Amy Licence: Thunder Round the Throne: The Life of Honor, Lady Lisle

Sat 26 April, 1.30 - 2.30pm

AH3.31 lecture theatre, third floor, Augustine House, CT1 2YA

The life of Honor, Lady Lisle, follows a dizzying narrative arc. Born into a West Country family, her second marriage propelled her into Anne Boleyn's court, as the new step-aunt to Henry VIII. Her husband, Arthur, was the illegitimate son of Edward IV, bearing the dangerous surname Plantagenet, one of a few survivors of the old regime. At his side, Honor witnessed tumultuous change in England, before heading out to run the Tudor enclave of Calais. Her surviving letters speak of a happy family, domestic arrangements, clothes and food, as well as including snippets of news about Henry's love life and the unfolding Reformation. A devout Catholic, Honor found herself in a difficult position when instructions arrived to carry through religious reforms in a reluctant, rebellious town. As the pressure increased upon the couple, and one by one, the giants of the Tudor court fell, did Honor ever fear that she may suffer the same fate? What exactly caused accusations to be made against Honor and Arthur? What role did Honor's faith play? Just how close did she come to dishonour?

Amy Licence is a journalist, author, historian and teacher, currently living in Canterbury. Her particular interest lies in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, in gender relations, queenship and identity, rites of passage, sex, pilgrimage, female orthodoxy and rebellion, superstition, magic, fertility and childbirth. She appeared in BBC2’s ‘The Real White Queen and her Rivals’ documentary (2013) and Yesterday Channel’s ‘The Private Lives of the Tudors’ (2016). Her first book, ‘In Bed with the Tudors’ was nominated for the 2015 People’s Book Prize. 

Tickets

Tickets are £10 per event. If you are booking 10 or more tickets of any given type (e.g. 10 tickets to one lecture, or 1 ticket to 10 lectures) within a single transaction, then a discount of £2 per ticket will be applied at the checkout, and you will only pay £8 per ticket.