* Off with his head – how Henry VIII was decapitated from royal painting – It is one of Tudor England’s most famous paintings, depicting the pomp and splendour of Henry VIII’s reign. But a key feature of The Field of the Cloth of Gold remains shrouded in mystery – just how Henry lost his head.

* Durham University lecturer uncovers Henry VIII’s divorce documents – Painstaking detective work by a North East academic uncovered previously unknown documents detailing the inside story of Henry VIII’s divorce from first wife Catherine of Aragon – hidden away in a cupboard in an Italian castle.

Now, on with this Sunday’s links:

* Hope Walker has posted the first seven entries of her PhD work on Hans Eworth. See the entries here at the Hans Eworth Catalogue!

* Royals’ own set of kings and queens paintings revealed – “A set of paintings of England’s kings and queens, which has been on display in Buckingham Palace since it was bought by Prince Albert almost 170 years ago, is going on public view for the first time.”

* A home-grown discovery – a portrait of the young James I & VI – I especially like the information revealed by infrared photography. I love it when science and art come together!

* Trust set to stop spraying the Mary Rose with wax – “In a major milestone in the conservation of Henry VIII’s 500-year-old flagship, staff at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard are due to turn off the jets for the first time since she was raised from the Solent 30 years ago.”

* Bloody Tales of the Tower – Presented by Suzannah Lipscomb and Joe Crowley for National Geographic. Now *this* one I am unreservedly looking forward to!

* US publication of sequel to Mantel’s award-winning ‘Wolf Hall’ moved from November to May

* BlancheParry.com has a calendar out for 2012, with proceeds once again going to Bacton Church, Herefordshire

* Historic Knole House in Sevenoaks may be forced to close to public – More information on the fund raising appeal here

Another neat video from the Historic Royal Palaces You Tube channel:

And a video about symbols in Holbein’s The Ambassadors You Tube channel from the National Gallery (check back through the uploads for more on this painting and others by Holbein, as well as other great art!):

* Unrequited Love? 16th-Century Erotic Poem Discovered – Nearly 450 years ago, when England was tearing itself apart over religion, a Catholic woman named Lady Elizabeth Dacre wrote an elegant but at times erotic Latin love poem to Sir Anthony Cooke, a Protestant and tutor to King Edward VI, the successor of Henry VIII. (Suzannah Lipscomb had a short article about this in the Times, but unfortunately it is behind a paywall. If anyone has more info from that article, please post it in the comments!)

* Rival Queens, Precious Books – From the British Library’s Manuscripts blog, links to two new additions to their digitized collection: Lady Jane Grey’s Prayer Book and The Queen Mary Psalter.

* On the Tudor Trail: Winners of our Tudor Ghost Story Contest! – Congrats to winner Lisa Tecoulesco and runner-up Katherine Marcella!

* And a new blog discovery: Art History News by Bendor Grosvenor. After a discussion about the Holbein drawing of Anne Boleyn on Twitter (mentioned in the post), Grosvenor posted about his research into its identification in 2006. See Anne Boleyn regains her head for all the details. See also Most Tudor stuff for a transcription of the inventory of Kathryn Howard’s jewels and how it relates to the Holbein miniature.

* In a follow-up to last week, the portrait of Catherine of Aragon up for auction at Christie’s ended up selling for £151,250 (about £100,000 over the initial estimate!) and the portrait of Katherine Parr sold for £27,500, about twice the estimate.

* History Today has announced the shortlist of the Longman-History Today Book award and among the finalists is Thomas Penn’s work on Henry VII, Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England

* The UK Parliament Archives twitter account linked to a page about the King’s Seat in Westminster Hall, which led me to poke around the rest of their pages on the building. I’ve been fascinated by Westminster Hall for a long time, since it is the only large surviving piece of the Palace of Westminster, which dates back to 1097 (William II) and was the place of several events in Tudor history. Be sure to look at the videos from the virtual tour!

* Chatham dig finds Tudor dockyard remains

* Novel Approaches: From Academic History to Historical Fiction – The IHR had their first virtual conference on this topic and you can see all the presentations at the website.

And finally…

* If you have a few spare tens of thousands of pounds, you can bid on some late 16th century (or later) portraits of Catherine of Aragon and Katherine Parr on auction next week at Christie’s. And if you have a few spare MILLION – you can bid on some of Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry, including La Peregrina, a pearl given to Mary I by her husband Philip of Spain. Many centuries later it was given to Taylor by her husband Richard Burton (who played Henry VIII in Anne of the Thousand Days).

* Royal matters – Interesting answer on the question of the numbering of King Edwards

* A castle celebrates the Queen’s 500th birthday – More on the plans of Sudeley Castle to celebrate Katherine Parr’s birthday next year

* Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People – Display at the National Portrait Gallery that opens December 3 that looks at 14 portraits of unknown men and women (I’m not sure if this is the same exhibit that was at Montacute House last year or a continuation of the same project)

* Sir Francis Drake’s final fleet ‘discovered off the coast of Panama’

Sir Francis Drake’s body ‘close to being found off Panama’

Wrecks that promise to unlock the mystery of Francis Drake’s final resting place

And a few other news items that caught my eye last week:

* Brierfield treasure hunter finds Tudor ring

* Britain’s oldest family business opened when Henry VIII ruled

And finally, Medievalists.net visited the Making History exhibition at the McMullen Museum at Boston College (I mentioned it in a previous Sunday short takes) and recorded an interview with the museum’s director. Tudor history fans will recognize the portrait in the background!

Have a look at: Two New Faces: the Hornebolte Portraits of Mary and Thomas Boleyn?

* Inteview with Dr Erin Sadlack, author of The French Queen’s Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in 16th Century Europe at the Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide Blog.

* Treasures from the London Library: The Strongest Link – Part of a History Today series of articles on Treasures from the London Library that includes lots of interesting 16th century texts.

* And from the History Today archive: The Sinking of the Mary Rose (originally published in 1982, the year the ship was raised)