Hello, and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merritt, and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson.

So let's get started.

Today's lesson is looking at social life for the poor in Tudor England, and by the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to explain how social life for the poor changed in Elizabethan England.

In order to do that, we need to use some key terms, and our key terms for today are blood sport and theatre.

Blood sports are forms of entertainment involving hunting, wounding, or killing, and it's usually of animals.

And the theatre is a venue where plays are performed.

Today's lesson will consist of three separate learning cycles and our first one is opportunities to socialise.

So let's get started.

So the Tudor period saw a great deal of change occur in England, not the least of which was how the majority of people spent their leisure time.

Throughout the Tudor period, people in rural areas would spend six days a week working and the seventh at church, and to break up this cycle, the church included a great number of feasts and festivities throughout the year, and these holy days, or holidays as they became known, took up roughly one-third of the year.

And these allowed people to socialise with family, with friends, and with people from other villages as well.

The number of holy days decreased when England became a Protestant nation, but they was still a significant part of the calendar for many people.

Social opportunities for the rural poor were affected by the seasons.

In the summer when days were longer and warmer, people had the opportunity to socialise once their work was finished but the day hadn't yet ended.

And in the winter when days were shorter and colder, people went to bed once it turned dark.

So anything from half past three, four o'clock onwards, really, and obviously, that's a long time that they'll be sleeping, and evidence does suggest that at least some rural people broke up their sleep into two blocks with a time in between, which was during the middle of the night, used for socialising and housework and just kinda the usual stuff that people would normally do if the days were longer and it had been brighter in the evening instead.

It's pretty important to note that historians, we don't actually know how common this practise was.

We don't have that many sources written by rural people at this point in time.

So we know it did, this practise did exist in some places, we just don't know how frequent or how common that was around the rest of the country as well.

Now, there were opportunity to socialise, as I said, before with holy days, and there were loads and loads of these holy days, and here are some examples that I've got on the screen in front of you here.

So a good example would be the Octave of the Epiphany, and that took place every year from the 6th to the 13th of January.

It was an eight-day celebration of the Magi, who were the three wise men who visited Jesus.

So that's one of our holy days.

We also had Candlemas as well on the 2nd of February, and this was a festival to honour the Virgin Mary.

Everyone went to church, bringing a candle as a gift, and these candles would then be used in the church over the course of the next year.

We used to have Michaelmas Day, which was the 29th of September, and it as a feast as people prepared for winter and it took place at the start of autumn.

So effectively, it's an understanding that summer is ended, that longer nights, colder days are coming into play.

And we've also got All Saints Day on the first November, and this was when the night before this holiday, people prayed for the dead whose souls were in purgatory.

So people would often stay up all night, church bells would ring all night in order to effectively just try and make sure that the dead work their way into heaven out of purgatory.

Let's go for our first check for understanding for today.

So how much of the year was given over to holy days in Tudor England before it became Protestant? Was it roughly half of the year, roughly a third of the year or roughly a quarter of the year? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose B, roughly one-third, then congratulations, that is indeed correct.

So another check for understanding.

So a true or false statement here: rural people were able to socialise more during the summer than in the winter.

Is that true or is that false? Okay, if you chose true, then congratulations, that is indeed true, but let's justify the answer now.

Is it true because most people migrated to warmer places in the winter, or is it true because most people simply went to bed in the winter once it was dark? So choose your justification now.

Okay, if you chose B, then congratulations, and the reason why this is true is that, obviously, we don't know how frequent it was that people would get up during the middle of the night to do their socialising, so what we do know, though, is that people frequently just went to bed once it was dark, so obviously that allows for more social time in the summer for certain than it does in the winter.

Right, let's do our first task today then.

So what I'd like you to do is match the holy day that Tudor celebrated to the description of how and why they celebrated it.

So it's a mix and match activity.

So pause the video now while you're doing that and I'll see you once you've finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully got on fine with that task.

Let's see what the correct answers are.

Hopefully you got them correct too.

So Michaelmas Day was a feast as people prepared for winter at the start of autumn.

The Octave of Epiphany was an eighth-day celebration of the Magi visiting Jesus.

All Saints day was when the night before, people prayed for the dead whose souls were in purgatory, and Candlemas was a festival to honour the Virgin Mary where everybody went to church, bringing a candle as a gift.

So hopefully you got all of those correct.

Let's look at our second learning cycle for today.

Just looking at sports.

So poor people in Tudor England would've spent their social time in many ways that are very familiar to us today.

