Archaeologists are DNA testing some bones they've found to see if they might be the remains of Richard III. Are there any other members of the Royal Family....

[seeker]

where DNA testing might produce interesting results?

I read it too TheMumsNot and I'm with LeQ

Dire, as was The Lady of the Rivers (don't care about all the sex you had with your dull husband Jacquetta), The Red and White Queen books were very disappointing given the subject matter.

Oh, LaQueen!

Yes, she did. Poor lass (Katharine Howard, who I don't think anyone has ever accused of being a brilliant scholar).

I am really sad Anya Seton didn't write about Henry VIII and that era. Would have been great.

OK, so Sharon Penman.

Which books, and in which order should I get?

(Has Amazon ready and waiting)

LeQ, fornication was against church law. I don't know what the civil penalty was or how it was enforced, but I can check.

The note to Culpepper shows she was barely literate. Poor thing.

Oh, oh, The Welsh Trilogy first!

Here Be Dragons
Falls the Shadow
The Reckoning

Then The Sunne in Splendour.

No, me either, trying to find out.

This is pretty cool, btw: www.etsy.com/listing/44670507/hand-inked-signature-of-katherine-howard

katie - do you have a link to what it said/looks like? I'd really like to know.

I always feel she gets such a raw deal - she was really young, and she gets painted as so empty-headed, but I wonder if she was or if it just suited people better to believe it was stupidity that got her killed rather than Henry being a vicious bastard.

Cheers, all ordered.

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/museum/item.asp?item_id=13

For LRD

This book says fornication was legally punishable 'throughout the early modern period'.

It looks quite interesting in general (if you are very sad, like me )

books.google.co.uk/books?id=E0oVNoUaEskC&pg=PA23&lpg=PA23&dq=sixteenth+century+%22civil+law%22+fornication+England&source=bl&ots=qpc68A8ZID&sig=A0AUC8PY-OdT5MXNZX10zQKZ07I&hl=en#v=onepage&q=sixteenth%20century%20%22civil%20law%22%20fornication%20England&f=false

Thanks katie!

So would that be considered poor literacy at that point? To me it looks pretty good, and her handwriting is beautiful, but I don't know enough about Tudor spelling to know if that's off.

I am surprised if that counts as barely literate, though?

Wasn't Katherine Howard allegedly married to her despoiler (sorry, love that word) Dereham. Which should have led to an annullment, not treason and beheading.

Another reason why Henry was a bad, bad man.

In comparison to the other wives, she was seen as a poor scholar. In comparison to other women of that time I suspect she was better educated than most.

Ah, I see. Poor lass. I suppose it's not surprising really, Catharine of Aragon must have been fantastically well educated.

She had a fabulous mother