Why you think locks of Mary's supposed hair are different colours? Let me know below and remember to SUBSCRIBE and check out my PATREON at www.patreon.com/historycalling
As a hairstylist im really qurious on how old she was when she was discribed as fair.. It is quite normal that redheads ( strawberry blondes) are pretty light golden when they are younger and/or if they are in the sun a lot - while I don’t consider that she would be in the sun after marriage - and as such her hair would appear darker… And for the saved hair - remember hair is a fiber and how it is kept can have a profound impact on the color - and it’s also a factor where the hair were on her head at the time of cutting.. It is absolutely possible that de deep auburn was cut from her scalp - and the light blonde from her ends - especially if the blonde hair have been in the sun for a significant time…. To discover that more information is needed - but as a blonde myself and a stepmom to a redhead, I absolutely know that those discriptions can be about a girl with strawberry blonde hair while she was young, that turned auburn as she aged….
This is just off the top of my head (no pun intended) and bear in mind it's actually been over a month since I put this video together, so I could be misremembering, but I think the description of her as a blonde during her lifetime was made when she was 18 and about to be married to Louis XII of France.
@@HistoryCalling typically women ‘change’ haircolor a few times in their Life - and its often hormonal based, but sometimes its also because the hair changes thickness… Most ( blonde/redheads) people go from a pretty light fine almost white blonde as a baby - to a more golden blonde around age 3… Then again around age 7 it’s can change again and go just a tiny bit darker…. And then when puberty hits, and when pregnancy happens… MANY women have their hair change color while they are pregnant or right after birth… That’s why it can be SO difficult with northern types where the colors are light and redish…. And then add on the stuff that the sun and general exposure does to a hairstrand…. And with general exposure I’m talking about water, hair treatments and anything that touches the hair…. And then the consideration that some of their head dresses covers most of the hair - and If the fringe area is the only one exposed then it will look lighter the the rest, both because of exposure but also the fact that that part of the hairline often is really thin and fine hairs - where there is not much space for pigments….
I went to school with a girl whose locks of hair ranged from blonde to a light auburn. The best I can describe it is that it looked kind of striped. She did not dye her hair and her hair was that way since I knew her in elementary school.
@@HistoryCalling I don’t know since we went separate ways after high school. But I would venture to guess that it stayed that way since she loved the attention she got from her hair.
My hair is (was) naturally red. When I was very young in the summer parts of it bleached in the sun into stripes too: under the top layers it stayed quite red, on top it was strawberry blonde around the back, and light blonde to nearly white framing my face and in a few thin stripes around the back. Now that I'm 50 it's a strange combo of copper, drab nothing color, and silver. Hair is weird.
@@adoxartist1258 When I was younger, my hair was a light brown. But if you took a section and separated the hairs, you could see separate blond and red hairs among the light brown ones. And this blond and red effect of course increased with summer sunlight exposure. Now that I'm older, my hair has darkened to a more medium brown and has lost the blond and red hairs (sigh).
Yes, I had the same situation, with having red hair and blonde hair at the same time. I found that when I lived in California, my hair turned almost platinum blonde, even though I was a redhead at birth. When I would live in a more northeastern area of the USA, like Michigan, my hair would be redder. But during the summer, I would have more blonde as well. Interesting too, since technically, I am a descendant of the Mary Boleyn/Henry VIII liaison that has been written about as a likely alliance. Go figure.
As a strawberry blonde from birth, I have been called a blonde, a redhead and a strawberry blonde throughout my life, depending on the lighting, colour I’m wearing, and what’s around me. For example, when I wear black, I’m often told my hair looks red. In the sun, I look golden blonde. The hair on the top of my head was always lighter and straighter than the hair at base of my neck, which was redder and very curly. My eyelashes and eyebrows have always been very light blonde. I think the assumption that a person has only one colour all over is patently false and easily disproven.
I think at this point "Funerals of Notable Tudors" could be a series in and of itself XD I do love the contrast between Mary and Catherine of Aragon's funerals considering Catherine was a queen denied her proper titles and ceremony whereas Mary was only a duchess by marriage when she died yet got a funeral fit for a queen (even if she was the queen of a foreign nation and for such a short time). I think it just compounds on the insult that was Catherine's funeral.
I did debate having pretty much that exact playlist in fact, but I have other videos about death and corpses too (the mystery of skeleton lake for instance), so I opted for something a bit more all inclusive :-)
very true, catalina de aragon was in fact , henry VIII cousin via prince jon of gaunt-ghent... duchess magaret beaufourt was henry VIII grandmother , prince jons great grandaughter, as edward III was her great great grandfather queen consata de castiilla or duchess constance of lancaster, was ancestor of catherine of aragon via queen isabella the warior, who was the great x4 grandaughter of KING Edward III of england, also related to Henry II of england... the house of ivrea to plantagent, kings and queens of spain @usefulcharts on youtube...
In many ways, this single event WAS the end of the era for Roman Catholic England. It was the last royal English Catholic Funeral, except for the brief resurgence under Queen Mary Tudor.
@@Meggiebeth19 Astounding was the fact Katherine was the daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand. 2 of the most powerful rulers of the most powerful European country. But Henry was prime example of love turning to abject hatred and never forgiving the once loved lady for his evil toward them!
As a collector of Mourning lockets (like the two which contain Mary's hair), I believe it's likely due to how they were kept. Hair in graves begins to slowly lighten with time, and even black hair can turn golden. Sun bleaching, oxygen, cleaning treatments etc. all effect the hair in these lockets, it also depends on oxidation from the type of metal holding her hair in place within, which can darken and even turn hair green! The strange thing to me is the tangled mess and sparseness of the hair in both.. This would never have been done, great care was always taken in this jewelry, so these lockets (both) have been opened sometime after they were created. Both frames are also way later (18th/ 19th century). If they are real, which is questionable, they are not in the state they were 'snipped'. I think she was pretty fair haired based on two images of her created in her lifetime, one is the family portrait of Henry VII and all his children (she's second from right) and the other is from the tapestry's in France, from her marriage where she is very much Blonde. Hope this helps!!
I'm a natural brunette with summer and winter color changes. The sun makes it go a honey brown with sandy blonde streaks, and that's only one summer's time, so I can imagine what dozens or hundreds of years might do to the color.
As a hairdresser I just want to point out that we are trained to match hair color from 3 different areas of the head, because it can give a more complete picture of what a formula for matching it should be. Also, when a client wants "lowlights" it usually looks most natural if the formula is derived by matching a swatch to the hair at the back of the head (the darkest) and perhaps going one level lower. Having seen hundreds of natural blonds up close and personal, I can attest that the 2 samples could indeed be from the same head. Moreover, I don't see much point in falsifying such a thing. The amounts fetched when they were sold seem modest to me. But it could be a case of mistaken attribution. Perhaps they got their Marys mixed up? ; )
This seems consistent with most blonds I've known. I see that the hair on top and in the front of their heads is lighter and the back, especially the hair underneath, is darker. It's probably usual to describe someone's hair color by what you see around their face rather than what you see at the nape of their neck. I think if I were going to steal hair from a corpse I would cut it from the back of the head where the cut would be less noticeable.
The money was worth a lot more then that it would be now though and if all you had to do to 'earn' it, was say a lock of your mum's hair was Mary Tudor Brandon's, it would be an easy little earner I would think. There was also the story of the man specifically asking a woman for a lock of her hair to be passed off as Mary's remember, so we have a known instance of someone being interested in faking it.
@@HistoryCalling Women of that era would have covered all but the front bit of hair. It is known that hair exposed to sunlight (direct or indirect), will be lighter than hair not exposed. I assume she was wearing some sort of headpiece when interred, so the hair *seen* would have retained its light color, while the hair underneath would have been darker. Rosemary, used in the embalming practices of the time, is a known darkener of hair. There is also the possibility that her illness may have contributed to a change in hair color. As we do not know her cause of death, this is just speculation.
THANK YOU very much Stephen. I figured another dead Tudor would probably go down well (even though last week's memorial video wasn't especially popular).
Thank you. Honestly, it's impossible and deeply frustrating trying to figure out what will do well. Even videos on death and Tudors suddenly aren't as appealing, even though they've been a cert up to now 🙄
Me and my man lived in Bury St. Edmunds for 3 years (he was technically stationed Mildenhall) and during our first couple of days as new-but-temporary residents we toured the Abbey ruins and the church. When I saw Mary Tudor's very simple grave stone off the side of the altar, I was like, "She was the sister of Henry VIII and she's buried here?!" I would've thought she'd be laid to rest somewhere with a bit more grandeur.
Although the story of the lady being asked for her hair does seem suspect, it is also possible that Mary could have had streaks of slightly different colors. I have read that hormonal changes can cause a woman’s hair to change color over her lifetime. However, it is not likely that exposure to the sun would have caused it to change, because married women back in the Tudor era almost always wore some kind of head covering like a hood or veil outside and in public. And they were usually married young and didn’t travel to sunny vacation spots as much as young women do today. Just my humble opinion.
Long time since I’ve commented I just normally watch. Love the video. I fell in love with the Tudors when I first learned about them in school in 2005, and they’re my favourite dynasty, so I always love your Tudor videos. Also didn’t know Mary was pure blonde, thought she was red haired.
I thought so too in fact, but it turns out that the famous redhead portrait I've used for my thumbnail is actually posthumous. The contemporary descriptions (and the genuine locks of hair) definitely show she was blonde.
Interesting concept. Hair color can change. I was born blonde into a dark haired family. My hair became brown between the age of 3 and 10. I started swimming and combination of chlorine and sun turned it reddish. An 45 min NDE turned it with gray/white in temples and streaks. In my 30s it kept fluctuating from black to white. In my late 30s to early 40s it rainbowed as it is now with blonde streaks and highlights combined with auburn brown, black and silver. Doesn't look as clownish as it sounds but I often get questions or compliment on it's uniqueness. It locks were cut from different parts they would probably be assumed to be from different people. My hair is long to the length of my lower back almost to the cosxic which may have preserved and enhanced these variations. Sun, washing components, diet and pantothenic acid and other factors effect hair color. She may had slight variation due to some of these factors and the location from where the lock was clipped. Love your work and voice. Hope my hair experience helps. Lvya all much. Shalom
Same. Born with black hair. It fell out after more than a year and came in brown. Went silver in my 40’s (very) and I am now “anime blonde” / white hair. I have gray, white and a couple of different shades of pale blonde/quartz colors. If someone snipped mine it would be different on different parts of my head.
Please do a video on the life Mary Tudor Brandon. She's an interesting character, especially with her elopement with Charles Brandon when she would have known her brother would have wanted to use her for another alliance.
I think Dr Kat on Reading the Past already has one actually and I try my best not to overlap as I have people who steal my video ideas and I really hate it :-( If I can think of a particular aspect of Mary's life to do a deep dive on though, that wouldn't just be repeating other people's work, I'll certainly do that. I won't give away any ideas here though, due to the aforementioned thieves.
