Empire of the Seas with Dan Snow

"Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World" is the title of Dan Snow's four-part documentary series currently setting sail on Friday evenings on BBC2, and jolly bracing it is too.

Dan is the son of Peter Snow, through-the-night BBC anchorman for many parliamentary elections, and I half expected Dan to roll out his dad's famous Swingometer to illustrate the shifts in the balance of sea power between Spain, France and Blighty.

As a former Boat Race man himself, Dan loses no opportunity to climb rigging, stand Winslet-like at the prow and man the wheel of various expensive-looking craft that the BBC has managed to borrow.

He also helps the modern Royal Navy to show off several of its more modern vessels, including a simulated raid by a large state-of-the-art fisheries protection vessel on a tiny defenceless fishing boat which the RN boat could easily squash by accident. Maybe there were no Somali pirates around to teach a lesson to...

The series charts the progress of the Royal Navy from the defeat of the Armada to the First World War, and therein lies one of the criticisms that have been aimed at the BBC. Why ignore the contribution of Henry VIII (and earlier regimes) in establishing the early Navy? Daly History Blog argues a similar point.

Cardinal Wolsey suspects that with such high production values (lots of helicopter flypasts as Dan sways on the topmast) the budget would only stretch to four episodes, so the early days had to be cut. See this previous post on Henry VIII's dockyards if you are interested in this period.

Another criticism is the sometimes slapdash treatment of the background politics (as opposed to the naval stuff proper). James Russell points out that the Armada was not simply a revenge mission for Drake's attack on Cadiz (as claimed in episode 1), but in fact it's key objective was to reverse the Protestant reformation and restore the Catholic church.

But Empire of the Seas is very good on how the expansion of the Navy was masterminded by men such as Sam Pepys . I agree with Molly Joyful's blog that the series isn't too gung-ho and highlights some of the less savoury episodes on the seas. These include the sad story of Admiral John Byng, also the subject of a previous post in this blog.

There is also a lavishly illustrated book to go with the series, written by expert naval historian Brian Lavery. Amazon UK are currently offering it at half price which at £10 is incredible value. That leaves a tenner spare for a bottle of rum to go with it.

They're Back....

Friday sees the return of "The Tooders" to UK television, with the start of Series II eagerly awaited by all serious history fans. The BBC have cleverly scheduled it in middle of the summer holiday, when there isn't much opposition - Poirot and Big Brother will be no match for the great Peter "retired Christian" O'Toole as the Pope (the wrong one, but never mind..).

No doubt we can expect more liberties with the facts for dramatic effect . As the Radio Times has it, "...even if some of the history is shoddy they make sure the costumes are based on fact - and they look a million ducats!" Fol de rol!

JRM reassures us that "We're not making a documentary for universities"....Oh yes you are. (Look out for the new distance learning M.A. in Media Studies with Tudor Option offered by the prestigious University of Hampton Court).

Alas no Wolsey, as he topped himself at the end of Series I . I predict a comeback in Series VI when it is revealed he faked his own death. Series III is already in production, with rumours that all 6 wives will be covered. Is anyone lining up to play Anne of Cleves? Will Jane Seymour play herself?

Should be fun.

Image: Anita Briem as Jane Seymour, The Tudors, source Wikipedia Commons

"The Tudors" is Annoying - Official

A quick post to wrap up the "Rate The Tudors" poll which ran on this blog before Christmas; this was during the first season run of the "bonking and plotting" series on the BBC.

The number of readers finding "The Tudors" to be Annoying just beat the votes for Gripping. Worryingly, 18% of the votes reckoned The Tudors is Accurate...maybe they voted before the episode when Wolsey commits suicide (the blog had a big spike of hits when this happened).

Anyway, all publicity is good publicity as they say, and the Tudors Season 2 preview has had a massive (for this blog!) 152 hits on Cardinal Wolsey's Vodpod.

Whilst on the subject of hits, I have now managed to get above the Cardinal Wolsey Biker Bar (in Hampton Court) website in the Google Search results for Cardinal Wolsey . This is success! Might even make 1000 unique visitors this month....

