Being a warship, the Mary Rose carried a lot of objects that were, shall we say, unpleasant. As well as the various ship-to-ship weapons, there were pikes, daggers and swords for stabbing, bills and halberds for slashing, longbows and handguns for long distance killing, and rather nasty antipersonnel weapons such...
An inventory of “stuff, tackle, apparel, ordnance, artillery and habiliments of War” made on 27th July 1514, lists the Mary Rose carrying, among all the rigging and weapons, a quantity of cookware, including a frying pan! We’ve no idea if it remained on board until 1545, or if it got...
We always talk about Alexander McKee being the person who discovered the wreck of the Mary Rose, but although it was because of him the ship was rediscovered in the 1970s, there are a few people who got up close to Henry VIII's flagship while she was still on the...
While today relations between England and Scotland are mostly civil, it’s not always been that way. Scotland were long-time allies of France, so in 1513 King James IV of Scotland demanded that the English army withdraw from French Soil. Henry, unsurprisingly, declined, so James IV built up an army of...
Henry VIII built up a large fleet during his time as king, and there were some very peculiar names among them!
We've chosen some from a list of Henry VIII's ships that fought in the French wars between 12 February 1545 and 11th July 1546, can you spot which ones...
While we'll probably never know the names of those who lost their lives on that day in 19th July 1545, records do preserve the names of some of the crew of the Mary Rose over her 34 year career.
How well do you know the crew of the Mary...