From Tudor and Medieval Christmas tide celebrations, to Queen Victoria and Albert’s newer traditions, we’re re-releasing our Christmas episode to reveal the history of Christmas at our palaces.  

Curator Charles Farris is joined by Historic Kitchens Manager Richard Fitch, and Curator Lee Prosser, as they begin the holiday season with some festive tomfoolery. 

Make our Victorian Christmas pudding recipe with mashed potatoes. 

Explore what’s on in our Palaces this Christmas from Ice Skating at Hampton Court Palace to Queen Victoria's Childhood Christmas at Kensington Palace. 

Elizabeth I’s propaganda images of Gloriana and the Virgin Queen have hugely impacted her reputation as the last Tudor Monarch. Yet the twilight years of her reign were both personally and politically difficult.  

In this final episode in our series, Joint Chief Curator Tracy Borman is joined by renowned historian Dr Helen Castor. Together they contemplate which female relationships shaped this time, and ultimately, how Elizabeth I’s gender has shaped her historic image.  

This is the final Episode in our Elizabeth I series where we explore the women who shaped a queen. 

Read about Elizabeth I’s life as the last Tudor. 

Elizabeth I’s relationship with Mary, Queen of Scots is perhaps the most pivotal of her entire life, and yet they never met.  

In this second episode in our series, Joint Chief Curator Tracy Borman is joined by Dr Andrea Clarke, to discuss how as confidantes and rival queens, Elizabeth and Mary’s relationship would shape the image that Elizabeth would adopt for herself, that of Gloriana. 

Read about Elizabeth’s brush with death at Hampton Court, the crisis that magnified the succession question.  

This is the second Episode in our Elizabeth series where we explore the women who shaped a queen.

Elizabeth I was profoundly shaped by the women around her, and this series will explore these pivotal relationships throughout her life. 

Joint Chief Curator Tracy Borman opens our series with Dr Nicola Tallis, and together they explore the young Elizabeth, before she came to the throne. The formative relationships she experienced during this time shaped the queen she would become; her mother Anne Boleyn, her stepmother Katherine Parr, and her sister Mary I.  

Read about Elizabeth's Summer with Katherine Parr at Hampton Court, and see the book Elizabeth embroidered as a gift for her stepmother.  

This is the first episode in our Elizabeth series where we explore the women who shaped a queen.

This new three-part series on the Historic Royal Palaces Podcast will explore Elizabeth I, and the women who shaped a queen.

Joint Chief Curator Tracy Borman will take us on a journey from Elizabeth's early life, right the way through to the challenging final years of her reign.

We'll learn which pivotal female relationships made her the queen we know today, and how these nurturing and often challenging relationships, can reveal the most about the real Elizabeth I? 

When James VI of Scotland ascended the English throne as James I, he sparked the English witch hunts into a fire. They would become one of the largest miscarriages of justice against women in the 17th century, but what prompted them, and why did James become such a ruthless champion of this war on women? 

For this Halloween Episode, we join Joint Chief Curator Tracy Borman and historian Gareth Russell, as they explore the witch hunts under James I.

Please be aware that this episode contains themes of sexual violence and torture that some listeners may find distressing.    

In this final episode of our A Space I Love Series, we join Deputy Chief Curator Sebastian Edwards in the Queen’s staircase at Hampton Court Palace. The stairs are the hub of the palace, and they represent a surprisingly unique space with a lot to say. 

Once the main thoroughfare to the queen’s private apartments, but largely unused after Henry VIII’s time, the grand staircase has remained unchanged since the last monarchs left the palace in the 18th century.

To view the Queen’s stairs, take our virtual tour with Google Arts & Culture 

Take a look at Honthorst’s painting of Apollo and Diana.

This week is the third part of our mini-series on spaces we love. We’ll be joining Assistant Curator Alfred Hawkins, who has chosen to take us into the Chapel of St John the Evangelist, at the Tower of London.  

As the most important space in the White Tower, the Chapel Royal holds huge historic significance in representing the Norman Conquest’s power, control and religious dominance. Alfred explores how a recent project will protect this space of immeasurable importance, for generations to come.

To view inside the Chapel of St John the Evangelist, take our Virtual Tour with Google Arts & Culture.  

This week we’re continuing our mini-series on treasured spaces with a trip to Hillsborough Castle and Gardens in Northern Ireland. 

We’ll follow Research and Interpretation Producer Emma Lawthers, into the magnificent state dining room – a space that represents the political history of Northern Ireland, with a curious and unexpected connection to the birth of the United States of America.    

Find out more about the history of Hillsborough Castle and Gardens:  

https://www.hrp.org.uk/hillsborough-castle/history-and-stories/the-story-of-hillsborough-castle-and-gardens/

In this four part mini-series, we’re back exploring a selection of treasured spaces in our palaces with the people who know them best, our curators. 

Each space has been personally chosen by our resident experts, revealing how immersing ourselves in a place can connect us to the past, and make us reflect on the present.  

In this first episode we’ll follow Assistant Curator Minette Butler into a deceptively domestic space at Hampton Court Palace. The Oak Room tells the story of the palace after the Royals left, and serves as a charming symbol of the small Grace and Favour community who inherited it. 

The Tudor world ushered in an age of wealth, magnificence, challenge and opportunity in the early 16th century. Hampton Court Palace stood at the heart of this period, as the home of Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII’s chief minister. But the Tudor story extends beyond the palace walls into the wider world, encompassing a time of exploration and exploitation. 

In this episode, Curator Brett Dolman walks us through the oldest rooms at Hampton Court Palace, where a new permanent exhibition reveals the lives of the ordinary men and women who enabled the Tudor court to exist and thrive. Learn more about their everyday contributions to this fascinating period. 

Explore more about The Tudor World in the Wolsey Rooms: 

www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/whats-on/the-tudor-world-in-the-wolsey-rooms/