Tony Robinson's History of Britain (2020): Season 1, Episode 1 - The Tudors - full transcript

We've all seen the pictures and read
the stories in the history books

about the kings and queens with
their power and privilege

and silks and furs.

But, in this series,

I want to discover the other side of
history.

I'm already quite nervous.

Besides, we don't often hear about

how ordinary British people lived
their lives.

From the Tudors...

You'll see why it did
attract my attention!

Disgusting!



...to the Victorians.

Throw a stone in Victorian London,

you will hit a drunken cabman.
There's that many of them.

We are not amused.

From the Georgians...

You take the saw... My God.

It's horrible
just seeing you do that.

...to the people who really fought
the Second World War.

James could hear the ping of bullets
and the clatter of shrapnel.

One thing's for sure,

these people knew the meaning of the
word "tough".

I'll be finding the truth about
their daily lives,

what they ate...

How long would that have lasted?



Up to three years.

...how they made a living...

There's even value in a rat when
it's dead.

...and those vital necessities of
life.

What did you do if you wanted to
pee?

Go in the bucket.

The bucket?

This is British history from the
bottom up.

You've got to admit,

I am terrifying.

This time, I'm going back 500 years
to England

in the reign of Henry VIII.

A time of sex scandals,

executions and codpieces.

I say!

The history books are full of his
antics.

But what about the people who really
made the country tick?

They may not have been well dressed
or had any money,

but their lives are full of
surprises, love and courage.

During Henry's reign,

living in towns was going out of
fashion

and it's not at all hard to see why.

The streets were paved with
evil-smelling mud

and, inside, floors became layered
with spittle, vomit,

urine and bits of fish.

But even for the Tudors, there was
someone you really didn't

want to live next to.

A knacker.

No giggling, please, because a
knacker was a very important person

in Tudor society.

He was the bloke who went round
collecting dead animals,

then taking them home, skinning
them,

chopping them up and making
money out of them

in whatever way he could.

Now, there aren't any specific names
of actual Tudor knackers

in the records.

We're going to call our one Thomas
Grimes.

Here's Tom.

Skinning a carcass to make saddles.

His whole house would have been full
of little bits of bleeding animal

and it would have permeated such a
stink

that it would have been foul, even
by Tudor standards.

Nevertheless, he would have had a
way of making a steady income.

Enough for clothes and food and
maybe even a long-suffering wife.

This is how Tom's day would go.

He'd leave home about 6.00am, like
most Tudor men,

pick up his cart, head off out of
town towards the local farms.

The big moneymakers for Tom were
dead or dying cattle and horses.

This one's got potential, poor old
thing.

Even in town there could be
opportunities.

You'd find dogs, cats, even the
occasional horse.

Hang on. What have we got down here?

Look at this.

A rat.

There's even value in a rat when
it's dead.

Back at base, Tom would skin
carcasses for leather,

boil them to get the fat out for
candles,

extract gelatine for glue

and grind up the bones
to make fertiliser.

And, after years hacking about with
all his flesh,

he became pretty good at it

and wasn't bothered by the smell and
sight of blood.

And these skills were about to open
new horizons for Tom,

all thanks to his king.

Because Henry was making a lot of
enemies

and Tom was just the sort of chap he
needed

as an executioner.

Whenever the paranoid monarch, Henry
VIII, threw all his toys

out of his cot and demanded the
head of some hapless noble,

it could mean a very big payday,

involving one of these.

Although the reality is, wasn't it,
john, that most criminals were hung

rather than having their heads
chopped off? That's true.

Hanging was for the ordinary people.

It was only people of royal or noble
blood who were actually decapitated.

I mean, decapitation was a whole
different business.

John White is a historian of crime
and punishment

and he's studied Tudor executions.

So, how does Tom, my knacker, come
into it?

Well, you see, the axe was often a
messy business.

So, in order to perfect the process,
you needed to have somebody who,

day by day, was proficient in
chopping flesh with an axe

and wasn't bothered by a bit of
blood and gore.

I can see that at least when Tom
started to be an executioner

he might feel pretty shaky about
doing this job,

particularly if it was someone who
was high nobility.

