Printing Presses, Wigs, Drowning Admirals and more.

It's that time, again!!!  Tudor Trivia Tuesday!!!

1. William Caxton established the first printing press in England, at Westminster Abbey, in 1476.  His initial printing firm was located in Bruges, Belgium, where he published the first printed book in English, Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy, in 1473.

2. The second printing press in England was erected at Oxford University, in 1478.

3. John Insomuch, a monk and schoolmaster, erected the third printing-press in England, in 1479, at St. Alban’s monastery.  His last name is actually not known.  The name “Insomuch” was given him because he began two books with the words “Insomuch as…”.

4. Queen Elizabeth I began always wearing wigs in public around the year 1565, indicating that her many illnesses at the time had resulted in the loss of much if not all of her hair.  She would have been 31 years of age at the time.

Scads of colorful information and entertainment.

5.  Water was piped into Hampton Court Palace from Coombe Hill via lead water-pipes.

6.  On April 25, 1513, the first man appointed Lord High Admiral of  the Royal Navy, Edward Howard, led a surprise raid against the largest ship among the French fleet in Brest harbor.  He and his men maneuvered on small boats in order to board the much bigger vessel.  The Admiral bravely led the boarding party only a small number of which managed to achieve the deck before their boats and fellows were swept away by a current leaving them stranded.  The French sailors drove them overboard which was doubly unfortunate for the Admiral as he had chosen to wear a full suit of armor for the occasion.

7. On May 4, 1513, Thomas Howard was the second man appointed Lord High Admiral of  the Royal Navy.

8.  Statute Eliz. 5. c. xxi. sect. iii. [1564] established a prison term of 3 months for anyone stealing a hawk’s egg from a nest on the properties of “noblemen, gentlemen, and divers other persons of great dominions and possessions”.

9.  Erasmus wrote of his visit to England that, “The floors are commonly of clay strewed with rushes; under which lies unmolested an ancient collection of ale, grease, fragments, bones, spittle, excrements of dogs and cats, and everything that is nasty.”

10.  16^th century place names including the word “cheap” are derived from the Old English ceap and meant "market" (cf. ceapdæg "market day").  The London street name Cheapside, then, originally meant “Marketside”.  The part of town called East Cheap designated the “East Market”.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• Queen Elizabeth I’s Heart and the French Ambassador.  April 3, 2019.  “…the Queen of England, with the permission of her physicians, has been able to come out of her private chamber, she has permitted me… to see her…”
• Lady Southwell on the Final Days of Queen Elizabeth I.  March 24, 2019.  “her majesty told [Lady Scrope] (commanding her to conceal the same ) that she saw, one night, in her bed, her body exceeding lean, and fearful in a light of fire.”
• Shakespeare’s Barnacles.  March 3, 2016.  “Prospero will wake, he fears, before they can murder him, and will cast a spell on them.”
• Hedingham Castle 1485-1562 with Virtual Tour Link.  January 29, 2019. “Mr. Sheffeld told me that afore the old Erle of Oxford tyme, that cam yn with King Henry the vii., the Castelle of Hengham was yn much ruine,…”
• The Battle Over Shakespeare's Early and Late Plays. September 24, 2018. “The answers to the post-Oxford dilemma, of course, are three.”
• Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.