The Most Important Woman in Tudor England You've Never Heard Of

Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the Tudors

Heather Teysko

History

4.6 • 624 Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2026

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Before hospitals, painkillers, or germ theory, the Tudor midwife was the most powerful person in the room. Licensed by the Bishop, sworn to secrecy, she outranked duchesses, performed sacraments no other woman was allowed to touch, and knew every secret in the neighborhood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:53.3	It's 2 o'clock in the morning and someone is pounding at your door.
0:58.0	You're already half awake before the knocking starts because this is your life and some part of
1:02.7	you is always listening for it.
1:04.8	You'll pull on your clothes in the dark, grab your bag and follow a panicked husband through
1:10.3	the streets that smell like mud and smoke and the
1:12.6	river. And when you arrive at the house, the men step back and you step forward and from that moment
1:19.2	you are in charge. You are a tutor midwife and in a world with no hospitals, no painkillers,
1:26.5	no understanding of germ theory, and a theology
1:29.8	that frames childbirth as divine punishment for Eve's original sin, you are the most important
1:36.7	person in this entire room. Perhaps the most important person this family has ever met.
	...

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