Well, on the basis that decapitation
is for people who are noble and royal,

you could be intimidated by the
sheer process,

because there you are in front of an
enormous crowd

booing and jeering...

They like a good death. Yeah.

It could be a great lord and
somebody that, you know,

literally frightens you and you're
now going

to have to publicly kill them.

Would you get decent money for this
job?

Well, you get paid more than being
a knacker because,

as an executioner, there are
benefits.

The clothes that the condemned wore,

they would become his.

But it was also the custom

that the condemned would pay, almost
like a tip, to do me a good job.

What would the relationship have
been like between Tom

and his audience?

Well, they would cheer him if he did
a good execution.

They would boo him if he conducted
a poor execution.

And would he have been patted on the
back in the street?

0h, no, no, no, no, no.

You see, as a knacker, he'd be the
lowest of the low.

As an executioner, he'd be even
lower than that.

Everybody knows who he was.

He'd be jeered.

He was a social pariah.

So almost the underclass, the
untouchables.

Tom's tale is a really miserable
one.

Scavenging to earn a living...

A rat.

...being looked down on

and then the only way of making more
money

is to become a figure of hate.

Despite all this, we know that many
executioners were proud

of the contribution that they made
towards Tudor society

and that, by and large,

ordinary people believed that the
death penalty

was the bedrock of their system of
justice.

But, coming up...

...a punishment even worse than
decapitation.

Death by boiling.

And the latest thing to wear in the
fields.

I didn't realise that ordinary
people had codpieces.

During the reign of Henry VIII, one
bad harvest

could spell ruin, even death.

Everyone was constantly famished.

So, imagine that you're an ordinary,
poor Tudor person

constantly obsessed by where the
next meal is coming from

and suddenly you're given the
opportunity of a new life

where, every day, you're faced with
a banquet.

I'm talking about a career
in the culinary profession.

Not only was it a proper paid job,

but you'd be fed and surrounded

by a bounty of delicious food which
often needed testing.

Yes, but be careful what you wish
for,

because this tale has a bitter
ending.

Richard Roose began working in a
kitchen in the early 1500s,

around the time young Henry VIII was
getting to know the ropes as king.

Richard was probably too poor to
attend school

so, at age seven, when a kitchen boy
was wanted at his Lord's manor house,

he jumped at it.

Before sun up on his first day,

he was sent off by his mum to walk
several miles

across the fields to his new life.

It was a chance that offered Richard
career development and, who knows?

Maybe even the opportunity to meet
the rich and famous.

If he was lucky, little Richard got
to stay in the big house

with the other staff with a proper
bed and windows with glass in.

But he probably only saw his mum
once a week on his day off.

Mark Milton Ville is a Tudor cooking
expert.

So, he's just started here..

What kind of jobs would he have been
doing?

Well, if he is a boy of the kitchen,
then it's right down the bottom

to start with. There's going to be a
lot of sweeping that

and go and get me some wood,
chopping wood.

So, he's going to do a lot of really
menial stuff, pot washing.

Not very nice, I'm afraid.

Cleaning all those cauldrons.
How do you clean them?

Because they didn't have squeegee
soap bottles in those days.

No, no squeegee, but they have
plenty of soap.

They do? It's very easy to make,
it was made commercially.

And even if you want to just make
some yourself in the kitchen,

you take a pan full of fats and
bacon fat and pour a little

bit of ash in it.

Richard would have been expected to
use the soap to wash his hands

before the day's work began.

To clean his teeth he'd have used
candle soot, chalk or salt.

What kind of hours would he have
been working?

Probably starting quite early in the
morning.

So, they're gonna be down here
between five and six getting

everything ready because the main
meal of the day is gonna be sent

over to the house by half past
10 or 11.

But there was only two cooked meals
a day.

The last one's out by 3.30.

So, after that, it's clear up,
set it all down

and, once he gets a bit older, a pot
of beer.

It's really quite pleasant,
isn't it? Yeah.

I'm beginning to warm to the idea
of being a Tudor cook.

And we haven't even got to the food
yet.

