The Katharine of Aragon Festival 2026

Saturday 31 January - 10.30am

Venture down into the Museum’s cellars to see the only surviving remains of the Tudor house which once stood in its place. From the grand home of a wealthy Tudor family, to the city’s first infirmary, explore layers of history rarely seen by the public. Brought to life through projections and characters from this buildings history, the tour will take you through 500 years of stories.

The Priestgate Vaults are accessed via a steep set of stairs and are inaccessible to wheelchair users. Projections, flashing lights and loud noises are used during the tour.

Tickets: £5 adults, £3.50 children
Not recommended for children under 8 years

Saturday 31 January - 7pm
Talk by Dr Andrea Clarke

In this talk, Dr Andrea Clarke will draw on the British Library’s outstanding collection of early modern manuscripts and printed books to offer an exploration of the life of Henry VIII’s first queen, Katherine of Aragon. She will showcase a selection of Katherine’s autograph letters, which provide fascinating glimpses into her character and personality, as well as key documents and illuminated manuscripts that offer a ring-side seat at some of the most significant moments and events in Katherine’s life.

Dr Andrea Clarke is Lead Curator of Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts at the British Library. She has curated major exhibitions on Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, and Leonardo da Vinci and has overseen the digitisation of over 600 early modern manuscripts.

Tickets: £12 per person

Sunday 1 February - 11.30am
Leaves from Peterborough Museum

Turn time detective on a fun family tour through Peterborough’s Tudor past. Join your guide, Goodwife Jane, and follow your nose to uncover some foul facts about terribly Tudor bad habits. Plus don a hat or ruff and dress to impress when you step inside Tudor Peterborough’s trendiest townhouse……if you can find it!

Tickets: £5 per person
These tours are of the city centre and include steep steps. Please wear appropriate footwear and clothing.

Sunday 1 February - 7pm
Talk by Dr Christina Faraday

How was art used to shape the identities and reputations of Tudor royal women? In this talk we’ll look at the portraits and belongings of five royal women across the Tudor century: Henry VII’s formidable mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort; Katherine of Aragon and Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s first and last wives; Mary I, and Elizabeth I. At a time when women were seen as physically and intellectually inferior to men, how did these women shape their images and surroundings, and how were they shaped by the images others chose for them?

Dr Christina Faraday, FSA FRHistS, is a historian of art and ideas at the University of Cambridge. She specialises in the art and culture of Tudor England, and is the author of The Story of Tudor Art (2025), the first book to look at art across the whole sixteenth century in England, and of Tudor Liveliness: Vivid Art in Post Reformation England (2023), which considers the problem of realism in the period's strange and distinctive visual culture.

Tickets: £12 per person