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Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome welcome to Not Just the Tudors from History Hit,

the podcasts in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs,

from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to Samarise,

relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft.

Not in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.

A crowd, freed from their daily work by the New Year Holy Day, had gathered at the ringside

of the grassy courtyard of the old Rochester Priory in Kent.

They were there to see the sport, a large, powerful white ball, chained by one of his legs

to a wooden stake stuck in the ground at the centre of the wing was being baited.

The pepper put into his nose had roused him to a fury and he lunged ferociously at four

great English mastiffs who charged forward again and again to snatch at him with their teeth.

From a first floor window, a woman listened and watched. Perhaps like the crowd, she was

thrilled by the horror and drama of the spectacle.

Perhaps the rude rabble and their incomprehensible speech fascinated her.

Though ball-baiting was common enough in England, Italy, France and Spain, it was unknown

in her homeland.

...