\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The portrait above of a finely dressed woman from 1569 is thought to depict Helena Snakenborg, one of several courtiers who accompanied Princess Cecilia of Sweden to London in 1565. The 1560s saw the Swedish king, Erik XIV, attempting to win Elizabeth I<\/a>\u2019s hand in marriage. Erik failed to win over the English queen but the two nations enjoyed good relations for much of Elizabeth\u2019s reign, as evidenced by the diplomatic visit of 1565.<\/p>\n Snakenborg remained in England following the visit, probably because she was being courted by William Parr, Marquess of Northampton. She eventually became maid of honour to Elizabeth \u2013 reflected, perhaps, in the vibrant rose embroideries on her clothing (the combination of red and white roses was a key Tudor emblem).<\/p>\n The intricate decorations in Snakenborg\u2019s outfit show off her considerable wealth. They include two gold chains, feathers, hat buttons, a pearl-encrusted golden oak leaf pendant, an enamelled gold pendant in the shape of a woman holding a large gemstone, and golden rings in the shape of roses. These pearls, jewels and gold were brought from overseas through mercantile and colonial networks. The weighty pendant around her neck may be an emerald sourced in the mines of distant Colombia.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Tudor era was one in which the world grew smaller \u2013 in more ways than one. As travellers embarked on voyages to distant destinations, they stoked a burgeoning obsession with global commodities. And that turned the world itself into an object that could be held or possessed. Pictured above is a terrestrial globe made by Emery Molyneux in 1592.<\/p>\n Molyneux\u2019s spheres are the first of their kind known to have been produced in England, and were made from flour paste to protect them from humidity at sea. Molyneux\u2019s work reflects England\u2019s evolution into a major player in the field of exploration: his globe features the circumnavigations of English adventurers Francis Drake<\/a> and Thomas Cavendish, depicted in red. Globes such as Molyneux\u2019s captured vast networks of mobility in miniature: a world covered by the criss-crossing lines of global travellers, yet small enough to fit in a ship or a library.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When the Tudor explorer Stephen Burrough embarked on a journey to Russia in 1557 he returned with a list of words from the Ter S\u00e1mi language, the earliest known documentation of a S\u00e1mi tongue. Burrough\u2019s list aimed to help future travellers strike lucrative deals with people in Russia\u2019s Arctic north \u2013 and included translations of words and phrases such as \u201cwhat call you this?\u201d, \u201cwhither goe you?\u201d, \u201cwollen\u201d and \u201clinnen cloth\u201d.<\/p>\n Yet a basic knowledge of Ter S\u00e1mi not only had the potential to boost the earning power of English explorers. In a destination as perilous as the Arctic it also promised to save their lives. Those perils were illustrated by the fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby who, in 1553, had led one of Tudor England\u2019s first trade ventures to Russia, only to disappear. When his ship, the Bona Esperanza<\/em>, was found the following year, its crew were dead, frozen like statues.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 1597, travelling through the Amazon rainforest, William Davies noted that \u201cthe king of every river\u2026 wears upon his head a crown of parrots\u2019 feathers, of several colours\u201d.<\/p>\n The 16th century saw a wave of English adventurers such as Davies chronicling their encounters in the Americas. It wasn\u2019t long before they realised that, in the societies they encountered there, feathers conveyed sovereignty, divinity and exquisite craftsmanship. These were qualities that seized the imaginations of their compatriots back in England, who collected and wrote about artefacts similar to the exquisite cotton, feathered and knotted vegetable fibre fan from Peru, shown below.<\/p>\n Along with artefacts such as canoes, featherwork became a recognised marker of Indigenous cultures in Elizabeth England, and soon began appearing in cabinets of curiosity \u2013 none more famous than Walter Cope\u2019s collection of global marvels in London\u2019s Holland Park.<\/p>\n The Tudor fascination with genuine objects crafted in the Americas also triggered a surge of appropriations and imitations. In 1613, 50 gentlemen dressed up as \u201cVirginia priests and princes\u201d for a court masque. As the performers processed through London to the royal palace, onlookers marvelled at the way their feathered ruffs glittered in the night.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Tobacco was the first foreign intoxicant of mass consumption in early modern England. Brittle clay pipe fragments like those shown below can still be found in gardens and riverbanks across Britain, indicating how widespread the smoking of tobacco<\/a>\u00a0had become among all social classes by the 1630s. \u201cIn the ale-houses, tobacco [is] obtainable,\u201d wrote a Swiss traveller to London in 1599. The traveller added that the English \u201cregard it as a curious medicine and as a pleasure. The habit is so common with them, that they\u2026 light up on all occasions.\u201d<\/p>\nFashion accessories from across the globe<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
Terrestrial globes to capture epic feats of exploration<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Word lists and translations of other languages<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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![\""A\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/06\/Feathered-ornament-webready-482bbd5.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"A\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Tobacco: England\u2019s curious medicine that blighted Indigenous people\u2019s lives<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
![\""Clay\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/06\/tobacco-pipeswebready-84e8518.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Clay\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\""A\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/06\/Porcelain-bowlwebready-49c949d.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"A\\"\/")
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