He's going to be working with so
much more fresh meat

than anybody outside in a farm's
getting.

It's going to be fresh meat almost
every day.

So, it's just going to wow him.

Perhaps it was access to all that
rich food,

but Richard grew a little curvy

and must have made a name for
himself

because he was soon headhunted to be
cook

for the Bishop of Rochester.

This should have been a major
opportunity for Richard

but the country was in the middle of
a major political crisis

and Richard soon found himself in
hot water.

Quite literally.

In 1527, Henry VIII asked the Pope

if he could divorce his queen,
Catherine.

She was knocking on a bit, hadn't
given him a son,

and besides, Henry had met someone
new,

gorgeous Anne Boleyn,

who, as Henry noted, had a nice
pair of pretty duckies.

But some people in England failed to
support Henry...

...including...

...yes, the Bishop of Rochester.

The bishop's opposition to Henry's
divorce was about to have

a devastating impact on his cook.

It all started on February 18th 1531

when the bishop held a banquet

and he wasn't feeling great that
evening

so he didn't eat anything.

But his guests scoffed away.

And, by morning,

17 of them were ill and two had
died.

Immediately rumours abounded.

Everybody thought it was poison

and the finger was pointed at the
cook that night

who was Richard Roose.

They said that he had deliberately
attempted to murder the bishop

on the instructions of a vengeful
Anne Boleyn.

More likely, it was just a bad
case of food poisoning.

But Henry was hopping mad that the
name of his sweet Anne

had been dragged through the mud.

So, he sent Richard to the Tower
to be tortured until, guess what?

He confessed to it all being his
fault.

It sounds like things were pretty
grim for Richard

but they were about to get a whole
lot grimmer.

Henry passed a law, especially for
Richard,

permitting a new form of execution.

Death by boiling.

But it wouldn't be a simple matter

of 12 minutes in the pan
and you're done.

No, it's recorded that Richard was
locked in a chain

and pulled up and down with a gibbet
at diverse times

till he was dead.

And that took two long hours.

Documents from the time recalled how
Henry VIII joked to his courtiers,

"I've cooked the cook.

"Ha-ha-ha!"

It was a world away from what
kitchen boy Richard had imagined

all those years ago, when all he had
to worry about

was the washing up.

So, a top tip for survival in
Henry's England would be...

...don't ruffle the king's ruff.

Which you'd think would be easy,

given that most people lived
in the countryside

in simple houses with thatched roofs
and walls made of sticks and dung,

minding their own business.

This is what life was like for the
vast majority of people

in Tudor England, a world away from
the sex scandals

and skulduggery and fabulous
costumes that you saw in the course

of King Henry VIII.

Take, for example, a Yorkshire
farmer, Richard Jenkinson,

and his wife, whose name isn't
recorded,

so let's call her Anne.

This might be the couple out in the
field at harvest time.

Richard must be as worn out as his
trousers.

Like 90% of the Tudors, Richard's
family spent most of their time

in the great outdoors teasing a
living from the soil,

and it was long, long hours.

They could start from as early as
five o'clock in the morning

and not finish till they lost the
fight

which, in the summer months, might
be ten o'clock.

In contrast to their king, who
pigged out on banquets every day,

there were just two simple meals.

Something to munch in the fields,

perhaps bread and cheese,

and, at the end of the day,

one hot meal to look forward to.

This is the kind of thing that Anne
would have prepared for their tea.

This is pottage made out of turnips
and beans,

thickened with a few bread crumbs

and maybe just a sprinkle of local
herbs.

On special occasions,

they might even eat a chicken.

At night, totally exhausted from the
labours of the day,

Richard and Anne would fall asleep
on their crude mattress

made of straw with the kids just a
few yards from them.

With five or six, it would be a
squeeze.

And, if they had any precious
animals, like a prize pig,

that could sleep in the room, too.

You couldn't afford to let it slope
off.

And pigs are notoriously difficult
to house train.

So, as you can imagine, the room
would've stunk like crazy.

But, more important, if you spent a
lot of time in the proximity

of farm animals, you ran the risk of
contracting killer diseases.

