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UDC 811.111:81'36:94(445).05:373
УДК 811.111:81'36:94(445).05:373 АЛЕКСАНДРОВА А.П.
кандидат филологических наук, доцент, кафедра английской филологии, Орловский государственный университет имени И.С. Тургенева Email: angelica.p.alexandrova@yandex.ru
ALEXANDROVA A.P.
Candidate of Philology, Department of English Philology, Orel
State University Email: angelica.p.alexandrova@yandex.ru
ДЕТИ В ПЕРИОД ПРАВЛЕНИЯ ТЮДОРОВ CHILDREN IN TUDOR TIMES
В статье рассматриваются дети в период правления Тюдоров; особое внимание уделено концепции детства. В основном делается акцент на образовании детей, и освещаются некоторые особенности этой области в рассматриваемый период. Краткий обзор некоторых источников позволяет читателям понять условия жизни и процесса обучения, характерные для детей в эпоху Тюдоров.
Ключевые слова: Тюдоры, период Тюдоров, Англия, дети, жизнь детей, образование, школа, школа грамматики, частная школа, игры.
The paper considers children in Tudor Britain; particular attention has been focused on the concept of childhood. It mainly concentrates on children's education and sheds some light on the peculiarities of this period in this area. A brief survey of some resources allows readers to get understanding of life and educational conditions typical of children in Tudor age.
Keywords: the Tudors, Tudor period, England, children, children's life, education, school, grammar school, public school, games.
The House of Tudor was a prominent European royal house that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms from 1485 until 1603. Their story encompasses some of the most dramatic and unforgettable events in European history. And they remain the most famous and controversial of royal families.
The Tudors reigned during a time of religious turmoil, when the European Reformation created the new cultural and intellectual force of Protestantism. These were years, too, of magnificent cultural achievement and enduring fame: when Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare were at work and England was beginning to look abroad to the 'New World' of North America.
The time of Tudor rule is often thought of as the most glorious period in English history. Henry VII built the foundations of a wealthy nation state and a powerful monarchy. His son, Henry VIII, kept a magnificent court, and made the Church in England truly English by breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church. Finally, his daughter Elizabeth brought glory to the new state by defeating the powerful navy of Spain. During the Tudor age England experienced one of the greatest artistic periods in its history.
But the aim of this paper is to describe children and their life in Tudor times.
The concept of childhood, as a separate, sentimental and idealised period of development, is a relatively modern invention. Whilst now, children have rights and laws to protect them from harsh working hours and promote their health, safety and education, the survival of young people in the past was less certain and they were expected to adapt and conform to adult expectations more early. [3]
In the Tudor period, average life expectancy was shorter and the likelihood of premature death by disease, infection or accident, place childhood mortality within a predictable framework. Many people born in Tudor Times did not survive childhood. Perhaps 25% of children died before their 5th birthday and as many as 40% died before their 16th birthday. Childbirth was also dangerous for Tudor women and many mothers died. When a child was born it was washed in warm water and then to keep it warm it was rubbed with butter or rose oil. The baby was then wrapped in cloths like
© Александрова А. П. © Alexandrova A.P.
bandages. Normally the baby was baptized within a few days because the risk of it dying was so high. [11]
The high childhood mortality rate led many commentators to assume that children were less valued than they are now. In fact, the reality was a bit more nuanced. The loss of many children in infancy was never a light matter.
Yet, understanding of childcare differed greatly. Tudor babies spent the first year of their lives tightly swaddled in their cots and most of the time they were laid in a wooden cradle and allowed to sleep. Children were weaned between 1 and 2 years old and they if their parents could afford it they were given a stick of coral to chew on when they were teething. Tudor Children often learned to walk with a wooden frame on wheels. However, the unsupervised toddler, ranging free about the Tudor home with its uneven surfaces, open fires and boiling pans, was far safer when restricted to its bed. Court records are full of poor infants meeting with accidents when they ventured out of doors and windows, or toddled off down the street and fell in ditches. We may suppose that a heart-breaking amount of cases seem to have been readily preventable if a child had been supervised in the way they would be today. But it does not mean that the average Tudor mother was negligent. Probably, mothers had different ideas and priorities and fewer options. As for fathers they were not directly involved in the care of small children.