For instance, they'd have been gossiping, they'd have been playing indoor games, they'd been playing outdoor sports.

Indoor games would've included things like card and board games, and some of which we might actually recognise today.

So for instance, the Tudors play backgammon.

That might be a game that you're familiar with.

They also played a version of poker as well.

It's not the same as poker today, because the rules have evolved over the last few hundred years, but it was recognisable as a form of poker.

And there were other games as well that have been played.

Popular outdoor sports mainly consisted of archery, and we got an image of that on the screen there.

And you can see that's a model of somebody pulling a longbow as well, and it's the reason why it's called a longbow is because it was a very longbow and other bows at this time were much shorter by comparison.

Now, by law in England, men had to practise archery.

They had to practise using the longbow every Sunday after church and it was seen as preparation for war.

And the reason being is that to make an effective longbowman took years and years of training, the longbows were incredibly hard to use because of the incredible strength you would need to draw it back.

They were really, really effective weapons, but it took a long time to get an effective longbow archer.

If you ever see skeletons of longbowman, you'll actually find that one side, generally speaking, their right side, the shoulders are significantly larger.

The bones are almost deformed in comparison to the left side because of the immense strength that it took to draw in a longbow, so they would need years and years of training, building up those muscles in the right side of their body, and as a result of that, their whole skeleton was changed as a result of that.

So you can see why it becomes law.

It's because it's not something you just pick up and go with and off, off go to war and you're an effective longbowman.

It took years and years to train somebody who had the strength necessary to effectively use a longbow.

So that's one of the outdoor sports, very popular.

Football was also another very popular sport that people used to play.

However, Henry VII actually banned it for being too violent.

And not only that, he also prevented people from practising archery as well.

So you might recognise on the the screen in front of you, this is not a version of football that we would play today.

The sport that was called football was significantly more violent than what is played today.

It was frequently played not on a pitch, but between two villages, and the whole idea is that you would try and get a ball from one village to another, and games could last anywhere from hours to days sometimes, and it was violent.

People frequently did end up with bruises, with blood, with broken bones, so Henry VIII has kind of got a point that, again, just like in many things, the rules of football have evolved over the years.

It's a far more gentle sport now in comparison to what it was.

Right, quick check for understanding now then.

So which sport was banned by him VII for being too violent? Was it archery football, or, rugby? Okay, if you chose football then very well done.

That is indeed correct.

Now one group of recreational activities which grew in popularity as a Tudor period progressed were blood sports, and blood sports, which were also known as cruel sports, for good reason, were spectacles where animals fought each other.

It was generally to the death, not every time, but generally to the death.

Blood sports were not new.

They had existed in Mediaeval England, but they became significantly more popular during the Tudor period because both Henry VII and Elizabeth I really, really enjoyed watching them, and that therefore encouraged others to do the same.

Frequently, fashion kind of has a trickle down effect, so whatever it is that the king or queen is doing at the time, that's what the nobles then want to do, what the nobles are doing is what the gentry then want to do and what the gentry's doing is what the regular, common folk would want to do as well.

So because Henry VIII and Elizabeth I really enjoyed blood sports, eventually that trickled down to the rest of the population and they enjoyed watching it as well.

Now, cockfighting, wherein two or more cockerels would fight each other, was a popular form of entertainment in almost every town and village through England, and the reason being is that chickens were bred all over the country.

It was very easy to find chickens, Cockerels do naturally have spurs, kinda sharpened claws, on their feet and that's what they were primarily used to fight with, so it is the spurs that were used to attack and cockerels are naturally violent, or some cockerels are naturally violent, so it's a case of just breeding the more and more violent cockerels until you get some very, very aggressive chickens.

So that's one form of blood sport.

Bear baiting is another form of blood sport, which is very popular and that involved letting several dogs, usually dogs attack a chained up bear, and that was a very popular attract in London.

Henry VII had a bear pit installed in his palace at Whitehall and Elizabeth overall parliament when they wished to band the sport.

So just to give you an idea just of how popular these sports were.

There were plenty of other blood sports as well.

Bull baiting, another very popular one.

Badger baiting another popular one as well.

Dogs were frequently used as ratters as well.

So you could just throw a bag of rats into a pit, you let a dog in, and you'd bet on how many rats that dog could kill in a certain amount of time.

So there were a variety of different blood sports, we're just using cockfighting and bear baiting as examples as such.

Now, blood sports were enjoyed by both rich and poor like, and although many people found the spectacles themselves entertaining, they enjoyed watching the fighting, for many people, actually, the main draw was the ability to gamble on the outcome, so that's why a lot of people went to these blood sports, not to actually watch animals kill and be killed.

