The Tudors for Dummies (AvaxHome Download) (6 page)

Everybody knows what a Tudor house looks like � it's black and white (half-

timbered) and made a reappearance in the 1930s as `Mock Tudor'. The royals

were great builders � see Chapter 19 for ten great houses that have survived.

Throughout the period:

Oak remained the basic building material, with infill of the framework

made of wattle and daub (wood and clay).

Brick began to replace wattle and daub.

Increased prosperity meant more large houses.

Traditionally, an Englishman's home was his E-shaped residence built

around a courtyard.

The E shape has nothing to do with Elizabeth � houses of this style were

on the market long before she was born.

Roofs were made of slate or thatch.

Staircases replaced ladders to get from floor to floor (Amy Robsart, look

out! See Chapter 12).

Fireplaces and chimneys kept rooms largely smoke free.

Rich people built specialist rooms in their houses � kitchens, sculleries,

larders, libraries and dining rooms.

The poor continued to live in hovels in the countryside or were

crammed into tiny tenements in the towns.

Homes didn't have bathrooms and toilets, called privies, were usually

holes in the ground.

Tutoring the Tudors: Education

Before the Tudors came along the Church ran all schools, as well as the

two universities in England: Oxford and Cambridge. Books were expensive

because they were hand-written, but the arrival of the printing press by the

late 15th century changed all that.

Education was a class thing:

The nobility learned to hunt, ride, handle weapons, dance and have

good manners. In Elizabeth's reign, Sir Christopher Hatton was a

member of the royal Council, but he was also the best dancer in

England.

The gentry followed the nobility and both groups could afford to hire

clerks to do their writing for them.

Merchants needed to be able to read, write and do their own book-keeping.

The investor John Lok's accounts from the voyages of the explorer Martin

Frobisher still survive and include everything down to the cost of nails.

Grammar schools (like Henry VIII School in Coventry) taught boys to be

able to go on to university or join a profession.

Everybody else learned what they could, but most laymen were illiterate

because they had no need to be anything else.

In the 1490s Henry VII made sure his sons, Arthur and Henry, got the best

humanist education, which stressed knowledge of the Bible, but also the

Classics and Latin and Greek culture. The universities largely opened the

way to a career in the Church � although mavericks like Christopher Marlowe

became playwrights and spies instead! The Inns of Court in London were train-

ing grounds for lawyers and by the end of Henry VIII's reign (1547) anybody

who was anybody in the corridors of power had qualified there.

Dying in Tudor England

The three main illnesses of the day were:

Influenza: The most serious killer of the time. There was so much sick-

ness in the army that the generals had to call off an attempt to recapture

Calais in 1557�1558.

The Plague: Bubonic or pneumonic, the Plague was caused by a bacillus

(a type of bacteria) on a flea on a rat. No cure existed in the 16th century

and outbreaks occurred from time to time. In 1603, 38,000 people died

in London. `Plague doctors' were useless. The best remedy? Travel far,

travel fast and get out of town. Henry VIII always did.

The Sweating Sickness: This broke out in England in 1485 and again in

1517 and 1551. It all happened quickly: men were merry at dinner and

dead at supper. But the sickness wasn't always fatal. It was probably a

type of flu and was called Sudor Anglicus because only the English were

said to catch it.

Tudor medicine was dreadful. If you were sensible, you'd stay away from doc-

tors, but check out the hilarious scene in Shakespeare in Love when Joseph

Fiennes' Shakespeare goes to see Anthony Sher's Dr Moth because he's got

writer's block (a very rare disease in any age!).

Distaff learning Women's education never really got off the daughter Margaret was very well-read as a ground under the Tudors. They had no schools result � you can see her gabbling away in Latin of their own and couldn't join their brothers in to the king in the film A Man for All Seasons. the grammar schools. If a man was rich enough Some highly educated women were at Court and saw any point, he might get a tutor for his besides the queens, like Mildred Cooke, who daughter as well as his son; Thomas More's married Elizabeth's chief minister, William Cecil.

You could get medical help (or hindrance) from four places and they were all

expensive.

Apothecaries handled drugs and herbs. A lot of their medicine was

experimental and most of it nonsense.

