0:00:09 > 0:00:11It's early morning in August.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15The year is 1535, and a young woman is on a mission.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17She's on her way to collect a head
0:00:17 > 0:00:21which is rotting on a spike on London Bridge.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28The only way to identify it is by a missing tooth.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31When she collects the skull, she wraps it in a linen cloth
0:00:31 > 0:00:34and hides it in her basket.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46The severed head is her father's.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50Sir Thomas More, one of the greatest intellectuals in Tudor England.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54And now a traitor who'd been imprisoned in the Tower of London
0:00:54 > 0:00:58by his former friend Henry VIII.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02She is More's devoted daughter Margaret,
0:01:02 > 0:01:07and she's just risked everything to retrieve her father's remains.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16But this isn't just a tale of courage
0:01:16 > 0:01:17in the face of a brutal regime.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21Thomas More's plucky daughter also tells a very different story,
0:01:21 > 0:01:24about the transforming power of knowledge.
0:01:30 > 0:01:35The intellectual forces at work in the 16th century
0:01:35 > 0:01:38proved pivotal for education.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40At the start of the Tudor period,
0:01:40 > 0:01:45most children learned little more than their letters and prayers.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49But the ideas that shaped Margaret More's life
0:01:49 > 0:01:52changed the history of education.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55And with it, the cultural life of the nation.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15The Tudor age began in 1485.
0:02:15 > 0:02:20The vast majority of people worked on the land,
0:02:20 > 0:02:22and education was beyond the reach of most.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26The children who did get some kind of schooling were mainly boys.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30Parents rarely encouraged their daughters.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34But Margaret's experience would be very different.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37Margaret More was born in London in 1505.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40Most of the city she knew was destroyed in the Great Fire,
0:02:40 > 0:02:44but you can still find traces of Tudor London
0:02:44 > 0:02:46that Margaret would have recognised.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49Like the Church of St Bartholomew the Great.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55Now Protestant, it still holds part of its services in Latin,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58as it would have done in Margaret's day.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07Back then, England, like the rest of Europe, was Catholic,
0:03:07 > 0:03:12and knowledge and education were firmly in the grip of the Church.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19Margaret's father Thomas More was a fervent Catholic.
0:03:21 > 0:03:26He was also a successful lawyer and influential writer.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30He was to become Lord Chancellor,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33one of Henry VIII's most trusted advisers.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35Thomas had been well educated,
0:03:35 > 0:03:37and he was determined to give his daughters
0:03:37 > 0:03:40the same education as his son.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45We take that for granted, but then it was a truly radical idea.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52At the turn of the 16th century,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55the majority of women barely needed an education.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58Most would have to cook and clean when they grew up,
0:03:58 > 0:04:00so that's what their mothers taught them.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03My experience is entirely different.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07I'm a terrible cook, but I got a brilliant education.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11In Tudor England, though, they weren't expected to do much more
0:04:11 > 0:04:14than learn the alphabet and memorise the Lord's Prayer.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17But Margaret was a gentleman's daughter.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20And Thomas had bold plans for her,
0:04:20 > 0:04:24because he was one of the new breed of thinkers, a humanist.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36Humanism was born in the city states of 14th century Italy -
0:04:36 > 0:04:40Padua, Verona, Florence.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43But now it was spreading through northern Europe.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48This philosophical and cultural movement
0:04:48 > 0:04:53of the Italian Renaissance was based on the study of the classics.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57Humanists believed that education was about becoming a good citizen.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00True nobility didn't depend on who your father was,
0:05:00 > 0:05:02but on how you behaved.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06So children needed a curriculum that reflected real human experience.
0:05:06 > 0:05:11One modelled on classical ideas about education.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16They should study languages, rhetoric, history and literature.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21Margaret was reading at the age of three,
0:05:21 > 0:05:25and one of her first books was Aesop's Fables.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33A hungry fox saw some grapes hanging from a trellis,
0:05:33 > 0:05:37and decided to get hold of them.
0:05:37 > 0:05:43But he was unable to do so, and went off muttering to himself,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46"They're not ripe, anyway."
0:05:46 > 0:05:51So with some men, when they are too weak to achieve their purpose,
0:05:51 > 0:05:53they blame the times.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59This is the first English edition of Aesop's Fables,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02produced by William Caxton in 1484.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07It could have been this very edition Margaret read.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11The pictures are so full of life, and the print is so fresh,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14it almost could have been printed yesterday.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29The Mores' house is long gone,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32but they'd have lived somewhere like this,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35a big, bustling household with lots of servants.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39And at its heart was something Thomas called his school.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43He wanted to inspire his children to use their minds,
0:06:43 > 0:06:48so the serious business of education also needed to be fun.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52Life in the More house was filled with intellectual challenges,
0:06:52 > 0:06:54quizzes and conundrums.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05If a clock has an hour hand and a minute hand,
0:07:05 > 0:07:10when and how often will they overlap?
0:07:16 > 0:07:19But was it all fun and games in the More school room?
0:07:19 > 0:07:22It depends what you mean by fun and games.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24Thomas More was strict, Margaret's father,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27about what you could do with your spare time.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Amateur dramatics were fine, and they did that,
0:07:29 > 0:07:31and I'm sure that involved a lot of dressing up.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34Margaret, when she was very little, had pets.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36She had a pet monkey, she had a rabbit, she kept hens.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41But what More thought was really the best were games that improved
0:07:41 > 0:07:42the children's minds.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46So what was Margaret's daily educational routine?
0:07:46 > 0:07:48The language of learning was Latin.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51At first, of course, you would learn the grammar.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54And then you would move to translation.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56You would translate from Latin.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59Quite often you would translate your English back into Latin
0:07:59 > 0:08:02and compare your version with the original text
0:08:02 > 0:08:04so that you could learn about style.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06And in the More household,
0:08:06 > 0:08:08the children would sit round the table
0:08:08 > 0:08:11and write letters to each other or their tutor,
0:08:11 > 0:08:13describing what they'd done the previous day,
0:08:13 > 0:08:15or what they were going to do tomorrow.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17Of course, they all knew those things,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20but it was the practice that was involved.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23And have any of her letters survived?