Discipline was rather severe for small children. Physical chastisement was par for the course. In fact, most manuals recommended such treatment in order to train the offspring and act as a deterrent. Baby's cries, which are regarded as its attempts to communicate or a manifestation that a baby may have a tantrum because it is frustrated, were readily met with blows. Nor did these just come from the parents themselves; neighbours, apprentices and even strangers stepped in to discipline a child for what seem like very minor misdemeanours or even misunderstandings. This didn't create a sense of communal parenting; rather it taught the Tudor child that it had to be wary of everyone and learn to toe the line. No doubt there were many affectionate, loving parents but physical discipline was seen within that context and perpetuated through society; a mother would beat her child just as a husband
would beat his wife or a master would beat his servant. It was an action that re-enforced social status and appears to have been a daily occurrence. Cases only appear in the courts when people went too far, as they often appear to have done. [3]
The Tudor age was a time of great educational advancement in England, with the universities thriving and grammar schools.
Before the Tudors came to the throne, schools were attached to monasteries and churches to educate clerics who were the civil servants and the scholars of the time as well as monks, nuns and priests. Children went and learned in the church.
During the reign of Henry VIII many schools attached to monasteries suffered, often being shut. This happened when Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church (reformation) after it refused to agree to him divorcing his first wife.
Henry VIII needed well-educated men to work for him. When the monasteries closed, Henry had to refound many monastic schools, using his own money. This is why there are so many 'Kin's' schools all over Britain. [4] 'Public schools' (Eton, Winchester and others) were founded. Infant or 'petty' schools for sons of merchants, skilled craftsmen and squires existed there. Boys were taught reading, writing and saying catechism or a series of questions and answers about God and Church. The aim of such schools was to teach a boy to be able to read and write in English. In infant schools there was a belief that children are sinful when they are born and in order to make them grow up into good Christians, parents and teachers should be very strict with them and it goes without saying in that beating was thought to be the best way of making children learn.
During the reign of Edward VI many free grammar school were set up to take in non-fee paying students.
Grammar schools were for sons of tradesmen and craftsmen. Grammar schools did exist to instruct the sons of the middle classes in the basics but there was no universal curriculum. But then children were taught not only Latin and Divinity, but Greek, Arithmetic and Music so that the pupils were able to speak and write in Latin, to write poems and essays in Latin, they knew some passages from the Bible by heart. Parish schools existed for boys from the poor families; boys were taught Reading, Writing and a bit of Latin, and were able to say the Lord's Prayer. Also there was still home education for future monarchs, sons of nobility under the supervision of a knight. Education aimed at teaching the military arts, court etiquette and social graces, reading and writing in Latin, sports. [1: 6] Then education for girls arose. But actually it was considered more important for a girl to know about housewifery than Latin. And so the girls did not attend school, learned at home, from their mothers, who prepared them for their future lives as wives and mothers. They were often taught in well-to-do families how to read, write and do sums. A medieval poem "How the Goodwife taught her daughter" focuses on desireable behaviour and morals, such as modesty, charity and religion. Other manuals, for example the poem "Urbanitantis", focused on table manners and a child's interactions with others; they were to speak sensibly when spoken to and otherwise remain silent. As the sixteenth century progressed, more noble women were taught to read, to enable them to run their own households. The survival of letters, diaries, poems and recipe books show how this skill was becoming increasingly valued. [3]
In Tudor times there was no organised system of state education for everyone.
Education was uneven across Tudor society. During the Tudor rule education was a sort of a luxury that only those with money could afford. The wealthiest could afford their own private tutors. Henry VIII was taught by some of the leading thinkers of his day, such as poets Bernard Andre and John Skelton. The wealthy could get their children to learn Spanish, French or even vocational courses like dance and music. The children used hornbooks for writing purposes. The teachers had no formal training before they taught in schools. Towards the end of 16th century, women were
appointed as school teachers. [9]
The basic principles of a wealthy Tudors education would be started in the home and taught by those responsible for raising the children. The basic elements of early education was conducted up to the age of seven and included the following:
- Respecting their mother and father
- Religion - rising early in the morning and saying their prayers
- Table manners - it was important to learn the correct behaviour at table from eating small morsels, chewing properly, using a knife and using a napkin
- Tudor children would also be taught their 'place' in society which included where they should sit at the table
- Basic skills in grammar, reading and writing. [12]
Another point to note about education was that both boys and
girls did receive education. However, the difference lies in the fact that boys were permitted to seek higher education, while girls were given only the basic knowledge about reading and writing.
