Comments for Such Eternal Delight

Comment on Where the Tudor Red-Gold Hair came from by Elizabeth Prosser

Elizabeth Prosser — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 05:30:08 +0000

Very interesting. One of my sons has my mother’s dark auburn hair, as does his wife, and their two boys are both red-heads: one strawberry the other more auburn. I’m told my grandmother had mahogany-colored hair, so it hasn’t skipped many generations ( just mine, with 5 girls). Next: pls explore the genetic reason for the black and the red Douglases/Douglasses – and why they spell their surname differently, please.

Comment on Where the Tudor Red-Gold Hair came from by JD

JD — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:57:35 +0000

Watching a BBC Factual programme recently, I note that the red-head gene comes from Neanderthal man. People with Northern European ancestry will have between 2.5% and 5% of their genes from the Neanderthals.

Comment on Cavalier King Charles Spaniels by Rosemary Hutchinson

Rosemary Hutchinson — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 07:09:06 +0000

Named for King Charles II, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is descended from the King Charles Spaniel . In the late 1600s the King Charles Spaniels were interbred with Pugs , which resulted in a smaller dog with flatter noses, upturned faces, rounded heads and protruding eyes. The consequence of this breeding is what we know today as the King Charles Spaniel (English Toy Spaniel) .In the 1920s an American named Roswell Eldridge offered prize money during a Cruft’s Dog Show in London to any person exhibiting King Charles Spaniels with long noses. He was looking for dogs similar to those appearing in Van Dyck’s paintings of King Charles II and his spaniels, before the Pug was bred in. A dog called Ann’s Son, owned by Miss Mostyn Walker, won the Eldridge prize, however Eldridge had died a month before the show opened and was not there to present the award. His ideas lived on in American breeders. The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel breed, as we know it today, is the product of the American breeders of the late 1920s, though this ‘modern’ breed is the true heir of the royal spaniels of King Charles II. By the 1940s these dogs were classified as a separate breed and were given the prefix Cavalier to differentiate them from their forebears. The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was shown in the Toy Group of the AKC beginning in 1996.

Comment on Where the Tudor Red-Gold Hair came from by Diane Wilshere

Diane Wilshere — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:49:13 +0000

You might want to read Blood Sisters by Sarah Gristwood which is a biography of many of the women involved in the Wars of the Roses. It gives contemporary source descriptions of many of the people you examine here by portrait. Edward IV is described as tall and fair which was used against him when the false suggestions that he was not the son of Richard, Duke of York who was dark haired. Henry VIII is cited numerous times as resembling Edward in height and coloring. Elizabeth Wydville is described as fair and a great beauty. It is hard to see her blonde hair as the fashion was a High shaved forehead. Elizabeth of York, despite that painting is described as a blonde. Henry VII when he came to to throne as tall, comely with blue eyes. His portrait bust shows him with dark hair. Also Mary Tudor, Queen of France was a redhead. There is a portrait of her not the marriage portrait that shows her with red hair. And there is a lock of her hair taken from her body in the 18th century that is faded but red.

Comment on Where the Tudor Red-Gold Hair came from by Alejandro De La Garza

Alejandro De La Garza — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 01:28:32 +0000

This is an absolutely intriguing bit of history and very well-researched. Red hair runs on both sides of my family, and my own hair turns auburn during summer. So, I have a natural affinity for it! Thanks for this piece!

Comment on Where the Tudor Red-Gold Hair came from by Janet

Janet — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 01:37:58 +0000

Wonderful account. I also am a descendant with the strawberry blond hair. We are descended through Margaret on multiple lines on my moms side and also through my Dads side. I hope all of you descendants are doing the distant cousin DNA through ancestry. It would be an interesting research project to see how the hair comes down the lines. My family also has the eye and nose shapes shown in the Stewart lines. It would be interesting to know eye colors.

Comment on Where the Tudor Red-Gold Hair came from by margo kenney

margo kenney — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:22:47 +0000

I’m late to the conversation, but I have been watching The Tudors reruns. I am named after my great uncle, Charles Brandon, FFV, who was directly descended from the one who married Mary Tudor, His cousin, my grandfather, gave everyone after him in our family red hair in some form. I was born with lots of jet black hair. After age 2, it became white-blonde (tow-headed). Then in high school it turned bright strawberry blonde, similar to the descriptions of Mary Tudor. It has faded, as red hair does, but is still pretty reddish. I’ve heard red heads will become extinct, but the strain was very strong in our family. My mother had striking auburn hair, her sister had strawberry blonde. My brother is tow-head blond, but his beard is bright red. I’m pretty sure it stems from England.

Comment on Where the Tudor Red-Gold Hair came from by Jan Balkam

Jan Balkam — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 15:05:59 +0000

Jan
Thank you for such a detailed account. As a reputed descendant of Elizabeth Wydeville through the Poyntz family. I have red gold hair, as did my two sisters, and I have passed it to my daughter. The genetic pool continues!

Comment on Pregnancy, Survival and the Wasp Waist in the Belle Epoque by Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:25:01 +0000

Yellow wallpaper, great choice for a backdrop. Parallels the months a woman waits for childbirth.

Comment on Where the Tudor Red-Gold Hair came from by Judy Perry

Judy Perry — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 01:02:43 +0000

I don’t think Geoffrey Chaucer ever wrote specifically about Katherine Swynford at all. Perhaps this is an assumption that one of his fictional characters was based on Katherine? If we are to guess that the red hair came from the Beauforts, it would probably be a better guess to assume that the red hair came from the Plantagenet side, as Katherine’s family came from even further south in the Low Countries. Wasn’t Henry IV a redhead?