What the Pope was Eating in 1550 - Bartolomeo Scappi

Having eaten way too much over the festive period (and still eating it), I feel slightly queasy writing a post about food, but here goes.

Carluccio and the Renaissance Cookbook was an entertaining BBC TV show last Thursday about Bartolomeo Scappi. Scappi was a 16th Century chef to the Vatican and author of The Opera, a landmark cookbook.

Feanor at Just a Mon has already written an excellent post on this, so I won't recap the details. I have just discovered this blog, which has some entertaining historical posts about London, including one on the history of Camomile Street in the City.

Back to Scappi...the programme has inspired some good reviews, including Nancy Banks-Smith at Guardian Unlimited ("Catholic churchmen were formidable trenchermen. If you take away one pleasure of the flesh you leave more elbow room for another").

Also Terry Durack at IndyBlogs ("What I remember most, however, is an extreme close-up of a barbecue spit popping out through a suckling pig's bum"). Quite.

There are some interesting comments in reply to Durack's review, including this gem:

"We are in total ore (sic) of Scappi, How can we learn more and find the bible of life, Opera? Please can you help. My husband has just discovered the kitchen and has now seen the light through Scappi's eyes. Genesis. He is now a changed man. We must continue the passion".

Buon Appetito!

Rate "TheTudors"

I have installed a short survey on the sidebar to give readers the chance to rate the TV series "The Tudors", on which opinions seem to be divided. You can check more than one box! Personally, I rate it both "annoying" and "gripping".

Nasty jobs in history

If any readers are in unfulfilling jobs, remember it could be worse. Here is a reminder of some nasty job roles in history, as described in Tony (Time Team, Blackadder) Robinson's Channel 4 series and book, the Worst Jobs in History. Next time the photocopier breaks down, remember you could have been Groom of the Stool.

Is YouTube any good for History?

Is YouTube any use for those of us interested in History?

For future generations it is accumulating a vast pile of first-person accounts (eg the frontline coverage from Iraq and Afghanistan), and is very much focussed on the Now...maybe with a nostalgic retro feel in places (eg all the Star Wars spoofs).

However, a quick browse through turned up some interesting uploads (some of which are no doubt infringing copyright!):

A search for "Early Modern history" turned up an interesting video from Warwick University's ICAST series on Angels in the Early Modern Period.

This led to another Warwick video on Prof. John Bates' five year effort to edit a new edition of the Complete Works of Shakespeare - check out the bags under his eyes.

Americans are into re-enactment in a big way - this clip is comedian Dan Polydoris' take on the Renaissance Fair phenomenon - [warning - contains strong language and drug references!]

A search for Tudor History brings back 39 responses. Here is Adam-Hart Davies expounding on Tudor toilet technology as only he can.

CBS have put up an official trailer for the US hit series The Tudors, although there are lots or pirated clips also. CBS are taking a similar apprach to the BBC/HBO series "Rome" , hence I laughed when I heard this punchline from the CBS trailer: "The next best thing to being the King, is hanging with the King". Even better is this viewer comment: " this show is sooo frekin awesome!" Right.

Finally, here is US artist/historian George Stuart on Cardinal Wolsey, part of a monologue covering the key figures in 400 years of British History ... Wolsey gets just under five minutes.

That's it for now.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

According to Historyorb.com, on 26th February 1616 the Spanish Inquisition delivered an injunction to Galileo.

The Galileo entry on Wikipedia reveals that 'this was an order not to "hold or defend" the idea that the Earth moves and the Sun stands still at the centre'.

Anyway, a good excuse to print some of Cardinal Wolsey's favourite lines from Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch:

Ximinez (Michael Palin):
NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise....
Our two weapons are fear and surprise... and ruthless efficiency....
Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...
and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope....
Our four... no...
Amongst our weapons... Amongst our weaponry...
are such elements as fear, surprise...
I'll come in again.

Here's a link to the sketch on YouTube