It's no wonder that the average life
expectancy was just 35 years.

There was no NHS and Tudor medicine
was rubbish.

Problem with gout? Apply worms,
pig's marrow and herbs boiled

with a red-haired dog.

Bit deaf? Stick a hare's gall
bladder

and some fox grease in your ear.

With a fire in the middle of the
room and no chimney,

the place would have been full of
smoke.

So, the children might well have had
respiratory infections

but people and animals would be snug
together

and hopefully the thatch wouldn't
catch fire.

If they were lucky, the next day
would be a Sunday

and their only day off.

But there was no let up for Anne
because she'd also

have to make everybody's clothes...

...starting with a bit of fleece
straight off a sheep's back.

Marion Knights, a Tudor technology
expert, knows Anne's secret.

How do we get it from that into
some kind of yarn

that we can make something out of?

Well, that's where this comes in.

The spindle.

This is the drop spindle.

How does it work?

Well, basically, you just spin it.

So, this twiddles round and I can
feel when there's enough twist

because it nips my finger up here.

Then you can start pulling this out
a bit more.

It is very slow. It is very labour
intensive and slow, yes.

How often would people have been
doing this?

Erm, every time she'd got an empty
pair of hands

she would have got the spindle out.

You know, waiting for the pot to
boil,

waiting for the baby to wake up,

standing at the well, waiting her
turn.

This was the only way she could
clothe her family.

Anne would also have done her own
weaving.

So, what sort of outfit would she
have made

for her husband, Richard?

I'm meeting clothing expert
Ninya Mikhaila.

The thing that sticks out for me
more than anything else

is how robust all this is.

I would have thought that he would
have been in rags.

Well, no, I don't suppose he'd last
very long in the field in rags.

It is very robust. He's got a warm,
woollen layer on the top.

And, in fact, the whole thing is
lined in another layer of wool.!

Yeah, you'd be all right in the
fields in this. Yeah.

And what's all this under here?

Well, yeah, it's a bit startling,
isn't it? It's got red.

I wasn't expecting that!

There was a very strong belief in
this period that red

was the colour that kept you healthy

and it was a good colour to wear
near to your skin.

And then you've got this shirt
underneath, look. Yes.

So, everyone, man, woman and child
always has a linen layer next

to their skin. And that's the bit
you can wash, which none

of these could be washed in water.

Big question.

Vest and pants? No pants, I'm
afraid.

Most men used their shirt,

which was long and split at the
sides.

So, you could tuck the front
this way, and the back that way,

and that was basically your pants.
You'd be nice and warm. Yeah.

What about the women?

Women? Absolutely no pants.

Long skirts? Don't need them.

All the time that we've been
talking,

there's been one item of clothing
that's been catching my eye here.

Excuse me about this.

You'll see why it did attract my
attention.

I don't know what you're
talking about.

Are you sure?

I didn't realise that ordinary
people had codpieces. Yeah.

By this day, it was just completely
standard wear on men's hose.

So that they were taking in the
fashion of the richer people

and incorporating it into their own?
Exactly.

I mean, it does seem like a weird
fashion, but in the 15th century

the codpiece didn't exist. Yeah.

It starts as just a simple flap
that's used to cover the fly.

Yeah. And then human, maybe male,
nature comes in and it becomes a bit

more exaggerated and a bit more
padded and embellished

until it is, by this stage, just
standard,

almost like the one the king's
wearing.

But King Henry's influence on
Richard and Anne

was about to extend even beyond
codpieces.

It was the summer of 1513, just four
years into the reign

of young King Henry.

One morning, Richard got up as
usuaL

went down to the river to fetch a
bucket of water,

probably had a quick pee in the
hedge on the way,

when suddenly he was stopped by one
of his landowner's servants

who gave him a message, or more
likely an order.

The lives of Richard and his family
were about to be turned upside down

by the activities of his firebrand
king, Henry VIII.

Richard was being called up for
military service.

Coming UP---

Richard is sent to fight for
Henry VIII,

with nothing more than a hedge
trimmer,

and can this brave seaman

stop the Mary Rose from sinking?

