What medicine did the Tudors use?
In the countryside, villagers frequently relied on herbal treatments for illnesses – or ‘old wives tales’. As an example, a Tudor ‘cure’ for a headache was to drink a medicine made up of a mixture of lavender, sage, majoram, roses and rue or to press a hangman’s rope to your head.
What was health like in Tudor times?
Tudor England was rife with contagious diseases and regular epidemics of dysentery, tuberculosis and influenza swept through the country. Although they killed off rich and poor alike, the malnourished masses were less able to fight off infection and more prone to death by disease.
How was the plague treated in Tudor times?
Some of the cures they tried included:
- Rubbing onions, herbs or a chopped up snake (if available) on the boils or cutting up a pigeon and rubbing it over an infected body.
- Drinking vinegar, eating crushed minerals, arsenic, mercury or even ten-year-old treacle!
Did the Tudors have hospitals?
This section explains that many of the religious institutions caring for the sick and disabled at the start of the Tudor period were destroyed in Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries and eventually replaced by civic hospitals.
What herbs did the Tudors use?
Choose four herbs that you found in the Herb Garden which were used by the Tudors (choose from fennel, lavender, marjoram, peppermint, rosemary or thyme).
What do rich Tudor children wear?
Men wore white silk shirts with frills and a doublet, a tight-fitting jacket. Tudor children dressed like mini versions of adults, which meant heavy satin and ruffed necks.
What was medicine like in the Tudor times?
There are so many astonishing facts about Tudor illnesses and cures to fire up young imaginations. Medicine in Tudor times was unusual, often didn’t work, and could be dangerous. It is amazing to see just how different medical knowledge was for the Tudors, they simply didn’t have the information we do today.
What did Tudor doctors do to diagnose illness?
Tudor doctors often examined a patient’s urine – checking its smell, colour and even taste! Astrology also played a key role in diagnosing a patient’s illness. Some individuals did begin to advance medical knowledge in Tudor times, basing their findings on observation and evidence, rather then tradition and superstition.
Why did only 10% of Tudors live past 40?
It is thought that only about 10% of all Tudors lived to be beyond their 40 th birthday – and one of the reasons, among many, was the poor standard of Tudor medicine and medical knowledge. In the countryside, villagers frequently relied on herbal treatments for illnesses – or ‘old wives tales’.
Why did Tudor doctors drink their patients urine?
Letting blood from the body was considered an effective way of rebalancing your humors. Your children may also be interested to know that doctors would sometimes drink their patients’ urine in order to try and diagnose ailments. Tudors didn’t really have our knowledge or understanding of hygiene.