But still not many children went to school in Tudor times. Those that did go were mainly the sons of wealthy or working families who could afford to pay the attendance fee. Boys began school at the age of four and moved to grammar school when they were seven. Girls were either kept at home by their parents to help with housework or sent out to work to bring money in for the family. Many Tudor towns and villages had a parish school where the local vicar taught boys to read and write. [4]
Some schools were also established to educate the orphaned children. Sometimes, the children were deprived of education as they were forced to help their parents in earning money. Tudor children who did not go to school were expected to work. They helped their parents by doing tasks such as scaring birds when seeds were sown. They also helped to weave wool and did other household tasks.
Some children went to Dame Schools but they were few. Dame Schools were set up in their cottage living room by any old man or woman and most were nothing more than a child-minding system.
Many children were taught in Sunday Schools, the quality of instruction varied and it was only for a few hours a week. Few of the teachers (although willing) were not equal to the task of teaching.
Catholic families refused to send their children to school because most schools in Tudor England taught the Protestant religion, so Catholic families would employ a priest or private tutor to educate their sons.
At school, pupils often had to speak in Latin. They were also taught Greek, religion and mathematics. The boys practiced writing in ink by copying the alphabet and the Lord's Prayer.
There were few books, so pupils read from hornbooks instead. These wooden boards had the alphabet, prayers or other writings pinned to them and were covered with a thin layer of transparent cow's horn. [4]
It was usual for children to attend six days a week. The school day started at 7:00 am in winter and 6:00 am in summer. It finished about 5:00 pm. Petty schools had shorter hours, mostly to allow poorer boys the opportunity to work as well. Lunch break was two hours long beginning at 11 o' clock. Sunday was the only day off. School holidays were only taken at Easter and Christmas and they lasted for a week.
Discipline was again harsh, classes large and experiences determined by the interest and character of the school master. Beatings were part of the Tudor theory of education. Teachers were very strict. If a child did a mistake, was rude or didn't speak Latin, then the teacher had to hit the child with a long and thick stick, birches often beating their pupils with. Birches were a type of cane. Teachers used to give 50 strokes of the birch, or they might hit them across the mouth with a feral, a flat piece of wood with a hole on the top of it. Pupils were sometimes too scared to go to school
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because of the beatings, and they often ran away from school. Pupils from wealthy families could often afford a special friend called a 'whipping-boy'. When the rich child was naughty, it was the whipping-boy who received the punishment.
Usually in the past, girls wouldn't go to school. Instead they would stay at home and learn how to work like a mother. In aristocratic households, it was mothers who were primarily responsible for the early education of their daughters, providing instruction in reading, religion, sewing, embroidery, music, dancing and cooking. A lady mistress or governess could also be appointed, while the highest-born girls, such as the future Elizabeth I and Lady Jane Grey, received university-educated male tutors. Princess Mary and Queen Elizabeth I can be considered to be examples of well-refined women of those times. Thus, the main education for girls was to master the art of managing the household and raising children. The girls would probably learn how to sew, cook and wash. Religious education was, of course, essential, but whether girls received much else in their early training is less clear. On the other hand, boys would go to school and study how to work in a factory. When the girls are young enough, they would be known as the servants.
By the 1530s, however, it was becoming fashionable for the gentry and nobility to educate their daughters. In this trend, many families strove to follow the example set by Sir Thomas More in the education of his three highly accomplished daughters. His friend Erasmus, too, recommended the education of women. It was their considered opinion that it would provide girls with the tools to assist their husbands in creating a Christian home after marriage and to raise their children virtuously. [2]
Thirty years later, Thomas Becon considered the subject of women's learning, regarding it as a Biblical duty for them to be taught 'to be sober minded, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, housewifely, good, obedient to their husbands; that the word of God be not evil spoken of'. To raise a godly woman, he believed, schools for girls should be erected in every town, presided over by 'honest, sage, wise, discreet, sober, grave and learned matrons' as teachers. He did not go so far as arguing for the same curriculum, however. Latin, Greek and even 'good letters' were to be left the boys. And although the provision of education for girls grew in the Tudor period, no one was seriously asking that they be taught to the same level as boys.
