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 Tudor Court was all about competitive displays of power and wealth.

This series examines the influence of music and entertainment on the balance of power.

In this talk, historian Thomas Betteridge examines how drama is used as a tool for persuasion

and diplomacy at the Tudor court.

So I think it's really important to kind of have a sense of what the court's about.

Now of course in this period the court is the center of politics.

The historian John Guy talks about a way of understanding Tudor politics in terms of three concentric circles.

Okay, and the court is the inner circle,

there's then a middle circle, then an outer circle.

Okay, so having someone at court, being involved in the court,

having a presence of court is absolutely essential in terms of power,

in terms of aristocratic power, in terms of aristocratic privilege.

Okay, so that you have someone at court or you're at court yourself, okay?

And not to be a court is to be entirely excluded, effectively entirely excluded from power.

So, of course, this is not, like now, Parliament is not that important.

Parliament doesn't meet that often.

The place to be is to be a court.

Okay?

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