0:08:23 > 0:08:26There is a copy here of a letter which Margaret wrote
0:08:26 > 0:08:29later in life, ten years later in life.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31You can see this is an extraordinarily special
0:08:31 > 0:08:32sort of handwriting.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35It is an italic hand. That means that it was
0:08:35 > 0:08:37a hand that was first pioneered in Italy
0:08:37 > 0:08:40by the founders of the humanist movement.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44Look at these very, very tall, beautifully spaced consonants.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47If she was doing the laundry list, it wouldn't look like this,
0:08:47 > 0:08:49it would be scribble.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52If she was writing a quick note to a friend,
0:08:52 > 0:08:53it wouldn't look like that.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56But Margaret was also taught something that very few girls
0:08:56 > 0:08:59would ever learn, and even fewer would need.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Of course, the Holy Grail was rhetoric.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04Rhetoric is essentially persuasion.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08Imagine a barrister who is going into court for the prosecution.
0:09:08 > 0:09:09He makes a brilliant speech,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12and the defendant is convicted and sent to prison.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15In these rhetorical games which they played,
0:09:15 > 0:09:17and again they thought this was great fun,
0:09:17 > 0:09:19you came out of the room, and you went back
0:09:19 > 0:09:21and gave the winning speech for the defence.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25And then the question was, which winning speech was more winning?
0:09:25 > 0:09:28Rhetoric trains you for public life.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32The public world that was of course denied, at that time, to women.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36Margaret had to push the boundaries to be allowed to practise speeches.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40Margaret relished the art of rhetoric.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42And her father, like all humanists,
0:09:42 > 0:09:45encouraged the reading of the classics.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48And in particular, the works of the Roman orator Cicero.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51The questions he had asked 1,500 years before
0:09:51 > 0:09:54lay at the very heart of Tudor life.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04Should one remain in one's country even under a tyranny?
0:10:05 > 0:10:09Should a man who has done great service to his country
0:10:09 > 0:10:12go out of his way to run risks for it?
0:10:12 > 0:10:16Or should he be permitted to take thought for himself
0:10:16 > 0:10:18and his loved ones,
0:10:18 > 0:10:22abandoning endless struggles against those who have the power?
0:10:29 > 0:10:31Before long, the question of working for a tyrant
0:10:31 > 0:10:34would become all too real for Thomas More.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40It would be a century in which people were often forced to choose
0:10:40 > 0:10:42between personal beliefs
0:10:42 > 0:10:46and the pragmatic question of political survival.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49Subjects hotly debated by Thomas More and his fellow humanists.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03In England, humanism first took hold in Oxford.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07With just a handful of followers,
0:11:07 > 0:11:10maybe just another wave of doomed idealists.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14But they were soon to get a supporter with a lot of clout.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19Their teachings influenced a child who was to become
0:11:19 > 0:11:21the future King of England, Henry VIII.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27When Henry came to the throne in 1509, he was 17,
0:11:27 > 0:11:30and already the best educated king England had ever had,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33thanks to his humanist education.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37He'd studied classics, poetry, history and languages,
0:11:37 > 0:11:39and he developed a passion for astronomy
0:11:39 > 0:11:42which he shared with Margaret More.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46They shared a teacher, too.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48In 1519, Thomas brought home
0:11:48 > 0:11:52a brilliant Bavarian called Nicholas Kratzer,
0:11:52 > 0:11:56who thrilled the children with the wonders of the stars.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01A year later, he was appointed the king's personal astronomer.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04Thomas was delighted by his daughter's enthusiasm for science.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08He wrote to tell her as much while he was away on royal business.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15I hear you are so far advanced in that science that you cannot
0:12:15 > 0:12:19only point out the Polar Star or the Dog Star,
0:12:19 > 0:12:21or any of the ordinary stars,
0:12:21 > 0:12:26but are able also to distinguish the sun from the moon.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30Onward, then, in that new and admirable science
0:12:30 > 0:12:32by which you ascend to the stars.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41Dr Jim Bennett is the director
0:12:41 > 0:12:44of Oxford's Museum of the History of Science.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48If I were Nicholas Kratzer, say, teaching Margaret More astronomy,
0:12:48 > 0:12:51I would definitely start with the armillary sphere.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53This is for beginners?
0:12:53 > 0:12:57It is for beginners, and it brings the heavens into
0:12:57 > 0:13:00a small instrument that you can demonstrate very easily.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03You can see the celestial equator.
0:13:03 > 0:13:09You can see the band of the Zodiac. Sagittarius. Capricorn.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13And the whole heavens turn around.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Just in the way that you see the heavens themselves turning
0:13:16 > 0:13:18when you are outside.
0:13:18 > 0:13:19One of the most obvious things for us
0:13:19 > 0:13:22is that the sun isn't at the centre, but the Earth.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24In Margaret's universe, before Copernicus,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28the Earth is at rest in the centre.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31And if one wanted to go further with astronomy,
0:13:31 > 0:13:33might one use other instruments as well?
0:13:33 > 0:13:37We know that Margaret More was taught to use an astrolabe.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39Yes. This is an astrolabe.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42It is a more complicated instrument than the armillary sphere,
0:13:42 > 0:13:47but essentially a projection of the heavens on to a flat surface.
0:13:47 > 0:13:48You have the stars,
0:13:48 > 0:13:53so each of these little curly points represents a star.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57And just as the heavens turn around the Earth in Margaret's universe,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01once a day, so the star map on the astrolabe can turn.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06So Margaret really was very privileged to have access
0:14:06 > 0:14:08to this kind of cutting-edge equipment?
0:14:08 > 0:14:12Indeed she was. The idea of learning astronomy from an astrolabe...
0:14:12 > 0:14:16The astrolabe is the most advanced astronomical instrument of its time.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21The idea of having Nicholas Kratzer as your tutor was extraordinary,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24one of the leading astronomers of Europe,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27and I would say her father chose her astronomical tutor
0:14:27 > 0:14:29extraordinarily well.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37Being taught astronomy shows just how exceptional
0:14:37 > 0:14:38Margaret's education was,
0:14:38 > 0:14:43expanding her intellectual horizons way beyond the City of London.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45But for the king and his ambitious merchants,
0:14:45 > 0:14:49Nicholas Kratzer's brand of astronomy would eventually have
0:14:49 > 0:14:52a much more practical use, in navigation.
