The Complete Guide to Tudor History Gifts

There are people who like Tudor history, and there are people who can tell you, off the top of their head, the order of executions at the Tower in May 1536, the colour of Anne of Cleves' wedding dress, and exactly how many of Henry VIII's wives are buried at the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula. (It's three, if you were wondering. And one of them got there twice.) Both kinds of people deserve a really good gift, and a print of a Holbein portrait won't cut it.

So here it is, the complete guide to Tudor history gifts at Haunted Bunny. Every monarch from Henry VII to Elizabeth I. All of Henry VIII's six wives. Lady Jane, the doomed nine-day queen. The journals, the homeware, and portrait mugs to satisfy even the biggest Tudor-obsessed history lover.

The Dynasty: Henry VII to Elizabeth I

Five monarchs, 118 years, and one of the most thoroughly chronicled, dramatised, and argued-about dynasties in English history. The Tudor Portrait Mug series does each of them justice with their portraits set against a Tudor Rose pattern.

Start at the start with the Henry VII Portrait Mug — the man who ended the Wars of the Roses, married a Yorkist princess to make the maths work, and founded the whole dynasty by being patient, calculating, and in retrospect often underrated. Then, inevitably, the Henry VIII Portrait Mug — six wives, two executions, one Reformation, and the most famous silhouette in English history.

His three children each get their own mug too. The Edward VI Portrait Mug for the boy king whose six-year reign reshaped the English church; the Mary I Portrait Mug for England's first crowned queen regnant, who deserves rather more than the perhaps unfair nickname of Bloody Mary; and the Elizabeth I Portrait Mug for the daughter who outlasted, outmanoeuvred, and outshone almost everyone.


If you want all five at once, the Tudor Monarchs Portrait Mug lines them up in proper succession with gold filigree — Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I, the entire dynasty in the order they actually happened. The Tudor Dynasty Coffee Mug does the same thing as a timeline, which is the version to gift the friend who likes their history with a side of infographic.

The Six Wives

The most-quoted rhyme in English history — divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived — is technically inaccurate (the first two were annulments, not divorces) but we'll let it stand because it scans. Each of Henry VIII's wives has her own portrait mug, and each is much more than just one of Henry's ill-fated queens.

The Catherine of Aragon Portrait Mug belongs to the Spanish princess who spent seven years refusing to accept her own annulment and another four under house arrest, still calling herself queen. She outlasted Henry's patience but not his determination, and an entire Reformation was set in motion to remove her. The daughter of two great monarchs, and a formidable woman in her own right.

The Anne Boleyn Portrait Mug is the one for the wife who changed England more in a thousand days than most monarchs manage in a lifetime — and was executed for her trouble. We remember Anne for being the woman Henry turned his kingdom upside down for, but her legacy is much more.

The Jane Seymour Portrait Mug belongs to the wife who finally gave Henry the male heir he'd torn the country apart for, and died doing it; she's the only one he asked to be buried beside.

The Anne of Cleves Portrait Mug is for arguably the smartest of the lot — six months married, swiftly annulled, rebranded as the "King's Beloved Sister," handed a generous settlement, and allowed to live out her days in comfortable retirement. Of all six wives, she walked away with the best deal.



The Catherine Howard Portrait Mug commemorates the teenager who married a king in his fifties, loved another man and was beheaded for treason. A tragic figure caught up in games beyond her years.



And the Catherine Parr Portrait Mug is for the wife who survived, a published author, a regent of England, a religious reformer in her own right, and the one who outlived Henry and was finally able to marry for love.

If you want them all in one place, Henry VIII's Six Wives Portrait Mug lines them up together.

The Nine-Day Queen

Easily one of the saddest stories in Tudor history. Sixteen years old, devout, intellectually brilliant, married off for political convenience, and crowned at Edward VI's death — only to be deposed nine days later when Mary I rode into London with the country behind her. Five months after that, Lady Jane was executed at the Tower. The Lady Jane Grey Portrait Mug is the one for the people who know the story properly. Pair it with the Tudor Dynasty Mug and you've got the full cast.

The Family Portrait

For when one monarch isn't enough but the whole dynasty is a lot to commit to — the Henry VIII & Family Portrait Mug is the entire royal household on a single mug. It's the perfect gift to remember Henry VIII and his dynasty.

Tudor Stationery: Journals to Write Your Own History In

For the diarists and journal keepers, each hardback journal has a full wraparound print that looks great sat on a desk or coffee table, the perfect gift for would-be historians.

The Henry VIII Hardback Journal puts the King himself on the front, framed in Tudor decoration. The Elizabeth I Hardback Journal takes its cues from the Armada Portrait — pearls, eglantine roses, every detail loaded with deliberate Elizabethan symbolism. The Anne Boleyn Hardback Journal is the one to pick up for Anne Boleyn fans.

And if you'd rather have the heraldry without a specific person attached, the Tudor Rose Hardback Journal takes Henry VII's clever bit of dynastic branding, the famous five petals, two colours, Lancaster and York reconciled as the Tudor Rose and turns it into the most quietly elegant notebook in the range.



The full Tudor Stationery collection is here.

Tudor Homeware

The Anne Boleyn Tudor Portrait Cushion puts Anne, gold-framed and scroll-bordered, at the heart of your living room. It's a faux suede throw cushion in three sizes, and it pulls the same trick the best Tudor portraits do: looks dignified at a distance, becomes a conversation at close range. Browse the rest of the Tudor Homeware collection for more in the same vein.

The Whole Tudor Shop, in One Place

Every Tudor monarch, every wife, the nine-day queen, the journals, homeware, the dynasty mugs, all of it lives in the Tudor Shop. If you'd rather browse all the portrait mugs side by side, the Tudor Portrait Mug Collection has them in one place, and the broader Tudor History Mugs collection brings in everything else — the dynasty mugs, the family portrait, the Tudor Rose pattern, the lot.

However you wrap it: this is for the people in your life who can name every Tudor monarch in order, who have firm opinions about which historian got Mary I most wrong, and who have spent at least one weekend going down a Wikipedia hole that started with Catherine of Aragon and ended somewhere near the Pilgrimage of Grace. They know who they are. So do you.

Browse the full Tudor Shop at Haunted Bunny — gifts for people who find normal things a bit boring.