@@HistoryCalling I have read somewhere many,many years ago that she did not want to marry the king of France, but was told if she did marry him and outlived him, she could marry whoever she would like afterwards.
“Color After Death? Hair gets its color from two different types of pigment: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Eumelanin is the pigment that gives our hair its darkness, while pheomelanin gives our hair its redness. Your hair color is especially distinctive because it has its own unique combination of eumelanin and pheomelanin. Eumelanin has two subtypes: black and brown. If you have more black eumelanin in your hair, it will naturally be darker. Consequently, if there is a total lack of black eumelanin and a low level of brown eumelanin, then there is a high chance of you will be born with blond hair. As you age, the eumelanin levels of both kinds drop, causing your hair to gray. Pheomelanin, on the other hand, is responsible for adding red and orange. It is rare to have a high concentration of pheomelanin, which is why there are so few natural redheads in the world. It does, however, exist in some quantities in everyone’s hair. It is also more stable than eumelanin. Eumelanin breaks down easily through the process of oxidation, but pheomelanin does not. Pheomelanin tends to hang around in the hair even under extreme conditions. Therefore, under wet oxidizing climates, the eumelanin in the hair is lost over extended periods of time, leaving behind the red pigment, pheomelanin. (Good Ex: being, the locks of the Ancient Egyptian Mummies, if they did Not shave their head &/or wear wigs-lice was Rampant.) In short, the answer is yes! There is a chance that your hair will turn red after your death! If you need a point of reference, you should look at the ancient Egyptians. Egyptian mummies seem to sport a healthy shade of rust-colored locks, despite the centuries of decay. It does take longer for the oxidation process to occur in controlled dry conditions, like in an Egyptian tomb. Nevertheless, nature doesn’t discriminate. Red hair, the fashion of the undead, eventually gets to us all. It is interesting to note how transient we consider our hair to be, cutting it confidently, knowing that it will simply grow back. However, the last set of hair follicles you develop will probably outlast whatever civilization you call home! Not so transient after all. Who knew the hair on our head could be so dynamic-even after death.”
"an ombre situation going on" 💁♀️ thanks for the bit of humor in the discussion! Your videos are exquisite and brilliant, as a professor I learn a lot from your content but also your impeccable style 👑🤓
I stumbled across one of your videos a few weeks ago and I am hooked. I was stationed in England at RAF Alconbury from 1983 to 1987 living in Stilton. Those were good years and we spent a lot of time touring seeing many of the areas you speak about and the graves of many famous and royal persons. We rode horses weekly at a stable near Fotheringay and was always disappointed that the Cathedral there was always lock and no visitors allowed. I wonder if you could do a video of the inside of that Cathedral as I have seen a few pictures and many important people seem to be buried there. I would like to learn more. I love your work please keep on creating content.
Hair can change color in the sunlight and of course with age. Considering this hair is about 500 years old, I’m surprised there aren’t more colors. Unless the hair was kept in a cool, dark place undisturbed it’s highly unlikely the hair would even remotely resemble it as it did when she was alive. Considering the amount of time and hands these items passed, I’d bet they weren’t always taken with the best of care. That’s a lot of time, people, and families to screw up something highly delicate. People don’t realize how much the Sun actually damages items. All of my antiquities and rare items I keep away from direct sunlight.
Just now seeing your video, so I am late to the commentary ... the portrait of Frances Brandon Grey (4:08) is identified in the National Portrait Gallery, London, as actually being Mary Nevill Fiennes, Lady Dacre, taken from the original oil of Lady Dacre with her son, Gregory. Frances' effigy on her tomb in Westminster Abbey bears no resemblance. Thank you for your sharing your research through your videos. Truly fascinating history.
Very interesting description! Hair colour can actually change during the year depending on the amount of sun exposure and other factors such as diet. Hair colour also tends to darken with age (especially with children but also adults and particularly those with blonde hair turning auburn or brown) as eumelanin production usually increases with age (I used to research this many years ago 🥱). However, despite all this, I agree than some of these lovely locks are not genuine!
That's very interesting about hair. If we were only talking about a subtle difference in shade here, I'd be happy to put it down to that, but I definitely think we have some people trying to pass off some fake locks of Mary's hair for money here, without realising what colour her locks really were. Those sneaky Hanoverians! :-)
Yes, light exposure can make hair a lot lighter and if the hair had been out of the light for many years (such as…in a grave) it could certainly appear a more red tone even though in life - where she spent time in the sun - it was far more blonde. It certainly appeared to be a reddish toned golden-blonde, but certainly a lot lighter. Certain darker blonde heads of hair can look a mix of darker and lighter strands (my niece has hair like this, and hers also fluctuates between golden and reddish-brown, though not this severely) so overall I can see how there could end up with so many different-looking locks. There does certainly appear to be fakery though, which isn’t that surprising, but is certainly sad.
@@HistoryCalling My husband was a blonde haired, blue eyed child. When he was in high school, he had black hair. Now, he has brown hair. Catherine of Aragons hair also got darker as she aged. A lot of people dont realize that little fact.
I had a bright blond chunk of hair on my head all thew my childhood in fact people often asked my mom if she had it bleached because the rest of my hair was brownish it would lighten in the sun. As i got older not only did it become more curly its now naturally very dark almost black but i color it red. Also my nephew was born with jet black hair he is now 12 and natural bleach blond. Peoples hair changes with age and environmental things also.
Just now stumbled 'into' this grave site. What a great place to be first introduced to an old ghost I not met before while being well instructed, as well as highly entertained by a charming telling voice in the either. Will certainly be returning for more haunting. It's great stuff.
I would venture to say to those who say her hair changed in the summer because of sun exposure, that this would not have applied in this instance. Hair was usually covered, plus ladies were very careful not to have their complexions compromised by going into the sun. I think another explanation needs to be delved into. They said she was sickly for years- illness can certainly change hair color, or perhaps any medicine used would have done the same thing.
Pictures of Renaissance Italian ladies show them wearing broad brimmed crown less hats while applying a solution to their hair to lighten it. They would sit in the sun while doing this and the brim.protected their skin from tanning. Blonde hair was prized in Italy and it is possible English ladies may have lightened their hair using this technique.
I grew up in Ipswich and regularly visited bury st edmunds. I had no idea when I was younger what history I was walking around. I love history so much and have fond memories of days out there.
Thank you for this video, I always enjoy your work. Just one thing, that is not Francis Grey. That is Mary Neville, Lady Dacre, cropped from the image with her son, Gregory Fiennes, 10th Baron Dacre. I know the Victorians liked to say that image was Francis Grey with her second husband, Adrian Stokes, because they thought it was funny (the Victorians loved a good story and weren't much bothered by accuracy). There are images available for Francis Grey, including that of her tomb in Westminster Abbey, which is lovely.
Hmmmm... Stokes is a prominent name that ran through my family. It's been tough getting info from Europe, but I've detected a naming pattern that has kept names alive in the family. Really makes me wonder!
Hi, thank you for your comment. That's so interesting. I've never heard that that image isn't Francis Grey before. I got it from the Yale Centre for British Art which lists it as her and Stokes, but when I read your comment I Googled Lady Dacre (who I've never looked at before) and oh my word, you're right! I found the original painting in the NPG. I'm both annoyed at the YCBA for not mentioning this and at myself for having never stumbled across the truth before. I will of course stop using that image now when talking about Francis and just use the photograph I have of her tomb which appears elsewhere in the video. Thank you for the heads up. No one else has ever clocked that before.
@@HistoryCalling I hope you won't be too annoyed with the Yale Center. Their thing is art, rather than history, and they've probably been fooled by a Victorian source. It's so amazing how entrenched the Victorian idea of history (good stories are more important than accuracy) remains when so much time has passed. Could be its own video ;-)
My sister is Strawberry blonde. It is quite full of many different colors during the summer. Pale blonde, light blonde, dark blonde, gold, auburn, red, light brown, and brown underneath. During the winter her hair turns brown. You have to look closely to find the differing strands. Her eyes change color with the seasons as well. I am not surprised at Mary's locks being different colors. I have seen natural blondes with multiple shades of gold on their heads.
Yeah, that was my guess, too. That Mary's hair changed color depending on the sun. I am a natural blonde whose hair lightens in the summer and darkens in the winter. It doesn't change so radically like your sister's hair, though.
This may be a bit off topic, but after doing some recreational reading I have become obsessed with the family dynamic of the Georgian Kings and Queens. This family line of interpersonal relationships makes a Korean Drama seem dull. Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz is a particularly interesting persona in my opinion. This was a fantastic video on Queen Mary Tudor but I just wanted to mention that although the Tudor's are endlessly popular the Georgians are worth a deep dive. (just my personal view)
I wholeheartedly agree. My area of expertise (like what I did my PhD on and publish on) is actually very much in the later Stuart and Georgian era. I've leaned into the Tudors so heavily because, like you say, they're insanely popular and I've found it a struggle to get people to look at anything else when I've tried it. :-(
@@HistoryCalling I agree the Tudors are insanely popular. But speaking of k dramas, have you considered King Sukjong and his carousel of wives? While he’s nothing like Henry in personality, his martial life, and successors does have a number of parallels with Henry and his first few wives. Possibly a compare and contrast?
Another really well done video. I know a lot of this history very well but I always learn new things from you each time. And I agree some of her "supposed" hair is probably totally bogus.
Red hair has many shades such as that called ginger. I know from personal experience that in summer such hair can bleach naturally to golden or strawberry blond. However the under hair can remain a copper colour. Even in old age it often keeps its warmth and can retain the copper under hair.
I have only one book on Mary by Molly Costain Haycraft, The Reluctant Queen. 1962. She was Henrys beloved sister, and though she finally agreed to marry Louis and was so charming and caring of him to where she was beloved by the French, she did, as her only condition get Henry to swear that any next marriage was her choice for love! He promised, then went back on it at Louis death. When she Did marry Charles, Henry lay so many fines and forfeitures that they were nearly paupers. So much for Henrys word. Later, he came close to executing Kate Parr because he became enamored of Lady Willoughby, Marys grand daughter or maybe great niece. Eeesh! Luckily, he died and both ladies were saved frm a horrible fate!
I rather like her. She is one of the few people who stood up to Henry the VIII in order to marry Charles Brandon. Excellent video as always. Thank you!
Yes, though they were lucky they didn't try that in the mid- 1530s, or things might have ended very differently. Henry might not have killed Mary, but Charles could have been in real danger.
3:35 The St Edmunds Abbey ruins are amazing. You can walk freely amongst them and I love the contrast with the cathedral in the background. It’s a lovely historic Suffolk town
@@HistoryCalling I imagine you add more to the list than you manage to tick off but what a great list it must be to make your way through! I grew up near there and fondly remember primary school trips to the ruins and Moyse’s Hall Museum. That was over 30 years ago so unfortunately I can’t remember if we were shown the lock of hair or not 😆
I do indeed, but I've got a couple of Castles I'm hoping to visit in England next month (you'll know which ones if I get there and then incorporate some footage of them into later videos).
