On 24 January 1536 Henry VIII had a jousting accident. Not only was he hit hard, his horse, wearing hundreds of pounds of armor, fell on top of him. The king was unconscious for more than two hours, and it was feared he wouldn’t live. Was this severe concussion the reason Henry began his reign… Read more Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall
T’is the Season for yummy yuletide foods! There are tables groaning under the weight of roast turkey or ham, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, roasted potatoes, stuffing and assorted vegetables. Mugs of hot buttered rum or apple cider are clutched and glasses of cold eggnog are passed around. Not to mention the multitudes of desserts. Mince… Read more Gingerbread Houses to Keep You Warm
For millennia, Western medicine was in thrall to the humoral theory of ancient Greece. It wasn’t until the scientific revolution of the Victorian era that germs were understood to cause illness, but even then medical ideas about a woman’s body had more in common with those espoused by Helenic doctors than modern ones. Germs there… Read more Green Sickness and the Cultural Construction of Women’s Health
No one expected King Edward VI to die so young. Although he was re-written retroactively as “frail” and unhealthy, there is no evidence to support that conclusion. A French ambassador described Edward as being “remarkably tall for his age” when the future king was four years old, which indicates reasonably good health. (Murphy, 2011:246). Furthermore,… Read more Edward VI
Princess Elizabeth Tudor, the 4th child and second daughter of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, was born on 2 July 1492. She seemed healthy enough as a baby, but the little girl died while she was only a toddler in the royal nurseries at Eltham Palace on 14 September 1495. Her parents were,… Read more Elizabeth Tudor, and Medieval Child Mortality
Henry VIII was born 28 June 1491 at the Palace of Placentia the third child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. As hard as is it to believe, considering the stir he would make in the historical record, the little prince was an extremely second fiddle to his elder brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales.… Read more The Incredible Life of Henry VIII
Tudor medicine, although based on the false assumption of ‘humours’ and with no understanding of germ theory, could nevertheless be surprisingly effective. A lot of modern medications are based on the chemical compounds of natural remedies available to the Tudors — such as clove oil. I got to learn about the efficacy of clove oil… Read more Oil of Cloves for Toothache
Depression isn’t a modern disease. It’s been recorded throughout history, and many English kings – including Henry VIII – were believed to have suffered from what their doctors would have called “excessive melancholy”. Shakespeare immortalised the symptoms of depression in Hamlet, wherein the titular Prince of Denmark complained that, “I have of late, but wherefore… Read more Be of Good Cheer
On 12 May 1553, the imperial ambassador, Jean Scheyfve, wrote to HRE Charles V to update him on King Edward VI’s illness. Scheyfve had only bad news to report, declaring that “it is held for certain that [Edward] cannot escape. The physicians are now all agreed that he is suffering from a suppurating tumour (apostème) on… Read more Where did Edward VI’s skin ulcers come from?
Elizabeth Barton, known as the “Holy Maid of Kent” or the “ Nun of Kent”, was executed on 20 April 1534 along with a handful of her followers, for the ‘crime’ that she predicted a bad end for King Henry VIII if he continued to flout the will of Rome and separate his kingdom from… Read more The Nun of Kent