One of the most powerful and influential women at the court of Henry VIII is someone you’ve probably never heard of, or perhaps only heard of fleetingly - Gertrude Courtenay, Marchioness of Exeter. As the wife of Henry VIII’s cousin, Henry Courtenay, Gertrude was a central figure at King Henry’s court, and would find herself on the wrong side of the law a couple of times, but most prominently when she became embroiled in a period known as the Exeter conspiracy, which would eventually lead to her husband's execution and her and her sons imprisonment. To discuss this fascinating figure with me today, I am pleased to welcome historian and author Sylvia Barbara Soberton onto the podcast. Sylvia Barbara’s book “The forgotten Tudor women - Gertrude Courtenay, wife and mother of the last Plantagenets” is the basis for our discussion today.