13 January 1583: A disaster in London: about 4pm, according to Holinshed 'the old and vnderpropped scaffolds round about the beare garden, commonlie called Paris garden, on the southside the Thames ... ouercharged with people fell suddenlie downe, whereby to the number of ... 1/ #earlymodern

Excited to say I have a new book chapter out in 'Nationalism and Royal Women in Early Modern England', part of the Queenship and Power series from Palgrave Macmillan. My chapter explores the anti-Scottish nature of Elizabethan propaganda on Mary Queen of Scots. Read it here: doi.org/10.1007/978-...

13 January 1583: A disaster in London: about 4pm, according to Holinshed 'the old and vnderpropped scaffolds round about the beare garden, commonlie called Paris garden, on the southside the Thames ... ouercharged with people fell suddenlie downe, whereby to the number of ... 1/ #earlymodern

I visited the magnificent Sint Janskerk in Gouda last spring to look at the stained glass there. I will post photos of a window a day (off and on), having at last processed them all (several gaps unfortunately, partly because I was shooting hand-held).

12 January 1583: Not a lot in the records today, but there's an intriguing deposition by one Samuel Haslabye of Little Merham, Notts, about his brother-in-law, Richard Bate, who was often heard to say that 'he would make a picture of waxe wherbye he would consume his wyfe's ... 1/ #earlymodern

The rest of our programme for the term is: 2 February: Sam Zeitin, ‘"The Wicked daily doe enlarge their Bands": Francis Bacon's Translation of Certaine Psalmes, 1624-1625’. (cont.)

Happy New Year from the IHR Tudor & Stuart seminar! We will be back at the IHR a week today: Monday 19 January, 5:30pm, in-person at the IHR, and on zoom: Holly Brewer (Maryland) @earlymodjustice.bsky.social & Elizabeth Hines (Johns Hopkins): ‘How to Steal the Spanish Silver Fleet’. All welcome!

12 January 1583: Not a lot in the records today, but there's an intriguing deposition by one Samuel Haslabye of Little Merham, Notts, about his brother-in-law, Richard Bate, who was often heard to say that 'he would make a picture of waxe wherbye he would consume his wyfe's ... 1/ #earlymodern

11/21 January 1583: In England, they are still trying to piece together what happened in Antwerp the other day from the contradictory information arriving in London. Edward Stafford (pictured), a diplomat who we haven't met before but will see lots more of, tells Walsingham about ... 1/ #earlymodern

You’re right—swallowing the bird was a half-measure. The bird did eat the spider, as planned, but now you have a bird in you. It reminds you of swallowing the spider to catch the fly. You’re seeing the pattern. Would you like me to suggest some animals which could eat the bird?

Easy to forget how early Portuguese involvement in the enslavement of West Africans was: 1441. By the mid-C16th, the country with the largest African slave population? Portugal, with more than 30,000 enslaved Africans working on the estates of nobles as well as religious orders.

This week is the 75th anniversary of History Today, and our first co-editor certainly turned a few fedoras... The magazine has a colourful history, as this issue’s Glossary proves. Find out what else is in the 75th Anniversary special at buff.ly/2bUa9kH

11/21 January 1583: In England, they are still trying to piece together what happened in Antwerp the other day from the contradictory information arriving in London. Edward Stafford (pictured), a diplomat who we haven't met before but will see lots more of, tells Walsingham about ... 1/ #earlymodern

Very taken by this c. 1530 painting of the cloth market in s'Hertogenbosch. The (anonymous) artist seems to have heard of perspective, but not quite to have got the hang of it. Apparently it was commissioned by the cloth-sellers guild, and Hieronymus Bosch lives in the 7th house from the right.

10/20 January 1583: News of the startling events in the Netherlands is now filtering through to London, as Mendoza writes to Philip II today. He has his nose to the ground instantly, seeking out further detail from sailors, merchants etc. Elizabeth, inevitably, will be furious ... 1/ #earlymodern

Not a publication I was hitherto aware of.

