The Tudor Life In England History Essay

People abusing the person in the pilloryThe Pillory and the Stocks; the pillory is a t-shaped box where the victim would place their head and arms inside. As others passed by they would throw food at the person and taunt and jeer at he/she, it was very humiliating. The stocks were used the same way, except that their feet were bound.http://www.duhaime.org/Portals/duhaime/images/pillory.jpg

Ducking stools – (especially for those women accused of witchcraft); Accused witches, were “tested”. They were dunked into a river to see if they were innocent or guilty. If the women had floated, they were considered a witch and would be sentenced to be burnt at stake, if they sunk, then they were innocent. Unfortunately if the women were innocent, she would have drowned anyway.

Boiling in oil water or lead; (usually reserved for poisoners); for attempted murder you could be sentenced of the punishment of being boiled alive in hot water or lead.

Cutting off various parts of the anatomy – nose, hands, ears etc; depending on the crimes committed, you could be sentenced to decapitation of your body parts. If someone stole from the market, they could get their hand(s) chopped off.

The gossips bridle or the brankThe Gossip’s Bridle or the Brank; for women who gossiped or spoke to freely, they would place a large iron framework over their heads, which formed a type of cage. There was a metal stripped placed so it could fit inside the mouth, and it would either have been sharpened or placed with spikes to a certain extent so that any movement of the tongue would inflict much pain and damage.woman wearing a brank

The Drunkards Cloak; the punishment for public drunkenness, is quite astonishing. The drunk would be forced and fitted into a don barrel and wander through the town while local villagers laughed and taunted the drunk. Big holes were cut for the person’s feet, head and arms.

Being beaten; for poor Tudors who begged, they would be beaten until they passed the stones that marked the town parish boundary. The result was very gruesome and so were the beatings.

Beheading; beheading was considered less degrading, noblemen would generally be placed with punishment of beheading. Sometimes it took several blows just to decapitate the head. The head would sometimes be placed on spikes on the London Bridge or other areas. This punishment was held in public for many to witness.

Tudor schools:

Not many children attended school, as they were mostly poor or had too much work in their lives (like farming). Although those that did go to school were mainly sons of wealthy and noble families. Remember that only boys would mostly go to school, as it usually wasn’t considered worth the money to send a girl to school. Girls would either be kept home, attending with the house work or sent out to make money for their family.

There were 2 types of schools in Tudor times

The petty school ( teaching young children to read)

The grammar school (teaching the children Latin and mathematics, religion etc)

Boys began their school at the age of 4 and moved to grammar school when they were 7 years old. Basically it was meant that boys were educated to work, as girls were taught for marriage and operating a household.

Boys were to attend 6 days a week. School started at 7:00 am in winter and 6:00 am in summer, both ending at 5:00 pm. This was a very large amount of time spent for the boys.

Unfortunately no long holidays were offered to the boys. Schools would close for 16 days at Christmas and a short 12 days at Easter, and there were no summer holidays.

A Tudor class could contain up to as many as 60 pupils! Much of the time was spent learning long passages from textbooks by heart, not only would this keep them quiet, but it would also save currency on buying books. The main subjects Tudor classes learnt were: Latin, Arithmetic, Divinity (religious Study), and English literature.

Pupils would have to do writing with quill pens made from feathers, which would have to be sharpened frequently to make it work.

Teachers were extremely strict with tolerance of the boys. They would often beat the boys with birches if they did wrong. A birch is specially designed type of cane used to inflict a lot of pain. It wasn’t a useful “method” as some pupils would be too scared to attend school because of the beatings. Teachers used to give 50 strokes of the birch. But for wealthy pupils they could afford a “whipping boy” and whenever the wealthy pupil got in trouble, the “whipping boy” would receive the consequence.

For school sports, it was a custom to bring money on Shrove Tuesday. Where then the schoolmaster would buy a fighting cock and tie it to a post. The game was that the boys where to take turns throwing sticks at the cock. If a boy hit the cock, it was his. If everybody hit the cock it belonged to the school master.

