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?

A portrait of Thomas Cromwell

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Nicola Tallis photographed by David Hampton in October 2019

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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)

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

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

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

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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)

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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)

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Anne Boleyn was executed on 19 May 1536. (Photo by World History Archive/Alamy)

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A crowned Tudor rose. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Stringer via Getty Images)

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Henry VIII “regarded his wars as the worthy successors of the great martial victories of England’s past”, says Steven Gunn. (Photo by PHAS/UIG via Getty Images)

The Library Total war in Tudor England

John Blanke. (Illustration: Rose Wilkinson for BBC History Magazine)

Black faces of Tudor England