Amy Licence: To the Tudors and Beyond

  Three Occasions when the Tudors Knew How to Party!   The Tudors are well known for their ability to throw a good party, from feasting and banqueting, to jousting and pageantry, play and masques. The court attracted not only those who could sing, dance and act, as a prerequisite for employment, but also a host of skilled workers to build sets, embroider costumes and prepare the delicacies that the royal palate demanded. Little excuse was required; feast days, saints’ days, Christmas and Easter, ambassadors’ visits, royal visits, patronage and signing treaties were all good reasons for a feast. Henry loved to dress up and indulge his passions, as Robin Hood, or a mysterious, masked foreigner, but usually he did not have to find a excuse to party. October, 1518, London. To celebrate the Treaty of Universal Peace with France, and the betrothal of 2-year old Princess Mary to the dauphin, days of festivities were held in London. It started formally, at St Paul’s Cathedral,...

 What's in your Wardrobe? The clothes that ordinary Tudor women wore. As part of my research for "Woodsmoke and Sage", my forthcoming book, I delved into the question of clothing; how it was made, what it looked, felt and smelled like, how it differed among the classes, and where women got their clothes from. Tudor clothing could be really expensive, with yards of some materials costing the equivalent of a sheep or cow, upon which an entire family might depend for milk, butter, cheese and cream, or even wool and meat. In Elizabeth's reign, young courtiers frequently got into trouble for selling their family estates and heirlooms in order to keep up with fashion. There were rules in place restricting what you could wear according to your class, called the Sumptuary Laws, but as these were regularly reissued throughout the sixteenth century, it suggests they were not strictly followed. The Tudors were peacocks and loved to dress up. Much information exists about what th...

        Five Strong Tastes the Tudor Palate Loved. In the course of studying Tudor recipe books for my new book about the five senses “Woodsmoke and Sage,” I uncovered some particularly strong and sharp tastes. The sixteenth century palate was notoriously sweet, with Elizabeth I’s own blackened teeth as the result of her love of sugar, being aped as a status symbol among her courtiers.   Mostly, though, I found that the dishes that graced the Tudor table were a mixture of milky and sharp tastes, using spices to enliven what could otherwise be quite bland fare. One of the most common ingredients was the versatile almond, either as a milk which was used to replace dairy products on fast days or as a powder, in puddings, stews and soups as a thickening ingredient.  This taste was universal across the classes, whether the almonds were ground into creations covered in gold leaf, or added in just the slightest pinch in the monastic cell or labourer's cottag...

  My new book, coming this August:   Work on my new book, "Woodsmoke and Sage: The Five Senses 1485-1603", published by the History Press this August, is almost complete.  It reflects my long-standing love of material culture, as I attempt to understand the Tudors in a different way, through the experience of having physicality in the sixteenth century.  How did the Tudors experience the world? We are used to reading about how the Tudors d anced, fought, discussed, prayed and fell in love, how they broke with Rome, or mapped the stars, passed laws, or sailed across the Atlantic.  Yet all these achievements were possible because each individual inhabited a physical body, which defined the limitations of their experience. As they went to debate in the council chamber, or to fly their falcon in the field, they were conscious of sensations of hunger, fear, pain, illness. Only they knew where their shoe pinched, or how hunger interrupted their concentration, or tried...