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Tudor childhood: from dodging death to nursery rhymes

Tudor childhood: from dodging death to nursery rhymes

Nicholas Orme uncovers what infancy and childhood were like in the 16th century

Professor Nicholas Orme

Published: May 16, 2023 at 6:01 AM

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Look at a Tudor family portrait, and you’ll often find children depicted like miniature adults, standing confidently alongside their parents in their doublets and dresses. But how far is this an accurate portrayal of what childhood was like in the 16th century? Nicholas Orme, author of new book Tudor Children, joined Emily Briffett to talk about the lives of young people in the era, from nursery rhymes and moralistic bedtime stories, to playtime, punishment and more.

Nicholas Orme is the author of Tudor Children (Yale University Press, 2023)

Discover more learning from week two of the HistoryExtra Academy Elizabethans course

Elizabethan daily life, with Professor Tracy Borman – watching time 15 mins What did the Tudors wear? – listening time 36 mins The dark side of Elizabethan England – reading time 9 mins Hold your noses: the smells, sounds and sights of Elizabethan England – reading time 14 mins 10 ways to die in Elizabethan England – reading time 6 mins The missing Tudors: black people in 16th-century England – reading time 5 mins Tudor dining: a guide to food and status in the 16th century – reading time 9 mins

Authors

Professor Nicholas Orme

Nicholas Orme is emeritus professor of history at the University of Exeter