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Books featured on The Royal Beat: Back In Time
The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens
'Written in a lively, accessible style, The Waiting Game is full of insight' Suzannah Lipscomb, Literary Review
Every Tudor Queen had ladies-in-waiting. They were her confidantes and her chaperones. Only the Queen's ladies had the right to enter her most private chambers, spending hours helping her to get dressed and undressed, caring for her clothes and jewels, listening to her secrets. But they also held a unique power. A quiet word behind the scenes, an appropriately timed gift, a well-negotiated marriage alliance were all forms of political agency wielded expertly by women.
The Waiting Game explores the daily lives of ladies-in-waiting, revealing the secrets of recruitment, costume, what they ate, where (and with whom) they slept. We meet María de Salinas, who travelled to England with Catherine of Aragon when just a teenager and spied for her during the divorce from Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn's lady-in-waiting Jane Parker was instrumental in the execution of not one, but two queens. And maid-of-honour Anne Basset kept her place through the last four consorts, negotiating the conflicting loyalties of her birth family, her mistress the Queen, and even the desires of the King himself. As Henry changed wives, and changed the very fabric of the country's structure besides, these women had to make choices about loyalty that simply didn't exist before. The Waiting Game is the first time their vital story has been told.
As seen in: The Royal Beat: The Royal Beat – Back In Time: Ladies In Waiting
Series 1, Episode 4: On this episode, we discuss the often overlooked ‘Ladies in Waiting’ who have served the female monarchs of this country and beyond for centuries. We go all the way back to King Henry VIII’s reign to meet a myriad of women who rose through the ranks of society sometimes through their extreme devotion to the Queen and in other instances their total disloyalty and backstabbing! And taking a look at how the role of a Lady in Waiting has changed over the centuries to the ruling female monarchs of today. Joining Kate in the studio is author of a brand new book on the subject Dr Nicola Clark, Historian, Professor Kate Williams and former communications secretary to Queen Elizabeth, Ailsa Anderson.
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