0:14:58 > 0:15:00This was the Age of Discovery,
0:15:00 > 0:15:04when Europe began to explore new territories and trade routes.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10Spanish and Portuguese sailors had been using
0:15:10 > 0:15:13sophisticated scientific instruments for some time.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19But it didn't take long for England to catch up.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23And with greater geographical and scientific expertise
0:15:23 > 0:15:26came greater prowess in trade and war.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32Henry sponsored trade expeditions, built up the Navy,
0:15:32 > 0:15:34and defended England against French invasion.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48And England had lost no ground to its competitors
0:15:48 > 0:15:52in another sphere of technological innovation.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55One which would increase literacy,
0:15:55 > 0:15:59lay the foundations for a rich literary culture
0:15:59 > 0:16:01and revolutionise education.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05This is a replica printing press.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09And printing introduced the mass production of books
0:16:09 > 0:16:10for the first time.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13Here are the cases where the type is kept.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15You can see that in our upper case
0:16:15 > 0:16:17we've got the capitals and numerals
0:16:17 > 0:16:19In the lower case here, the small letters.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22When we talk about upper and lower case letters today,
0:16:22 > 0:16:24these are the physical cases in the printing house.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27That's where it comes from? The actual cases.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30Wonderful. So here I have a "y".
0:16:30 > 0:16:34'After a clumsy attempt at lining up a single word,
0:16:34 > 0:16:37'I realise how skilled Tudor typesetters must have been.'
0:16:39 > 0:16:42You don't need to press down hard at all.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44- The ink will do the work.- Exactly.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48It's very tricky getting the ink right to the edges, isn't it?
0:16:48 > 0:16:51- So this has to come down.- That's it.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56- It just folds over there. - Fold this down on top.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58- Oh, it's quite heavy isn't it? - It is a bit.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00Just gently put it down.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02You don't want it to bounce at all.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04- That's it.- And that's ready to go.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06- All set.- All set.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08So you turn the handle anti-clockwise.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13- That will roll the whole bed underneath the pattern.- Like rowing!
0:17:15 > 0:17:18- As far as it will go? - As far as it will go.- Like that?
0:17:25 > 0:17:27So now, the moment of truth.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34And there's our first attempt.
0:17:41 > 0:17:43And what's so striking about this,
0:17:43 > 0:17:48even for a beginner having a first go, is the speed of it.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53Compared to a medieval clerk or scribe handwriting a page of text.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57This is so fast. It's really revolutionary, isn't it?
0:17:57 > 0:18:00Once the presses are rolling, thousands of copies can come off
0:18:00 > 0:18:03- without too much further ado. - Absolutely.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07Printing didn't just revolutionise publishing.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10It helped lay the foundations of a national curriculum
0:18:10 > 0:18:14by mass producing textbooks.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17It would also play a key role in administration.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21Paperwork was at the heart of government and commerce
0:18:21 > 0:18:25as a new economic era dawned.
0:18:25 > 0:18:30Henry VIII's father, Henry VII, had expanded the role of government
0:18:30 > 0:18:33and created the beginnings of a modern civil service.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37A new political culture had been born.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41It was a world which would need businessmen, lawyers and diplomats.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44To keep up with their neighbours, these future professionals
0:18:44 > 0:18:47would need to be masters of negotiation and debate.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53Europe was enjoying a period of economic growth,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56and its population was increasing.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59Political alliances were crucial.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01Each nation needed to hold its own
0:19:01 > 0:19:04with its allies and trading partners.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08To supply young men to represent it on the international stage,
0:19:08 > 0:19:11England looked to its grammar schools.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21Grammar schools weren't a new idea.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24They'd been around since 12th century.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26The large ones at Eton and Winchester
0:19:26 > 0:19:30had been set up to give boys a free education.
0:19:32 > 0:19:33Some were part of a monastery.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36And many of the boys who studied there
0:19:36 > 0:19:39went on to careers in the church.
0:19:42 > 0:19:43By the early 16th century,
0:19:43 > 0:19:47England already had several hundred grammar schools.
0:19:47 > 0:19:52They offered an education based on the study of Latin.
0:19:59 > 0:20:05Teachers used exercises called vulgaria to teach the basic grammar.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08This is the Stanbridge Vulgaria, one of the best-selling grammar
0:20:08 > 0:20:12books of the 16th century, and this particular copy we know
0:20:12 > 0:20:14belonged to someone, perhaps a boy, named Thomas Frognall,
0:20:14 > 0:20:16because he wrote in it several times to say so.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20And it begins with a poem telling the reader what to do with the book.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24"Choose Latin words in your heart to impress, to the end that ye may
0:20:24 > 0:20:29"with all your intelligence serve God your maker holy unto his reverence.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32"And if ye do not, the rod must not spare
0:20:32 > 0:20:34"You for to learn with his sharp moral sense.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38"Take thou good heed and harken your vulgare."
0:20:38 > 0:20:42What's wonderful about this is that it isn't a book for show.
0:20:42 > 0:20:43It's a book to be used,
0:20:43 > 0:20:48and you can see the thought processes of Tudor education on every page.
0:20:48 > 0:20:53And here at the beginning of Stanbridge's vocabulary, we have a
0:20:53 > 0:20:57wonderful woodcut of a schoolmaster sitting, teaching his charges.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01Only three of them sitting round his feet, rather than the hubbub
0:21:01 > 0:21:03of most grammar school rooms,
0:21:03 > 0:21:07and in his hand his birch twigs, in case they get out of line.
0:21:10 > 0:21:11And then the sentences begin that
0:21:11 > 0:21:13boys needed to learn how to translate into Latin.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17"Good morrow. Good night. God speed. How farest thou?"
0:21:19 > 0:21:22And down here we get to the word for a goggle-eyed woman.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Where would we be without that?!
0:21:36 > 0:21:40This is Magdalen College School in Oxford.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42Latin is still on the curriculum here,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45but it's studied very differently now.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49Today they're going to find out how it was done in Tudor classrooms.
0:21:51 > 0:21:57There would have been a bit of teacher violence here and there...
0:21:57 > 0:22:01Just like Margaret More, grammar school boys were taught Latin
0:22:01 > 0:22:05as the cornerstone of a humanist education.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07But their translations were a little more earthy.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13These students have been given sentences from the vulgaria
0:22:13 > 0:22:15to translate from Latin into English,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19so they can experience what their Tudor counterparts had to deal with.
0:22:21 > 0:22:25My Latin's not what it was, but I'm going to have a go at them too.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32Some of them are very, very strange.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37Any major problems?
0:22:37 > 0:22:39Any other bits of vocab?
