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Will Sommers
William Sommers (or Somers; died 15 June 1560) was the best-known court jester of Henry VIII of England. Early life He was said to have been born in Shropshire, and came to the attention of Richard Fermor, a merchant of the Staple at Calais, who brought him to Greenwich in 1525 to present to the King. This comes from an 18th-century account; little is known for certain of his early life. He is first mentioned in the royal accounts on 28 June 1535. Career Sommers remained in service to the King for the rest of Henry's life. In the King's later years, when he was troubled by a painful leg condition, it was said that only Sommers could lift his spirits. The jester was also a man of integrity and discretion. Thomas Cromwell appreciated that Sommers sometimes drew the King's attention to extravagance and waste within the royal household by means of a joke. Court jesters were permitted familiarities without regard for deference, and Sommers possessed a shrewd wit, which he exercise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palace Of Whitehall
The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. Henry VIII moved the royal residence to White Hall after the old royal apartments at the nearby Palace of Westminster were themselves destroyed by fire. Although the Whitehall palace has not survived, the area where it was located is still called Whitehall and has remained a centre of government. White Hall was at one time the largest palace in Europe, with more than 1,500 rooms, overtaking the Vatican, before itself being overtaken by the expanding Palace of Versailles, which was to reach 2,400 rooms. The palace gives its name, Whitehall, to the street located on the site on which many of the current administrative buildings of the present-day British government are situated, and hence metonymically to the central government itself. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Goorney
Howard Jacob Goorney (11 May 1921 – 29 March 2007) was a British actor who starred in such programmes as ''Only Fools and Horses''. He was one of the founder members of Joan Littlewood's 'Theatre Workshop', and wrote ''The Theatre Workshop Story'', published by Methuen - a definitive account of the company's early years, including their move to the Theatre Royal Stratford East, Theatre Royal in Stratford East. He is also known for numerous theatre roles, including Bill Bryden's ''The Mysteries'' and ''Lark Rise to Candleford'' at the Royal National Theatre, National Theatre in the 1970s and 1980s. Filmography References External links * * Obituary in ''The Guardian''Obituary in ''The Times'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Goorney, Howard 1921 births 2007 deaths English male stage actors English male film actors English male television actors Male actors from Manchester ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Doran (writer)
John Doran (11 March 1807 – 25 January 1878) was an English editor and miscellaneous writer of Irish parentage, wrote a number of works dealing with the lighter phases of manners, antiquities, and social history, often bearing punning titles, e.g., ''Table Traits with Something on Them'' (1854), and ''Knights and their Days''. He edited Horace Walpole's ''Journal of the Reign of George III.''. Among other posts, Doran was for a short time editor of '' The Athenaeum''. Life He was born in London on 11 March 1807. Both his parents were Irish: his father, John Doran, was a native of Drogheda, who after the Irish rebellion of 1798 went to England, and as a naval contractor was captured by the French. He was kept in France for three years, and acquired a knowledge of French, which he passed on to his son. When very young John Doran was sent to Matheson's Academy in Margaret Street, Cavendish Square. Before he was seventeen he was an orphan. His knowledge of French earned for him in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Rowlands
Samuel Rowlands (c. 1573–1630) was an English author of pamphlets in prose and verse which reflect the follies and humours of lower middle-class life in his day. He seems to have had no literary reputation at the time, but his work throws much light on the development of popular literature and social life in London, where he spent his life. His contact with the middle and lower classes of society included working in 1600–1615 for William White, and then George Loftus, booksellers, who published Rowlands's pamphlets in this time. Selected sacred and secular poems *''The Betraying of Christ'' (1598) *''The Letting of Humour's Blood in the Head-vaine'' (epigrams and satires) and ''A Mery Meetinge, or tis Mery when Knaves mete'' (1600) – the two latter being publicly burnt by order, but republished later under other names (''Humors Ordinarie'' and ''The Knave of Clubbes'') *''Greene's Ghost haunting Conie-Catchers'' (1602), which he pretended to have edited from Greene's papers, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe (baptised November 1567 – c. 1601; also Nash) was an Elizabethan playwright, poet, satirist and a significant pamphleteer. He is known for his novel ''The Unfortunate Traveller'', his pamphlets including ''Pierce Penniless,'' and his numerous defences of the Church of England. Life Nashe was the son of the parson William Nashe and Janeth (née Witchingham). He was born and baptised in Lowestoft, on the coast of Suffolk, where his father, William Nashe, or Nayshe as it is recorded, was curate. Though his mother bore seven children, only two survived childhood: Israel (born in 1565) and Thomas.Nicholl, Charles. ''A Cup of News: The Life of Thomas Nashe''. Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1984. The family moved to West Harling, near Thetford, in 1573 after Nashe's father was awarded the living there at the church of All Saints. Around 1581 Thomas went up to St John's College, Cambridge, as a sizar, gaining his bachelor's degree in 1586. From references in his own polemics ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an important centre of the Elizabethan Theatre, and it has been an important entertainment centre since that time. Today, it hosts many pubs, bars and nightclubs. The most commercial areas lie closest to the city of London and along the A10 Road, with the rest mostly residential. Toponymy Early spellings of the name include ''Soredich'' (c.1148), ''Soresdic'' (1183–4), ''Sordig'' (1204), ''Schoresdich'' (1220–21), and other variants. Toponymists are generally agreed that the name derives from Old English "''scoradīc''", i.e. "shore-ditch", the shore being a riverbank or prominent slope; but there is disagreement as to the identity of the "shore" in question. A suggestion made by Eilert Ekwall in 1936 that the "ditch" might have been one leadi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Heywood
John Heywood (c. 1497 – c. 1580) was an English writer known for his plays, poems, and collection of proverbs. Although he is best known as a playwright, he was also active as a musician and composer, though no musical works survive. A devout Catholic, he nevertheless served as a royal servant to both the Catholic and Protestant regimes of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. Life Heywood was born in 1497, probably in Coventry, and moved to London some time in his late teens. He spent time studying at Broadgates Hall (now Pembroke College), Oxford, but did not obtain a degree. His language skills can be seen by his adaptation of his play Johan Johan from the French ''La Farce du paste''. His name first appears in the King Henry VIII's Household Books in 1519 as a 'synger', a job for which he received quarterly payments of 100 shillings. In 1521 he began receiving annual rents from lands in Essex, lands recently seized by the crown which made Heywood wealthy and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jane Foole
Jane Foole, also known as Jane The Foole, Jane, The Queen's Fool, "Jeannne le Fol" or "Jane Hir Fole" ( fl. 1543–1558), was an English court jester. She was the jester of queens Catherine Parr and Mary I, and possibly also of Anne Boleyn. Today, entertainers sometimes perform as "Jane" in Renaissance-themed entertainments such as Renaissance faires. Life Personal life Jane's full name, birth year, and background are unknown. ''Beden the Fool'' also appears in related notes of the time, and it has been suggested that Beden was her surname. Jane is believed to have had a learning disability. Career In the accounts of Anne Boleyn, bills for caps supplied to her "female jester" are recorded in 1535–36. The name of this female jester is not mentioned, but may have been Jane. In 1537, she is noted to be in service of Princess Mary. As well as Jane, Mary also employed Lucretia the Tumbler. Lucretia and Jane are known to have performed together, and Lucretia may have been Ja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary I Of England
Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament, but during her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions. Mary was the only child of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to survive to adulthood. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded their father in 1547 at the age of nine. When Edward became terminally ill in 1553, he attempted to remove Mary from the line of succession because he supposed, correctly, that she would reverse the Protestant refor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who was executed when Elizabeth was two years old. Anne's marriage to Henry was annulled, and Elizabeth was for a time declared illegitimate. Her half-brother Edward VI ruled until his death in 1553, bequeathing the crown to Lady Jane Grey and ignoring the claims of his two half-sisters, the Catholic Mary and the younger Elizabeth, in spite of statute law to the contrary. Edward's will was set aside and Mary became queen, deposing Lady Jane Grey. During Mary's reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels. Upon her half-sister's death in 1558, Elizabeth succeeded to the throne and set out to rule by good counsel. She ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage. The service maintains 50 foreign news bureaus with more than 250 correspondents around the world. Deborah Turness has been the CEO of news and current affairs since September 2022. In 2019, it was reported in an Ofcom report that the BBC spent £136m on news during the period April 2018 to March 2019. BBC News' domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, in Broadcasting House in central London. Parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in London. Through BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England and national news c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
