Woodsmoke and Sage: A Sensory Journey Through Tudor England
October 15, 2021
What did it really mean to live in Tudor times? In this rollicking exploration, historian Licence revels in details, her enthusiasm for her subject shining through each carefully curated quotation from a primary source. Although her account is somewhat limited by the minimal records of how lower classes lived, Licence nonetheless opens a riveting window into the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and overall feel of the age. If image is everything, the Tudors had the performance of power and position down to a science. This was a world where Queen Elizabeth I had a cloak embroidered with eyes and ears to showcase her all-knowing position as monarch, while at the other end of the social spectrum, restrictive sumptuary laws prevented the lower classes from behaving above their station, down to how many dishes members of each class could eat at a meal and how much a serving man could pay for his hose. From portraits to tobacco, from the regular ringing of bells to the foods a melancholy man should avoid, Licence unveils the dynamic reality of Tudor life.
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