0:22:39 > 0:22:42- Merda.- Merda?
0:22:42 > 0:22:44Think to your knowledge of French.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52OK, merde as in crap.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02So what did you think? Were these hard? Harder than normal?
0:23:02 > 0:23:06- Unusual.- Unusual? Unusual. OK.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09It's a long time since I was in a Latin class,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11more than 20 years, so I'm sure you'll have done better than me.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14Who got something for the first one?
0:23:14 > 0:23:18Sum in articulo purgandi viscera. I got completely stuck with this one.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20Anyone prepared to have a go?
0:23:20 > 0:23:23OK. You got?
0:23:23 > 0:23:29This one was like, "I'm on the point of cleaning out my innards."
0:23:29 > 0:23:33Which quite literally means, "I'm about to visit the toilet"!
0:23:33 > 0:23:35Diarrhoea, probably, we're talking about, aren't we?
0:23:35 > 0:23:37What about the next one?
0:23:37 > 0:23:40Caput meum est plenum pediculorum.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45- OK.- "My head is full of lice."
0:23:45 > 0:23:47Lovely. So what do you make of this?
0:23:47 > 0:23:52What do you think is the point of having sentences like this?
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Connects you with your school life.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57Stuff that would captivate students' attention.
0:23:57 > 0:24:02Captivates the students' attention. So you think poo, lice and diarrhoea
0:24:02 > 0:24:06and things like that is a good way to get attention?
0:24:06 > 0:24:07Yes. It's the sad truth!
0:24:13 > 0:24:17Joking aside, the vulgaria were just the starting point.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21A Tudor grammar school boy could
0:24:21 > 0:24:24spend up to seven years mastering the finer points of Latin.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32When the bell rings,
0:24:32 > 0:24:34these pupils can leave their Latin in the classroom.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39But in a Tudor school, boys had to talk in Latin all the time.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43And learning to talk persuasively, the art of rhetoric,
0:24:43 > 0:24:46gave them a great start in life.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50It was, after all, vital for anyone wanting a career in government,
0:24:50 > 0:24:52and meant they could aspire to some
0:24:52 > 0:24:56of the top jobs in the country, no matter what their background.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04Social mobility might seem like a very modern phenomenon.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07In fact, it's been around for centuries.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11In Tudor England, a bright boy from a poor background who'd learnt Latin
0:25:11 > 0:25:15at grammar school stood a real chance of climbing the greasy pole.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18Take the story of Thomas Wolsey.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21He rose to become the second most powerful man in England.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23Entirely thanks to his education,
0:25:23 > 0:25:27because he came from a very humble family.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34I'm off to East Anglia
0:25:34 > 0:25:39to find out some more about the rise of this remarkable man.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49Wolsey was born in the early 1470s in Ipswich.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52His family lived here in St Nicholas Street.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58There are still documents that mention Wolsey's father
0:25:58 > 0:26:00in the local record office.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Wolsey senior was an innkeeper and butcher,
0:26:03 > 0:26:07but barely managed to stay on the right side of the law.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11Robert Wolsey was an habitue of the courts of Ipswich
0:26:11 > 0:26:14and every time they met, which was only once a year,
0:26:14 > 0:26:19on a Tuesday in Whitsun week, he had to answer about a dozen charges.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22And I think we have an example here. What was the charge in this?
0:26:22 > 0:26:27I think this is one of his most serious charges,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30when he's accused of keeping a house of ill fame.
0:26:30 > 0:26:36But the actual wording is "fostering harlots and adulterers
0:26:36 > 0:26:41"within his house against the peace of the King."
0:26:41 > 0:26:43And he and a number of other people are paying fines,
0:26:43 > 0:26:45and he's paying 40 pence.
0:26:45 > 0:26:4740 pence, which is a big one.
0:26:48 > 0:26:5140 pence was the equivalent of about a week's wages
0:26:51 > 0:26:53for a skilled craftsman.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55With a rocky start in life,
0:26:55 > 0:26:59the local grammar school would prove to be Wolsey's salvation.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02Wolsey was prodigiously clever,
0:27:02 > 0:27:06and from his Ipswich grammar school he went on to Oxford.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08It was the beginning of a stellar career.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14At the turn of the 16th century,
0:27:14 > 0:27:18the Church provided a ready-made career structure
0:27:18 > 0:27:21for well-educated boys.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23Wolsey would rise to be a cardinal,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26one of the highest positions in the Church.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31Eventually he would also become Lord Chancellor,
0:27:31 > 0:27:33and the King's right-hand man.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38Education had broadened his mind and his horizons.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45He wasn't alone.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48Grammar schools were offering more and more boys from humble backgrounds
0:27:48 > 0:27:50a route to the top.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54Some of Henry VIII's most influential advisers
0:27:54 > 0:27:57made their way into the political elite through their education.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12But there was no slacking if you wanted to move up in the world.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14I'm going to Stratford, to one of the oldest remaining
0:28:14 > 0:28:19Tudor schools in the country, to get a flavour of daily life.
0:28:27 > 0:28:32Hard work was what humanist teachers expected from their pupils.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35The school day was 12 hours long.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39Lessons began at 6am in the summer and 7am in the winter.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47Imagine all those boys climbing these steps every morning
0:28:47 > 0:28:49trying to remember their Latin verbs.
0:28:53 > 0:28:58No food was provided at school and they had to bring their own
0:28:58 > 0:29:00ink and candles to study by.
0:29:02 > 0:29:07It's said that William Shakespeare studied in this very schoolroom,
0:29:07 > 0:29:12and suffered too, because pupils lived in constant fear of beatings.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23"Now at five of the clock by the moonlight
0:29:23 > 0:29:29"I must go to my book and let sleep and sloth alone.
0:29:29 > 0:29:35"And if our master hopes to wake us, he brings a rod instead of a candle."
0:29:41 > 0:29:45There could well have been 100 boys in this classroom.
0:29:45 > 0:29:51And there is a seat beside the door which is where the usher sits.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55Now, the usher is the schoolmaster's assistant.
0:29:55 > 0:30:01And at the other end, we have the great seat of the schoolmaster,
0:30:01 > 0:30:03where he is presiding over the room.
0:30:03 > 0:30:09The boys are arranged on forms, which are simply benches.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12No back, no desk in front of it.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14You sit in long lines on these benches.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18And you're all down the sides of the room, facing inwards.