@@HistoryCalling I’m looking forward to what you have planned for us! I love your videos, and not just the Tudor ones 😉. The Giant’s Causeway was an unexpected but really interesting addition - thanks for that!
I walk through the abbey gardens everyday, Bury has a lot of history, I must admit the first time I visited Marys grave as a kid, I was really disappointed. But the church itself is beautiful.
Honestly, u make the dead alive with your deep research into their lives. I am sure mary would bless u for telling her story and journey through centuries. The best achievement for all humans is that they respect their dead. I am sure with your efforts u are making that achievement posible for every human being. God bless u.
From known archaeology and forensic examples - After death, hair can change colors from the processes of decay and also the way the body is preserved. Chemicals from the surrounding environment particularly in mineral rich areas can both bleach or darken hair, for example turning dark brown hair to a brassy red blonde. If hair has been displayed or touched often, sunlight and hand oils can also bleach or darken locks of hair.
It's certainly reassuring to hear that she was given a funeral fit for a queen. Not every queen in the Tudor era was treated that well. The hair color is certainly puzzling, but what was it with the people in the 18th century doing so many exhumations? Or am I just imagining it? Another great video.
Poor Catherine Valois, Queen of Henry V, got the worst of it. Apparently her tomb was a box on the floor of the church and vergers were paid to open the box so visitors could see and even handle the poor queens remains. Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary that 250 years after the Queen's death he actually lifted the top half of the Queen's body out of the box and kissed her on the lips then bragged he had actually kissed a queen. How cringey is that
Hair doesn't change color after death, regardless of atmospheric conditions or chemicals from embalming fluids. Thus I would agree the red locks of hair are most likely not Mary's (I am a current embalmer and a medieval embalming historian).
Thank you! I've had so many people here saying that it must have changed colour and I keep trying to gently remind them that the guy standing over her in her coffin said she was blonde (and nothing else), just like the man who saw her during her life. I think the blonde lock is real and the auburn one fake.
@@HistoryCalling as another has noted (and to which I can attest), strawberry-blonds appear to be blond or redhaired depending on many factors. My hair is alternately reddish, coppery, or blond....people used to ask my mother if she dyed my hair when i was a child because it carried many "stripes" of different colors. Oddly, when the hair is cut from my head, it appears duller and somewhat orange....ON my head, it is golden-copper. Mary Tudor's family were noted to be red-heads, with many called "strawberry blonds". It is certainly possible that one lock could seem to be of of much darker hue than another. (I have never dyed my hair, and am still mostly strawberry blond at 61 years old, but I remember that my hair seemed to turn a medium dunn-brown immediately after the [traumatic: emergency c-section] birth of my first child. It stayed that weird flat color for a few weeks then returned to its normal blond/red)
In regards to the hair color. I was born with blonde hair, grew up and it changed to a light brown with red high lights and will turn copper when I spend the summer in the sunlight. I would start school as Auburn and end it light brown. I inherited this from my father who had Scottish/Irish ancestry.
I have people in my family (also Scots/Irish, though that's just a coincidence, but I wonder if we're distantly related!) that that's happened to as well, but I have to say that the change from blonde to brown had happened well before they were 18, which is the age that Mary was described as being blonde at. I've only ever known one woman, who, after her 4th child, suddenly went from Grace Kelly blonde, to Vivien Leigh dark and it was just the weirdest thing.
@@HistoryCalling My brother was born with very white hair that turned to a dirty blond as he grew up. You can see the whiteness in the BW photos. I am 50% English/Eropean and 40% Scottish/Irish and descend from one of James the 6th illegitimate daughters and the Guase family.
I went to Cosmetology school years ago, though never stayed in the field. It was fun, an indulgence in hindsight BUT, I learned some interesting things. Hair is affected by hormones, drugs, even diet. DNA can only be gotten from the hair root, not a strand. I also have a goodly amount of Scots-Irish. Our ancestors were fewer, so we could ALL be related! I was a blond with straight hair that got darker with age. By High School, it was Honey colored, with hints of strawberry. It always lightened quickly by the summer sun. Both my maternal Grandfather, me and my son all started off with bone straight fine hair, which later became wavy, even curly! That's not supposed to be possible! My brother had brown hair, which turned blond after his bone marrow transplant! It also got wavy. The donor had dark brown hair. His blood type also changed from B to O. Hair in the back is usually darker than top and front layers, but not always. I think If Mary was fair haired, at the age she died, possibly even due to her illness, some rear growth could have darkened or been tainted by unknown fluids. Fraud is likely, but truth can be stranger than fiction! It's doubtful that the BRF would allow for any DNA to be done, ever. It's been theorized that the current family is not of legitimate descent. The actual descendants were located in Australia. I'd be very curious to see a comparison of Richard lll and the Australian branch (Plantagenets?) The "Princes" DNA in comparison could be explosive, between the the remains of the living and those of the dead!
The different color locks of hair could be hers. As a child, my hair was described as strawberry blonde or just very red, until I was about 6. It was red enough I was called Carrot Top, by adults, fairly regularly. Have quite the smart mouth. I usually replied, "The tops of carrots are green, you idiot!". I'd there any wonder my mother wished 3 daughters exactly like me upon me regularly? But, back to my hair. From about the age of 6 on, it was much darker, described as auburn, now very dark auburn, but if I spent any time in the sun, I would have quite thick streaks of blonde, very golden blonde, particularly around my face. Basically the sections of hair that would be visible around many of the Tudor Era women's head coverings. Another interesting thing about red hair, it doesn't go grey! It loses pigment over time, getting lighter and lighter, eventually turning white, not grey. Could be another explanation for dual hair color, especially of she'd been ill for a long time. Or, for the locks taken after death, they could have been bleached by exposure to light over the years, or just naturally lost pigment. Sorry, being the only redhead with brown eyes amongst a family of green eyed platinum blondes and raven haired btunettes, I've always been fascinated by genetics and convinced I was switched at birth. Nope, I'm just the genetic anomaly! Great video, thanks for all the info!
The different colors could come from different sections of hair also. I have a golden blonde hair as the sun lightens it. However, the underside of my hair is obviously a strawberry blonde to auburn color, and is darkening as I age. Some of the cut locks could have been from different parts of the head and therefore some difference in color. Add some changes from exposure to fluids and contamination, I can see how there could be even more of a difference. However, I think there is an excellent argument for fraud and leaned that way myself during your explanation.
I seem to remember watching an episode of Time Team where they were digging in a swamp or something. The skeleton they dug up had red hair, but they don't know if it was originally that color. If I am remembering correctly, they said a persons hair color changes after death sometimes and they gave some reasons why. Maybe at the time locks were taken, there could have been some color change?
Hi history calling will you ever do a video on Margret Tudor I think I asked a year ago on who was more interesting to you Margret Tudors or Mary Tudor queen of France just asking do you have an opinion on that yet because last year I remember you said you did not know them to much and if Mary queen of Scots was not killed and she becomes queen of England in 1603 do you think she would have been better ruling England instead of Scotland in your opinion I wonder how the new men in English court and parliament would like her or not but loved this video it was good
I might do yes, but I'll not give away any ideas on specific topics here as other, deadbeat channels steal my video plans. I can't see how Mary Queen of Scots would have been any better at managing England than Scotland, given her complete lack of experience at running that country and the fact that she would have been an old lady by then, who'd spent most of her life in prison, or living in another country.
@@HistoryCalling Indeed, I have seen some of these deadbeat channels that seem to copy your content very closely. But their videos are second-rate, thinly detailed and lack your superb scholarship. They cannot hold a candle to you!
Henry VIII’s sister Mary Brandon is ,according to my ancestry researched line ,my 13th great grand aunt ,sister to my 13th great grandmother Margaret Tudor ,and to my 13th great grand uncle Henry V111th himself. These discussions describe the reddish hair colour very interestingly.We have the red hair gene .Our hair turns more strawberry blonde in summer and a darker red ( pale auburn in winter).😊
I think when she was much younger her hair was more blonde. After her teenage years her hair develop more auburn highlights. My mom was a redhead and my dad had dark brown hair. When I was little I was more of a redhead. As I grew older my hair turned light brown with auburn highlights. This is one way to look at it but, I can see someone selling locks of from someone else and sells them as Mary’s hair. Very interesting video. I didn’t know people own her supposedly locks of hair. Thank you. Enjoy your weekend. 🌞
So many royal women who suffered male control during their life times, were woeful mistreated even in death. Sadly, there are many examples of their graves and bodies being abused. 🌿 RIP Great Ladies 🕊🙏
My hair looks very different in different lighting. Indoors it can be taken for blond or light brown depending on lighting, in sunlight it turns into caramel-strawberry blond. My eyebrows are so light I have to dye them for them to show and my eyelashes start as blond and then turns dark brown 😅🍀✨ The thing that makes me think fraud isn't really the different color, it's that the shade is entirely different. The lighter one is yellowish, the darker one is blueish - that doesn't happen, they should be on the same colour scale.
I just have to ask -- that drawing that appears at around 24:07, was that just used for a bit of comic relief? I'm afraid it triggered my inner costume-history-nerd child. I had to stop and go back over the image. Of course, the head dress and hair are in a 14th century style. Very non-Tudor .I'm in the middle of Katherine Warner's biography of Philippa of Hainault. The image is very reminiscent of the queen's effigy, so I'm probably super-sensitive:) Total change of subject. The portrait of Mary and Charles Brandon might just need a good cleaning, which could lighten up her hair.
The very, very last image in the video, literally one second from the end? It's meant (according to its tag anyway) to be Mary and was drawn in 1515. I think you must mean a different image though, as she's wearing a French hood in that picture and looks very Tudor. Do you maybe mean the boss image? It has an outdated headdress on her, but is labelled as Mary in a book by Strickland. Apparently it's in a church in Suffolk, but I'd be curious to see the real thing as I agree that it looks like a misattribution (though it's next to another boss meant to be Charles Brandon). The idea of cleaning the other portrait is an interesting one. There are whole art channels online dedicated to cleaning old pictures (and handbags and shoes etc) and it's fascinating!
@@HistoryCallingSorry, I just realized I was looking at the end time. It's the picture just after the diagram of Mary's grave location and is about at 11:53. And you slowly move down the image talking about the lead inscription that was on her chest.
Re: Agnes Strickland -- she has some interesting nuggets of information you won't find anywhere else. But she shares the general Victorian ignorance of costume history.
I have what would be described as very long strawberry dark blonde hair. I can confirm that the front pieces are almost white blonde, the top is a golden blonde, the bleached from sun ends are lighter and more uniform in color throughout, and the nape of the neck underneath hair is actually quite dark. I haven’t dyed my hair in over ten years. Not to mention the natural highlights and low lights. I can see how someone with my hair color could be called many different colors, and or have sample strands of many different colors all still mine.