10/20 January 1583: News of the startling events in the Netherlands is now filtering through to London, as Mendoza writes to Philip II today. He has his nose to the ground instantly, seeking out further detail from sailors, merchants etc. Elizabeth, inevitably, will be furious ... 1/ #earlymodern

9/19 January 1583: The duke of Anjou continues to try and style out his having committed some light treason in Antwerp a couple of days ago. There's nothing in the English state papers about this today, but a letter printed in Pieter Bor's history from a few years later (I fear ... 1/ #earlymodern

A new post for the new year: "A New Year’s Gift: Fish, Flesh, and ‘Unlawful Diet’ in Early Modern England" legalhistorymiscellany.com/2026/01/06/a...

By-the-by, I love this 17th-century impression of a gunpowder explosion from Bor's History - it's the destruction of the pontoon bridge built by Parma as part of the siege of Antwerp in 1585, destroyed by Giambelli's fireships/ hellburners (the prototypes for those used in 1588 against the Armada).

9/19 January 1583: The duke of Anjou continues to try and style out his having committed some light treason in Antwerp a couple of days ago. There's nothing in the English state papers about this today, but a letter printed in Pieter Bor's history from a few years later (I fear ... 1/ #earlymodern

8/18 January 1583: After yesterday's tragi-farce of his attempt to seize control of Antwerp and other cities and make himself undisputed master of the Netherlands, Anjou has taken refuge outside the city at Berchem. Today he sends a communication to the States General, couched ... 1/ #earlymodern

I couldn't be happier, or more honored, that the first issue of the redesigned and reimagined HLQ will feature the work of the Somali American artist Ebony Iman Dallas. Like much of her work, 𝘉𝘓𝘈𝘊𝘒𝘰𝘶𝘵: 𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 puts past and present in vital conversation. #earlymodern #skystorians

A great opportunity here to get 40% off many excellent MUP books, and also my two modest efforts: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526159496/ manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526106681/

January 1625 - Richard Napier briefly owns a swan. 3 Jan: 'Mr Grub sent me a Cygnet ... I gave him 2s'. 8 Jan: 'My Cygnet did flye away'. #otd #earlymodern

8/18 January 1583: After yesterday's tragi-farce of his attempt to seize control of Antwerp and other cities and make himself undisputed master of the Netherlands, Anjou has taken refuge outside the city at Berchem. Today he sends a communication to the States General, couched ... 1/ #earlymodern

7/17 January 1583: A dramatic day in Antwerp: the 'French Fury'. As we've seen, the duke of Anjou has been in the Netherlands for nearly a year, leading the rebel provinces in a slightly awkward alliance with William of Orange, and with all the usual constraints on Dutch rulers. ... 1/ #earlymodern

What’s this? A second new book in two days? Towcester Hundred is the eighth VCH volume for Northamptonshire, including the town of Towcester and its rural neighbours. Available soon from @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social and @ihrlibrary.bsky.social. #Skystorians #LocalHistory

Cheerful parakeets in the garden

7/17 January 1583: A dramatic day in Antwerp: the 'French Fury'. As we've seen, the duke of Anjou has been in the Netherlands for nearly a year, leading the rebel provinces in a slightly awkward alliance with William of Orange, and with all the usual constraints on Dutch rulers. ... 1/ #earlymodern

A (long) thread of (anglophone) #StarterPacks and #feeds of interest to #EarlyModern #skystorians. The first two posts list a sample of hashtags for which Bluesky feeds currently exist. The following forty-two(!) posts list starter packs for scholars of various aspects of early modern history.

Another exodus from the other site, from the sounds of it? If you're looking for the #EarlyModern gang, we've got three starter packs that compile a bunch of them. I can keep adding to the third, just poke. Here's the OG: go.bsky.app/VQeQbbF 1/3

6 January 1583: Not too much happening today. Elizabeth is tiring of Windsor and wants to move on to Richmond Palace soon, so the Privy Council write to the London authorities to warn them to maintain vigilance against the plague and warn infected persons to stay away. They ... 1/ #earlymodern

"Look, son" the man in the boat tells his son in Dutch, "I have long known, that the big fish eat the small fish." Thinking about this Brueghel print from 1557 this week, about the mighty preying on the weak. What is the small boy learning? Is there no other way?