0:30:18 > 0:30:24So that the master and the usher see the whole of the room in profile.
0:30:24 > 0:30:30And I think that was an easy way to see if somebody was misbehaving.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34So what would be the worst punishment a boy might have to face?
0:30:34 > 0:30:39If anybody has seriously erred against school discipline,
0:30:39 > 0:30:43or haven't learnt their lesson properly, they will be beaten.
0:30:43 > 0:30:48For that purpose, you call out some other boys to help.
0:30:48 > 0:30:54Sometimes you hoist the naughty boy onto the back of another boy.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57You then pull his trousers down
0:30:57 > 0:31:02and the master will administer the birch, which is a bundle of twigs,
0:31:02 > 0:31:04onto his bare bottom.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06So this is real pain being inflicted?
0:31:06 > 0:31:08There would be real pain.
0:31:08 > 0:31:13And there are lots of mentions of this in school exercises.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17"I had a beating earlier this morning", and the master will say,
0:31:17 > 0:31:21"Well, that's warmed you up for the day, hasn't it?"
0:31:21 > 0:31:28Why was it held to be necessary or perhaps even good to beat boys?
0:31:28 > 0:31:32It's because of their theory of human development.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35They believed that if you left children to their own devices,
0:31:35 > 0:31:37they would only play.
0:31:37 > 0:31:43So in order to instil knowledge and virtue at that age,
0:31:43 > 0:31:45you've got to call them to attention.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47You've got to lick them into shape
0:31:47 > 0:31:49as bears were believed to do with their cubs.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53I think it's all part of manliness.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56It's all very male and very character forming.
0:32:16 > 0:32:22Education was still very much a male preserve. But change was afoot.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25By the 1520s the influence of humanism in England was growing.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29Margaret More's schooling had made the unthinkable thinkable.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32And women's education was beginning to be taken seriously
0:32:32 > 0:32:36at a very high level, by the Court itself.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43Henry VIII and his Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon,
0:32:43 > 0:32:49often visited Cardinal Wolsey here at his home at Hampton Court Palace.
0:32:49 > 0:32:51They'd spend days in conversation
0:32:51 > 0:32:54with some of Europe's finest intellectuals.
0:32:54 > 0:32:59Among them, one of Spain's leading humanists, Juan Luis Vives.
0:33:03 > 0:33:08In 1524, in the hope that the King and Queen would be his patrons,
0:33:08 > 0:33:12Vives published a book, The Instruction Of A Christian Woman.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18It gave advice on how to bring up girls.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21Vives argued that girls should be educated,
0:33:21 > 0:33:23but he had some reservations.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27It might seem extraordinary today, but essentially he was worried
0:33:27 > 0:33:30about them having their own opinions.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39"A woman must not follow her own judgment
0:33:39 > 0:33:43"lest with her slight initiation into learning and the study of letters,
0:33:43 > 0:33:49"she mistake false for true, harmful for salutary.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52"Her whole motivation for learning should be to live
0:33:52 > 0:33:56"a more upright life, and she should be careful in her judgment,
0:33:56 > 0:34:00"and hold firm to what is approved by the authority of the Church
0:34:00 > 0:34:04"or the unanimous accord of good men."
0:34:08 > 0:34:12Thomas More had educated Margaret way beyond what Vives had suggested.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16But even he believed that education for girls had its limits
0:34:16 > 0:34:19and that it was about making them more virtuous.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26It certainly wasn't for public display.
0:34:26 > 0:34:31But his brilliant daughter had other ideas.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36In 1524, in the full knowledge that her father would be appalled,
0:34:36 > 0:34:39she wrote and published a book.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42It was a translation of a book about the Lord's Prayer
0:34:42 > 0:34:47by the leading humanist thinker of the day, Erasmus.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55It was the very first time that an English woman who wasn't royal,
0:34:55 > 0:34:59had published a book in her own lifetime.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02A rare copy is kept here in the British Library.
0:35:05 > 0:35:10In Tudor England, a woman publishing a book was shocking.
0:35:10 > 0:35:12And the only concession Margaret made
0:35:12 > 0:35:17was not to put her own name on the title page.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19It doesn't say "by Margaret More".
0:35:19 > 0:35:21What it actually says is
0:35:21 > 0:35:23"by a young, virtuous and well-learned gentlewoman
0:35:23 > 0:35:25"of 19 years of age".
0:35:25 > 0:35:27And lo and behold, immediately below
0:35:27 > 0:35:30is this fantastic picture of Margaret More
0:35:30 > 0:35:33standing at her - you stood then, you didn't sit -
0:35:33 > 0:35:36at her writing desk, surrounded by her books.
0:35:36 > 0:35:38Where she crossed the line is that, as a woman,
0:35:38 > 0:35:39she shouldn't have been doing it.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43- So this was a radical step? - It was explosive.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47Not only was she a woman, she'd crossed the boundaries.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51It was a transgression. It was also a religious book.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53And that's incredibly sensitive.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56You are not supposed to publish a religious book,
0:35:56 > 0:35:59especially on a major topic like the Lord's Prayer,
0:35:59 > 0:36:02that hasn't been vetted by the Church.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06For the Church, this is as if the roof is going to fall in.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09And did the roof fall in? What were the ramifications?
0:36:09 > 0:36:12The printer is called to the Church Court to be investigated for heresy.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14Margaret isn't having any of that.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17She goes straight to the top, to Cardinal Wolsey, and amazingly,
0:36:17 > 0:36:20he licences this book.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24And we know that because on back of this title page
0:36:24 > 0:36:30there is Wolsey's coat of arms, indicating he's approved this book.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33- Was it popular, Margaret's book? - I think it was.
0:36:33 > 0:36:35This is clearly the second edition.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39It can't be the first, because it's got Wolsey's special licence
0:36:39 > 0:36:42on the title page. There are three editions that are known to survive.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44Why was it so popular?
0:36:44 > 0:36:47It was in English that people wanted to read.
0:36:47 > 0:36:48Margaret wrote like an angel.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52Her English is probably 20 years ahead of its time.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54It's fluent, it's colloquial.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57It draws you into the work.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00The language used is almost as important as the subject matter.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08O, Father in Heaven,
0:37:09 > 0:37:13which of thy exceeding goodness most plenteously feedest all things
0:37:13 > 0:37:16that thou has so wondrously created.