Tudor cures/medicines

Tudor times were very unhealthy. And from that it produced many illnesses and ridiculous cures. Following are some reasons why many Tudors had health issues :

Open sewers ran through the streets and carried many diseases

Toilets were only a hole in the ground outside the owner’s back door.

Water came from village pumps, which meant that the water was taken from a local river, and that river would be full of filth from the town.

Country people developed their own medicines for a cheap price, using herbs. But would you realise that you are buying from a person who didn’t know the importance of washing their hands when handling your medicine.

The Tudors did not realise that plagues were carried by fleas, making it harder to produce cures.

People who travelled across certain areas carried different diseases that would spread to others and so on, causing a pandemic.

The streets and villages were not so well looked after. Homeless people would sleep on the streets; people would get rid of their garbage in unhygienic ways. Littering on the streets was also a problem.

These common illnesses had very interesting Methods of curing them:

Headache; drink a mixture of lavender, bay, rue, roses, sage and marjoram. Or press a hangman’s rope to your head

Bad chest; consume a mix of the herbs thyme, campanula and hyssop.

Rheumatism; wear the skin of a donkey

Gout (swollen foot); capture a red haired dog and boil it in oil, also add worms, pigs marrow and herbs. Make it a mixture and place it on the affected area of the foot

Deafness; make a mixture of the gall of a hare and the grease of a fox, then apply in the ear.

Baldness; shave the head and smear with the grease of a fox. Or wash the head with a mixture of juice beetles. Or, crush garlic and gently rub it in the head and wash in vinegar.

Plague; place the herb, rue alongside your windowsill.

Small pox; hang red curtains around the bed of the patient; apparently the red light is the cure. Or burn leather which produces smoke to kill off the plague.

Head lice; pour the liquid tobacco juice onto your scalp

Jaundice (bad liver); carefully swallow nine lice dipped in ale, continue this each morning for a week.

Tudor food:

Tudor women, men and children in England drank beer, sherry, mead and cider and milk. This is because the water was not capable of being consumed unless boiled, only very poor Tudors would drink water.

Common vegetables in the Tudor period were cabbages, onions, cauliflower, cucumbers, leeks, lettuce, spinach and turnips. The vegetables Brussels sprouts and broccoli were rare in the Tudor period.

Common fruits were apples, strawberries, pears, plums, blackberries, melons, raspberries and lemons.

It was believed that fruit was not good for you in the 16th century. So the rich ate preserved fruits like apple tarts. The poor could not afford preserved fruits.

On certain days by law, Tudors had to eat fish instead of meat. This was made because of religious reasons, but in the Elizabethan era, it was to support the fishing industry as well.

Poor Tudors had a dreary and unhealthy diet. They would only have a cooked meal once a day. Consisting of strips of meat or vegetables (if they could afford) also bread, cheese and maybe onions. This would give them very little energy for their day and make them extremely hungry. Their main source of food was bread.http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1FdJyHYd7q4/TGGP1QiafBI/AAAAAAAABqY/kCmUBWdhowE/s1600/Tudor-seamen%27s-meal.jpg

A setting of what a rich Tudor would eatThe rich Tudors could buy or hunt a range of meats. And they could buy rare fruits and vegetables as well. The rich would eat enough meat, but not enough vegetables. They had an unhealthy diet.

Many Tudors used spices. Most of the food was heavily salted. It also could disguise the fact of rotten meat. The spices include cinnamon, cloves, salt, garlic, vinegar and sugar.

Sugar was a rare luxury; surprisingly it was also used on meat. It sweetened foods and even disguised some that were rotten.

During Easter, hot cross buns were made, but not always eaten as they were considered and kept as lucky charms instead.

During Christmas, Tudors enjoyed having mince pies. The pies had a great significance as they had ingredients that represented Jesus Christ. Which were raisins, currants, prunes, cloves, mace, black pepper, saffron and a few others.

End of the Tudors:

Elizabeth (the last of the Tudor line) died at the age of 69, in 24th march, 1603. After her death, many began to reflect one of England’s greatest periods. The “Tudor period”, lasting 118 years that altered the lives of the English people.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/tudors/images/march/life.jpg

Tudor Life