There's no question one of my favourite rooms at
@WarwickCastle
is the Library...

Designed by Victorian architect George Edward Fox, with the helping hand of Anne, countess of Warwick, the Library is infused with the spirit and swagger of the Italian Renaissance.

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A NEW TUDOR DISCOVERY?

Last week I was invited to Warwick Castle to consult on a recent discovery made during conservation work.

Conservation specialists made the find while repairing a plaster ceiling in the Cedar Drawing Room.

Here’s what they found…

On 15 January 1559 Elizabeth I was crowned Queen in Westminster Abbey, the iconic moment of the Queen holding the orb and sceptre of State captured in this ‘Coronation’ portrait.

BUT for most of this famous portrait’s history, it hung hundreds of miles away at Warwick Castle….

Short 🧵

DON’T FORGET to switch on to BBC One at 11.45 to see the stunning St Mary’s Church Warwick, resting place of the House of Warwick and the iconic Beauchamp Chapel, host midnight mass!

For all the noise around this discoveries links to the Princes in the Tower, I have to say this just goes to show that noble and gentry accounts/wills are infinitely more interesting than royal archives! So many questions and stories to be found there.

PS Anne Neville killed the Princes anyway, so…

📍Chatsworth House

TOO many good history books this year, that DIY library is getting very full, very fast! Can’t wait to see what’s on offer in 2025….

The ‘Coronation Portrait’ of Elizabeth I in the Great Hall at Warwick Castle.

First recorded at Warwick in 1762, though probably there much longer, it survived a devastating fire in 1871 and was reframed into its current ‘Sansovino’ style frame.

The portrait was sold to the NPG in 1978.

🎄 at Hampton Court incoming….

Last of the ancient Arden outside Warwick…

“The nurse-life wheat, within his green husk growing,
Flatters our hope and tickles our desire,
Nature's true riches in sweet beauties showing,
Which set all hearts with lobor's love on fire.”

Sir Fulke Greville, Caelica

It’s going to be nice to actually see and speak to history nerds and cool people for a while until He comes to destroy it all over again…