0:37:16 > 0:37:18Provide for us, thy children,
0:37:18 > 0:37:23which are chosen to dwell in thy celestial and heavenly house.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30So had Margaret had more of a chance to publish,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33we could have seen greater things?
0:37:33 > 0:37:34This is the tragedy.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37What the people were crying out for was a vernacular Scripture,
0:37:37 > 0:37:38a Scripture in English,
0:37:38 > 0:37:41not in the Latin vulgate that they couldn't read.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44She could have done this better than anybody else in England,
0:37:44 > 0:37:47but it doesn't enter their head she's a woman.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50She's not on the agenda, she doesn't exist.
0:37:52 > 0:37:57I found it so moving to see Margaret's extraordinary education
0:37:57 > 0:37:59distilled into one small book,
0:37:59 > 0:38:03and to think how much of a risk she took in publishing it.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06Margaret was an educational trailblazer,
0:38:06 > 0:38:07but Thomas was terrified
0:38:07 > 0:38:11that by publishing a book and drawing attention to herself,
0:38:11 > 0:38:15she'd bring the whole idea of female education into disrepute,
0:38:15 > 0:38:18maybe even stop it in its tracks.
0:38:29 > 0:38:31But the publication of Margaret's book
0:38:31 > 0:38:34would soon be eclipsed by more devastating questions.
0:38:34 > 0:38:36A chain of events was about to unfold
0:38:36 > 0:38:39which would leave Tudor England changed for ever.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43A woman's right to publish and the Church's power to censor
0:38:43 > 0:38:46would be overshadowed by the life-or-death question
0:38:46 > 0:38:48of loyalty to one's sovereign.
0:38:49 > 0:38:54For the Mores, 1533 turned out to be a terrible year.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00From being a favoured Royal adviser, Thomas now found himself
0:39:00 > 0:39:03in dramatic conflict with Henry VIII.
0:39:03 > 0:39:08He was forced to choose between his God and his King.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12Henry wanted a son and heir.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15He was convinced his marriage to Catherine of Aragon was invalid
0:39:15 > 0:39:18and that he should be allowed to marry Anne Boleyn.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21But for that, he needed the blessing of the Pope.
0:39:24 > 0:39:26And the Pope said no.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30Henry spent several years sending envoys to His Holiness
0:39:30 > 0:39:32to try to convince him to change his mind,
0:39:32 > 0:39:35but the answer was always the same.
0:39:38 > 0:39:39When the Pope refused,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43Henry did something extraordinary for a Catholic King.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46He married Anne anyway, and broke with the Church of Rome.
0:39:46 > 0:39:51Then, in 1534, he made himself supreme head of the English Church.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54The English Reformation had begun.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02Shock waves reverberated throughout Tudor England.
0:40:04 > 0:40:06When Henry severed ties with Rome,
0:40:06 > 0:40:09he demanded total loyalty from his subjects.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13Thomas More found himself
0:40:13 > 0:40:16torn between the two great forces in his life -
0:40:16 > 0:40:18the King and his faith.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21In the end, God won.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26More was imprisoned in the Tower of London for just over a year
0:40:26 > 0:40:31before he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33BELL TOLLS
0:40:41 > 0:40:44Margaret was about to lose not only her father
0:40:44 > 0:40:48but the man who had educated her.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52While he was in the Tower, she wrote to him constantly.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56The letter Margaret wrote to her father before his execution
0:40:56 > 0:40:59is the very poignant expression of a daughter's love.
0:41:06 > 0:41:10Give me, your most loving, obedient daughter and hand-maid,
0:41:10 > 0:41:13and all us, your children and friends,
0:41:13 > 0:41:18to follow that that we praise in you,
0:41:18 > 0:41:19and to our only comfort
0:41:19 > 0:41:23remember that we may, in conclusion, meet with you,
0:41:23 > 0:41:26mine own dear father,
0:41:26 > 0:41:29in the bliss of heaven.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40Thomas More was beheaded on 6th July 1535.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49BIRD CAWS
0:41:49 > 0:41:51The effects of Henry's break with Rome
0:41:51 > 0:41:55were felt not just by the More family
0:41:55 > 0:41:58but by the whole nation.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05BIRD CAWS
0:42:05 > 0:42:10England was convulsed by Henry's Reformation.
0:42:10 > 0:42:11What was to follow
0:42:11 > 0:42:15was one of the greatest acts of vandalism in English history -
0:42:15 > 0:42:19the dissolution of the monasteries.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21Henry started selling off Church land
0:42:21 > 0:42:25and in under five years, over 800 monasteries,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28friaries and nunneries were destroyed.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37This is the kind of place that sends shivers down your spine.
0:42:37 > 0:42:40It's the the bare skeleton of what was once a magnificent building,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43and it's a last trace of Catholic England,
0:42:43 > 0:42:45a world that's gone for ever.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52Reading Abbey was once one of the richest in England...
0:42:52 > 0:42:55until 1539,
0:42:55 > 0:42:58when it fell victim to Henry's dissolution of the monasteries.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00And it wasn't only the monks who suffered
0:43:00 > 0:43:02when the monasteries were closed.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05With them went the grammar schools they'd supported.
0:43:05 > 0:43:06By the end of the 1540s,
0:43:06 > 0:43:09thousands of children had nowhere to go to school.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14But the pupils at Reading were lucky.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17Henry decided to preserve the free grammar school
0:43:17 > 0:43:19set up here by the monks.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24Not wanting the dissolution of the monasteries to damage education,
0:43:24 > 0:43:29he established several King's schools across the country.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42Henry also saw an opportunity to use education
0:43:42 > 0:43:44to force the Reformation through.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51All education was now by Royal appointment.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54Royal injunctions dictated how children should be brought up
0:43:54 > 0:43:56as faithful members of the Church of England
0:43:56 > 0:43:58rather than the Church of Rome.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02The new Church used a powerful tool to install religious doctrine,
0:44:02 > 0:44:06a question-and-answer method known as the Catechism.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11That comes from humanism. The humanists believed very strongly
0:44:11 > 0:44:13in dialogue as the best way of teaching.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16They thought dialogue really engaged the person
0:44:16 > 0:44:18in their own education,
0:44:18 > 0:44:21and it's also just a way of breaking down
0:44:21 > 0:44:23this vast body of dogma
0:44:23 > 0:44:26into manageable sentences that a child can understand and learn.
0:44:28 > 0:44:32Who would have taught children the Catechism?
