Hare brains. Hedgehog testicles. Mouse skin. Live pigeons. Tudor remedies are famous for sounding grotesque, and ridiculous. But were they really nonsense? In this second part of A Beginner’s Guide to Tudor Medicine, we explore the strangest cures of the sixteenth century, and uncover the surprising truth: some of them actually worked. You’ll learn: – Why remedies were designed to move “imbalances” through the body – Which Tudor treatments are still used today – How honey, wine, moss, leeches, and maggots became modern medicine – The extraordinary 9th century eye remedy that kills MRSA Tudor healers did not have microscopes or germ theory. But they observed, tested, and remembered. And in doing so, they laid foundations we are still building on today. #TudorHistory #WeirdHistory #MedicalHistory #StrangeButTrue #HistoryFacts #TudorMedicine #OldCures #Leeches #MedievalMedicine #DidYouKnow #HistoryEducation

• Anne’s seven formative years at the French court
• The oft-quoted remarks attributed to Francis I
• The claim that Henry VIII told the Imperial ambassador that Anne had been “corrupted” in France
• How later writers inflated ambiguous phrases into supposed proof
• And how a chain of interpretation, historical “Chinese whispers”, turned rumour into “fact”

• why Margaret’s court was called Europe’s “premier finishing school”
• Anne’s own letter from abroad and what it reveals about her formation
• the French court of Francis I and the Renaissance world Anne moved in
• major events Anne may have witnessed, including the Field of Cloth of Gold
• and the courtly love culture Anne absorbed abroad, and how that style of sociability would later be used against her in England

• How years of pressure under Henry VIII and Edward VI shaped Mary’s resilience
• Why her flight to East Anglia in July 1553 was a calculated act of courage, not desperation
• How she rallied men, towns, and even the royal fleet, without a pitched battle
• And how her victorious entry into London marked the triumph of legitimacy over force

Lady Jane Grey is usually remembered as a tragic pawn, a frightened girl forced onto the throne by ambitious men. But that story simply doesn’t hold up.

When Jane was told she was queen, she wept and insisted that Mary was the rightful heir. Yet once she learned that Edward VI had named her, she made a deliberate choice. She embraced the crown as God’s will, and she ruled.

This video reveals a very different Jane:

• The teenage queen who signed herself “Jane the Quene”

• The ruler who ordered troops, guards, curfews, and proclamations

• The young woman who chose her husband’s title and took charge of London

• The prisoner who refused to bend, denounced Catholicism, and argued theology with the queen’s own chaplain

• The sixteen-year-old who faced death with unshakable conviction

Jane Grey was not weak. She was not passive. She was unyielding.

This is Part One of Two Tough Cookies, a two-part series on the rival queens of July 1553. In Part Two, we turn to Mary: the woman who outmanoeuvred every obstacle and claimed her throne.

Watch Jane’s story here , and discover why both queens of 1553 were far tougher than history often admits.

#LadyJaneGrey #QueenJane #TudorHistory #NineDaysQueen #TudorQueens #WomenInHistory #HiddenHistory #HistoryDocumentary #BritishHistory

• Why Edward believed Mary could not succeed him
• How Jane Grey became queen, and why her regime collapsed
• How Mary organised support, secured loyalty, and claimed the throne without a pitched battle

• Blickling Hall as the heart of the family’s Norfolk roots, and the probable birthplace of Anne Boleyn
• The medieval origins of Hever Castle and its transformation into a refined Tudor home
• How Thomas Boleyn reshaped Hever to reflect his growing power at court
• Why these estates mattered to Anne’s sense of self and future