Life in Tudor Times

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Life in Tudor Times
Travelling
How they dressed
Education
Crime Punishment
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Travelling - 1
The roads were not very good in Tudor times. They
did not have good surfaces, and they were not
properly drained. Each village was supposed to
repair its own roads. Rich people were supposed
to provide the materials for road repairs and the
poor people had to do the work (unpaid). They had
to give up to 6 days a year of their time. Nobody
liked doing the work, or paying for it, so often
the local people only repaired the road where
they used it.    Badly maintained roads often had
deep ruts made by carts which filled up with
water  when it rained. Travelling could be very
dangerous. It was not a good idea to travel alone
if you could help it. As well as the danger of
accident on the road there were often robbers
waiting to attack travellers as they rode through
wilder parts of the countryside. .
Most people travelled on horse back or on foot. 
In some parts of England it was almost impossible
for outsiders to get to a place by road. They
would make longer journeys by boat instead.
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Travelling - 2
In London important people rode around the city
but the river was used a lot. The monarchs had
royal barges to take them from one palace to
another. Queen Anne Boleyn was taken to her
coronation by royal barge.
A whirlicote could be hired by rich people in
London
A cart used to carry heavy goods
Shipping on the Thames
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Education
    Schools were mainly for rich children. Most
pupils were boys and very few girls were
educated. Some were taught at home by a tutor.
    Pupils spent a long time at school. After
three years at a nursery school they moved on to
a grammar school when they were seven. They only
had two holidays of about two weeks each, one at
Christmas and one at Easter. For the rest of the
year they only had Sundays off.     The day
began at 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning. Lunch was
at 11 o'clock and afternoon lessons lasted from
1o'clock until 5 o'clock
In Tudor times students used horn books to help
them learn to read. Paper was too expensive to
give to children.
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A Tudor schoolroom
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How they dressed - 1
Tudor monarchs loved rich and ornate clothing,
particularly Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth
I. The clothes of wealthy Tudor men and women
were decorated with jewels and embroidered with
gold thread. Ladies wore long gowns with wide
sleeves. In the middle of the Tudor times it
became fashionable to wear gowns pulled tight at
the waist using strips of metal or whale bone.
The skirt was held out by hoops. Rich young men
wore white silk shirts, with frills at the neck
and wrists. They wore tunics and close-fitting
trousers (called hose). Almost everyone had long
hair Middle-class people, like traders and
craftsmen, wore plainer versions of these rich
costumes.
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How they dressed - 2
Poor people wore simple, loose-fitting clothes
made from woollen cloth or a coarse cotton
material called fustian. Most men wore trousers
made from wool and a tunic which came down to
just above their knee. They wore leggings kept in
place by being wrapped around with strips of
cloth. Women wore a dress of wool that were often
shorter than those of richer ladies. They often
wore an apron over this and a cloth or wool cap
on their heads.
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Crime Punishment - 1
  People who committed crimes could be put in the
stocks. They always stood where lots of people
would pass and they would throw things at the
criminals.      Beggars were a big problem as
people were afraid of them. If they became a
nuisance they were dragged through the streets
being whipped.  Most towns had a ducking chair
to punish women who were "scolds". The chair was
kept near a pond or river and was hung on a
see-saw. The woman was tied into the chair,
dipped into the water and pulled out again.
   Other people could be burned at the stake.
In the stocks.
The ducking stool.
Burning at the stake.
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Crime Punishment - 2
The poor lived had very difficult lives. In Tudor
times there was a great increase in crime as for
it was the only way many poor people could
survive. People convicted of theft faced the
death penalty if they were caught. But
punishments were very severe for even trivial
cases because it was believed that if
law-breakers were not strictly punished it would
encourage other people to behave in the same way.
This was a bad thing because many criminals would
do anything to avoid capture including
murder. The greatest number of criminals were
thieves. Theft for anything over one shilling
(5p) meant the criminal could be hanged. Even
taking birds eggs was considered to be theft and
could result in a death sentence. In London
poor people lived in hovels well away from the
rich. The conditions of their lives were even
worse than for the country poor. They even
developed their own form of language called
cant. The idea for this was that no-one else
would know what they were talking about.
Stealing rabbits
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Crime Punishment - 3

• By the reign of Queen Elizabeth the government
  had become very concerned about the poor. There
  were many poor people than rich people. The
  government was afraid that the poor people might
  begin rioting. In the towns and cities, finding a
  job was difficult but the same thing was
  happening in the countryside where changes in the
  way farms worked lead to unemployment for many.
  There was the very real danger of trouble amongst
  the poor.
• The Queens ministers passed a law that made
  every parish responsible for its own poor and
  unemployed people. The Justice of the Peace for
  each parish was allowed to collect a tax from
  landowners. The money was supposed to be used to
  help the poor people. This made the poor feel
  that something was being done for them and made
  them feel less angry about the situation they
  were in.
• The poor were divided into three groups
• Helpless Poor These would include the old, the
  sick, the disabled and children. These people
  were given money or food to help them. Children
  of the poor were given an apprenticeship paid for
  by the parish. In this way, the parish could
  expect to benefit from the child when they had
  grown up and learned a new skill. Boys were
  apprenticed to a master until they were 24 years
  old. If a girl could be found an apprenticeship,
  she would work with her mistress until she was
  21. People who were thought to be "Helpless Poor"
  were not considered to be a burden as the
  government believed that it was not their fault
  that they were in their position. Some parishes
  gave these people a licence to beg.

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Crime Punishment - 4

• Able Bodied Poor.
• These were people who could work and
  wanted to work.
• Each parish was meant to build a
  workhouse.
• People worked in these, making cloth or
  anything else that might help the parish. They
  could stay in the workhouse until they found a
  job.
• 3. Rogues and Vagabonds.
• These were people who ought to work
  but preferred to beg or steal. They were the
  people most likely to cause trouble.
• Begging was made illegal and anybody
  found begging was flogged. If he was found
  begging outside his own parish, he would be
  beaten until he got to the parish boundary, then
  pushed back into his own parish.
• People who were caught begging over and
  over again could be sent to prison and hanged.
  During the reign of Edward VI, vagabonds could
  have their tongues branded and kept as slaves for
  two years.

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Crime Punishment - 5
Because of the religious split with the Roman
Catholic Church another terrible crime in Tudor
times was Heresy. This meant that you did not
follow the religion the monarch wanted you
to. Henry VIII wanted people to recognise him as
head of the church, King Edward VI was a strong
Protestant, Queen Mary wanted everyone to go back
to being Catholic and Queen Elizabeth returned to
Protestantism! People accused of being heretics
were often executed by being burnt at the stake.
Crimes committed by rich and powerful people were
very different but the punishments were just as
harsh. One of the worst crimes as far as the
Tudor monarchs was concerned was Treason. This
was interpreted as doing anything the King (or
Queen) didnt like. King Henry had many people
tried for treason, as did his children in their
turn. Someone accused of treason was usually
beheaded or hanged. All their lands and property
was confiscated and became the property of the
monarch. The families of a condemned person could
also be treated very harshly.
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Crime Punishment - 6
Rouges were put in the pillory and were Often
branded with a red-hot iron.
Really awful punishments
Murderers were boiled alive or burned to death.
Vagabonds were whipped through the streets. They
could be put into the stocks.
Robbers had one or both ears cut off and
their noses slit open.
Scolds were put into a ducking stool and Plunged
into the village pond or stream.
Sheep stealers had their hands cut off.
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