The Waiting Game

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For attendees to the Ashland Public Library Event with authors Nicola Clark and Joanne Paul on January 29, the authors will be signing bookplates for every book ordered through Aes op's Fable.A New York TImes Book Review Editor's PickA 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. Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Pegasus Books (January 7, 2025) ISBN-13: 978-1639368099 Show more