The Lost Palaces of the Tudors
Online Course
SNAPSHOT
Lecturer: Dr Lauren Mackay
Sessions: 3 x 90 minutes
Dates: 10, 17, 24 May, 2024
Times: Friday @ 2.00pm AEST
Group Size: Maximum of 15 screens
Price: $150 AUD
TWO WAYS TO WATCH
Can't make a date above? Don't worry... this course will be recorded, allowing you to watch each session at your convenience for up to 14 days. Simply sign up below and we'll send you a link on the first business day following each live session, ensuring you never miss a class!
Overview
When Henry VIII ascended the Thone of England in 1509, the portfolio of royal residences ranged from luxurious palaces and majestic defensive fortresses to sophisticated manors and hunting lodges. These royal residences were at the heart of the King’s day to day life, a sophisticated maze of halls and chambers, from the seat of government, to the inner royal sanctum.
Henry VIII himself was a prolific builder and would own over sixty palaces during his lifetime, and today, royal estates such as Windsor Castle and Hampton Court attract thousands of visitors each year. But not all Tudor palaces survived. Indeed, some of Henry VIII’s most prized royal residences were destroyed in civil wars and fires, or allowed to fall into decline and dismantled piece by piece.
Join Dr Lauren Mackay and go back through the centuries to reveal the history of three of Henry VIII’s lost Tudor Palaces, and reconstruct the extraordinary Tudor architecture and culture of these estates which were once some of the most lavish in all of England.
YOUR EXPERT LECTURER
Dr Lauren Mackay holds an MA and PhD in history and is an historian specialising in the Early Modern World. She is the author of three books, and her fourth, "Thunder Through the Realms: Five Kingdoms and the shaping of Early Modern Europe" is due out in early 2025 with Bloomsbury Publishing.
Lauren is a frequent presenter at historical venues around the UK and for the BBC History weekends and is a regular contributor for BBC History and All About History magazines. She has featured as a historical consultant for a number of television programs, including "Henry VIII and the King's Men" (Smithsonian Channel UK), “The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family” (BBC2) which drew on her PhD research, and “Blood, Sex, and Royalty” (Netflix). Lauren is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Session info
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In this lecture we explore the lost palace of the once magnificent Thameside palace of “Placentia” - the favourite royal residence of the Tudor Kings and Queens, and where Henry VIII, and his daughters, the future Mary I and Elizabeth I of England, were born.
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Originally known as York Place, this palace was created by Cardinal Wolsey as his central London residence, but it would earn the name “Whitehall” after the glittering white stone used to build it. It was then given to Henry VIII, who enlarged and extended the palace massively during the 1530s, becoming one of his most prized estates until he died there in 1547.
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The legendary Nonsuch Palace was perhaps the grandest and most ambitious of Henry VIII’s building projects. Its name - “Nonsuch” - was a declaration that there was no such palace elsewhere equal to it in magnificence, and indeed it was a fairy tale residence of opulence and majesty which dominated the landscape. For all its grandeur, today no physical traces remain above ground of the palace or gardens or parks.
Suggested Reading List
Lipscomb, Suzannah: A Visitor’s Companion to Tudor England (Ebury Press, 2012)
Thurley, Simon: Houses of Power, The Places that Shaped the Tudor World (Transworld, 2017)
Thurley, Simon: Whitehall Palace, An Architectural History of the Royal Apartments, 1240-1698 (Yale University Press, 1999)
Booking
How it works
Our online courses are hosted live on Zoom, a free online education platform. If you don’t already have an account with Zoom, you will need to sign up at www.zoom.us. To join with video, you'll also need a device with a camera (such as a computer, phone or tablet with a webcam). Otherwise you can join with audio only.
An online ticket booking is required, made above. Each booking is for one computer screen use, not person. Our online booking system is powered by Stripe, with secure payment processing that accepts all major credit cards.
A confirmation of purchase will be sent to your email with a Zoom link to use for every session in this course, along with a reminder email sent 2 hours before each session.
When joining the Zoom meeting, you will enter a virtual ‘waiting room’. Please ensure that your Zoom screen name matches the name you booked under, so that the lecturer can admit you from the virtual ‘waiting room’ into each session. Your lecturer can help you troubleshoot any technical issues on the day.