During the reign of Henry VII,

an Englishman could be called up at
any time

to serve his king in battle

and, in 1513, that's exactly what
happened to a Yorkshire farmer

called Richard Jenkins.

The young Henry VIII looked like
this and he dreamt

of being a great warrior king

and ruling both Scotland and France.

So, aged 22, he took his toughest
troops and invaded France.

James IV of Scotland couldn't
believe his luck.

With Henry gone, England could be
his.

So, it fell to Henry's queen,
Catherine,

to recruit an army for him.

25,000 soldiers...

...including Richard.

Poor farmers like him had to provide
their own weapons.

Luckily, Richard had just the thing.

Because, in Tudor times, there were
sheep everywhere.

Hello!

Bear with me here.

You see, in order to stop them
wandering all over the fields

and eating the turnips,

these things began to appear
throughout the Tudor landscape.

Hedgerows.

And, to trim those, you needed one
of these things,

a billhook, which was a simple
slashing, scything tool,

which you just made the hedges
tidy with.

With a few modifications, Richard's
hedge trimmer...

...was fashioned into a lethal
weapon.

His local blacksmith simply tweaked
the billhook design

with a series of nasty twists and
turns.

Now, Richard was ready...

...to take on the Scots.

To find out how, I'm visiting the
Royal Armouries in Leeds

and meeting curator Andy Dean.

Richard wouldn't have been able
to escape

from going into the army, would he?

No. I mean, it's part of that feudal
system.

So, they knew that if the call came,

there was no getting out of it

and possibly your wives
and your children would come

along with you. Really?
Why would they do that?

Well, it's part of the baggage
train.

And women had a vital role before
the battle and after the battle.

I mean, obviously picking up the
bits.

But, of course, you're more likely
to fight if you feel comfortable.

You have your loved ones around you.

And, of course, you don't sort of
just go somewhere, fight

and come home again. You might be
away for 40 days.

And so, having family around you,
then maybe there's a greater reason

for the ordinary man to fight
harder. Yeah.

To get to the battle,

Richard, Anne and the kids had to
walk about 150 miles,

sleeping in the fields each night.

They couldn't carry much food

so the army often looted from
villages along the way.

Of course, going to war would have
been terrible,

but it would have been a bit of an
adventure too.

Remember, Richard had probably only ever
been about ten miles from his home before.

And suddenly off he goes.

And he can bring his wife and kids.

It would have been like some sort of
weird summer holiday,

except he might have got killed.

Richard would have to summon up the
courage to confront

one of these guys.

So noisy and heavy!

I'd have wet myself.

What am I going to do against this
guy?!

I don't think this is going to be
much use.

He's almost impervious.

But, if you came across this guy,

actually you and your mates
have got the perfect weapon.

You can see where the gaps are.

Where would you thrust this spike?
Bang! Exactly.

So, it's gone through his eye
socket, into his brain.

Now, it's called a billhook
for a reason.

What would you do with the hook
here?

No idea. All right.

Well, I would wrap this around the
back of his neck.

Haul him to the ground.

Richard would need nerves of steel,

but he did also have some
protection.

This would be the most basic jack
of plates.

The plates inside the linen garment
could be made out of horn or...

This is really heavy, actually. Well,
it needs to be heavy, but not so heavy

it limits you and it's protecting,
obviously, your engine,

heart, lungs.

So, your engine is protected, but
your computer's not.

So we need something for the top end
of you, as well.

And, again... Let's have a computer
cover. Yeah.

And there will be an armoury and
there'll be 50, 100 of these.

And you would get one of these and
you'd pad it to make it your own.

On it goes.

You've got your billhook, you've got
your jack of plates.

And now we have 20 other blokes all
lined up who are motivated.

You've suddenly become a very
important part of the army.

You've got to admit, I am
terrifying.

When they finally arrived to fight
the Battle of Flodden,

the English army face stiff odds,

attacking uphill against greater
numbers.

And the Scots had bigger cannons.

If the Scots won and captured a
chunk of England,

it could have been the end of Henry
VIII.

Richard watched in awe as he waited
for his turn.