It was to gamble on the outcome, that was the real draw.

So in bear baiting for instance, people would gamble on how many dogs the bear could kill.

The bear obviously is significantly stronger than dogs, and dogs died trying to attack these bears.

Or on how long the bear could last before the fights ended.

Now, bear baiting is a really good example of a time when animals didn't always fight to the death, and the reason being is that bears were no longer native to Britain, they had been wiped out.

So they had to be imported and that's expensive, so they were usually kept alive to fight another day.

And some of these bears became effectively celebrities in of their own right as well.

Shakespeare actually references one of the more popular bears at the time in one of his plays as well.

So 'cause the bear there, just how common and how popular this sport was.

Now, some people did object to blood sports, not everybody enjoyed them, but not because of concerns over animal rights.

That wasn't the objection to these sort of forms of entertainment.

So Puritans who were extreme Protestants, they were concerned that blood sports attracted criminals and drunken behaviour, which they associate with poor people.

So effectively the Puritan problem with blood sports is that poor people like them, and poor people are drunk and they're criminals and that's kind of the attitude they had towards people at this point in time.

So that's the main objection to blood sports, not the animal rights, the fact that poor people like it and poor people are all drunk and criminals, according to Protestants.

Now, let's do a quick check for understanding.

So choose two concerns that Puritans had with blood sports.

Was it the fact that it was animal rights abuses? Was it the fact that they attracted criminals? Was it drunken behaviour? Or was it forbidden by the Bible? So choose two now.

All right, if you chose B and C, then congratulations.

That is indeed correct.

Let's go for second task for today then.

So what I'd like to do is I've got a series of sentences on the screen in front of you.

Obviously, they're incomplete.

All I would like you to do is complete those sentences, so you're looking at filling in the gap and then providing an explanation for each sentence as well.

So pause the video now whilst you do that task and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got on okay with that task.

Let's see what you could have written for this task then.

So you could have said that one sport that was promoted was archery because it was considered preparation for war.

One sport that was banned was football because it was too violent.

One blood sport found all over England was cockfighting because chickens were bred all over the country.

And one blood sport found mainly in London was bear baiting because bears had to be imported into the country and that was expensive.

Bear baiting did take place elsewhere in the country as well.

We do have evidence, for instance, that it took place in the northwest, but it was most frequently found in London.

Right, let's go for our third and final learning cycle today, which is the theatre.

So another popular form of entertainment for Londoners in the Tudor period was going to the theatre, and this is specific to London at this point in time.

Plays telling stories from the Bible were fairly common during the early Tudor period, and this would happen all over the country.

So there were a group of travelling actors who would travelled from one village to another or one town to another and set up a stage wherever they could find the space.

However, actors were seen as vagrants or vagabonds, and they were subject to anti-vagrancy laws, which forced them to stop travelling from place to place, and therefore, to overcome this, the first permanent location for a group of actors was built in 1576, and it was called the Theatre.

That was the name of the first building designed to house groups of actors, and it became the model for many more just like it.

Now, Elizabeth I was extremely fond of watching plays.

She didn't go to theatres to watch plays, groups of actors came to her.

But because she enjoyed watching 'em, it therefore encouraged the Elizabethan elites to take an interest in them as well, and a high-ranking Elizabethans would sponsor groups of actors, known as players, and playwrights, which allowed them to set up their own theatre companies.

Now, what I mean by sponsoring them is that they would give them money in order to effectively do this job full time.

So they wouldn't have to go out and and do another job.

They could just be an actor, they could just be a playwright, they could afford to build their own theatre or to to buy or to rent their own theatre and the sponsor would provide the money for that.

Now, these theatres became extremely popular during the Elizabethan period for several reasons.

Part of the reason was that ticket prices started at just one penny, which meant that the poor could afford to regularly attend.

So we've now got a very cheap, a very diverse form of entertainment which every single person in London could enjoy regardless of how much money you have.

New plays were continually being written as well, which meant there's a great deal of variety in what people could see.

So it was also an opportunity to interact with people from different social classes, as both rich and poor alike would attend the same theatres and they would watch the same plays.

They wouldn't necessarily do it in the same way though.

So poor people, if they're paying a penny to watch the theatre, they would have to stand in the pits in order to do so, and the pits was open to the elements.

So if it's raining, you're getting rained on, and obviously, a play can last several hours, then you are standing for several hours whilst it's happening as well.

Richer people would spend more money and they would get seats and it would be covered as well.

