Seen but not heard?

Every queen had ladies-in-waiting. Her confidantes and chaperones, they are the forgotten agents of the Tudor court. Experts at survival, negotiating the competing demands of their families and their queen, the ladies-in-waiting of Henry VIII’s wives were far more than decorative ‘extras’: they were serious political players who changed the course of history.

This Virtual Branch talk with Dr Nicola Clark takes us into their world: who were these women? How did they gain these positions, and what did they do there? As Henry VIII changed wives, and changed the country's religion besides, these women had to make choices about loyalty that didn't exist before and would never exist like this again.

Dr Nicola Clark is a Senior Lecturer in Late Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of Chichester. Her first book, Gender, Family, and Politics: The Howard Women, 1485-1558, was published by Oxford University Press in 2018.

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