During the height of the pandemic I went on a deep dive of The Wars of the Roses and Tudor history. Definitely not as deep as you have done. I read through as many biographical accounts and some fictional accounts. Seemingly both non fiction and fictional accounts agreed that the Tudors all had hair ranging in the blonde to auburn colors leaning towards being almost reddish. With Henry VIII having the most reddish of all.
So yea. I was born strawberry blonde. My mom said my head was read. But...it lightened up A LOT, to the point of ash blonde. I still had the red throughout, but you couldn't really tell...until I got older, and yea...became a mixture of both, like someone said, in streaks. There's some gray in it now, but it's still in streaks of blonde and red. I have ancestry from the entire UK, so I just figured that was why. I would think that would be the similar case with Mary's hair as well. Her family did have red hair, so her having a bit scattered throughout, or came out more pronounced as she got older, makes sense to me.
as a hairstylist, it looks as though she had a range of strawberry blonde hair and different colors ranging in different locations. it's possible to have different colors in different spots. both my children have red hair but have an ash blonde spot at their nape. so it's very possible to have different colors ranging through the hair, especially for red heads. the front have have been lighter due to sun exposure. I could go on and on about this.
9:48 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 5 hours after dinner & I'm very glad I waited to see this way after I ate. It's very interesting, and very very detailed. You talk about the lil holes in the skin where insects go & eggs & all that. You must have a strong stomach. :) This is very fascinating, and why I'm thinking of cremation. I look into the future of lands, & I hear about older cemeteries getting moved or built over for commercial purposes or housing developments. I think about this & wonder what it will be like in the future long after we're all gone. Will greed take over more & do away with more cemeteries? Are our graves in danger? This is what goes on through my mind when I watch these kind of videos. Too many desecrated graves out there, too many disturbed graves out there, & too expensive also.
Haha, yes I must have a reasonably strong stomach, as I have to read this, then type it up into a script, then proofread it, then record it (and I always make mistakes, so I'll have talked about those bugs 5 or 6 times before I got to the recording you hear in the final product), then listen back to it. Honestly, you get quite immune to the grossness of it all after a while. :-)
@@HistoryCalling Oh I am. Not because of your videos, I've been immune for awhile, listening watchin true crime cases throughout history. It's interesting what a lil hole in a coffin can do to a corpse with lil bits of air seep in, compared to a, I think it was in Egypt or somewhere, they dug up a corpse from this air tight box and the unmummified body remained as it was long long long long long time ago, with no wax or fake eyes or like some of these saints in a box have, like St Bernadette in Lourdes, France.
I cut off a whole braid of my hair once and mailed it to my mother as a joke (long story). When we were cleaning out a closet years later we found she still had it. It was much lighter, though, than my hair was by then. My hair has darkened, but it was never as light as the braid had turned. I would also think that even if her hair were very fair it might have been stained as her corpse darkened.
I can't imagine accidentally breaking a tomb open. I'd feel so bad. It's like accidentally breaking into someone's bedroom while they're sleeping or something.
If she was described as a blonde in her teenage years, her hair could have definitely darkened by the time she was in her late 30s. However, it was called golden in the description you mentioned of her body, so I guess that could have been its true colour still.
Yes, if not for the description of the body I might have been open to that idea, but the corpse don't lie (well, other than lying in the coffin that is. I know - that was a terrible pun. I'm sorry!) :-)
Blond hair can darken and turn more reddish over a person's lifetime, in my family that's the norm. I started out with very light hair and now at over 30 my hair is a reddish dark blond.
Strange,Mary was the same age at her death, as her mother,Elizabeth of York was, and died 30 years after. And the gentleman may have meant that Mary's hair was (a) red/gold, or (b) strawberry blonde, which would give it a tint of red in either aspect.
Mary being one of my favourite tudors, it's safe to say Mary was blonde /golden your theory of auburn I would have to agree was not her hair. Thank you as always HC 😊👍
Its possible the vegetable dyes used in those days leached colour into peoples hair. Madder root for example yields a pinky orange.They wernt water or light fast. Another reason clothes were brushed clean rather than washed.
For a moment, it looked like they were holding brooms in the picture of Elizabeth’s funeral. It never occurred to me, but now I’m very curious about He ray the Eighths funeral. Was it lavish? Were there celebrations (out of official sight of cause)
I think I cover his funeral a bit in my video on his exploding body (it's been that long since I created it now, I actually can't remember the details).
Seems like either the hair was exposed to something after death changing it’s color (as described), or it was fraud. If the variation in hair color was natural I would expect the lock would have *some* variety. If she had one section of hair in another color (rare, but it happens) it likely would have been recorded.
I'm now curious about who Edmund H was. Possibly the stone mason? But that would be rare to put his full first name and not his last. They did this on purpose to mess with our heads!
My own hair is naturally dark blonde, with the outer layer being bleached by the sun in summer and appearing much blonder than the lower layers, which appear brown. If you took two separate locks from different layers, it would be easy to wrongly conclude that they came from two separate people. Perhaps she was a strawberry blonde with the red coming through more strongly in the lower layers? (Not sure if the headwear worn in this period would prevent regular sun-bleaching, though.)
My OWN hair starts at the root as auburn verging on brown but lightens as it grows longer to blonde. 2 feet of my hair would show MULTIPLE colors - especially if cut into segments. My son's hair is THE SAME WAY. I've heard it referred to as "Welsh" hair. We also have nearly BLACK eyebrows and lashes that start dark brown at the follicle and are tipped in gold. There is NOT necessarily "fraud" involved. NONE of the pieces of hair shown in the video ARE TWO FEET LONG. The hair has VERY OBVIOUSLY been cut into segments.
While some could definitely be fake, depending on where her hair was in her coffin, that can account for the difference. The embalming fluid could change it, any acidity as decomposition takes place can do so as well. So her hair may have been closer to strawberry blonde, but was bleached by unknown processes in her grave. Or they could have been made more red, but by which process, I'm not familiar.
cant say i’ve ever heard the term pickle used in that way 🤣 up until i was about 4 or 5 my hair was super light blonde almost white and the older i’ve gotten it gets darker and darker. makes me wonder if i had long hair as a child if the ends would’ve been very light blonde and darker as it grew out.
Hmm, a natural ombre. Yes, it would have been interesting to see that. I'm sure there are other children out there with long hair that has changed colour who you could Google pictures of.
I am now curious as to the history of hair dye and if whether or not that could apply to Mary. I am also curious if any of the materials used to embalm could have had an affect as well if it came into contact with some of the hair
On the question of embalming, I've had people here in the comments say that they are professional morticians or have some experience with embalming, yet give opposing views on whether or not it could affect hair colour, so I'm afraid I don't know what the correct answer is :-(
Perhaps it could be that the different locks of hair were exposed to different amounts of light, heat, etc. over many years. (Some may be stored in a box with no light, between the pages of a book, in a frame or a glass cabinet, so exposed to more light, etc.) Also, whenever I have seen documentaries about archaeological discoveries of human remains where the hair is still attached to the skull, it seems to me that it is almost always of an auburn or russet color. It may just be a normal part of hair decomposing, so that samples of the hair collected earlier could differ significantly from samples collected many years later. Do you know of any research on that subject?
I don't know of any specific research on that subject I'm afraid :-( The locks from Mary's head were supposed to be collected at the same time though remember and the guy who saw her in her coffin specifically said she was blonde (as did those who saw her in life). I suspect we have some fake hair here, that someone who didn't know she was blonde tried to pass of as hers to make a quick buck.
Why you think locks of Mary's supposed hair are different colours? Let me know below and remember to SUBSCRIBE and check out my PATREON at www.patreon.com/historycalling
As a hairstylist im really qurious on how old she was when she was discribed as fair..
It is quite normal that redheads ( strawberry blondes) are pretty light golden when they are younger and/or if they are in the sun a lot - while I don’t consider that she would be in the sun after marriage - and as such her hair would appear darker…
And for the saved hair - remember hair is a fiber and how it is kept can have a profound impact on the color - and it’s also a factor where the hair were on her head at the time of cutting..
It is absolutely possible that de deep auburn was cut from her scalp - and the light blonde from her ends - especially if the blonde hair have been in the sun for a significant time….
To discover that more information is needed - but as a blonde myself and a stepmom to a redhead, I absolutely know that those discriptions can be about a girl with strawberry blonde hair while she was young, that turned auburn as she aged….
This is just off the top of my head (no pun intended) and bear in mind it's actually been over a month since I put this video together, so I could be misremembering, but I think the description of her as a blonde during her lifetime was made when she was 18 and about to be married to Louis XII of France.
@@HistoryCalling typically women ‘change’ haircolor a few times in their Life - and its often hormonal based, but sometimes its also because the hair changes thickness…
Most ( blonde/redheads) people go from a pretty light fine almost white blonde as a baby - to a more golden blonde around age 3…
Then again around age 7 it’s can change again and go just a tiny bit darker….
And then when puberty hits, and when pregnancy happens…
MANY women have their hair change color while they are pregnant or right after birth…
That’s why it can be SO difficult with northern types where the colors are light and redish….
And then add on the stuff that the sun and general exposure does to a hairstrand…. And with general exposure I’m talking about water, hair treatments and anything that touches the hair….
And then the consideration that some of their head dresses covers most of the hair - and If the fringe area is the only one exposed then it will look lighter the the rest, both because of exposure but also the fact that that part of the hairline often is really thin and fine hairs - where there is not much space for pigments….
This sounds too me like the darker strands of hair are fake and the blonde hair is the real deal.
Mary Tudor-CAPET-Brandon!!!!!
I went to school with a girl whose locks of hair ranged from blonde to a light auburn. The best I can describe it is that it looked kind of striped. She did not dye her hair and her hair was that way since I knew her in elementary school.
That's so unusual. I wonder if it stayed that way, or if she ended up colouring it to be all one shade?
@@HistoryCalling I don’t know since we went separate ways after high school. But I would venture to guess that it stayed that way since she loved the attention she got from her hair.
My hair is (was) naturally red. When I was very young in the summer parts of it bleached in the sun into stripes too: under the top layers it stayed quite red, on top it was strawberry blonde around the back, and light blonde to nearly white framing my face and in a few thin stripes around the back. Now that I'm 50 it's a strange combo of copper, drab nothing color, and silver. Hair is weird.
@@adoxartist1258 When I was younger, my hair was a light brown. But if you took a section and separated the hairs, you could see separate blond and red hairs among the light brown ones. And this blond and red effect of course increased with summer sunlight exposure. Now that I'm older, my hair has darkened to a more medium brown and has lost the blond and red hairs (sigh).
