Professor Maria Hayward

Research interests

• Early modern textiles and clothing especially in a court context.
• Early modern court culture, including the Tudors and the later Stuarts.
• Early modern Scotland, in particular looking at the engagement of the male elite with material culture. 
• Early modern women, especially of the Restoration period, in relation to food, shopping, gardening and gift-giving. 
• 18th century women, with an emphasis on clothing, firendship and the body. 

Current research

Following her PhD thesis on the 1547 inventory of Henry VIII, Maria's research has focused upon the court and material culture of Henry VIII. From this other projects have developed including an interest in the role of sumptuary law, colour and dyeing. Alongside this she continued links to textile conservation with a number of small projects on early modern textile book bindings. Many of these volumes have a court context.

More recently she developed a second research strand on the clothing of Charles II. Since then she has completed the prize-winning Stuart Style: Monarchy, Dress and the Scottish Male Elite which drew on archival research in English and Scottish record offices, as well as portraits and surviving textiles from the period. She is currently drawing on her interst in early modern queenship and is writing a book on  Catherine of Braganza.