500 years ago: what was life like? What about diseases and medicine?

1. Life in England 500 years
ago
EDUCATION, ENTERTAINMENT, MEDICINE, TRAVELS
Clara A, Matilde V, Eleonora R, M V Villalta

2. Education
 Who went to school? Rich children
 What did they study? Latin, Philosophy, Law and Greek
 Did girls go to school? Occasionally with Private tutors
 Why did they go to school?
 When did they go to school?
From sunrise to sunset

3. Entertainment
 After the dark age period of plague
 Society three classes
• Nobility commissioned works of art; sports; dances; parties; opera
• Middle class occasionally enjoyed arts; bloodthirsty; Shakespeare’s Globe theater
• Poor class rarely attended the theatre (standing);dance and sing; go to church
▶ Witches

4. Medicine and diseases
 Filth infectious diseases and plague
 Diseases: tuberculosis; dysentery; arthritis; “sweating sickness”; St Antony’s Fire; leprosy; syphilis
 High infant mortality; many post-operative infections
 Medical treatments Poor class: herbal remedies; superstition
Nobility: physicians

5. Black death
 When? In Europe from 1347
 Origin? Brought by twelve ships from the Black Sea docket at the Messina port
 What causes? attacks the lymphatic system swelling in the lymph nodes;
it can spread to blood or lungs
 Symptoms: fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, aches and pain, and then death
 Caused by a bacillus that travels through the air
The plague doctor’s costume

6. Travelling
 Travelling wasn’t easy they used ships
 There are several reasons why the Tudors might have decided to explore
 Travelling for trade and economy (Africa, Asia, America)
 John Cabot found Newfoundland