Yes, I had the same situation, with having red hair and blonde hair at the same time. I found that when I lived in California, my hair turned almost platinum blonde, even though I was a redhead at birth. When I would live in a more northeastern area of the USA, like Michigan, my hair would be redder. But during the summer, I would have more blonde as well. Interesting too, since technically, I am a descendant of the Mary Boleyn/Henry VIII liaison that has been written about as a likely alliance. Go figure.
As a strawberry blonde from birth, I have been called a blonde, a redhead and a strawberry blonde throughout my life, depending on the lighting, colour I’m wearing, and what’s around me. For example, when I wear black, I’m often told my hair looks red. In the sun, I look golden blonde. The hair on the top of my head was always lighter and straighter than the hair at base of my neck, which was redder and very curly. My eyelashes and eyebrows have always been very light blonde. I think the assumption that a person has only one colour all over is patently false and easily disproven.
I think at this point "Funerals of Notable Tudors" could be a series in and of itself XD
I do love the contrast between Mary and Catherine of Aragon's funerals considering Catherine was a queen denied her proper titles and ceremony whereas Mary was only a duchess by marriage when she died yet got a funeral fit for a queen (even if she was the queen of a foreign nation and for such a short time). I think it just compounds on the insult that was Catherine's funeral.
I did debate having pretty much that exact playlist in fact, but I have other videos about death and corpses too (the mystery of skeleton lake for instance), so I opted for something a bit more all inclusive :-)
Catherine of Aragon was treated abominably. She was at the mercy of her vile husband. To be born royal wasn’t what it was cracked up to be.😉
very true,
catalina de aragon was in fact , henry VIII cousin via prince jon of gaunt-ghent...
duchess magaret beaufourt was henry VIII grandmother ,
prince jons great grandaughter,
as edward III was her great great grandfather
queen consata de castiilla or duchess constance of lancaster, was ancestor of catherine of aragon via queen isabella the warior,
who was the great x4 grandaughter of KING Edward III of england, also related to Henry II of england...
the house of ivrea to plantagent,
kings and queens of spain @usefulcharts on youtube...
In many ways, this single event WAS the end of the era for Roman Catholic England. It was the last royal English Catholic Funeral, except for the brief resurgence under Queen Mary Tudor.
@@Meggiebeth19 Astounding was the fact Katherine was the daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand. 2 of the most powerful rulers of the most powerful European country. But Henry was prime example of love turning to abject hatred and never forgiving the once loved lady for his evil toward them!
As a collector of Mourning lockets (like the two which contain Mary's hair), I believe it's likely due to how they were kept. Hair in graves begins to slowly lighten with time, and even black hair can turn golden. Sun bleaching, oxygen, cleaning treatments etc. all effect the hair in these lockets, it also depends on oxidation from the type of metal holding her hair in place within, which can darken and even turn hair green! The strange thing to me is the tangled mess and sparseness of the hair in both.. This would never have been done, great care was always taken in this jewelry, so these lockets (both) have been opened sometime after they were created. Both frames are also way later (18th/ 19th century). If they are real, which is questionable, they are not in the state they were 'snipped'. I think she was pretty fair haired based on two images of her created in her lifetime, one is the family portrait of Henry VII and all his children (she's second from right) and the other is from the tapestry's in France, from her marriage where she is very much Blonde. Hope this helps!!
I'm a natural brunette with summer and winter color changes. The sun makes it go a honey brown with sandy blonde streaks, and that's only one summer's time, so I can imagine what dozens or hundreds of years might do to the color.
As a hairdresser I just want to point out that we are trained to match hair color from 3 different areas of the head, because it can give a more complete picture of what a formula for matching it should be. Also, when a client wants "lowlights" it usually looks most natural if the formula is derived by matching a swatch to the hair at the back of the head (the darkest) and perhaps going one level lower. Having seen hundreds of natural blonds up close and personal, I can attest that the 2 samples could indeed be from the same head. Moreover, I don't see much point in falsifying such a thing. The amounts fetched when they were sold seem modest to me. But it could be a case of mistaken attribution. Perhaps they got their Marys mixed up? ; )
This seems consistent with most blonds I've known. I see that the hair on top and in the front of their heads is lighter and the back, especially the hair underneath, is darker. It's probably usual to describe someone's hair color by what you see around their face rather than what you see at the nape of their neck. I think if I were going to steal hair from a corpse I would cut it from the back of the head where the cut would be less noticeable.
The money was worth a lot more then that it would be now though and if all you had to do to 'earn' it, was say a lock of your mum's hair was Mary Tudor Brandon's, it would be an easy little earner I would think. There was also the story of the man specifically asking a woman for a lock of her hair to be passed off as Mary's remember, so we have a known instance of someone being interested in faking it.
@@HistoryCalling Women of that era would have covered all but the front bit of hair. It is known that hair exposed to sunlight (direct or indirect), will be lighter than hair not exposed.
I assume she was wearing some sort of headpiece when interred, so the hair *seen* would have retained its light color, while the hair underneath would have been darker. Rosemary, used in the embalming practices of the time, is a known darkener of hair.
There is also the possibility that her illness may have contributed to a change in hair color. As we do not know her cause of death, this is just speculation.
Thanks for another vivid journey into the past, HC!
THANK YOU very much Stephen. I figured another dead Tudor would probably go down well (even though last week's memorial video wasn't especially popular).
@@HistoryCalling Bummer! That's mystifying to me; I thought it was one of your best this year. 🤔 Ah, well.....
Thank you. Honestly, it's impossible and deeply frustrating trying to figure out what will do well. Even videos on death and Tudors suddenly aren't as appealing, even though they've been a cert up to now 🙄
Me and my man lived in Bury St. Edmunds for 3 years (he was technically stationed Mildenhall) and during our first couple of days as new-but-temporary residents we toured the Abbey ruins and the church. When I saw Mary Tudor's very simple grave stone off the side of the altar, I was like, "She was the sister of Henry VIII and she's buried here?!" I would've thought she'd be laid to rest somewhere with a bit more grandeur.
Although the story of the lady being asked for her hair does seem suspect, it is also possible that Mary could have had streaks of slightly different colors. I have read that hormonal changes can cause a woman’s hair to change color over her lifetime. However, it is not likely that exposure to the sun would have caused it to change, because married women back in the Tudor era almost always wore some kind of head covering like a hood or veil outside and in public. And they were usually married young and didn’t travel to sunny vacation spots as much as young women do today. Just my humble opinion.
Long time since I’ve commented I just normally watch. Love the video. I fell in love with the Tudors when I first learned about them in school in 2005, and they’re my favourite dynasty, so I always love your Tudor videos. Also didn’t know Mary was pure blonde, thought she was red haired.
I thought so too in fact, but it turns out that the famous redhead portrait I've used for my thumbnail is actually posthumous. The contemporary descriptions (and the genuine locks of hair) definitely show she was blonde.
I thought so too
The animated face of Anne of Cleves (about 10:23) will never stop freaking me completely, totally out.
She apparently did the same to Henry VIII 😆
Interesting concept. Hair color can change. I was born blonde into a dark haired family. My hair became brown between the age of 3 and 10. I started swimming and combination of chlorine and sun turned it reddish. An 45 min NDE turned it with gray/white in temples and streaks. In my 30s it kept fluctuating from black to white. In my late 30s to early 40s it rainbowed as it is now with blonde streaks and highlights combined with auburn brown, black and silver. Doesn't look as clownish as it sounds but I often get questions or compliment on it's uniqueness. It locks were cut from different parts they would probably be assumed to be from different people. My hair is long to the length of my lower back almost to the cosxic which may have preserved and enhanced these variations. Sun, washing components, diet and pantothenic acid and other factors effect hair color. She may had slight variation due to some of these factors and the location from where the lock was clipped. Love your work and voice. Hope my hair experience helps. Lvya all much. Shalom
Same. Born with black hair. It fell out after more than a year and came in brown. Went silver in my 40’s (very) and I am now “anime blonde” / white hair. I have gray, white and a couple of different shades of pale blonde/quartz colors. If someone snipped mine it would be different on different parts of my head.
@@mcomeslast and....your hair...is beautiful. Hope you display it as often as possible.
I enjoy your videos, and your calming voice/accent. You always make exceptional videos.
Thank you! 😊
Please do a video on the life Mary Tudor Brandon. She's an interesting character, especially with her elopement with Charles Brandon when she would have known her brother would have wanted to use her for another alliance.
I would love that also!
I think Dr Kat on Reading the Past already has one actually and I try my best not to overlap as I have people who steal my video ideas and I really hate it :-( If I can think of a particular aspect of Mary's life to do a deep dive on though, that wouldn't just be repeating other people's work, I'll certainly do that. I won't give away any ideas here though, due to the aforementioned thieves.
@@HistoryCalling I have read somewhere many,many years ago that she did not want to marry the king of France, but was told if she did marry him and outlived him, she could marry whoever she would like afterwards.
“Color After Death?
Hair gets its color from two different types of pigment: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Eumelanin is the pigment that gives our hair its darkness, while pheomelanin gives our hair its redness. Your hair color is especially distinctive because it has its own unique combination of eumelanin and pheomelanin.
Eumelanin has two subtypes: black and brown. If you have more black eumelanin in your hair, it will naturally be darker. Consequently, if there is a total lack of black eumelanin and a low level of brown eumelanin, then there is a high chance of you will be born with blond hair. As you age, the eumelanin levels of both kinds drop, causing your hair to gray.
Pheomelanin, on the other hand, is responsible for adding red and orange. It is rare to have a high concentration of pheomelanin, which is why there are so few natural redheads in the world.
It does, however, exist in some quantities in everyone’s hair. It is also more stable than eumelanin. Eumelanin breaks down easily through the process of oxidation, but pheomelanin does not. Pheomelanin tends to hang around in the hair even under extreme conditions. Therefore, under wet oxidizing climates, the eumelanin in the hair is lost over extended periods of time, leaving behind the red pigment, pheomelanin.
(Good Ex: being, the locks of the Ancient Egyptian Mummies, if they did Not shave their head &/or wear wigs-lice was Rampant.)
In short, the answer is yes! There is a chance that your hair will turn red after your death! If you need a point of reference, you should look at the ancient Egyptians. Egyptian mummies seem to sport a healthy shade of rust-colored locks, despite the centuries of decay. It does take longer for the oxidation process to occur in controlled dry conditions, like in an Egyptian tomb. Nevertheless, nature doesn’t discriminate. Red hair, the fashion of the undead, eventually gets to us all.
It is interesting to note how transient we consider our hair to be, cutting it confidently, knowing that it will simply grow back. However, the last set of hair follicles you develop will probably outlast whatever civilization you call home! Not so transient after all. Who knew the hair on our head could be so dynamic-even after death.”
"an ombre situation going on" 💁♀️ thanks for the bit of humor in the discussion! Your videos are exquisite and brilliant, as a professor I learn a lot from your content but also your impeccable style 👑🤓
Pp
Thank you so much Monica :-) That's very kind of you to say.
