The Six Tudor Queens – Katherine of Aragon with Elizabeth Norton

Historic Royal Palaces Podcast

Historic Royal Palaces

London, Palace, Tower, Historic, Conservation, Royal, Lecture, Learning, Kensington, Hampton, Kew, Banqueting, History, Court, Of, House, Palaces

4.6 • 635 Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2023

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tracy Borman opens our new series on the Queens Consort of Henry VIII with renowned historian Dr Elizabeth Norton. To better understand the six Queens, they first explore the context of the turbulent times in which these women lived.

As the first Queen of Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon’s reputation as the dowdy wronged wife has endured for 500 years, but Tracy and Elizabeth call this into question. They reveal that Katherine’s iron-will was both her strength and arguably her undoing.

Please be aware that this episode contains references to miscarriages, still births and infant mortality.

This six-part series will aim to do The Six Tudor Queens justice by stripping away unhelpful narratives and myths, to better understand them as women in their own time.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this new series on the Historic Royal Palaces podcast.
0:08.0	I'm Tracy Borman and I have the huge privilege of being chief curator here at the Palaces.
0:15.0	In this new series, we'll be exploring the lives of the six Tudor queens.
0:20.0	Of course, they all have one man in common,
0:24.1	but as we know, they are so much more
0:26.6	than just wives and queens consort.
0:30.4	In this series, we hope to do these extraordinary queens justice.
0:35.5	But this series will not be biographies of our queens. We'll be exploring and disputing
0:42.3	the interpretations that history has offered of them, as well as talking about what they might
0:49.3	have been like as women in their own time. To get a sense of the context in which they lived, we'll be stepping
0:57.2	into parts of our palaces where they would have walked in a court that was both exciting and toxic
1:04.9	in its temperament. So join me as we dive into the world of the six Tudor queens.
1:23.4	Today we're going to be tackling themes that some listeners may find distressing.
1:29.0	This episode will contain references to miscarriages, stillbirths and fertility issues.
1:37.3	Welcome, everybody. I'm so excited. This is episode one of our sixth Tudor Queen's podcast series. And I'm in one of my favourite parts
1:48.3	of Hampton Court because of course it's a Tudor part. It's the Woolsey rooms. And I've come up here
1:57.1	with my guest today. Dodging the showers, I think it's quite, I don't know, it's quite fitting that it's a stormy day today.
2:06.6	Thunder is sort of in the air and it's definitely going to be very appropriate for the woman we're discussing for her relationships with the Tudor Court.
2:21.3	And I'm joined today, I'm thrilled to say, by historian, author, broadcaster, prolific woman all round,
2:30.3	Elizabeth Norton Beth. Welcome to Hampton Court. Hello, thank you. I'm absolutely thrilled to be here.
2:37.8	Well, I couldn't think of anybody better to be opening the series with and talking about, of course,
2:44.6	the first of the six queens. Well, Beth, as well as having written about all six queens at different times, you also
	...

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