#nicholas orme

Owned?: No, library Page count: 230 My summary: The story of the past is so often the story of adults. We learn how adults lived, and loved, and worked, and died, but their children are little more than appendages to their tale. But all of those adults were children once, and lived and learned and grew in their own unique ways. This is the story of the children of the Tudors, and how their lives were shaped as they grew into adulthood. My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

Not a research book, but this is weirdly thematic with the attitudes to family and sex and marriage stuff I've been reading about of late. The period's earlier than my usual sphere of interest, but still. I don't often find myself interested in the Tudors - it's a period of English history that gets over-exposed, because of Henry VIII and his wives and then the glorification of Elizabeth I - but that's not to say that I don't like reading about it from time to time. And the subject of this book, the lives of children, is interesting! Children often get overlooked when you're talking about a particular era, which is a shame, because I find the lives of and attitudes towards children to be fascinating. The further back you go in history, the further the goalposts are moved on what counts as childhood. After all, Tudor children as young as five or six could potentially go into work - childhood wasn't seen necessarily as a state of innocence the way that we see it today, thanks to shifting religious views on original sin and corruption. Childhood in and of itself is such a fascinating topic, and that's why I picked this up.

And I'm glad I did, because it's a nice little book! It discusses the life of Tudor children through a few different angles - school, religion, work, play - and tries to give a well-rounded and well-balanced view on each, noting popular historical misconceptions where they might arise. For example, apparently it wasn't that uncommon for more working class children to be educated, or at the very least to know their letters, even in this era where schooling was reasonably expensive and would take children away from work in the family business, if that was applicable. Girls were educated too, and not just the girls of the nobility! Obviously illiteracy was far more widespread then than now, but still, the idea that education was not just for the rich was an interesting one to explore. Another interesting thing is that the further back you go in history, the less likely it is that primary sources survive, but Orme acknowledges that and tries to reconstruct the history as best he can, most notably in the chapter on play and games. He presents the evidence as far as we can assemble it, and offers educated hypotheses for things we don't know. It's a good approach, and refreshing to read, particularly after the last book I read on this topic. Well worth checking out if you're at all interested!