Thanks!
THANK YOU so much for your generous support Darryn. I hope you've enjoyed hearing about Mary and the little mystery surrounding the locks of her hair.
A VERY fascinating channel for those fascinated by history like myself. Thank you.
I stumbled across one of your videos a few weeks ago and I am hooked. I was stationed in England at RAF Alconbury from 1983 to 1987 living in Stilton. Those were good years and we spent a lot of time touring seeing many of the areas you speak about and the graves of many famous and royal persons. We rode horses weekly at a stable near Fotheringay and was always disappointed that the Cathedral there was always lock and no visitors allowed. I wonder if you could do a video of the inside of that Cathedral as I have seen a few pictures and many important people seem to be buried there. I would like to learn more. I love your work please keep on creating content.
Hair can change color in the sunlight and of course with age. Considering this hair is about 500 years old, I’m surprised there aren’t more colors. Unless the hair was kept in a cool, dark place undisturbed it’s highly unlikely the hair would even remotely resemble it as it did when she was alive. Considering the amount of time and hands these items passed, I’d bet they weren’t always taken with the best of care. That’s a lot of time, people, and families to screw up something highly delicate. People don’t realize how much the Sun actually damages items. All of my antiquities and rare items I keep away from direct sunlight.
Another fascinating video! I love the amount of detail you include which at times has a "You are there" quality. Thanks so very much.
Another fabulous video. You’re really very good at these history vids. Thx so much😊👍.
Thanks Anna :-)
Just now seeing your video, so I am late to the commentary ... the portrait of Frances Brandon Grey (4:08) is identified in the National Portrait Gallery, London, as actually being Mary Nevill Fiennes, Lady Dacre, taken from the original oil of Lady Dacre with her son, Gregory. Frances' effigy on her tomb in Westminster Abbey bears no resemblance.
Thank you for your sharing your research through your videos. Truly fascinating history.
Poor Lady Dacre, she was always being taken for Frances Brandon or Lady Jane Grey.
Very interesting description! Hair colour can actually change during the year depending on the amount of sun exposure and other factors such as diet. Hair colour also tends to darken with age (especially with children but also adults and particularly those with blonde hair turning auburn or brown) as eumelanin production usually increases with age (I used to research this many years ago 🥱). However, despite all this, I agree than some of these lovely locks are not genuine!
That's very interesting about hair. If we were only talking about a subtle difference in shade here, I'd be happy to put it down to that, but I definitely think we have some people trying to pass off some fake locks of Mary's hair for money here, without realising what colour her locks really were. Those sneaky Hanoverians! :-)
Yes, light exposure can make hair a lot lighter and if the hair had been out of the light for many years (such as…in a grave) it could certainly appear a more red tone even though in life - where she spent time in the sun - it was far more blonde. It certainly appeared to be a reddish toned golden-blonde, but certainly a lot lighter. Certain darker blonde heads of hair can look a mix of darker and lighter strands (my niece has hair like this, and hers also fluctuates between golden and reddish-brown, though not this severely) so overall I can see how there could end up with so many different-looking locks. There does certainly appear to be fakery though, which isn’t that surprising, but is certainly sad.
@@HistoryCalling My husband was a blonde haired, blue eyed child. When he was in high school, he had black hair. Now, he has brown hair. Catherine of Aragons hair also got darker as she aged. A lot of people dont realize that little fact.
I had a bright blond chunk of hair on my head all thew my childhood in fact people often asked my mom if she had it bleached because the rest of my hair was brownish it would lighten in the sun. As i got older not only did it become more curly its now naturally very dark almost black but i color it red. Also my nephew was born with jet black hair he is now 12 and natural bleach blond. Peoples hair changes with age and environmental things also.
always enjoy the level of detail you put into your research; another great video!
Thanks Mike. It was interesting to research, as I didn't know much about Mary's death and burial before this.
Just now stumbled 'into' this grave site. What a great place to be first introduced to an old ghost I not met before while being well instructed, as well as highly entertained by a charming telling voice in the either. Will certainly be returning for more haunting. It's great stuff.
Thanks Michael and welcome :-)
I love your videos you know much about the Tudors I can just close my and imaging was there. Love you work look forward to every vidio
Thank you. I didn't know much about Mary's death and burial before this video actually, so it was fun for me to research as well.
I would venture to say to those who say her hair changed in the summer because of sun exposure, that this would not have applied in this instance. Hair was usually covered, plus ladies were very careful not to have their complexions compromised by going into the sun. I think another explanation needs to be delved into. They said she was sickly for years- illness can certainly change hair color, or perhaps any medicine used would have done the same thing.
Pictures of Renaissance Italian ladies show them wearing broad brimmed crown less hats while applying a solution to their hair to lighten it. They would sit in the sun while doing this and the brim.protected their skin from tanning. Blonde hair was prized in Italy and it is possible English ladies may have lightened their hair using this technique.
Thank you for all this wonderful history! New subscriberioner fr. Canada 🇨🇦
So very descriptive.....and what an elaborate ceremony
Thank you (though I'm only as good as the primary sources of course).
I grew up in Ipswich and regularly visited bury st edmunds. I had no idea when I was younger what history I was walking around. I love history so much and have fond memories of days out there.
I'd love to go myself. It's another entry on my (super-long) bucket list.
Thank you for this video, I always enjoy your work.
Just one thing, that is not Francis Grey. That is Mary Neville, Lady Dacre, cropped from the image with her son, Gregory Fiennes, 10th Baron Dacre. I know the Victorians liked to say that image was Francis Grey with her second husband, Adrian Stokes, because they thought it was funny (the Victorians loved a good story and weren't much bothered by accuracy). There are images available for Francis Grey, including that of her tomb in Westminster Abbey, which is lovely.
Hmmmm... Stokes is a prominent name that ran through my family. It's been tough getting info from Europe, but I've detected a naming pattern that has kept names alive in the family. Really makes me wonder!
@@ruthanneseven Hmmmmmm. Well, Adrian didn't have surviving descendants but he did have brothers so, maybe :-)
Hi, thank you for your comment. That's so interesting. I've never heard that that image isn't Francis Grey before. I got it from the Yale Centre for British Art which lists it as her and Stokes, but when I read your comment I Googled Lady Dacre (who I've never looked at before) and oh my word, you're right! I found the original painting in the NPG. I'm both annoyed at the YCBA for not mentioning this and at myself for having never stumbled across the truth before. I will of course stop using that image now when talking about Francis and just use the photograph I have of her tomb which appears elsewhere in the video. Thank you for the heads up. No one else has ever clocked that before.
@@HistoryCalling I hope you won't be too annoyed with the Yale Center. Their thing is art, rather than history, and they've probably been fooled by a Victorian source. It's so amazing how entrenched the Victorian idea of history (good stories are more important than accuracy) remains when so much time has passed. Could be its own video ;-)
Surely she is named Frances, the feminine form, rather than Francis, male form?
I love the tone of your voice. Your content is really good.
My sister is Strawberry blonde. It is quite full of many different colors during the summer. Pale blonde, light blonde, dark blonde, gold, auburn, red, light brown, and brown underneath. During the winter her hair turns brown. You have to look closely to find the differing strands. Her eyes change color with the seasons as well. I am not surprised at Mary's locks being different colors. I have seen natural blondes with multiple shades of gold on their heads.
Ok, your sister's hair sounds amazing! :-)
Yeah, that was my guess, too. That Mary's hair changed color depending on the sun. I am a natural blonde whose hair lightens in the summer and darkens in the winter. It doesn't change so radically like your sister's hair, though.
This may be a bit off topic, but after doing some recreational reading I have become obsessed with the family dynamic of the Georgian Kings and Queens. This family line of interpersonal relationships makes a Korean Drama seem dull. Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz is a particularly interesting persona in my opinion.
This was a fantastic video on Queen Mary Tudor but I just wanted to mention that although the Tudor's are endlessly popular the Georgians are worth a deep dive. (just my personal view)
I wholeheartedly agree. My area of expertise (like what I did my PhD on and publish on) is actually very much in the later Stuart and Georgian era. I've leaned into the Tudors so heavily because, like you say, they're insanely popular and I've found it a struggle to get people to look at anything else when I've tried it. :-(
@@HistoryCalling I agree the Tudors are insanely popular. But speaking of k dramas, have you considered King Sukjong and his carousel of wives? While he’s nothing like Henry in personality, his martial life, and successors does have a number of parallels with Henry and his first few wives. Possibly a compare and contrast?
Another really well done video. I know a lot of this history very well but I always learn new things from you each time. And I agree some of her "supposed" hair is probably totally bogus.
splendid! thanx!
You're very welcome :-)
Fabulous as usual.
Thanks Mimi :-)
First..yes!!!!! I absolutely love your channel!
Hi Lacenia, thanks for watching and commenting :-)
Red hair has many shades such as that called ginger. I know from personal experience that in summer such hair can bleach naturally to golden or strawberry blond. However the under hair can remain a copper colour. Even in old age it often keeps its warmth and can retain the copper under hair.
I have only one book on Mary by Molly Costain Haycraft, The Reluctant Queen. 1962. She was Henrys beloved sister, and though she finally agreed to marry Louis and was so charming and caring of him to where she was beloved by the French, she did, as her only condition get Henry to swear that any next marriage was her choice for love! He promised, then went back on it at Louis death. When she Did marry Charles, Henry lay so many fines and forfeitures that they were nearly paupers. So much for Henrys word. Later, he came close to executing Kate Parr because he became enamored of Lady Willoughby, Marys grand daughter or maybe great niece. Eeesh! Luckily, he died and both ladies were saved frm a horrible fate!
Great Videos lean something new every video thank you 👍👍👍👍☘
Thanks
THANK YOU so much for your support of the channel Kasie. I hope you enjoy hearing about Mary and the little mystery surrounding her hair.
@@HistoryCalling oh I love anything Tudor!!
I rather like her. She is one of the few people who stood up to Henry the VIII in order to marry Charles Brandon. Excellent video as always. Thank you!
Yes, though they were lucky they didn't try that in the mid- 1530s, or things might have ended very differently. Henry might not have killed Mary, but Charles could have been in real danger.
3:35 The St Edmunds Abbey ruins are amazing. You can walk freely amongst them and I love the contrast with the cathedral in the background. It’s a lovely historic Suffolk town
I've never been sadly :-( I must add it to my ever growing bucket list.
@@HistoryCalling I imagine you add more to the list than you manage to tick off but what a great list it must be to make your way through!
I grew up near there and fondly remember primary school trips to the ruins and Moyse’s Hall Museum. That was over 30 years ago so unfortunately I can’t remember if we were shown the lock of hair or not 😆
I do indeed, but I've got a couple of Castles I'm hoping to visit in England next month (you'll know which ones if I get there and then incorporate some footage of them into later videos).
