The Society for Creative Anachronism and the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies hosted “An Afternoon with the Tudors” on Saturday in the Memorial Union.
The SCA, a group that holds reenactments of the Renaissance and Tudor time period, displayed rapier fighting, and history professor Retha Warnicke gave a lecture on Tudor England.
The Tudors are the descendants of King Henry Tudor III who ruled the British throne from King Henry Tudor VII to Queen Elizabeth I.
Warnicke said she is the only historian in the United States whose studies focus on the Tudor queens.
In her lecture, Warnicke explained some of the things people know about the time period of Henry the VIII might not be true. She first discovered this when she was encouraged to write about Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry.
“At first I wasn’t interested in Anne (Boleyn) because she was a flirt,” Warnicke said. “And in my research I discovered that they were wrong.”
Warnicke captivated her audience with her theories and research she has done.
“I thought it was really informative; I actually might consider taking one of her classes,” business marketing sophomore Angela Trat said.
Trat attended with English sophomore Skyler Lalone, because of their mutual interest in the Tudors and Warnicke’s research.
Lalone, who just returned from England, wanted to learn more about the Tudors.
History senior Kaileigh Esson already heard all of Warnicke’s lectures from taking her courses but attended regardless.
“I have taken all the classes I could take from her,” Esson said. “But it was just fun to say hi and listen to her lecture.”
The lecture was very intriguing to SCA member and 2006 alumna Michelle Chirip as well, even though she too knew about the Tudor time period.
“She gave a lot of good information of what was going on, for our project,” Chirip said.
The SCA will be holding another event that focuses on the Tudors time period in September at the Fountain Hills Community Center in Fountain Hills.
Reach the reporter at shurst2@asu.edu
