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.

The Stuart period is marked by decadence and debauchery.

Experience the Stuart court in all its nuanced splendor in this series compiled from our archive.

In this episode, join Historic Royal Palace's Chris Gidlow to explore the intriguing life of Sir Geoffrey Hudson,

the Queen's dwarf at the Court of Charles I.

Now, you've got to cast your mind back to 1626.

Supposedly we're at Burley on the Hill, which is a house owned by the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham in Rutland

it was bought off the bankrupt estate of Sir John Harrington the inventor of the flushing toilet but that didn't take off at the time so he died bankrupt and his estate sold off this house

and they were putting on a banquet for henrietta maria queen of king charles the first she's 15 at the

time she's a child bride at that point wasn't particularly getting on well with her husband she

was running a separate court didn't really get on well with the Buckingham's

particularly well they were previous favourites of Charles the first and this is

one of the reproschments she was being served up with a large pie two feet

long one foot high with a gilded crust.

She was given the knife to cut into it, and as she cut into it, out popped a tiny little man,

a foot and a half high, dressed in armour, waving a flag. He capered around on the table,

striking martial poses and causing much mirth,

and he was the best present that the young queen had ever been given. And there he is. So,

into history, came Geoffrey Hudson, the Queen's Dwarf. At this point, he seven years old. Now the accounts of his life come from

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