@@HistoryCalling I’m looking forward to what you have planned for us! I love your videos, and not just the Tudor ones 😉. The Giant’s Causeway was an unexpected but really interesting addition - thanks for that!
I walk through the abbey gardens everyday, Bury has a lot of history, I must admit the first time I visited Marys grave as a kid, I was really disappointed. But the church itself is beautiful.
Honestly, u make the dead alive with your deep research into their lives. I am sure mary would bless u for telling her story and journey through centuries. The best achievement for all humans is that they respect their dead. I am sure with your efforts u are making that achievement posible for every human being. God bless u.
Thank you so much. That's very kind of you to say and I certainly hope you're right about what Mary would think of it all.
I love when you do Tudor videos! Thank you and keep them coming!!😁
More on the way! :-)
👏👏👏👏
From known archaeology and forensic examples - After death, hair can change colors from the processes of decay and also the way the body is preserved. Chemicals from the surrounding environment particularly in mineral rich areas can both bleach or darken hair, for example turning dark brown hair to a brassy red blonde. If hair has been displayed or touched often, sunlight and hand oils can also bleach or darken locks of hair.
It's certainly reassuring to hear that she was given a funeral fit for a queen. Not every queen in the Tudor era was treated that well. The hair color is certainly puzzling, but what was it with the people in the 18th century doing so many exhumations? Or am I just imagining it? Another great video.
Seems like most Tudor queens 👸 were not treated well
@@dianetheisen8664 Other than his daughters, they had all been married to Henry VIII, so there's that.
Don't forget his mum, Elizabeth of York 😆
You're not imagining it. They were ghoulish and there was no one to stop them indulging their ghoulish whims I guess.
Poor Catherine Valois, Queen of Henry V, got the worst of it. Apparently her tomb was a box on the floor of the church and vergers were paid to open the box so visitors could see and even handle the poor queens remains. Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary that 250 years after the Queen's death he actually lifted the top half of the Queen's body out of the box and kissed her on the lips then bragged he had actually kissed a queen. How cringey is that
Hair doesn't change color after death, regardless of atmospheric conditions or chemicals from embalming fluids. Thus I would agree the red locks of hair are most likely not Mary's (I am a current embalmer and a medieval embalming historian).
Thank you! I've had so many people here saying that it must have changed colour and I keep trying to gently remind them that the guy standing over her in her coffin said she was blonde (and nothing else), just like the man who saw her during her life. I think the blonde lock is real and the auburn one fake.
@@HistoryCalling as another has noted (and to which I can attest), strawberry-blonds appear to be blond or redhaired depending on many factors. My hair is alternately reddish, coppery, or blond....people used to ask my mother if she dyed my hair when i was a child because it carried many "stripes" of different colors. Oddly, when the hair is cut from my head, it appears duller and somewhat orange....ON my head, it is golden-copper. Mary Tudor's family were noted to be red-heads, with many called "strawberry blonds". It is certainly possible that one lock could seem to be of of much darker hue than another. (I have never dyed my hair, and am still mostly strawberry blond at 61 years old, but I remember that my hair seemed to turn a medium dunn-brown immediately after the [traumatic: emergency c-section] birth of my first child. It stayed that weird flat color for a few weeks then returned to its normal blond/red)
In regards to the hair color. I was born with blonde hair, grew up and it changed to a light brown with red high lights and will turn copper when I spend the summer in the sunlight.
I would start school as Auburn and end it light brown. I inherited this from my father who had Scottish/Irish ancestry.
I have people in my family (also Scots/Irish, though that's just a coincidence, but I wonder if we're distantly related!) that that's happened to as well, but I have to say that the change from blonde to brown had happened well before they were 18, which is the age that Mary was described as being blonde at. I've only ever known one woman, who, after her 4th child, suddenly went from Grace Kelly blonde, to Vivien Leigh dark and it was just the weirdest thing.
@@HistoryCalling My brother was born with very white hair that turned to a dirty blond as he grew up. You can see the whiteness in the BW photos. I am 50% English/Eropean and 40% Scottish/Irish and descend from one of James the 6th illegitimate daughters and the Guase family.
I went to Cosmetology school years ago, though never stayed in the field.
It was fun, an indulgence in hindsight BUT, I learned some interesting things. Hair is affected by hormones, drugs, even diet. DNA can only be gotten from the hair root, not a strand.
I also have a goodly amount of Scots-Irish. Our ancestors were fewer, so we could ALL be related!
I was a blond with straight hair that got darker with age. By High School, it was Honey colored, with hints of strawberry. It always lightened quickly by the summer sun.
Both my maternal Grandfather, me and my son all started off with bone straight fine hair, which later became wavy, even curly! That's not supposed to be possible! My brother had brown hair, which turned blond after his bone marrow transplant! It also got wavy. The donor had dark brown hair. His blood type also changed from B to O.
Hair in the back is usually darker than top and front layers, but not always.
I think If Mary was fair haired, at the age she died, possibly even due to her illness, some rear growth could have darkened or been tainted by unknown fluids. Fraud is likely, but truth can be stranger than fiction! It's doubtful that the BRF would allow for any DNA to be done, ever. It's been theorized that the current family is not of legitimate descent. The actual descendants were located in Australia.
I'd be very curious to see a comparison of Richard lll and the Australian branch (Plantagenets?) The "Princes" DNA in comparison could be explosive, between the the remains of the living and those of the dead!
The different color locks of hair could be hers. As a child, my hair was described as strawberry blonde or just very red, until I was about 6. It was red enough I was called Carrot Top, by adults, fairly regularly. Have quite the smart mouth. I usually replied, "The tops of carrots are green, you idiot!". I'd there any wonder my mother wished 3 daughters exactly like me upon me regularly? But, back to my hair. From about the age of 6 on, it was much darker, described as auburn, now very dark auburn, but if I spent any time in the sun, I would have quite thick streaks of blonde, very golden blonde, particularly around my face. Basically the sections of hair that would be visible around many of the Tudor Era women's head coverings. Another interesting thing about red hair, it doesn't go grey! It loses pigment over time, getting lighter and lighter, eventually turning white, not grey. Could be another explanation for dual hair color, especially of she'd been ill for a long time. Or, for the locks taken after death, they could have been bleached by exposure to light over the years, or just naturally lost pigment. Sorry, being the only redhead with brown eyes amongst a family of green eyed platinum blondes and raven haired btunettes, I've always been fascinated by genetics and convinced I was switched at birth. Nope, I'm just the genetic anomaly! Great video, thanks for all the info!
Haha, I love your 'carrot-tops are green' answer. That was very clever for a kid :-)
Very good points!
The different colors could come from different sections of hair also. I have a golden blonde hair as the sun lightens it. However, the underside of my hair is obviously a strawberry blonde to auburn color, and is darkening as I age. Some of the cut locks could have been from different parts of the head and therefore some difference in color. Add some changes from exposure to fluids and contamination, I can see how there could be even more of a difference. However, I think there is an excellent argument for fraud and leaned that way myself during your explanation.
I seem to remember watching an episode of Time Team where they were digging in a swamp or something. The skeleton they dug up had red hair, but they don't know if it was originally that color. If I am remembering correctly, they said a persons hair color changes after death sometimes and they gave some reasons why. Maybe at the time locks were taken, there could have been some color change?
Isn't the image at 4:19 named The Duchess of Suffolk the same image that's attributed to Jane Seymour?
No, it's definitely Charles Brandon's last duchess. I don't think I've heard the identity of the sitter for that drawing called into question.
Hi history calling will you ever do a video on Margret Tudor I think I asked a year ago on who was more interesting to you Margret Tudors or Mary Tudor queen of France just asking do you have an opinion on that yet because last year I remember you said you did not know them to much and if Mary queen of Scots was not killed and she becomes queen of England in 1603 do you think she would have been better ruling England instead of Scotland in your opinion I wonder how the new men in English court and parliament would like her or not but loved this video it was good
I might do yes, but I'll not give away any ideas on specific topics here as other, deadbeat channels steal my video plans. I can't see how Mary Queen of Scots would have been any better at managing England than Scotland, given her complete lack of experience at running that country and the fact that she would have been an old lady by then, who'd spent most of her life in prison, or living in another country.
@@HistoryCalling Indeed, I have seen some of these deadbeat channels that seem to copy your content very closely. But their videos are second-rate, thinly detailed and lack your superb scholarship. They cannot hold a candle to you!
Very good, thank you!!
Thank you too :-)
cant wait to watch this one!🙌🏻🙌🏻
Isn’t it marvellous how much is done for the dead, but not much for these poor souls during life
Very true :-(
Henry VIII’s sister Mary Brandon is ,according to my ancestry researched line ,my 13th great grand aunt ,sister to my 13th great grandmother Margaret Tudor ,and to my 13th great grand uncle Henry V111th himself.
These discussions describe the reddish hair colour very interestingly.We have the red hair gene .Our hair turns more strawberry blonde in summer and a darker red ( pale auburn in winter).😊
Hello to history calling from Bea
Hi Bea :-)
I think when she was much younger her hair was more blonde. After her teenage years her hair develop more auburn highlights. My mom was a redhead and my dad had dark brown hair. When I was little I was more of a redhead. As I grew older my hair turned light brown with auburn highlights. This is one way to look at it but, I can see someone selling locks of from someone else and sells them as Mary’s hair. Very interesting video. I didn’t know people own her supposedly locks of hair. Thank you. Enjoy your weekend. 🌞
Thanks Leticia. Yes, I'd love to get to see one of the supposed locks in person.
lovely voice , is that a Donegal accent
Thank you. I'm Northern Irish, but it's pretty similar to a Donegal accent as it's all the province of Ulster.
Excellent
Thank you :-)
So many royal women who suffered male control during their life times, were woeful mistreated even in death. Sadly, there are many examples of their graves and bodies being abused.
🌿 RIP Great Ladies 🕊🙏
Hear, hear :-)
My hair looks very different in different lighting. Indoors it can be taken for blond or light brown depending on lighting, in sunlight it turns into caramel-strawberry blond. My eyebrows are so light I have to dye them for them to show and my eyelashes start as blond and then turns dark brown 😅🍀✨
The thing that makes me think fraud isn't really the different color, it's that the shade is entirely different. The lighter one is yellowish, the darker one is blueish - that doesn't happen, they should be on the same colour scale.
thank you!
You're welcome! :-)
I just have to ask -- that drawing that appears at around 24:07, was that just used for a bit of comic relief? I'm afraid it triggered my inner costume-history-nerd child. I had to stop and go back over the image. Of course, the head dress and hair are in a 14th century style. Very non-Tudor .I'm in the middle of Katherine Warner's biography of Philippa of Hainault. The image is very reminiscent of the queen's effigy, so I'm probably super-sensitive:)
Total change of subject. The portrait of Mary and Charles Brandon might just need a good cleaning, which could lighten up her hair.
