It would only take one person to slip a little something into a king’s food. Henry VIII had two hundred people employed in his kitchens at Hampton Court: cooks, scullery maids, stewards, carvers, porters, bakers, butchers, gardeners, … Read the article
In 1613 the Countess of Essex demanded a divorce from her husband because, as her father quipped, “the Ear has no ink in his pen.” Essex and the court decided that he was … Read the article
In The Queen’s Bed: An Intimate History of Elizabeth’s Court, the historian Anna Whitelock offers a revealing look at the Elizabethan court and the politics of intimacy, dramatically reconstructing the Queen’s quarters and the women who … Read the article