In the 1580s, Richard Mulcaster, addressing the issue, was quick to assure his readers that he would speak of boys' education first, since 'naturally the male is more worth'. Girls should not, he considered, be permitted to attend grammar schools or universities; but they had some capacity for learning. He had noticed that girls actually seemed to learn faster than boys, although he was quick to assure his readers that 'for all that seeming yet it is not so', since 'their natural weakness, which cannot hold long, delivers very soon'. Nonetheless, a little learning could not hurt.
Lower born girls had less access to formal education of the sort provided for boys. They could, very occasionally, attend grammar schools. In 1615, one Alice Shaw is known to have attended the prestigious Rivington Grammar School, founded in the 1560s, which sent pupils on to the universities - though Alice, as with all other young women, would have been barred from university entry. At Rivington there was Latin and Greek on the curriculum, so that Alice, along with the handful of other female students there in the period, could have received a school education comparable to the best on offer to boys. But such an opportunity was a rarity. Many grammar schools, such as Harrow, expressly forbade the education of girls in their statutes. [2]
At Norwich, even the very poorest girls were sent off to the schoolroom, although typically girls' formal education often ended earlier than their brothers', when financial need made it necessary for girls as young as six to begin working for a living. These girls usually returned home to take up spinning work after their lessons each day. Martin Luther considered that there was easily time for
girls to spend an hour a day at their lessons while also keeping up with their household tasks. They could, he supposed, reclaim the time needed for lessons from the otherwise idle moments used in play, dancing and sleep.
Although the curriculum at such local schools was often basic, the fact that even the very poorest girls in Tudor society were able to potentially access a free education was revolutionary. Thank to Thomas More and other Humanists in the period, it became commonplace for girls to at least be able to read and write - a marked improvement on the educational attainments of most medieval women. The widespread education of women, albeit to a lower standard than that offered to men, was a quiet revolution in the lives of women in the period.
During the Tudor era many famous schools were established: in London St. Paul's school was founded in 1509, in 1552 -Shrewbury school, in 1560 - Westminster school, in 1561 - The Merchant Taylors' public school for boys in London, in 1567 -Rugby school in Yorkshire, in 1572 - Harrow school in Middlesex. All of them are included into the list of Clarendon Nine. In Henry VIII's reign, the leading schools in the City of London were St Anthony's and St Paul's. Henry's son, Edward VI, founded Christ's Hospital as a school for orphaned boys and girls. Later, rich parents asked that their children be allowed to go there too. University education was available only for bright grammar school boys at Oxford and Cambridge, the only two English universities then in existence. Boys went to these universities when they were about 14-15 years old.
Long hours studying and working didn't stop Tudor children having fun and playing games. Many of the games we play today are based on Tudor games, for example draughts and playing cards. The playground game of hopscotch and a board game called Merelles are examples of games that children in Tudor times enjoyed. Tudor children played with wooden dolls, which were called Bartholomew babies because they were sold at St Bartholomew's fair in London. They also played cup and ball - a wooden ball with a wooden cup on the end of handle. They had to swing the handle and try and catch the ball in the cup. Tudor children also played with yo-yos. Children played with wooden hoops, using sticks to keep them rolling. This was a popular game with children. Toys were often made from wood or materials which were easily available, such as clay, stone and animal bones. Pig bladders were blown up to make footballs, hoops were made from old barrels, and pebbles or cherry stones were used to play marbles or jacks. [4]
The Tudors recognised different developmental stages in their children. Whilst they were not exactly seen as small adults, it was understood that there were certain tasks they could not perform and certain rites of passage through which they must pass. Seven was a key early stage. Until then, boys were very much in the care of their mothers, dressed and treated the same as girls. From their seventh birthday onwards, their masculinity was asserted, their clothing changed and they entered male company more frequently. Poorer children were expected to work at this age: recent archaeological excavations show the effects of hard labour on the bones of children this young. The next stage was around twelve, when girls could be considered of marriageable age, rising to fourteen for boys. Some aristocratic matches were arranged well before this, in the children's infancy, after which they might be brought up in the household of their betrothed. If they refused to marry the person their parents chose they were beaten until they changed their minds. Royalty were united young: Richard of York was married at the age of four in 1478 to a five-year-old heiress, Anne de Mowbray. Sometimes these matches did not work out but often, the pair was considered capable of consummating the union by their mid-teens, such as with Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon in 1501. [3] Children from poor families had more choice over whom to marry. Yet girls usually married young. Many were married when they were only 15 or 16. Boys often married between
the ages of 18 and 21.
