Tuesday, 24 February 2026, at 5pm GMT
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“Katherine Basset as a Case Study of the Household of Anne of Cleves”, Dr Valerie Schutte
This paper will consider Katherine Basset’s path to employment in Anne of Cleves’s household, arguing that it serves as an excellent case study involving letter-writing, gift-giving, patronage, kinship, and royal households. A series of letters show that Lady Lisle, Katherine’s mother, bestowed gifts upon Anne and those around her in an attempt to get her daughter a place in the new queen’s household. Ultimately, it did not work until Anne of Cleves was demoted from queen to “the king’s sister,” at which time she finally became a maid of honor. Though this account of Lady Lisle’s efforts is often briefly related in the context of courtiers jockeying for position in the new queen’s court, it is more than that. It is an important case study of the ways in which letters and gifts were exchanged to influence household politics. While this is not a complete account of Anne’s post-divorce household, the example of Katherine Basset allows us to understand just how complicated household politics and positions were and what little control Anne had over her household both during her queenship and in its immediate aftermath.
About the Speaker
Dr Valerie Schutte is a historian of Tudor England, with a particular focus on royal women and book history. She has published two monographs – Mary I and the Art of Book Dedications: Royal Women, Power, and Persuasion (2015) and Princesses Mary and Elizabeth Tudor and the Gift Book Exchange (2021) – and will publish her third, a cultural biography of Anne of Cleves, in 2026. She has edited seven volumes on Queen Mary I, Shakespeare, and queenship, three of which are prizewinning in their fields. She is currently editing volumes on Queen Mary I and humanism, Tudor myths, and adaptations of the Tudors, in addition to forthcoming articles on Mary I, Anne of Cleves, and various aspects of book history.