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.

Join Historic Royal Palace's chief curator Tracy Borman

as she encowers the extraordinary life of Henrietta Howard, the mistress of George

the second, and servant to Queen Caroline.

When I first started researching for my biography of Henrietta, I would never have dreamed that

there'd be an entire study day on her,

because she was pretty much unknown.

She remained this obscure figure who'd been lost to history

for a good sort of 300 years, almost.

And when I began my research, I didn't actually know that much about him in nature at all, that the whole

reason I was writing her biography was due to this painting here, which hangs, well, not

the moment, it's in the exhibition here, but it usually hangs at Marvel Hill House,

where we will be going this afternoon.

And at the time, so it was about 2004 when I first noticed in the Ector,

I was working for English Heritage, and I was on a tour of Marble Hill.

And I thought what a charming house, as you will discover, if you don't know already. Absolutely beautiful. Just about,

...