Hello, I'm Lucy Worsley, chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces.

You're listening to our podcast that explores the history and stories of our six palaces.

These talks are a collection of some of our best live events.

I really hope you enjoy listening.

History has traditionally taken a negative view of women in power.

This series of talks from our archive explores stories of powerful women

and how their legacies have been shaped by their gender.

In this talk, historian Lisa Hilton explores the lives of England's medieval queens,

from Matilda of Flanders, the Conqueror's Queen, to Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor consort.

I'd like to start a quote from somebody who's absolutely nothing to do with English queenship,

which is Jane Austen.

In a wonderful piece of Juvenilia she wrote when she was 14 years old, called The History of England.

And she says, it is to be supposed that Henry IV was married since certainly he had four sons,

but it is not in my power to inform the reader

who was his wife. And this was really my starting point for writing my book on Queen's Consort.

I'd published several individual biographies, but I'd never taken on a group before.

And when I came across this quotation, I thought, gosh, I don't know anything about early English queens. We all know about

Bloody Mary, we all know a great deal, possibly too much about Queen Elizabeth. But the early

queens of England are really neglected in history.

And nevertheless, as I began my research and began to investigate the subject more deeply,

I realised how incredibly important English queenship has been in the shaping of the nation.

So I'd like to start, if I may, by briefly reading from the introduction to my book.

...