Barber-surgeons had their own company set up by Henry VIII and they

carried out amputations on soldiers and sailors. Archaeologists have

recently found the toolkit of the surgeon on board the Mary Rose, which

sank in 1545 (see Chapter 3).

Physicians believed the ideas of the ancient Greeks and still followed

the Four Humours rubbish of Galen (2nd century AD). `Cures' usually

involved potions, leeches (which sucked your blood) and money.

Surgeons set bones and carried out operations with no anaesthetic, so

only the toughest (or luckiest) survived. Surgeons also tried to treat

venereal disease, which was blamed on the French (of course).

Coping with Crime

The growing population meant more crime and more people seeking justice.

The law changed throughout the Tudor period, bringing in new offences

(such as witchcraft from 1542) and setting up new courts like the Petty

Sessions, which focused on the powers of the justices of the peace.

In Tudor England no police force existed. There were constables of the watch,

who were a bit of a joke (see Dogberry and Verges in Shakespeare's Much Ado

About Nothing). The local law officer in the county was the sheriff, who had

powers of arrest. Nobody thought very highly of these officers � remember

the `baddie' in the Robin Hood stories is the Sheriff of Nottingham � and the

chances of you getting away with your crime were huge.

Different courts tried different types of crime:

The Manor Court sorted out country disputes over land boundaries and

straying animals.

The Archdeacon's Consistory Court handled charges of adultery. Sex

crimes were regarded as sins and so the Church dealt with these. If you

slept with your neighbour's wife or one of his servants, you were usu-

ally excommunicated (cut off from the Church) for a limited period. Most

people got around this by doing some sort of penance, which involved

public shaming.

The Quarter Sessions handled theft or violence and were run by

the justices of the peace with a jury of locals. You could be sent to

prison, somewhere like the Fleet in London, which was dangerous and

unhealthy, not to mention expensive because you had to pay for food

and drink while you were inside.

The Mayor's Court covered the breaking of town rules. The punishment

was usually the pillory or stocks, wooden frames you were chained to

while people hurled abuse at you as they walked past.

Spitting was in fashion during the Tudor period. You spat at people in the

stocks. Women spat at touchy-feely men; churchmen spat at each other during

religious arguments.

The death penalty was reserved for serious crimes, but over 200 of these

crimes existed and many of them you'd find laughable today. Religious

heresy (see Chapters 10 and 14) was a Church crime, but because the Church

wasn't allowed to shed blood, actual punishments were passed to the secu-

lar (non-Church) courts for carrying out. Ordinary criminals were hanged

with a rope over a tree branch or wooden scaffold. The nobility received the

quicker `mercy' of the axe (or in the case of Anne Boleyn, the sword � see

Chapter 5).

Acting Up

Not all the dramas of the Tudor era happened between real people at Court.

Theatrical entertainment was popular among all classes. The nobility had

boxes at theatres or sat on the stage to watch the action up close; the

groundlings stood for the whole show. But the whole audience got the jokes!

William Shakespeare, the `upstart crow' from Stratford, has cornered the

market in Elizabethan literature today, but many others were brilliant, like Ben

Jonson, Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd. Comedies, tragedies and his-

tories wowed theatre-goers up and down the country. Chapter 1: Touring the Time of the Tudors 25

Pregnant pause Childbirth was a dangerous business in the conception process. Midwives probably Tudor era. Contraception was almost unknown knew more, but they had no status and were and women became pregnant for as long as the source of countless old wives' tales that their fertility lasted. So births of ten or more did more harm than good at childbirth. Most children were common � check out memorial women gave birth in a half sitting position, sur- brasses on church tombs throughout the coun- rounded by people wearing their day clothes try. Three in every five children died before with no awareness of hygiene. For the births in reaching adulthood � see the Tudor family's important families, astrologers were consulted own body count in this respect in Chapter 5. to foretell the child's survival likelihood from the Doctors were all men and knew little of the position of the planets.

Pleasing the crowd

The popular types of plays were:

Comic interludes: These were sketches performed in town squares

by travelling troupes, but this could land you in jail as a vagabond, so

actors made sure they got powerful patrons like the Lord Chamberlain,

the Earl of Leicester or Baron Hunsdon. That way, they got to perform in

great houses and even at Court.

