An interactive site designed for 7-10 year olds to learn some facts about the Tudors, Henry VIII and his wives

Kids History Book Store >>

Tudors Home

Who were the Tudors

The Romans in Britain

www.brims.co.uk

Being text bullied?
Don't suffer in silence.
Click here for more info.

Who were the Tudors?
The Tudor Rose	What were their names? What wa s the world like in Tudor times? What was life in England like? Fascinating facts about Tudors! What did the Tudors invent?
The Tudors where a family who ruled over England from 1485 until 1603. They brought peace to England after many years of war. There had been a war - The War of the Roses for 30 years in England. The Lancasters had a red rose as a symbol, and the Yorks had a white. At the end of the war, Henry Tudor, a Lancastrian, married the niece of the leader of the Yorks. They put the white rose and the red rose together as a symbol of unity and the Tudor rose (shown above) was born.

Their names were: Henry VII Henry VIII Edward VI Mary I Elizabeth I	(for an explanation of Roman Numerals -- the V's and I's after the names -click here)
It was one of the most exciting times in British History. The Tudors ruled over England, Wales and part of Ireland. Another Royal family, the Stuarts ruled over Scotland. There had been some dreadful wars but for a while the Tudors brought peace. Back to top

What was happening in the World in Tudor Times?
The ‘Middle Ages’ were over.	Italy was the centre of a new interest in art and ideas.
Some of the most talented men in all history lived at this time.	The printing press had just been invented which meant that a lot more people could have access to books and so it was a time of great learning.
Botticelli (1444-1510) A famous artist.	Michelangelo (1475-1564) Another famous artist.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)	Possibly the most talented artist that ever lived. He painted the most famous painting ever, the Mona Lisa. He was also an outstanding sculptor, architect, inventor, scientist and engineer. He understood about flight, 400 years before the first planes were invented! He invented a submarine, a tank, a parachute, and a helicopter. He never made real models of them but recently people have done and it has been proved that his designs would have worked.
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)	He sailed across the Atlantic and landed in the Caribbean. Later he went on to 'discover' America and South America.
Galileo (1564-1642)	An Italian astronomer and physicist. He proved that the Earth and planets revolved around the sun.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)	Possibly the greatest playwright and poet in the English language. He wrote many many plays and poems. Some are very funny and some are very sad. They were very popular in Tudor times and are equally as popular today, 400 years later.
Back to top

What was life like in England?
Basically the rich were very rich....	...And the poor were very poor.
Wealthy people and noblemen might own their own armies! Many of them might help the monarch govern England in Parliament.	Most people were poor and mainly lived in the countryside. Slightly better off people might own small farms or be craftsmen or merchants.
England was a major trading centre for goods like cloth, salt, sugar, coal,copper,tin and wools.	Merchants grew rich in Tudor times as lots of people were buying English goods around the world.
Travelling was difficult and dangerous. There were no proper roads, so the tracks were muddy and uneven.	Rich people wore fine, elaborate clothes. Poor people wore simple, home-made clothes that would have to last them many years.
A rich man would have a fine house with large gardens. He used them to show everyone how well off he was. Also the big houses were out of the towns so that the air and water were cleaner.	Poorer people lived in small wooden houses. The floor would be made of mud - they might sprinkle herbs and rushes on it to try and make the house smell better. People seldom left their village all their life!
	Tudor Houses
The houses changed shape, a rich man would have a house with many rooms, each with big windows to let in light. Glass was very expensive and it showed how rich you were if you had lots of windows. Some families would take the glass with them when they moved house!
Back to top

Stuff the ordinary books don't tell you....
Girls could marry at age 12, boys at age 14! They still had to live with their parents until they were 16 though.	Nine out of ten people died before they were 40. There was so much disease and they had no idea how to cure any of them or how to be hygienic.
The Tudors were great gamblers and loved to bet on just about anything. At one time Henry VIII had a bill for £3242 for 3 years gambling when the weekly wage was about 5p!	Baths weren't considered healthy so Tudors just covered up the awful smell with strong perfume.
Toilets were just a hole in the ground by the backdoor for some people.	Open sewers ran in the streets and passed many of the diseases on.
Water came from village pumps, and they got the water from the local stream, which was most likely full of sewage from the town. No wonder they got so ill!	Toilets were called 'Privies' and were not very private at all. They were often just a piece of wood over a hole in the ground and might have room for up to 6 people to go at the same time!
King Henry VIII had over 78,000 people executed while he was king. That is the same as 5 people killed every day for 38 years!	An average person drank about 8 pints of weak beer a day, it had very little alcohol and even children drank it, it was safer than the water! It was called 'small beer'.
They knew that sugar rotted their teeth, and since sugar was so expensive, women used to deliberately black their teeth out to look rotten, because it showed they could afford to buy sugar!	A popular 'cure' for illness was blood letting. People believed that illness was caused by too much blood in the body. So they would cut a slit and let some of the blood out. Sounds like you'd feel worse after that!
Back to top
What did the Tudors invent?
The new desire for luxury brought fine furnishings for their houses. The first upholstered furniture was invented in Tudor times.	Carpets were a new idea from Turkey. It was considered to be the height of luxury to walk on a carpet instead of stone floors. It showed you were very very rich.
Harrington invented the worlds first flushing toilet - the Water Closet. (WC!) It worked exactly as modern toilets do now, but took 200 years to really catch on.	The first Stock Exchange where traders could buy and sell shares (exactly as they do now in London and other major cities) was built.
The first shopping centre (mall) was built above the first stock exchange. It had room for 120 shops, all under one roof. Queen Elizabeth loved shopping and bought all her hats there!	Tennis was developed from a French street game that used hands instead of a racquet. The Tudors invented a racquet from a kitchen sieve and the style hasn't really changed since then.
Hops were first grown in 1525 to make a new stronger beer that had more alcohol content, this new beer was called 'big beer'. Beer is still made the same way today.	Starch was discovered to be a new way to make fabric stiff. Consequently the fashions went a bit mad with huge ruffs around necks that might stick out further than the persons shoulders!
Theatre was a new craze that the people loved. They could come and stand and watch the new plays by people like Shakespeare. But there were no toilets so people just went where they stood!	Men wore hand knitted stockings that took about 2 days to make. William Lee invented the first automatic knitting machine that was about 12x faster. Modern knitting machines still use the same basic technique that he invented.
Sugar was imported as a great expensive luxury. The Tudors loved it so much they invented a new meal course, called the Banquet Course (which we call sweet or pudding).
Back to top
So when Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509, the world was a very exciting and very dangerous place.

Their names were:

What was happening in the World in Tudor Times?

What was life like in England?

Basically the rich were very rich....

...And the poor were very poor.

Stuff the ordinary books don't tell you....

What did the Tudors invent?

So when Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509, the world was a very exciting and very dangerous place.