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.

In this series of talks by renowned Tudor historians,

we closely examine the monarch and man himself, Henry D. 8th. These talks were recorded live

in collaboration with history today to mark the 500th anniversary of the coronation of Henry

D. 8th. In this episode, historian Glenn Richardson explores losing your head at Henry

Leight's court by highlighting how the court operated at the machinery of monarchy.

I'd like to bring you a word of reassurance, and that is that the overwhelming majority

of the nobility and gentry of Henry Dates, England, died more or less

peacefully in their beds. Most came to court when they needed to, did what they had to do, and

toddled away in perfect safety. Boredom was probably a stronger feature of court life than imminent personal danger, at least for most.

But in order to understand why some indeed did lose their lives at court or through the court, not all,

but a good percentage of Henry's victims, if we're going to call them that, did lose court battles.

Then I just want to remind us very basically of how the court operated as a machinery of monarchy,

which is really what it is. We're sitting in a giant political machine this evening.

In its widest sense, the word court is used in the period, both in England and in France and in the empire,

as generally, I mean, wherever the monarch was, because that's where things were happening.

Of course, in its more narrow, specific sense, it covers the royal household, the king's, the king's house and place of living.

The court had dual functions broadly. On the one hand, of course, it had to facilitate and to some

extent protect the king's private life as a mortal man, not an easy task and it's as complicated

...