Fourteen was also the traditional age for apprenticeships and service to begin. Boys and girls could be bound to a master and learn a trade for the next seven years, being sent away from home and working long hours, sometimes for little food or recompense. They had to follow strict rules of conduct or face dismissal and punishment. The bands of unruly apprentices that caused havoc on London streets must have been exploiting their only outlet of freedom; small wonder these groups of repressed adolescents frequently turned to violence and mischief on feast days. The May Day riots of 1517 saw a few thousand young men causing mayhem in the streets under the excuse of xenophobia; many were captured but later pardoned by Catherine of Aragon.
Noble children's lives were strictly regimented. Aristocratic women did not breastfeed but sent out their babies to wet-nurses for the first year. Raised by strangers and frequently succumbing to illness or neglect, the survivors were sent home to a family they did not know. The diary of John Dee records the different nurses his children were sent to in the 1580s and the payments made for this service, of money, candles and soap. Children often lived in mini-establishments within their parents' own properties, with a household comprising nurses and carers, mixing with their relatives infrequently. This doesn't mean they were any less loved or appreciated but they did interact with their parents less frequently; affection must have developed between them in
different ways. The old historical misnomer that Tudor parents did not love their children is disproved by the poems of loss that survive, for example, Ben Jonson's sonnet on the loss of his son. Children must have had a number of primary carers and formed attachments to those they saw frequently. Some must have retained affection for these figures all their lives, such as Henry VIII and his nurse, Elizabeth Denton and Elizabeth and Kat Ashley. Parents saw their roles as overseers of careful regimes, where bedtimes, meals, lessons and education were dictated for others to carry out. A diet containing meat was considered important for growth but milk was not safe to drink after midday; instead, children were served "small" beer. These experiences depended upon social status. Less time was allowed for "play" as we understand it today. The three-year-old Prince Arthur had a punishing regime of academic lessons in 1489, with only a brief window before bedtime to enjoy his favourite games and pet dogs.
The lives of children in Tudor times were often brutal and filled with experiences that would horrify the modern parent. Although they were recognised as different from adults, their needs appear to have been considered secondary and their education and training geared towards conformity. The early years were filled with potential dangers of illness, accident and violence although the decisions that may seem to us today to be misguided, actually represented the best efforts of Tudor parents. Much has changed in psychology and pedagogy since then. [3]
References
1. Alexandrova A.P. Education in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Orel: Orel State University named after I.S. Turgenev. 2016. 50 p.
2. Norton Elizabeth. Tudor Girls and Education. Access mode http://tudortimes.co.uk/guest-articles/tudor-girls-and-education
3. http://authorherstorianparent.blogspot.ru/2012/08/what-was-it-like-to-be-child-in-tudor.html
4. http://primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/tudors/schools.htm
5. http://theplayhouse.org.uk/tudortimes/education-entertainment/
6. http://tudortimes.co.uk/daily-life/family-life
7. http: //www.bbc. co .uk/programmes/p01 dthhq
8. http://www.broadheath.coventry.sch.uk/life-as-a-tudor-child/
9. http://www.elizabethanenglandlife.com/thetudorsfacts/childrens-education-in-tudor-era.html
10. http://www.hullwebs.co.uk/content/h-tudor/education/schooldays.htm
11. http://www.localhistories.org/tudoredu.html
12. http://www. sixwives.info/tudor-education.htm
13. https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/history/tudors/tudor-education/
14. https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Resources/learning/targettudors/education/theme.html
15. https://www.q-files.com/history/british-history/life-in-tudor-times/
