How to Survive in Tudor England

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2024

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Life in Tudor England was risky. In addition to the outbreaks of plague, the threat of poverty and the dangers of childbirth, there were social risks - of not fitting in, of social death. How was a person supposed to behave? And what were the dangers involved?

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out about the art of surviving by 'blending in', with teacher and writer Toni Mount, author of How to Survive in Tudor England.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >

You can take part in our listener survey here >`

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Life in Tudor England was risky.
0:07.0	There were the recurrent outbreaks of plague, the threat of poverty and the dangers of childbirth.
0:13.0	But there were also a slightly less aggressive risks in society.
0:17.0	The risk of not fitting in, the risk of social death.
0:22.0	We might call these the expectations of Tudor society,
0:25.4	walking the walk and talking the talk. How was a person supposed to behave and
0:30.3	what were the dangers involved? To give us an insight into how the well-off tried to blend into society to survive and hopefully thrive,
0:39.0	I'm pleased to welcome teacher and author of both historical fiction and non-fiction Tony Mount.
0:46.4	Tony is the author of the much-loved everyday life in medieval London and today she joins us to
0:52.3	discuss her latest book how to survive in Tudor
0:56.1	England.
0:59.1	Tony Mount welcome to not just the Tudors. Thank you, Susanna. We are going to be talking today about surviving or as you call it blending in in Tudor England.
1:17.3	And I want to start with the important point that your work makes, which is, namely that we think of the Tudor era beginning in
1:24.7	1485 but very few people woke up after the Battle of Bosworth and thought, oh now I'm living in the Tudor period or
1:30.9	woke up on the 1st of January 1500 and thought now this is the early modern era.
1:35.4	Why do you think we should hold this thought in our minds when we think of people in this period?
1:41.8	What does it mean in terms of everyday life?
1:46.0	I think what we've got to get out of that minds really is the idea that a particular date, a battle, a change of dynasty doesn't really affect everyday life for most people. The change is always gradual. People often ask me,
2:10.3	when did the medieval period start and finish?
2:15.0	As if I could start when it started on Friday,
2:20.0	15th January or something.
2:22.0	But to me, medieval is a huge period. I take it from around
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.