The Annual Thomas Sutton Lecture

This year we are delighted to announce that the eminent historian and best-selling author Tracy Borman will be joining us to give this year’s Thomas Sutton Lecture.

In the stunning setting of the Great Chamber at the Charterhouse she will tell the story of England’s most famous monarch Henry VIII through the eyes of the men who surrounded him: relations, servants, ministers, rivals, confidantes and companions.

Henry VIII is famous for being the king who married six times but it was the men in his life, far more than the women, who shaped this notorious monarch. In this talk, based upon her major new biography, Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him, she will introduce a dazzling cast of characters: some ‘mad’ (Sir Francis Bryan, the so-called ‘Vicar of Hell’), some ‘bad’ (the grasping minister, Thomas Wolsey), but none as ‘dangerous to know’ as Henry VIII himself. Henry VIII is famous for being the king who married six times, yet it was these men who shaped Henry into the man – and monster – that he would become. And he, in turn, dictated their fates.