6 January 1583: Not too much happening today. Elizabeth is tiring of Windsor and wants to move on to Richmond Palace soon, so the Privy Council write to the London authorities to warn them to maintain vigilance against the plague and warn infected persons to stay away. They ... 1/ #earlymodern

5 January 1583: Twelfth Night, so the queen, still at Windsor, naturally has an entertainment, 'A Masque of Ladies', which again we don't have the text for, but involved some masked ladies (naturally) and a boy making a speech. It was apparently devised by Thomas Cardell, a ... 1/ #earlymodern

5 January 1583: Twelfth Night, so the queen, still at Windsor, naturally has an entertainment, 'A Masque of Ladies', which again we don't have the text for, but involved some masked ladies (naturally) and a boy making a speech. It was apparently devised by Thomas Cardell, a ... 1/ #earlymodern

4 January 1583: In Florence, where it is 14 January, this statue by Giambologna is unveiled in the Piazza della Signoria. Now called the Abduction/Rape of a Sabine Woman, the sculptor undertook it as a technical exercise and had to seek suggestions about what to call it afterwards. 1/ #earlymodern

4 January 1583: In Florence, where it is 14 January, this statue by Giambologna is unveiled in the Piazza della Signoria. Now called the Abduction/Rape of a Sabine Woman, the sculptor undertook it as a technical exercise and had to seek suggestions about what to call it afterwards. 1/ #earlymodern

3 January 1583: Lots of activity on the wintry Great North Road. Lennox has now reached Ware, near Hertford, and has been told Elizabeth won't see him, at which he is very disappointed, as he has things to tell her. At Berwick, Davison and La Mothe have been stopped by James's ... 1/ #earlymodern

3 January 1583: Lots of activity on the wintry Great North Road. Lennox has now reached Ware, near Hertford, and has been told Elizabeth won't see him, at which he is very disappointed, as he has things to tell her. At Berwick, Davison and La Mothe have been stopped by James's ... 1/ #earlymodern

1 January 1583: Or so I will call it, at any rate; in England, it is still 1582 until 25 March. Despite this, for reasons which I've never understood, New Year's Gifts (the equivalent of Christmas presents) are exchanged on 1 January. I don't think the roll listing them ... 1/ #earlymodern

1 January 1583: Or so I will call it, at any rate; in England, it is still 1582 until 25 March. Despite this, for reasons which I've never understood, New Year's Gifts (the equivalent of Christmas presents) are exchanged on 1 January. I don't think the roll listing them ... 1/ #earlymodern

31 December 1582: Today is the last entry in Richard Madox's diary which he began on 1 January in Wolverhampton and ends today off the coast of Brazil. He doesn't say much, just that it's cloudy and grey. I've quoted it quite a lot, partly because it's interesting in itself, but ... 1/ #earlymodern

1582: So, perhaps time for a brief review of 1582, even though 1583 doesn't officially start until March. In England itself, it’s been relatively stable. At the start of the year there was still some remote chance that Elizabeth would marry the duke of Anjou, which ... 1/ #earlymodern

1582: So, perhaps time for a brief review of 1582, even though 1583 doesn't officially start until March. In England itself, it’s been relatively stable. At the start of the year there was still some remote chance that Elizabeth would marry the duke of Anjou, which ... 1/ #earlymodern

bring in the new year by reading *even more* about James VI/I... I've got a piece about James's English 'chapel closets' in the most recent issue of @paulmelloncentr.bsky.social British Art Studies. Read it (and finer pieces on Jacobean image-making) here: britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/29/co...

31 December 1582: Today is the last entry in Richard Madox's diary which he began on 1 January in Wolverhampton and ends today off the coast of Brazil. He doesn't say much, just that it's cloudy and grey. I've quoted it quite a lot, partly because it's interesting in itself, but ... 1/ #earlymodern

30 December 1582: Another Christmas-tide play for Elizabeth I at Windsor Castle this evening: 'Love and Fortune', performed by the earl of Derby's men. This play is supposed to have been an inspiration to Shakespeare for Cymbeline, except that it's a comedy, with lots of ... 1/ #earlymodern

30 December 1582: Another Christmas-tide play for Elizabeth I at Windsor Castle this evening: 'Love and Fortune', performed by the earl of Derby's men. This play is supposed to have been an inspiration to Shakespeare for Cymbeline, except that it's a comedy, with lots of ... 1/ #earlymodern