SCHOLARS’ CORNER
A Forever Scholars Blog
Catherine Parr and the Paper That Could Have Killed Her
In the last years of Henry VIII’s reign, Catherine Parr faced the kind of peril no crown could prevent: a secret arrest warrant, conservative enemies, and a king whose pain sharpened his suspicions. One mishandled document and one brilliantly timed performance of humility kept England’s final Tudor queen from the Tower.
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Salem, 1692: When Fear Learned to Sign Its Name
In 1692, Salem’s crisis did not spread by rumor alone. It moved through warrants, examinations, and a courtroom logic that treated invisible harm as actionable proof. The surviving documents show how fear, community fracture, and flawed evidence can become lethal when the law lends them its authority.
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The King with a Song in His Throat: Henry VIII, Music, and the Courtly Art of Self-Invention
Henry VIII’s image is all power and menace, but the young king was also a serious musician. From the Henry VIII Manuscript to “Pastime with Good Company,” his surviving music shows how art, politics, and self-invention blended at the Tudor court, and why “Greensleeves” does not belong to him.
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The Field of the Cloth of Gold (1520): When Two Kings Tried to Outshine War
In 1520, two young Renaissance kings tried to outshine rivalry with pageantry: golden pavilions, feasts, tournaments, and a wrestling match that ended with Henry VIII on the ground. The Field of Cloth of Gold shows diplomacy as theater, and why theater wasn’t enough.
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From “Defender of the Faith” to Rome’s Problem Child
In 1521, Pope Leo X crowned Henry VIII’s reputation with a shining title: “Defender of the Faith.” Yet Henry’s quest for an annulment, a male heir, and royal control over the church shattered England’s relationship with Rome. By the Act of Supremacy, Henry became head of the Church of England and, soon enough, Rome’s declared…
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The Jousting Accident that Nearly Killed the King
On January 24, 1536, Henry VIII entered the tiltyard at Greenwich to perform the most public kind of kingship: courage made visible. Minutes later, the performance collapsed into panic as the king was unhorsed and his armored body was pinned beneath a fallen horse. Reports that he lay “without speech” for roughly two hours turned…
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