Tudor Villains - ENDED - Claire Ridgway

This event has now ended.

Tudor Villains was a 7-day online event with historian and author Claire Ridgway, exploring the most notorious “villains” of Tudor England — the real monsters, the misunderstood manipulators, and the maligned figures who never deserved their infamy.

Across six in-depth talks and seven live Zoom discussions, Claire examined the darker side of Tudor history through gripping storytelling and fresh historical insight, separating fact from fiction and asking:

Who truly deserves the title “Tudor villain”
Who was framed by history
Who acted from ambition, fear, or desperation
And how these lives shaped the destiny of the Tudor world

This was an intimate online event for those who love Tudor history, true crime, political intrigue, and myth-busting.

Event Schedule

Day 1 — The Court’s True Villains: Cruelty, Corruption & Power — Richard Rich, Stephen Gardiner (“Wily Winchester”), Edmund “Bloody” Bonner, Thomas Howard, Richard Topcliffe, Richard Southwell, and Brian Darcy. Informal Zoom chat and get-to-know-you session.
Day 2 — Villains Born of Weakness & Ambition — Lord Darnley, Thomas Seymour, Robert Devereux, Edward Seymour (Somerset), and Edmund Tudor. Zoom Q&A on The Court’s True Villains.
Day 3 — Maligned Women of the Tudor World — Margaret Beaufort, Jane Boleyn, Anne Boleyn, Anne Stanhope, Frances Brandon, Lettice Knollys, and Margaret Douglas. Zoom Q&A on Villains Born of Weakness & Ambition.
Day 4 — Monster Monarchs? Henry VIII, Mary I & Elizabeth I — a reassessment of three controversial Tudor monarchs. Zoom Q&A on Maligned Women of the Tudor World.
Day 5 — Spies, Plots & Shadow Warfare — Walsingham, Cecil, Babington, Throckmorton, Standen, and the murky world of Tudor intelligence and intrigue. Zoom Q&A on Monster Monarchs?
Day 6 — Maligned & Misjudged: The Tudor Villains Who Weren’t — John Dudley, Thomas Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell, and Robert Dudley. Zoom Q&A on Spies, Plots & Shadow Warfare.
Day 7 — End-of-event Zoom discussion.