She-Wolves: Queens and Power in Medieval and Tudor England
Helen Castor will tell the compelling tale of female royal power between the 12th and the 16th centuries through the stories of some of the most remarkable women in English history. She will explore the dramatic life of Matilda, daughter of Henry I, who fought her cousin for the crown in a civil war lasting two decades, and almost became England’s first reigning queen.
She will take a new look at how Mary and Elizabeth Tudor came to sit on their father’s throne in a world which assumed that power was implicitly, naturally and rightfully male. They persevered at a time when female rulers were seen as unnatural, vicious, subversive, and threatening. Helen’s lecture, based on her bestselling book, is full of strong women, and the powerful men who supported and sabotaged them as fortune’s wheel turned in extraordinary ways.
Edward VI’s Devise for the Succession
