Historian Ruth Goodman dives into the demanding world of Tudor childhood – a world where respect was compulsory, work began early, and most young people were expected to leave home by fourteen.
Forget any notion of carefree childhood. Most Tudor boys and girls were expected to contribute to the household from the moment they could hold a spinning whorl or chase a stray sheep.
For many, childhood ended early. As many as three-quarters of Tudor teenagers left home at fourteen years old, moving into other households to work as servants. It was hard work, but it also meant wages, new skills, and a chance to see more of the world than the family farm.
And yet, amid this hard work, Tudor children still played. They enjoyed games that remain familiar today: leapfrog, blind man’s buff, tops, balls, hobby horses, and small pull-along toys on wheels. Their world was strict, but it wasn’t joyless.
Filmed on location at Plas Mawr – an Elizabethan townhouse in Conwy, North Wales, now in the care of Cadw – our series with Ruth looks beyond the royals who often dominate the headlines, and considers the everyday routines of those living in England and Wales in the Tudor era.