And generally speaking, the more money you spend, the higher up in the theatre you get to sit.

You also get to spend extra money if you want more comforts.

So if you wanted a cushion, that would cost some money, and if you really wanted to see and be seen, then you might choose one of the more expensive seats where you are behind the stage.

So effectively, everybody can watch the players and you at the same time.

So rich and poor are interacting in the sense that poor people can now observe the rich far more frequently than they ever did before.

Rich people are coming into contact with poor people with greater frequency than they ever did before.

And although they're not necessarily interacting on a one-to-one basis inside the theatre, they all need to get to the theatres and the theatres are on the same sort of location, so outside of the theatres, there's a lot more personal interaction between rich and poor people, and for a lot of rich people, it was quite exciting to kind of be seen as as slumming it.

Generally on the south bank of the Thames, where it's quite dangerous, there's a high crime rates, but there's a lot going on and very exciting to be there.

So this interaction between rich and poor was effectively enabled because of the theatre, or the rise in theatre at this point in time.

Now, fairly unsurprisingly, Puritans objected to this form entertainment as well.

They objected to it for the same reasons that they objected to blood sports as well, namely that it attracts poor people and poor people are drunken criminals so that they're not at all fond of this form of entertainment either.

However, for many people in Elizabethan England, these popular forms of entertainment were a core part of their social lives.

Right, let's have a quick check for understanding now.

So what was the name of the first theatre to be built in 1576? Was it The Globe, was it the Swan, or was it the Theatre? Okay, if you chose C, the Theatre, then very well done.

And let's have another check for understanding now.

So it's a discussion question.

So why do you think the theatre was so popular amongst the poor in Tudor England? And I've got a hint on the screen there for you as well to help you out.

So you wanna think about why people might enjoy the theatre today, because for many people, a lot of the reasons are very, very similar.

They haven't really changed over the last few hundred years.

So pause the video while you discuss this, and I'll speak to you again once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

So some of the things you might have said is that it's affordable, tickets started at just one penny.

There were a variety, so there were lots and lots of new plays continually being written and performed.

It was an opportunity to interact with other social classes as well, you get to see people you wouldn't ordinarily see in your day-to-day life.

And Queen Elizabeth I first liked it as well, so if you wanna be like the Queen, then you go and watch the theatre.

And of course, it's entertaining as well.

Okay, let's go for another task now then.

So in what ways did entertainment for the poor change during the Tudor period, and in what ways did it remain the same? So I've got a table on the screen in front of you here, which I've partially filled in, and what I'd like you to do is to complete that table.

So I've added one point for each column for you, so one change in entertainment was that actors no longer travelled around.

One way that entertainment stayed the same is that men practised archery, but you can see there's at least two spaces for each of those columns.

If you can get at least two, that'd be great.

If you can get more than that, that'd be even better.

But pause the video now whilst you're doing that and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully got on okay with that task.

Let's see what you could have written then.

So in regards to changes in entertainment, you could have said that permanent theatres were built and there were less holy days due to Protestantism.

In regards to entertainment staying the same, you could have said that indoor games were still popular and holy days were still important and they were still regular as well.

There's other things you could have written as well, but hopefully you've got at least two for each column.

So let's go for our final task of the day then.

So to what extent did entertainment for the poor change during the Tudor period? So use the table that you've just completed to help answer that question.

So pause the video whilst you do this and I'll speak to you again once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hope you got on fine with that task.

So here's something that you could have said then.

So entertainment for the poor changed slightly during the Tudor period.

In London, there were significant changes, such as the building of permanent theatres like the Theatre and bear baiting arenas.

Around the rest of the country, there were some changes, such as fewer holy days because of the introduction of Protestantism, but these changes were not as great as what people experienced in London.

Although blood sports and plays increased in popularity during the Tudor period, they'd always been fairly popular, so this is not a significant change overall.

If you've got a different answer to myself, if you think it was perhaps more or less of a change, that's absolutely fine as long as you've justified, as long as you've explained why you think that.

That's the key thing for this question here.

Right, let's summarise the lesson now then.

So the social life of the poor was affected by a number of factors, such as the seasons and the church calendar.

Some forms of entertainment did not change, such as playing indoor games and outdoor sports with friends.

In London in particular, the Tudor monarchs increased the popularity of certain forms of entertainment, such as blood sports and theatre.

And although plays were not new, theatres were new permanent venues for actors to perform in during the Elizabethan period.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Hopefully you've enjoyed yourself, hopefully you've learned something, and hopefully I'll see you again next time.

Bye bye.