Thomas Cromwell’s Prayer Book with Prof. Suzannah Lipscomb
(History Hit, 2023)
In the latest of her films for History Hit, Suzannah explores a fascinating discovery that has grabbed the attention of historians world-wide.
Suzannah explores what is being called the most exciting Tudor find ‘in a generation’ as curators at Hever Castle – Alison Palmer, Dr Owen Emmerson, and Kate McCaffrey – identify a bejewelled, gilded prayer book, tucked away in a Cambridge University library, as the very one portrayed in Holbein’s famous painting of Henry VIII’s ‘fixer in chief’, Thomas Cromwell.
It reveals that three key players in Henry VIII’s court, Anne Boleyn, Catherine of Aragon, and Thomas Cromwell, all owned a copy of the same printed prayer book.
In this special film, Suzannah tracks the detailed historic detective work that has been carried out by Hever’s curators and Trinity College’s Wren Library, linking the prayer book through the generations from Thomas Cromwell himself to a gift to the library by Dame Anne Sadleir in 1660.
This remarkable story combines a modern-day investigation with stunningly beautiful objects and the tangled web of shifting beliefs and personal connections at the heart of the Tudor world.
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