The Waiting Game

The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens

By: Nicola Clark

Narrated by: Nicola Clark, Karen Cass

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.

©2025 Nicola Clark (P)2023 The Orion Publishing Group, Limited

comforting, empowering

a familiar story but focusing on the women of the court. very pleasant audio. takeaway how well women could sway the others. give it a listen.

A Hidden History of Women

I adore anything that is focused on women’s history and so I was eagerly looking forward to listening to this one after a friend sent me the NYT review. If I could give it 4.5 stars I would. There were a few spots where the narrative dragged a bit or got somewhat convoluted with the number of women it profiled. But overall, it was wonderful to hear the personal stories of the women who filled King Henry’s court.

loved the to the point nature of the text. No filler with a bunch of unsupported gossip

the book was amazing, thank you! I would love to read more books by the same author if possible.

All the precarious lives

Fascinating to see the culture of the Queen’s court, from companionship to information collection, from social climbing to treachery. They were very dependent on their sponsors, or royal good will, on their husbands, and on the King’s ministers for their futures and upkeep. Family fortunes rose and fell with their success, and the roving eye of the King could mean thrills or disaster.

I found the insights into these less visible lives fascinating, especially in this period when the identity of the Queen kept changing, destabilizing the structure around her and the rules that governed it. Some challenge for the audiobook listener is the proliferation of people with the same name, making it hard to be sure you’re tracking the same person between eras and circumstances. But still, a lot of interesting perspective here!

The incredible danger of life in the court of Henry VIII.

I liked the dispassionate tone of the narrative. I enjoyed the description of the dress code for the ladies in waiting. I was shocked at the prevalence of deaths in childbirth.