Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About The Tudors

What role did women actually play in England’s early colonial experiments? In this Tudorcon 2025 talk, Colleen Parker explores the overlooked but essential role of women in early English colonization, beginning in Ireland and continuing through Roanoke and Jamestown. Rather than treating women as background figures, this talk shows how they functioned as household managers, negotiators, landholders, cultural intermediaries, and, in many cases, the key to whether a colony survived at all. Topics include: • Women in the Irish plantations as a testing ground for colonization • The role of women in Roanoke and the mystery of Virginia Dare • The Jamestown Brides and why “mail-order brides” is a misleading label • Women as property holders and legal actors in early Virginia • Daily survival, childbirth, labor, and negotiation with Native communities This is a rich, thoughtful look at how women shaped colonization on both sides of the Atlantic.