Maria Hayward, professor of Early Modern History at the University of Southampton, graduated with a History degree before undertaking the Postgraduate Diploma in Textile Conservation at the Textile Conservation Centre, Hampton Court Palace (TCC). She worked as a conservator and completed a PhD at the London School of Economics titled The Possessions of Henry VIII: a Study of Inventories. She was associate director of the AHRC Research Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies and then its director. She is a specialist on material culture at the court of Henry VIII and on dress and textiles in the sixteenth and seventeen centuries. Her publications include The 1542 Inventory of Whitehall: the Palace and its Keeper (2004), Tapestry Conservation: Principles and Practice edited with Frances Lennard (2005), Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII (2007) and Rich Apparel: Clothing and the Law in Henry VIII’s England (2009).