On one side, you've got the Scots
with their long pikes,

which were brilliant against knights
in armour on horseback,

but weren't nearly as good when it
came to close fighting.

And they were up against Richard and
the other Tudor farmer soldiers

armed with equipment better suited
to hand-to-hand combat,

billhooks, which were stabbing
and scything weapons.

Richard and his comrades began to
push the Scots back.

Finally, in one last desperate move,

the Scottish King charged down right
into the heart of the English ranks.

But the infantry held firm.

They pulled him off his horse
and slaughtered him.

King James IV of Scotland,

killed by common farmers
with billhooks.

The English army had won a famous
victory

and Richard could now return home.

With his adapted hedge trimmer,
our simple farmer

had helped save Henry VIII
from a humiliating defeat,

one that could have ended his entire
reign.

And with all that blood,
sweat and toil,

the Tudors needed to let their hair
down.

And "fun", for our Tudor ancestors,

was pretty much the same as it is
today for us.

Festivals...

Is this the way to Glastonbury?

...football..

On me head, son!

...and, most important of all,

a glass of ale down the pub.

And if you lived in Leatherhead,
Surrey,

this could have been your local.

500 years ago, presiding over
everything from the brewing

of the beer through to the ladling
it out to the guests,

was a woman.

Elynor Rummyn.

Can I have a pint, please?

This is Elynor, still welcoming
customers to the pub.

And The Running Horse is a modern
twist on the pub's original name,

Rummyn's House.

Elynor's life was tough.

She'd be up at dawn
seven clays a week

fetching water from the river

and cleaning up from the night
before.

She had a kitchen over here
somewhere,

set away from the pub,

and in here she would have made
bread and cooked all the meals

for the family.

And, round here, you would have had
pigs and chickens,

and there would have been lots of
herbs growing so that she could

produce the meat and the medicine
for her family.

But the most important part of her
workplace was here.

This would have been where she did
the brewing.

Elynor's ale was old school even
then.

After the barley was malted, she'd
have added her own

signature mix of herbs like thyme,

rosemary, nettle, yarrow and
mugwort.

It would have been a murky brown
brew and tasted sour and smoky.

And it would go off pretty quickly

because Elynor didn't use hops,

which are important for preserving
been

She produced about ten gallons a
week for her family

and all the rest was put on sale
because, in those clays,

everybody drank ale, even children,

partly because it was thought to be
more nutritious than water,

certainly didn't give you the gyp
like water did,

and it made you feel good.

We know all about Elynor from a
bloke who stopped off

at the pub one night for a drink.

And he happened to be Henry VIII's
poet laureate.

A bloke by the name of John Skelton.

And he wrote this poem about Elynor.

From our point of view, it's
brilliant

because it describes an ordinary
person in great detail.

You may think he wrote it because he
was besotted by her beauty

but, in fact,

what he says was, "Her face all
boozy,

"comely crinkled, wonderfully
wrinkled...

"..like a roast pig's ear

"bristling with hair."

That's charming, isn't it?

Skelton goes on insulting Elynor
for about 600 lines.

But it wasn't just her looks
that he was slagging off.

This was full-scale character
assassination.

According to Skelton, she was a
sexual deviant.

She was a dodgy businesswoman.

She cut her ale with all sorts
of disgusting stuff.

Look at this.

"And sometimes she blends the dung
of her hens."

I can't imagine Skelton came back
for a second pint.

Can you?

So, what's the truth about Elynor?

Jaega Wise, 2018 Brewer Of The Year,

has studied the ancient craft
of ale-making

all the way back to Tudor times.

Why does the poem slag her off so
much?

It's implied quite heavily that
she's doing things like

watering down the ale or cheating
customers.

Do you think she really did cheat
the customers?

Yeah.

She was fined two pennies for
serving false measures

and she was lucky
that she was fined.

One of the other punishments would
have been a thorough ducking

in the local pond.

Like a witch? Yeah, like a witch.

That's one of the things that
strikes me about the poem.

She does come across as a bit
witchy, doesn't she?

There is said to be a relationship
between witches and ale wives.

