The Origins of the Tudor Rose
The Origins of the Tudor Rose
Lecturer: Jonathan Foyle
This talk distils three years of original research on a much-overlooked aspect of royal iconography: the use of flowers as symbols in the late Middle Ages. The ‘Tudor rose’ has been one of Britain’s foremost emblems for half a millennium. But does the later name ‘Wars of the Roses’ truly reflect York and Lancaster’s heraldry as white and red roses? And was the ‘Tudor rose’ really a combination of these two heraldic devices to symbolize the united bloodlines of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York from 1486?
Dr Jonathan Foyle is a career communicator, best known for presenting TV series such as BBC2’s Broadcast Award-winning 15-part ‘Climbing Great Buildings’, as well as contributing to Channel 4’s ‘Time Team’ and Channel 5’s ‘Secrets of the Royal Palaces’. His former roles have encompassed Curator at Hampton Court and Chief Executive of World Monuments Fund Britain, writer for the FT Weekend, and he is now a lecturer at the University of Bath. Jonathan has authored seven volumes on great cathedrals and castles and has spoken across the world about discoveries in British arts.