Inside job A 19th-century painting shows Henry VIII meeting Anne Boleyn, as courtiers look on. The role of lady-in-waiting presented aristocratic families with the opportunity to place eyes and ears near the monarch
ALAMY
THEY ARE INVISIBLE BUT INDISPENSABLE. Unremarked, yet always there. Tudor ladies-in-waiting have long been depicted as mere ‘scenery’ in books, plays and films about the 16th century, a backdrop of pretty faces.
This is accurate – to a point. A queen’s ladies were not supposed to draw attention away from her, and they often blend into the background of the surviving source material as well. New archival research, however, reveals that the ladies-in-waiting of Henry VIII’s wives were experts at survival, negotiating the competing demands of their families and their queen. They were serious political players who changed the course of history.