Queen Catherine Parr

06/09/2026

Absolutely gorgeous!

06/08/2026

They found my ancestors bodies! Holy crap!

To open up the news and see my direct bloodline—Maryland’s second governor, Thomas Greene (1609-1651) his wife Anne, and their son Leonard—explicitly identified by a Harvard and Smithsonian genetic study is completely surreal. Years of tracing my own genealogy, and now science has put names to these 300-year-old unmarked graves. I am absolutely blown away.

The daughter of Leonard Greene, Mary, married into the Marbury family of Prince George’s County, Maryland. Mary and her husband, Francis, were parents to Mary Marbury who married into the Smallwood family of Charles County, Maryland. Mary Marbury and Matthew Smallwood (1706-1764) were ancestors to my paternal grandmother, Dorothy (1924-2007), who was a Smallwood by blood.

With the use of a groundbreaking method, researchers believe they have identified the lost remains of the second governor of the colony of Maryland by using DNA records to find 1.3 million genetic relatives of Maryland’s first colonists who are alive today.

06/05/2026

4 JUNE 1547: LETTER from Princess Mary to Lord Seymour

My lord,

After my hearty commendations, these shall be to declare to you, according to your accustomed gentleness, I have received six warrants from you by your servant, this bearer: for the which, I do give you my hearty thanks. By whom also I have also received your letter, wherein, as me thinketh, I perceive strange news concerning a suit you have in hand to the Queen for marriage. For the sooner obtaining whereof, you seem to think that my letters might do you pleasure.

My lord, in this case I trust your wisdom doth consider that, if it were for my nearest kinsman and dearest friend alive, of all other creatures in the world, it standeth least with my poor honor to be a meddler in this matter, considering whose wife her grace was of late. And besides that, if she be minded to grant your suit, my letters shall do you but small pleasure. On the other side, if the remembrance of the King’s majesty, my father (whose soul God pardons), will not suffer her to grant your suit, I am nothing able to persuade her to forget the loss of him, who is at yet very ripe in my own remembrance.

Wherefore I shall most earnestly require you, the premises considered to think none unkindness in me, though I refuse to be a meddler any ways in this matter. Assuring you that, wooing matters set apart (wherein I, being a maid, am nothing cunning), if other ways it still lie in my little power to do you pleasure, I shall be as glad to do it as you to require it: both for his blood’s sake, that you be of, and also for the gentleness which I have always found in you. As knoweth almighty God, to whose tuition I commit you. From Wanstead this Saturday at night, being the fourth of June.

Your assured friend to my power,

Mary

https://tudorqueen6.com/2023/06/05/4-june-1547-lady-mary-writes-the-lord-admiral/

Letter from Princess Mary to Thomas Seymour, expressing her displeasure at Katherine’s marriage to him so soon after the death of her father, Henry VIII, 4th June 1547 . folio.A Volume, conta…

06/04/2026

The future of AI is bleak.
Sigh.
They still can’t get it right.

EDIT: To clarify the intent of this post: I am not endorsing this image. I posted this specifically to highlight the frustration of trying to get historically accurate Tudor representations from AI tools like Grok, even when using reference portraits and proper prompts. My goal is to showcase the limitations and inaccuracies of these tools.

06/02/2026

Ooh ❤️

05/29/2026

29 MAY 1575: a letter from Lady Anne Talbot (nee Herbert) to Countess of Shrewsbury arrived.

Lady Anne Herbert was the only daughter of Sir William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Lady Anne (née Parr), Countess of Pembroke who was sister and chief lady to Queen Kateryn. Therefore, Lady Anne Herbert would have been the niece of the Queen and Sir William, 1st Marquess of Northampton. After the death of Anne (Parr), her husband remarried into the Talbot family taking Lady Anne Talbot as his bride. Anne was the aunt of Lord Talbot.

Anne married Lord Francis Talbot, heir to the Earldom of Shrewsbury. Lord Francis was the son of Sir George, 6th Earl of Shrewbury and his first wife, Lady Gertrude Manners. Both parents were distantly related to Francis’s wife.

The Countess or Shrewsbury to whom Anne wrote was Bess Hardwick who had previously been married to Sir William Cavendish by whom she had issue. Her children by Cavendish were wed to some of the most prominent people at the Tudor court. And her son, William, became the 1st Earl of Devonshire and her daughter, Mary, married her stepbrother, Gilbert, who became the 7th Earl of Shrewbury after his brother, Francis, predeceased his father.

The Queen Regent, Kateryn Parr, corresponded with the father of Lord Talbot during her reign as Regent of the Realm while King Henry VIII fought at Boulogne, France.

Anne was a popular name at the Tudor court. Two of King Henry’s wives were named Anne. 👑

In Maryland, we have a Talbot county named after Grace Calvert, the daughter of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, a leading English Catholic and founder of the Maryland Colony. Grace was one of thirteen children by his wife Anne Mynne, daughter of George Mynne and Elizabeth Wroth. The younger son of Lord Baltimore, Leonard, came over on the Ark & Dove alongside my ancestor, Thomas Greene, and his family. Greene became the Governor of Maryland in 1647.

Follow the link to see what Lady Anne wrote to the Countess of Shrewsbury: https://tudorqueen6.com/2024/05/28/29-may-1575-lady-anne-talbot-writes-the-countess-of-shrewsbury/

05/27/2026

The Medieval Banqueting Hall remains furnished with its original Dais table, behind which hangs a tapestry gifted to the family by visiting Henry VIII.

The Parlour boasts its glorious Tudor painted ceiling of Tudor roses and marvellous heraldic paneling.

Exquisite and very rare 15th century fresco seccos adorn the walls of the Medieval Chapel.

In contrast to the Tudor and Medieval Rooms below, the light and airy first floor Elizabethan rooms culminate in the spectacular 110ft Robert Smythson designed Long Gallery; reputed to be one of the most beautiful rooms in England.

The terraced Elizabethan Walled Gardens, known for their beauty and structure, cascade down to the River Wye and providing spectacular views of the ancient parkland and Peak District beyond. Recently re-designed by Chelsea Award winning garden designer, Arne Maynard, these make for an equally important part of any visit to the Hall. (Haddon Hall website)

05/27/2026

I have to hand it to Smithsonian Magazine for this. Thank you Meilan Solly.

As of 2026, the researchers were particularly interested in three closely related individuals buried in the cemetery. They asked research participants with strong genetic ties to the deceased to share their genealogical histories, then pored over these records to identify overlaps in the family trees. This genetic data, combined with isotopic evidence, led the team to theorize that one of the bodies was Thomas Greene, Maryland’s second governor. Meanwhile, the other two may be his first wife, Anne (Cox), and their son, Leonard.

These three individuals were my ancestors and I would be interested in doing a DNA 🧬 test.
Please contact me if you are interested.
Historic St. Mary's City

Experts compared DNA from 49 skeletons buried in a cemetery in St. Mary's City to genetic data shared by 11.5 million 23andMe users. They also identified what may be the remains of the colony's second governor