0:44:32 > 0:44:35In the first instance, it would've been your local church,
0:44:35 > 0:44:37your local vicar,
0:44:37 > 0:44:40but, really, this ended up being devolved into families,
0:44:40 > 0:44:42mothers and, particularly, godmothers.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50"What is your name?"
0:44:50 > 0:44:51"Eleanor Palmer."
0:44:53 > 0:44:55"Who gave you this name?"
0:44:55 > 0:45:00"My godfathers and godmothers in my baptism."
0:45:02 > 0:45:06"What did your godfathers and godmothers then for you?"
0:45:06 > 0:45:10"They did promise and vow three things in my name.
0:45:10 > 0:45:15"First, that I should forsake the Devil and all his works.
0:45:15 > 0:45:19"Secondly, that I should believe all the articles of the Christian faith.
0:45:19 > 0:45:24"And thirdly, that I should keep God's Holy will."
0:45:30 > 0:45:32So when parents were catechising their children,
0:45:32 > 0:45:37this was something fundamentally important to their child's entire future?
0:45:37 > 0:45:40Their child's entire salvation,
0:45:40 > 0:45:45because without that fully-instructed, rational faith, they couldn't be saved.
0:45:45 > 0:45:50Learning the catechism was therefore literally a life-saving kind of business,
0:45:50 > 0:45:52'more like doing a first aid course nowadays.'
0:45:53 > 0:45:56It's very hard to imagine your average schoolchild
0:45:56 > 0:46:00learning great swathes of religious doctrine like this today.
0:46:00 > 0:46:02And not only that, but a law was later passed
0:46:02 > 0:46:04saying that if children didn't know their catechism
0:46:04 > 0:46:07by the time they were eight, their families would be fined.
0:46:13 > 0:46:18'By 1550, the Protestant Reformation was firmly established.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23'And at its heart was the English Bible.'
0:46:23 > 0:46:25It had been published in the 1530s
0:46:25 > 0:46:28and was becoming the most widely read book in the country.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31It offered direct access to the word of God.
0:46:31 > 0:46:33What better incentive to learn to read?
0:46:37 > 0:46:39'Literacy levels rose,
0:46:39 > 0:46:42'but children didn't limit themselves to religious texts.'
0:46:47 > 0:46:51'The printing press had revolutionised publishing,
0:46:51 > 0:46:56'and in Margaret More's London, more books than ever were passing from hand to hand.'
0:46:59 > 0:47:02The Tudor sense of humour tended toward the scatological.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04Rude jokes usually went down well.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07But the 16th century did have its disapproving voices.
0:47:07 > 0:47:11William Tyndale, the first translator of the Bible into English,
0:47:11 > 0:47:14was concerned that children were being corrupted
0:47:14 > 0:47:17by the popular texts pouring off the presses.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21'Tales like The Friar And The Boy, a favourite among Tudor children,
0:47:21 > 0:47:23'with its story of Jack,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26'who casts a farting spell on his wicked stepmother.'
0:47:31 > 0:47:35"She stared him in the face.
0:47:35 > 0:47:42"With that, she let go such a blast as made the people all aghast.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46"It sounded through the place, each one did laugh
0:47:46 > 0:47:48"and made good game.
0:47:49 > 0:47:55"But the cursed wife grew red through shame and wished she had been gone."
0:48:03 > 0:48:06'This was an era of great cultural upheaval.
0:48:07 > 0:48:13'Change was happening so fast that, without the supportive relationship with her father,
0:48:13 > 0:48:17'Margaret withdrew into a world of religious contemplation,
0:48:17 > 0:48:20'devoting her energies to her father's memory
0:48:20 > 0:48:23'and educating her own children according to his principles.'
0:48:27 > 0:48:30In the years since Margaret began her extraordinary education,
0:48:30 > 0:48:33humanism had permeated English culture
0:48:33 > 0:48:37and the Reformation had begun to transform Tudor society.
0:48:37 > 0:48:43These momentous changes unleashed a burst of unprecedented artistic activity
0:48:43 > 0:48:48under the aegis of another woman who had had a first-class humanist education.
0:48:48 > 0:48:53Unlike Margaret, though, she used it in a very public way.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00'Elizabeth I was born in 1533,
0:49:00 > 0:49:04'the only child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.
0:49:05 > 0:49:09'Her mother was executed, and it was only at the age of nine,
0:49:09 > 0:49:13'when she was taken under the wing of Henry's sixth wife, Catherine Parr,
0:49:13 > 0:49:17'that Elizabeth's education really took off.'
0:49:17 > 0:49:21She was a gifted pupil who threw herself into her studies.
0:49:21 > 0:49:25Elizabeth received the same superb education as her brother, Edward.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28She studied astronomy, maths and history,
0:49:28 > 0:49:30and was taught both classical and modern languages.
0:49:33 > 0:49:38'Elizabeth made this beautiful book for Catherine Parr when she was 11.'
0:49:38 > 0:49:42It's her translation of a French poem called The Mirror Of A Sinful Soul.
0:49:42 > 0:49:44'It's written in her own hand
0:49:44 > 0:49:47'and bound in a piece of exquisite embroidery.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50'The needlework was a traditionally feminine skill.'
0:49:50 > 0:49:54The scholarship of the words most certainly wasn't.
0:49:56 > 0:50:00'At the beginning of the book, before the translation starts,
0:50:00 > 0:50:04'Elizabeth has written a dedication to her stepmother
0:50:04 > 0:50:08to show off not only her beautiful handwriting, of which she was very proud,
0:50:08 > 0:50:11but also her skill at putting together a rhetorical address.
0:50:11 > 0:50:12And she begins,
0:50:12 > 0:50:16"To our most noble and virtuous Queen Catherine,
0:50:16 > 0:50:21"Elizabeth, her humble daughter, wisheth perpetual felicity and everlasting joy."
0:50:21 > 0:50:26'Elizabeth follows her letter to Catherine with a note to the reader.'
0:50:26 > 0:50:31"If thou dost read this whole work, behold rather the matter, and excuse the speech,
0:50:31 > 0:50:36"considering it is the work of a woman which hath in her neither science or knowledge."
0:50:36 > 0:50:38It's extraordinary that at the age of 11,
0:50:38 > 0:50:42Elizabeth has already mastered the rhetorical skill of false modesty
0:50:42 > 0:50:45that was to serve her so well as Queen.
