Edwards I-III, their queens, the Black Prince, the Fair Maid of Kent, John of Gaunt, Katherine Swynford, Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville - who could resist!  

Yes, my passion is the later Plantagenets from Edward II onwards I also have a special fondness for Harry and his gaggle of wives, all such individuals

When I was about eight years old, I found a (probably cheesy) historical novel called The Reluctant Queen at my grandparent's house. It was about Princess Mary Rose, the one who married Charles Brandon. I read it over and over and that spurred my interest in the period.

Of course, my interest is only casual. I don't purport to be an expert.

I guess I was interested in the Tudors when my mother told me the story of Mary Queen of Scots when I was about six. She also told me that Mary's own cousin, Elizabeth I of England, reluctantly signed her death warrant. When I asked who Elizabeth I was, she told me that she was the last Tudor monarch of England. When I asked who the Tudors were, she told me to go and find out for myself, as she was trying to cook. So I did. That's how I found out about the six wives of Henry VIII and also the Plantaganets.  

just the endless lessons at school. they forced us to get interested
selina                 xxxxxxx

my highschool history teacher was amazing, she was the one that got me interested in history in the serious way... my junior high history teacher was pathetic though

just the endless lessons at school. they forced us to get interested
selina                 xxxxxxx

Lucky you Ferngully....we did social/political history at school. Blah blah Industrial revolution just didn't do it for me

i learned that later kimberly after 4 years of the tudors and egyptions, you start to get bored
selina                           xxxxxxxxx

Lucky you Ferngully....we did social/political history at school. Blah blah Industrial revolution just didn't do it for me

We had this too - all that rubbish about the Tolpuddle martyrs and Unions!  :-/

We had this too - all that rubbish about the Tolpuddle martyrs and Unions!  :-/

 

'Industrial and Social Tensions in Ireland 1871-1914'. I think we can safely say I win.  

Phnar..gold star to PL

Phnar..gold star to PL

What about: "Demographic causes of the Industrial revolution - rising birthrate or falling deathrate?"

Some of it was the Reformation and Priest's Holes, anything hidden, like secret drawers in a chest, gets me chasing the mystery or details.

Still the Tudor Rose itself, the design, has always attracted me in illustrations and seeing it at Hampton Court took it further.