It's true that ale wives would have
used a big cauldron,

may well have had a cat for pest
control,

and they did put a broom outside the
pub to show the beer was ready.

But why would anyone want to
demonise women like Elynor?

What begins to happen is the brewing
industry begins to become

professional and, when that happens,

the ale wives are a considerable
threat.

So, what do you do when you're under
threat?

You spread rumours about them.
You spread lies about them.

You want to make their product
sell less than your product.

What about Mr Rummyn?

We don't hear much about him.

I imagine him as some
drunken old sot

sitting in the corner
while his wife coins it all in.

Yes.

And there is a reason why ale wives
are called ale "wives"

and not ale "women".

It's because most of them were
probably married

and Elynor would have had a certain
amount of financial freedom

but it all belonged
to their husbands.

So, Elynor did all that hard work,
didn't directly receive

any financial reward and risked a
ducking in the local pond.

I wish I could have been standing
here 500 years ago,

watching the real Elynor presiding
over her little boozy kingdom.

But, as for this poem,
I feel split down the middle

about it because, on one hand,
it's funny. It's bawdy.

It brings to life a working woman
in the Tudor period.

But, on the other hand,

it takes the mick out of her.

It slags her off.

And that kind of writing about
working women at that time

helped drive a nail in the coffin
of their lives,

and it meant that they were cut off
from their work

and all the opportunities that go
with it for centuries to come.

Coming UP---

Come on! Open the door!

The tough life and tragic end of a
seaman who lived on board

the pride of Henry VIII's Navy...

...the Mary Rose.

Wow.

Over the course of his reign,

Henry VIII managed to annoy the
Pope,

the French, the Scots

and, it seems, most people in
Europe.

They'd had quite enough of Henry...

...and now the threat of invasion
hung in the air.

The new situation demanded that
England have a ready

and well-equipped Navy, which meant
that suddenly a lot of ordinary

people had exciting new job
possibilities

and the chance of long-haul travel.

7,000 new seamen were taken on as
Henry expanded the Royal Navy

from five to 40 warships.

So, what kind of life could a novice
sailor

expect in the swashbuckling early
clays of the Navy?

Well, for once, we can answer that
question in incredible detail,

thanks to a remarkable Tudor time
capsule

that emerged from the drink nearly
40 years ago.

In 1982...

It's a wonderful structure
and a wonderful sight.

...salvagers recovered Henry's
flagship,

Mary Rose, which had sunk
back in 1545.

On board were 19,000 artefacts

and the jumbled bones
of 179 sailors.

And, in one corner of a lower deck,

archaeologists found one complete
skeleton.

An ordinary seaman we'll calljohn,

a man who went down with his ship.

So, this is our man! This is John.

This is john.

Alex Hildred is a curator at the
Mary Rose Trust

and first dived the wreck back in
1979.

He doesn't seem hugely tall.

He isn't, actually.

He's about our height, more or less.

About five foot four-ish, maybe five
foot five.

I'm five foot four and a half, so...
Yeah, perfect.

...almost identical.
Almost identical.

What about age?

Age. You can see that the sutures
have all closed.

So he's probably between 20 and 30.

A perfect age for somebody
who's a hardworking individual.

John, who would have looked
something like this,

was one of a crew of over 400.

I can't wait to see his home,

the ship where his body was found.

Are you ready? Yeah.

You know I've never seen this
before? No! Really?

Truly.

Come on! Open the door!

Go on, have a look.

Wow.

I've so always wanted to see this.

To me, this is like the tomb of
Tutankhamun.

Half the ship rotted away,

but the remaining half's in good
nick.

It's as though the Mary Rose was cut
down the middle, lengthways,

to give us a sneaky look inside
John's home.

Where was he actually found?

He was found just over there.

So, this is the hold of the ship.

And there were four people in there

and five barrels about this high
with tar or pitch in them.

So it looks as though he was
working?

It looks as though he was working.

John had about the most important
job on the ship,

to stop it sinking by keeping it
waterproof.

What's known as "caulking".

At sea, his mission was to
constantly check

that the timbers were watertight

and to repair them with tar and
pitch before the ship sank.