Mystery plays: These were sponsored by the merchant guilds and were

all about heaven and hell. These plays lost popularity by the end of the

Tudor period.

By the 1590s London had many theatres like The Bear, The Curtain and The

Globe. The authorities frowned on the theatres because they encouraged

fights, prostitution and theft. At times of plague, they were closed altogether

and the religious extremists called Puritans wanted them shut for good. For a

brilliant glimpse of Elizabeth's theatre, see the film Shakespeare in Love.

Women weren't allowed to act, so all female roles were played by boys in

drag. Maybe that's why even in romantic stuff like Romeo and Juliet the stage

directions don't mention much rolling around !

Hum me a few bars: Tudor music

Every film on the Tudors has got it � fantastic, thumpy tunes played on long-

forgotten instruments like kits and shawms. In Henry VII's reign all official

music was dirge-like and solemn, written for the Church. Under Henry VIII

and even more under Elizabeth, musicians wrote bright, lively tunes for the

Court and men like Thomas Tallis and William Byrd were the Andrew Lloyd

Webbers of their day. Everybody still thinks Henry VIII wrote Greensleeves

(see Chapter 3).

It isn't true that the use of the augmented fourth musical interval in Church

music could result in excommunication � although, because it's the chord

used by modern composers in scary music in films, you can imagine that per-

haps it wouldn't have sounded right in a solemn mass. It isn't called the `chord

of evil' for nothing!

Strictly . . . Tudor style

Elizabeth loved dancing and many of the entertainments in her Court

revolved around it.

Try this at home:

The Pavanne: For the over 50s. Slow, sedate � you can wear your long

gowns for this one, guys and gals!

The Galliard: Getting faster. Probably best not to wear your rapiers for

this one, gents!

The Volta: Whoa! The rock and roll of its day. Men, lift your partner,

throw her in the air (and it was a bit naughty � you got to squeeze your

partner's waist!).

Suits You, Sir

Clothes, like education, were all about class. The Tudors even passed strict

rules, the Sumptuary Laws, which fined people who tried to dress above their

status. The Tudors reigned for 118 years, which is a long time in the fashion

business, so I'll just give you a glimpse at the start, middle and end of the era.

In 1485:

Men dressed as they had for 300 years with shirts, doublets (jackets)

and hose (tights). Genitals were covered with a triangular codpiece and

shoes were pointed.

Women wore long dresses to the ground, with tight-laced bodices and

kirtles (petticoats) underneath. No knickers, no bra! Chapter 1: Touring the Time of the Tudors 27 Throughout the period:

Noblemen and gentlemen wore knee-length wide coats, open in front.

Check out Hans Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII and his 13-year-old son

Edward VI.

The middle class man wore a robe to the knee. It was the equivalent of

today's pinstripe suit. Vicars, barristers and graduates from universities

wear such robes today.

Everybody else continued to wear the basics, made of wool and leather.

Caps and hoods changed size and shape, especially as French and

Spanish fashions hit the Court and filtered down through society.

Bright clothes were in under Henry VIII, blacks and browns under Mary,

dazzling colours under Elizabeth.

In 1603:

Breeches had replaced hose for men. The nobility and gentry wore short

cloaks slung over one shoulder, a fashion called colleywestonwise, and

carried rapiers (by law, no more than 3 feet, around 1 metre, long).

Both sexes wore pattens, wooden lifts on their shoes, to raise them

above the muddy streets. Shoes now had rounded toes.

Women wore farthingales and stomachers, a pointed bodice with a frame-

work dress that stuck out from the body.

No zips or elastic existed until the late 19th century so everything was fas- tened with laces, ribbons and buttons made of wood, metal or bone.

Check out the various portraits of the Tudor monarchs. With the exception of Mary they scream bling, from beautiful, huge ruffs to pearl headgear and diamonds sewn to sleeves. This was a statement � `I dress like this because I rule one of the richest countries in the world' � what was everybody else going to do about it?

Only the lowest of the low and young girls went bareheaded. Everybody else wore headgear all the time. Men wore their hats indoors and during meals. Henry VIII was quite unusual in that he took his hat off in the presence of ladies. Both sexes even wore caps in bed. 28 Part I: Encountering the Early Tudors