0:50:51 > 0:50:53I fell in love with history when I was five years old
0:50:53 > 0:50:56and I read a book about Elizabeth's childhood.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59This book has been in my imagination ever since.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09When Elizabeth was studying, her fate was deeply uncertain.
0:51:09 > 0:51:15But when she eventually come to the throne in 1558, her training in rhetoric gave her a great advantage.
0:51:15 > 0:51:21Her extraordinary speeches played a huge part in establishing her authority as Queen.
0:51:22 > 0:51:26When the Spanish Armada was threatening England in 1588,
0:51:26 > 0:51:29Elizabeth gave one of her most famous speeches.
0:51:38 > 0:51:43I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman,
0:51:43 > 0:51:50but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England, too.
0:51:50 > 0:51:55And think foul scorn that Parma or Spain,
0:51:55 > 0:52:01or any Prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm,
0:52:01 > 0:52:08to which, rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11I myself will be you general, judge
0:52:11 > 0:52:17and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.
0:52:26 > 0:52:30Elizabeth's education helped make her one of the greatest monarchs England had ever had.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34Under her rule, England defended its borders against the Spanish
0:52:34 > 0:52:38and expanded them in exploring new worlds.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41She was the glorious queen of a flourishing kingdom.
0:52:41 > 0:52:46But, as a woman, Elizabeth was in an exceptional position.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50She could put her education to very public use.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58Unlike Margaret More, who died in 1544.
0:53:01 > 0:53:05She may never have achieved real recognition,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09but she had been in the vanguard of an intellectual revolution.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13The humanist values underpinning her education
0:53:13 > 0:53:17were the foundation stones of the English Renaissance,
0:53:17 > 0:53:23which would reach its height in the reign of Elizabeth.
0:53:23 > 0:53:28From the Queen down, education was playing a new part in shaping what it meant to be English.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31And at the heart of this English Renaissance
0:53:31 > 0:53:34was a grammar-school boy from Stratford, William Shakespeare.
0:53:37 > 0:53:44Shakespeare's memories of his grammar school education in the 1570s clearly influenced his work.
0:53:44 > 0:53:49And he wrote one of the most memorable accounts of growing up in As You Like It.
0:53:55 > 0:54:02One man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
0:54:02 > 0:54:09At first the infant, mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13Then the whining school boy, with his satchel
0:54:13 > 0:54:19and shining morning face, creeping like snail unwillingly to school.
0:54:26 > 0:54:28One of the wonderful things about Shakespeare is that he
0:54:28 > 0:54:32leaves all sorts of fingerprints of his background in his work.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35So, for instance, in his comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor,
0:54:35 > 0:54:38there's a wonderful scene that offers a Latin lesson.
0:54:38 > 0:54:43There's a Welsh schoolmaster, and we know Shakespeare had a Welsh schoolmaster here in Stratford,
0:54:43 > 0:54:46and there's a clever, cheeky boy who's being given a grammar lesson
0:54:46 > 0:54:49and the boy, surprise surprise, is called William.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52Is there any way of telling whether he enjoyed it, enjoyed school?
0:54:52 > 0:54:56Well, does any little boy enjoy getting up at 6.00am
0:54:56 > 0:55:00and studying 12 hours of Latin grammar and syntax every day?
0:55:00 > 0:55:06That said, when it actually came to studying the literature that was available in the upper forms,
0:55:06 > 0:55:08Shakespeare was clearly very excited.
0:55:08 > 0:55:13His imagination was fired by the poetry, the stories of the great poets of ancient Rome.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16Can we tell what he read at school?
0:55:16 > 0:55:21One of the key texts was by the great humanist educator Erasmus.
0:55:21 > 0:55:27It would teach you the art of using language in clever and varied ways.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30So, for example, an exercise Shakespeare would have done
0:55:30 > 0:55:33would have begun with the boys saying, "greetings" in Latin.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36"Salve!" And then, "greetings to you".
0:55:36 > 0:55:40"Salve et tu". Then, "Greetings to you father". "Salve et tu pater".
0:55:40 > 0:55:44Making it more and more complicated, then maybe throwing in a bit of comedy
0:55:44 > 0:55:45to keep it lively for the boys.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49"Greetings to you, you who fills the bottomless pit
0:55:49 > 0:55:53"of your stomach with cake and indulges in an excess of ale".
0:55:53 > 0:55:56You suddenly see there the language is becoming
0:55:56 > 0:55:59like that of Shakespeare's comedies, of Falstaff, for example.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02If he hadn't had this grammar school education,
0:56:02 > 0:56:05could he still have become the William Shakespeare we know today?
0:56:05 > 0:56:10I really don't think he could. I think there's an absolutely symbiotic relationship between
0:56:10 > 0:56:12the Tudor educational revolution,
0:56:12 > 0:56:15the great expansion of the number of grammar schools in 16th century,
0:56:15 > 0:56:19and the literary renaissance of the Elizabethan era.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23That's to say, the grammar schools were founded for the mundane reason
0:56:23 > 0:56:27of providing a generation of boys who could become
0:56:27 > 0:56:32civil servants, legal administrators, secretaries to politicians,
0:56:32 > 0:56:35but the brightest, most imaginative boys were inspired
0:56:35 > 0:56:40by what they learnt of the techniques of language and the literature of the ancient world,
0:56:40 > 0:56:45inspired to become poets and dramatists themselves, not to become civil servants.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48So, the flowering of the theatre and poetry
0:56:48 > 0:56:51in the last 20 years of Queen Elizabeth's reign
0:56:51 > 0:56:54really was precisely to do with that educational revolution.
0:56:54 > 0:56:59Shakespeare, as a poet, as a playwright, really began in school.
0:57:07 > 0:57:09Shakespeare's achievement
0:57:09 > 0:57:13was to show just how rich a language English could be.
0:57:13 > 0:57:15And, along with the publication of the English Bible,
0:57:15 > 0:57:21Shakespeare played the greatest part in creating the language we speak today.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28The England Shakespeare knew was very different from the one
0:57:28 > 0:57:31Margaret More grew up in almost a century before.
0:57:34 > 0:57:41The Church of England had given the country a new identity with the English language at its core.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45And the flowering of that language in literature and philosophy
0:57:45 > 0:57:48had given us the English Renaissance.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52The ideas about education that had shaped Margaret More's life
0:57:52 > 0:57:54had helped to change England forever.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:18 > 0:58:21E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk