To book a place for these events at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, contact 020 8312 6608, e-mail bookings@rmg.co.uk or visit rmg.co.uk/tickets
Henry VIII and the English Reformation: Cause and Effect
A series of evening events in the Queen’s House: Wednesdays, 6, 13, 20 and 27 September from 18.30-20.30
Henry VIII’s break with the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s sent shock waves across England and the rest of Europe. The repercussions for Henry’s kingdom and dynasty were profound with his children Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I divided between Protestantism and Catholicism. As part of the Reformation Anniversary (1517–2017), Royal Museums Greenwich are hosting a series of evening lectures and a choral performance during September 2017 on related themes given by acknowledged experts and renowned performers. These cover topics from Henry’s decision to divorce Katharine of Aragon and the defeat of the Spanish Armada spurring Elizabethan engagement with Islamic states, to the sacred music of Thomas Tallis, who lived and is buried in Greenwich, and the art and architecture of the Chapels Royal. The four events will take place in the Great Hall of the recently refurbished Queen’s House, followed by a wine reception in the Orangery.
Cost: £25 per event (concessions £20) or £80 for all four events (concessions £60)
6 September Henry VIII and the Reformation: From Defender of the Faith to Supreme Head of the Church
Dr David Starkey
13 September This Orient Isle: Elizabethan England and the Islamic World
Professor Jerry Brotton
20 September Fit for a Queen: Mary I, Elizabeth I and the Music of Thomas Tallis
The Queen’s Ensemble (choral performance)
27 September The Chapel Royal – The Jewel in the Tudor Crown
Dr Simon Thurley
Joseph Banks
Lecture Series: Wednesdays, 13 September to 4 October from 11.00-12.30
James Cook’s first Pacific voyage (1768–71), Banks received much of the credit for descriptions of a ‘new’ and exotic oceanic world that fascinated Europe and which would come to influence the course of European and Pacific science, culture, politics and commerce. After the voyage Banks spent the remainder of his career supporting expeditions and forging networks that spanned the Indian and Pacific Oceans, placing him at the heart of accelerating interactions between Pacific, Indian and European peoples. He was President of the Royal Society from 1778 to 1820 and advised George III on the development of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
This lecture series aims to bring Joseph Banks to wider public understanding, in advance of the 250th anniversary of the Endeavour voyage in 1768 and the 200th anniversary of Banks’s death in 1820. It has been organized by the Museum as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded Network project entitled ‘Joseph Banks, Science, Culture and the Remaking of the Indo-Pacific World’, which is a research collaboration between Royal Museums Greenwich, University College London, National Portrait Gallery, Natural History Museum, the Royal Society and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. For further information on the Joseph Banks Network project and other activities visit rmg.co.uk/josephbanksnetwork. Cost per seminar: £8 adults and £6 members. The Lectures will take place in the Lecture Theatre (except for 27 September which is in the Seminar Room) at Royal Museums Greenwich. Please register under the Propeller from 10.30 for all lectures.
13 September My Greatest and Best Friend: Flinders and Banks
Gillian Dooley, Flinders University, Australia
20 September Joseph Banks: A Man for All Reasons – Plants, Projects and Friends, 1780–1820
Jordan Goodman, University College London
27 September Banks’s Florilegeum: Art, Science, and Colonialism
Anna Johnston, University of Queensland
4 October Agrarian to Industrialist – Joseph Banks and the ‘promotion and improvement of manufactures of this country’
Paul Scott, the Sir Joseph Banks Society
Lost Stuarts: From the Essex Rebellion to the Battle of Culloden
Queen’s House lecture series: Thursdays, 26 October to 30 November 2017 from 11.00-12.30
Covering treason and rebellion, illegitimacy and exile, this lecture series examines the forgotten lives and lost causes of the Stuart dynasty.
26 October A lost cause? Elizabeth I, the ‘Essex Rebellion’ and the question of the Stuart succession
Dr Janet Dickinson, Historian and Lecturer at Oxford University
2 November Henry Stuart, Prince of Wales: The Prince who would be King
Dr Sarah Fraser, Biographer and Historian
9 November Elizabeth of Bohemia: The Winter Queen
Sue Prichard, Senior Curator, Royal Museums Greenwich
16 November Prince George of Denmark (1653–1708): The Forgotten Consort
Dr Julie Farguson, Lecturer in Early Modern History, St Hilda’s College, Oxford
23 November The Last Royal Rebel: The Life and Death of James, Duke of Monmouth
Dr Anna Keay, Historian and Director of the Landmark Trust
30 November Unfortunate Princes: The Stuarts in Exile and the Jacobite Rebellions
Dr Jacqueline Riding, Art Historian, Historian and Research Fellow, Birkbeck College, London
Art, Charity and the Navy: The Greenwich and Foundling Hospitals
A one day symposium: Monday, 30 October 2017 from 09.30-18.00
Morning at the Queen’s House, Royal Museums Greenwich and the Old Royal Naval College, and afternoon at the Foundling Museum, Brunswick Square. This one-day symposium will explore similarities in the origins, artistic involvement and philanthropic purpose of two eighteenth-century charitable hospitals with strong ties to maritime Britain. The Foundling Hospital was the first children’s charity in Britain, established in 1730s by Captain Thomas Coram, a shipwright in the American colonies. The Royal Hospital for Seamen, Greenwich, was established by royal charter in 1694 and, from 1712, also incorporated a naval school. Along with presentations and discussion with expert speakers, the day includes:
- a tour of the Chapel at the Old Royal Naval College, formerly the place of worship for the inhabitants of the Royal Hospital for Seamen
- the opportunity to see the Foundling Museum’s historic Court Room and Picture Gallery, displaying works of art by Hogarth, Gainsborough, Highmore, Ramsay and many others
- a visit to the exhibition ‘Basic Instincts’ at the Foundling Museum.
Cost: £50 (£40 concession). Includes lunch, tea and coffee, and early evening drinks reception. Participants will make their own way between the two sites.
Speakers include: Will Palin, Director of Conservation, ORNC; Christine Riding, Head of Arts and Curator of the Queen’s House; Caro Howell, Director of the Foundling Museum; and Dr Jacqueline Riding, Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, and Curator of the ‘Basic Instincts’ exhibition.