The very, very last image in the video, literally one second from the end? It's meant (according to its tag anyway) to be Mary and was drawn in 1515. I think you must mean a different image though, as she's wearing a French hood in that picture and looks very Tudor. Do you maybe mean the boss image? It has an outdated headdress on her, but is labelled as Mary in a book by Strickland. Apparently it's in a church in Suffolk, but I'd be curious to see the real thing as I agree that it looks like a misattribution (though it's next to another boss meant to be Charles Brandon).
The idea of cleaning the other portrait is an interesting one. There are whole art channels online dedicated to cleaning old pictures (and handbags and shoes etc) and it's fascinating!
@@HistoryCallingSorry, I just realized I was looking at the end time. It's the picture just after the diagram of Mary's grave location and is about at 11:53. And you slowly move down the image talking about the lead inscription that was on her chest.
Re: Agnes Strickland -- she has some interesting nuggets of information you won't find anywhere else. But she shares the general Victorian ignorance of costume history.
I have what would be described as very long strawberry dark blonde hair. I can confirm that the front pieces are almost white blonde, the top is a golden blonde, the bleached from sun ends are lighter and more uniform in color throughout, and the nape of the neck underneath hair is actually quite dark. I haven’t dyed my hair in over ten years. Not to mention the natural highlights and low lights. I can see how someone with my hair color could be called many different colors, and or have sample strands of many different colors all still mine.
During the height of the pandemic I went on a deep dive of The Wars of the Roses and Tudor history. Definitely not as deep as you have done. I read through as many biographical accounts and some fictional accounts. Seemingly both non fiction and fictional accounts agreed that the Tudors all had hair ranging in the blonde to auburn colors leaning towards being almost reddish. With Henry VIII having the most reddish of all.
I have been interested in the Wars of the Roses forever.
didn’t kathrine have red hair
So yea. I was born strawberry blonde. My mom said my head was read. But...it lightened up A LOT, to the point of ash blonde. I still had the red throughout, but you couldn't really tell...until I got older, and yea...became a mixture of both, like someone said, in streaks. There's some gray in it now, but it's still in streaks of blonde and red. I have ancestry from the entire UK, so I just figured that was why. I would think that would be the similar case with Mary's hair as well. Her family did have red hair, so her having a bit scattered throughout, or came out more pronounced as she got older, makes sense to me.
Hi from Sacramento!
And howdy from the other side of the pond. Welcome to the show :-)
As a granddaughter of Elizabeth Wydville (Woodville) and Edward IV you expect Mary Queen of France to be tall, slim and blonde! 😱
as a hairstylist, it looks as though she had a range of strawberry blonde hair and different colors ranging in different locations. it's possible to have different colors in different spots. both my children have red hair but have an ash blonde spot at their nape. so it's very possible to have different colors ranging through the hair, especially for red heads. the front have have been lighter due to sun exposure. I could go on and on about this.
Thank you.
9:48 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 5 hours after dinner & I'm very glad I waited to see this way after I ate. It's very interesting, and very very detailed. You talk about the lil holes in the skin where insects go & eggs & all that. You must have a strong stomach. :) This is very fascinating, and why I'm thinking of cremation. I look into the future of lands, & I hear about older cemeteries getting moved or built over for commercial purposes or housing developments. I think about this & wonder what it will be like in the future long after we're all gone. Will greed take over more & do away with more cemeteries? Are our graves in danger? This is what goes on through my mind when I watch these kind of videos. Too many desecrated graves out there, too many disturbed graves out there, & too expensive also.
Haha, yes I must have a reasonably strong stomach, as I have to read this, then type it up into a script, then proofread it, then record it (and I always make mistakes, so I'll have talked about those bugs 5 or 6 times before I got to the recording you hear in the final product), then listen back to it. Honestly, you get quite immune to the grossness of it all after a while. :-)
@@HistoryCalling Oh I am. Not because of your videos, I've been immune for awhile, listening watchin true crime cases throughout history. It's interesting what a lil hole in a coffin can do to a corpse with lil bits of air seep in, compared to a, I think it was in Egypt or somewhere, they dug up a corpse from this air tight box and the unmummified body remained as it was long long long long long time ago, with no wax or fake eyes or like some of these saints in a box have, like St Bernadette in Lourdes, France.
I cut off a whole braid of my hair once and mailed it to my mother as a joke (long story). When we were cleaning out a closet years later we found she still had it. It was much lighter, though, than my hair was by then. My hair has darkened, but it was never as light as the braid had turned.
I would also think that even if her hair were very fair it might have been stained as her corpse darkened.
I can't imagine accidentally breaking a tomb open. I'd feel so bad. It's like accidentally breaking into someone's bedroom while they're sleeping or something.
I would be more inclined to look to her mother’s hair for an indication of her colour. Thanks for the video.
If she was described as a blonde in her teenage years, her hair could have definitely darkened by the time she was in her late 30s. However, it was called golden in the description you mentioned of her body, so I guess that could have been its true colour still.
Yes, if not for the description of the body I might have been open to that idea, but the corpse don't lie (well, other than lying in the coffin that is. I know - that was a terrible pun. I'm sorry!) :-)
@@HistoryCalling Keep in mind that there are many different colors of alloys of gold, from white gold to rose gold and even black gold.
Blond hair can darken and turn more reddish over a person's lifetime, in my family that's the norm. I started out with very light hair and now at over 30 my hair is a reddish dark blond.
Strange,Mary was the same age at her death, as her mother,Elizabeth of York was, and died 30 years after. And the gentleman may have meant that Mary's hair was (a) red/gold, or (b) strawberry blonde, which would give it a tint of red in either aspect.
I hope the people who dug these women up got crazy haunted after. All this information is interesting, but riles me up!
You never know! :-)
Mary being one of my favourite tudors, it's safe to say Mary was blonde /golden your theory of auburn I would have to agree was not her hair. Thank you as always HC 😊👍
Thanks. Yes, I def. think she was blonde too.
Its possible the vegetable dyes used in those days leached colour into peoples hair. Madder root for example yields a pinky orange.They wernt water or light fast. Another reason clothes were brushed clean rather than washed.
For a moment, it looked like they were holding brooms in the picture of Elizabeth’s funeral.
It never occurred to me, but now I’m very curious about He ray the Eighths funeral. Was it lavish? Were there celebrations (out of official sight of cause)
I think I cover his funeral a bit in my video on his exploding body (it's been that long since I created it now, I actually can't remember the details).
@@HistoryCalling oh gosh yes I forgot about that video! I'll watch it again later to see.
Seems like either the hair was exposed to something after death changing it’s color (as described), or it was fraud. If the variation in hair color was natural I would expect the lock would have *some* variety. If she had one section of hair in another color (rare, but it happens) it likely would have been recorded.
Yes, I can't see those who saw her corpse not mentioning multi-coloured hair either. I think we're looking at some fraud.
Is there a significance to the two ushers being describes as ‘bare-headed’?
Hmm, possibly just as a sign of respect - like the way people take off their hats at funerals today sometimes.
I love your voice..
Thank you :-)
I'm now curious about who Edmund H was. Possibly the stone mason? But that would be rare to put his full first name and not his last. They did this on purpose to mess with our heads!
Ty so much
You're welcome :-)
I think her hair was Strawberry blonde because red is dominant and run’s through the Tudor lineage.
My own hair is naturally dark blonde, with the outer layer being bleached by the sun in summer and appearing much blonder than the lower layers, which appear brown. If you took two separate locks from different layers, it would be easy to wrongly conclude that they came from two separate people. Perhaps she was a strawberry blonde with the red coming through more strongly in the lower layers? (Not sure if the headwear worn in this period would prevent regular sun-bleaching, though.)
My OWN hair starts at the root as auburn verging on brown but lightens as it grows longer to blonde. 2 feet of my hair would show MULTIPLE colors - especially if cut into segments.
My son's hair is THE SAME WAY. I've heard it referred to as "Welsh" hair. We also have nearly BLACK eyebrows and lashes that start dark brown at the follicle and are tipped in gold.
There is NOT necessarily "fraud" involved. NONE of the pieces of hair shown in the video ARE TWO FEET LONG. The hair has VERY OBVIOUSLY been cut into segments.
Mary Tudor Brandon was my 13th great-grandmother.
Hair definitely changes color mine went from blonde to gray.
Haha, well that comes to everyone fortunate enough to live past their youth.
how interesting! i wonder why it was that monarchs wouldn't attend funerals of family members?
I think they didn't want to put ideas in people's heads about they (the monarch) dying, or steal the limelight from the deceased.
We DON'T want to take the luster off the dead!
How insulting!
I think they were moving on, with no time for boredom. Who really knows?
While some could definitely be fake, depending on where her hair was in her coffin, that can account for the difference. The embalming fluid could change it, any acidity as decomposition takes place can do so as well. So her hair may have been closer to strawberry blonde, but was bleached by unknown processes in her grave. Or they could have been made more red, but by which process, I'm not familiar.
I would think it was a scam...but there are some interesting theories here. I love your videos!
Thanks Jane :-)
"Sir J. Cullum presents his most respectful compliments, by sending the hair of a dead woman he totally disrespected."
cant say i’ve ever heard the term pickle used in that way 🤣 up until i was about 4 or 5 my hair was super light blonde almost white and the older i’ve gotten it gets darker and darker. makes me wonder if i had long hair as a child if the ends would’ve been very light blonde and darker as it grew out.
Hmm, a natural ombre. Yes, it would have been interesting to see that. I'm sure there are other children out there with long hair that has changed colour who you could Google pictures of.
@@HistoryCalling oh for sure! she still has my first haircut hair, and i’m always shocked when i see it. now i need to visit my good friend google 🤣
I am now curious as to the history of hair dye and if whether or not that could apply to Mary. I am also curious if any of the materials used to embalm could have had an affect as well if it came into contact with some of the hair
On the question of embalming, I've had people here in the comments say that they are professional morticians or have some experience with embalming, yet give opposing views on whether or not it could affect hair colour, so I'm afraid I don't know what the correct answer is :-(
@@HistoryCalling Maybe a collaboration with "Ask a Mortician"
Perhaps it could be that the different locks of hair were exposed to different amounts of light, heat, etc. over many years. (Some may be stored in a box with no light, between the pages of a book, in a frame or a glass cabinet, so exposed to more light, etc.) Also, whenever I have seen documentaries about archaeological discoveries of human remains where the hair is still attached to the skull, it seems to me that it is almost always of an auburn or russet color. It may just be a normal part of hair decomposing, so that samples of the hair collected earlier could differ significantly from samples collected many years later. Do you know of any research on that subject?
I don't know of any specific research on that subject I'm afraid :-( The locks from Mary's head were supposed to be collected at the same time though remember and the guy who saw her in her coffin specifically said she was blonde (as did those who saw her in life). I suspect we have some fake hair here, that someone who didn't know she was blonde tried to pass of as hers to make a quick buck.