Maria Hayward is an English historian of costume and early modern Britain.
She is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Southampton and has published a number of works on the courts of Tudor and Stuart monarchs.
Hayward earned a bachelor's degree in history before completing a postgraduate diploma in textile conservation at Hampton Court Palace's Textile Conservation Centre, housed in the Winchester School of Art. She then moved into work as a conservator before completing a PhD at the London School of Economics in 1997. In 1999 she began working at the Textile Conservation Centre, serving as its head of studies and research from 2000 to 2008, and in 2008 joined the University of Southampton. She has served as the head of the history department at the university since 2022.
Hayward served on the editorial board of the journal Studies in Conservation from 2004 to 2009 and as assistant editor of Costume from 1999 to 2008. She has also served as associate director and then director of the AHRC Research Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies. She has previously written for History Today.
Hayward was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2004 and of the Royal Historical Society in 2021.