Every day he would have worked a
relentless shift pattern

of four hours on, four hours off,

signalled by the tolling of the
ship's bell.

John may have been a local lad who
learned his craft

from about 14 years of age as an
apprentice at Portsmouth dockyard.

Then around 18,

he'd have had his big chance of a
life of adventure at sea.

Imagine his first day.

He must have been completely
awestruck.

Do you have any idea where John
might have slept?

Likely he would have just slept
anywhere that he could have done.

Maybe on the storage deck above or
on the main deck by the guns.

That's the sort of thing we hear, of
people just crunching themselves up

beside the guns and falling asleep
as much as they can.

I bet everybody would assume that he
would have slept in a hammock.

Hammocks weren't around yet.

So, no, no hammocks.

And, for an ordinary seaman like
john,

there were certainly no cabins or
bunks either.

All right. We've got him up in the
morning.

What about his ablutions?

Well, the only evidence we have for
that are two channels,

if you like, both up on the upper
deck in the stern,

which basically they were like
urinals

and they went out through the side
of the ship with little protruding,

basically, beams which had a hole
in the centre

so everything would go out the side.

Have we got any evidence of the
kinds of things

that he might have done in order to
make his spare time bearable?

Actually, really close to where he
was found, just on the deck above,

we have evidence of two gaming
boards.

Musical instruments. In fact, we had
a fiddle that was found

just by the main mast.

So, we've got a fiddle and a tabor
drum and pipes.

I love the idea that you've got
a ship's band.

You look at something like this and
all you see

in your mind's eye is the serious
nature of running a ship.

But they were grooving away as well.

Also near John's skeleton they found
one of these.

I know what that is. That reminds me
of primary school.

Yeah. Those are one of our most
common objects.

Both the anti-nit combs part, which
are very, very fine,

and then the one for normal
grooming.

He would have had nits, wouldn't he?

Probably.

And you do hear of people throwing
themselves

in the sea to get rid of the nits.

But John might have got comfort from
a special friend.

A small skeleton was found in the
doorway where John

would have picked up his tools.

Interestingly, in the opening of
it, because it was a sliding door,

so almost jammed in the crack was a
small dog.

I know! We called him Hatch because
he wasn't too far away

from the hatches. But he was so far
away that he couldn't get out.

He couldn't get out. No, I know.

And he, actually, is our most
complete skeleton.

I don't want to get too weepy about
this,

but John would have seen him every
day, wouldn't he?

He would have and he was only 18
months old, the dog.

Just a baby, really.

Let's move on before I... Cry.

...show myself up.

This may be one of the great
archaeological treasures

of the world but it's also the place
where young John lived

and worked every day, along with 500
of his mates,

in very dark, cramped conditions.

Imagine, though, how proud he must
have felt

about being a crew member of the
Mary Rose.

But, in July 1545,

the French attacked the English
fleet at Portsmouth.

Henry watched as the Mary Rose went
out to engage the enemy.

All the cannons to starboard fired a
volley together but,

as she turned,

her gun ports fatally dipped beneath
the waterline

and water rushed in.

John's whole world would literally
have been turned upside down.

There would have been things flying
across the room, up, down,

backwards, forwards, smacking him
in the face.

Then a final gush of freezing cold
water.

And then that was it.

No escape.

The Mary Rose sank like a stone.

Only 30 of over 400 crew members
escaped.

John perished where he worked.

I like to think that John would be
pleased to know

that the English Navy finally
managed to repulse the French

and also that he might be a bit
tickled if he knew that,

500 years after he died,

his life would become immortalised.

The Mary Rose had been Henry's
pride and joy for 34 years.

Its end foreshadowed his own.

He died two years later.

And, thanks to his reign,

the lives of ordinary people would
never be the same again.

In the next episode...

Right. Let's go.

...I'll be meeting some Victorian
Britons.

The female miners who hauled coal...

But it wasn't the backbreaking
conditions that shocked everyone.

It was, believe it or not,

the nudity.

...and new experiences that changed
their world.

It's the invention of modern
shopping.