For all branch enquiries please contact Dr Robert Guyver guyverrobert@gmail.com

Exeter & District Branch Programme 2026-27

 

Monday 9 November 2026, 5pm at Exeter School Exeter Andrews Hall EX2 4NP

Parking is available at the school if approached via Manston Terrace [on the town centre side of the junction between Barrack Road and Magdalen Road] EX2 4NP. The Victoria Park Road entrance may be inaccessible at this time.

Host: Mel Sheehan, Head of Politics and teacher of History at Exeter School

Women in Tudor England

Professor James Daybell, University of Plymouth, HA President

Background to talk: When we think of Tudor politics, we often picture kings, ministers, and great state occasions. But where did women fit into this world? This talk uncovers the hidden political influence of women in sixteenth-century England and challenges the idea that politics was an exclusively male domain.

From royal palaces to noble households, women were active participants in shaping political life. Queens, noblewomen, ladies-in-waiting, and influential wives built powerful networks, exchanged information, secured patronage and promoted the interests of their families. Although barred from holding most formal positions of power, they found other ways to influence decisions, forge alliances, and affect the course of events.

Through fascinating stories and contemporary sources, we will explore the lives of women at the heart of Tudor society, including figures such as Anne Boleyn and Penelope Rich. We will examine how the Tudor court functioned as a political arena, where access, relationships, and reputation could be just as important as official office.

By looking beyond kings and ministers, this talk reveals a richer and more complex picture of Tudor politics. It shows that women were not simply bystanders in England’s political history, but influential actors whose contributions helped shape the Tudor world in ways that are only now being fully recognised.

About Prof James Daybell: James Daybell is Professor of Early Modern British History at the University of Plymouth, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and President of the Historical Association (UK). He has produced 14 books including Gender and the Glove in Early Modern England (with Susan Broomhall, 2026), Gender and Political Culture, 1400-1700 (2016), Cultures of Correspondence (with Andrew Gordon, 2016), The Material Letter (2012), Women Letter-Writers in Tudor England (2006), and Women and Politics in Early Modern England (2004) and over 50 articles on early modern letter-writing, gender, politics, culture and materiality. He is co-Director (with Kim McLean-Fiander in collaboration with Oxford University’s Bodleian Library) of ‘Women’s Early Modern Letters Online’ (WEMLO), and (with Lisa Hellman, Susan Broomhall and Svante Norrhem) is part of the 6-year Swedish Research Council funded project ‘Moved Apart: Communicated Experiences of Separation in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’. He is also co-director (with Kit Heyam) of the ‘Gendering the Museum’ Project, and co-founder (with TV historian Dr Sam Willis) of Histories of the Unexpected.

 

 

NOTE No Details are available yet for the Simon Barton & Nicholas Orme e