REVIEW: The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens: A History by Nicola Clark

JayneB Reviews / Book Reviews16th-century / Historical / non-fiction / Royalty / Tudor-England / women3 Comments

A colorful and authoritative narrative history of the often-overlooked—yet hugely influential—figures of the Tudor court: the ladies-in-waiting.

Every Tudor Queen had ladies-in-waiting. They were her confidantes and her chaperones. Only the Queen’s ladies had the right to enter her most private chambers, spending hours helping her to get dressed and undressed, caring for her clothes and jewels, listening to her secrets. But they also held a unique power. A quiet word behind the scenes, an appropriately timed gift, a well-negotiated marriage alliance were all forms of political agency wielded expertly by women.

The Waiting Game explores the daily lives of ladies-in-waiting, revealing the secrets of recruitment, costume, what they ate, where (and with whom) they slept. We meet María de Salinas, who traveled to England with Catherine of Aragon when just a teenager and spied for her during the divorce from Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn’s lady-in-waiting Jane Parker was instrumental in the execution of not one, but two queens. And maid-of-honor Anne Basset kept her place through the last four consorts, negotiating the conflicting loyalties of her birth family, her mistress the Queen, and even the desires of the King himself.

As Henry changed wives—and changed the very fabric of the country’s structure besides—these women had to make choices about loyalty that simply didn’t exist before. The Waiting Game is the first time their vital story has been told.

Dear Ms. Clark, 

This was fascinating. Given all the similar names (so many Annes, Janes, Marys, Elizabeths, and Katherines – of all spellings) and name changes as various courtiers married or inherited or were given different titles it was also a touch confusing sometimes  but overall I managed to keep most of the main people straight. Tudor England was definitely a place to keep your friends close and your enemies closer as the winds of fortune could change in a heartbeat and that heartbeat was that of the King – Henry VIII.

As another reviewer has said, finding a new angle from which to write about this tempestuous time is difficult but as a woman, I was naturally drawn to this one. One might think that the maids of honor were just pretty faces, there to serve their queen and, well … look pretty but these women could also be confidants, spies, and sometimes friends. Many were placed in danger for their support of a queen and a few lost their positions or lives.

There was fierce maneuvering and lobbying for these coveted positions. To be at court was to be at the center of power. While women had traditionally been placed there by their families to cement relationships and possibly seek advantageous marriages, with Henry a new possibility arose. If a woman caught his eye and she (or her family) played her cards right, a woman could rise to the most glittering of heights. She could also fall, as two did, and have her life ended on a scaffold or come too near for comfort as the last one did before wisely tacking her sails and saving her life. 

Given the fact that this was over 500 years ago and women rarely were thought important enough to have any scrap of information about them preserved, there is a fair amount of speculation and “we’ll never know,” “it’s not kown,” “maybe she thought,” “did she think about” involved but along with that – from the bibliography and footnotes – a lot of research went into these sentences and musings, enough that what is on page makes sense even if there’s no written proof surviving. 

The main events are of course fascinating but it was the little bits of the personalities and determination coming through that I enjoyed the most. Thomas Howard might have been a Duke but both his wife and his daughter drove him to distraction with their obstinance and demands. Anna of Cleves faced down the Ambassador from her brother’s court by reminding him that refusing to sign the annulment papers or opposing the king’s will could have led to her head being chopped off. Subservient and meek Catherine of Aragon was shrewd about how she publicly staged the scenes of her protests against Henry’s overpowering full court press to be rid of her. Add the wild swings of religion to those of the king’s marital desires and it took a lot to survive this age with your head, your property, and your conscience. 

I do wish that more personal information about and from these women had survived but given the time span and vicissitudes of life, I still got a new glimpse on life in Henry VIII’s England. B

~Jayne       

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