Tudor life

The Tudor era lasted from 1485 – when Henry VII defeated the Yorkist king Richard III at the battle of Bosworth – until the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603. So what was life like during Tudor times?

English admiral Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596), circa 1585. (Photo by Getty Images)

Francis Drake: slave trader

Francis Drake portrait

Francis Drake’s forgotten role in the English slave trade

Sam Willis and James Daybell. (Photo by David Hampton, Tudor rose by Alamy)

The unexpected Tudors

The best Tudor podcasts to listen to right now. (Photo by Alamy)

9 podcasts about the Tudors to listen to right now

A portrait of Thomas Cromwell

Your guide to Thomas Cromwell

Nicola Tallis photographed by David Hampton in October 2019

Margaret Beaufort: mother of the Tudors

Roman toilet

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A depiction of the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh (10 September 1547), the last formal battle between England and Scotland. (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

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Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn's childhood home in Kent. (Photo by Prisma Bildagentur/UIG via Getty Images)

8 must-visit castles with Tudor connections

The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

5 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Tudors

Musician and dancing fool in Paris, 14th century. (Christophel Fine Art/UIG via Getty Images)

What was life like for a court jester?

English countrywoman (right) with a lady of the court. From ‘Civitates Orbis Terrarum’, 1572. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Tudor women: what was life like?

A memorial tomb to King Æthelstan, the first Saxon king of all England, in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire. (Photo by Geography Photos/UIG via Getty Images)

A brief history of England

How did Henry VIII and Elizabeth I celebrate Yuletide? (Illustration by Becca Thorne for BBC History Magazine)

Tales from a Tudor Christmas

First built in 1576, the Globe theatre burnt to the ground in 1613. During a performance of the play now known as 'Henry VIII', a set of stage cannons were fired and a piece of flaming material from one of the cannons landed on the theatre’s thatched roof, causing the fire. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

5 facts about Shakespeare’s Globe theatre