0:00:04 > 0:00:06Nowadays, we think of the Tudor home
0:00:06 > 0:00:08as an icon of Britishness.
0:00:08 > 0:00:12Timber-framed, maybe thatched, a cottage.
0:00:12 > 0:00:13Sounds wonderful.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17But these quaint, pretty relics of the past
0:00:17 > 0:00:19belie the revolution in technology
0:00:19 > 0:00:22that changed them and us.
0:00:23 > 0:00:25This is the great age of change.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28It's one of the reasons we all love the Tudor period so much,
0:00:28 > 0:00:30because it's the age of discovery
0:00:30 > 0:00:32and there's a sense that anything is possible.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37One place this change was most evident
0:00:37 > 0:00:38was in the home.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40Domestic life was transformed.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44But, as with anything new, there were risks.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49From the new technology that warmed our rooms...
0:00:52 > 0:00:53Whoa!
0:00:53 > 0:00:56..to the exotic foods that filled the table...
0:00:56 > 0:00:58You're using luxury to show off,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01but there's hidden death behind it, I'm afraid.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04This feels really naughty.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08..and the radical treatments introduced to the medicine cabinets.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12New life-threatening changes made their way
0:01:12 > 0:01:14into the heart of the Tudor home.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19With the help of modern science and historic records,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22I'll investigate what really went on in the Tudor household.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26I'll find out about the hidden dangers
0:01:26 > 0:01:29and what killed Tudors in their very own houses.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37Welcome to the treacherous world of the real Tudor home.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49This house dates from the end of the Tudor age,
0:01:49 > 0:01:51around 1590.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56At the time, there was an emergence of people with new wealth
0:01:56 > 0:01:59who had aspirations for their homes.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03This is the house of someone in the middling sort.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05Those are the middle ranks of society
0:02:05 > 0:02:07in a pre-capitalist age,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10before the talk of classes makes any sense,
0:02:10 > 0:02:13so, it's professionals, artisans, yeoman farmers
0:02:13 > 0:02:16and, in this case, a successful merchant.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23The increasingly wealthy people of the middling sort
0:02:23 > 0:02:25built new kinds of houses
0:02:25 > 0:02:27and the unforeseen consequence
0:02:27 > 0:02:30was that they introduced hidden killers to the home.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34But how, exactly, did these beautiful buildings
0:02:34 > 0:02:38threaten the lives of the merchants and yeomen who inhabited them?
0:02:41 > 0:02:45Many previously unknown dangers made their way back here
0:02:45 > 0:02:48from newly-discovered distant lands,
0:02:48 > 0:02:51some arriving directly in their kitchens and dining rooms.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57This was an age of discovery that transformed Tudor life
0:02:57 > 0:03:00and exploration, conquest, colonisation and trade
0:03:00 > 0:03:04all had their impact on the Tudor home in various guises.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09The middling sort benefited from a boom in trade,
0:03:09 > 0:03:12prospering from the new markets and goods becoming available.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16New items and imported luxuries, from food to furniture,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19helped make the home more comfortable than ever before.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26The Tudor period is definitely the start
0:03:26 > 0:03:30of a real investment in material things
0:03:30 > 0:03:32for relatively ordinary people.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37So there's a huge increase in the number and quality of items
0:03:37 > 0:03:39that people would have had in their homes.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43From rich textile hangings and furnishings,
0:03:43 > 0:03:44to more furniture...
0:03:48 > 0:03:50..additional bedding
0:03:50 > 0:03:52and many more items of tableware.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57Costly, showy items, like pewter,
0:03:57 > 0:03:59are definitely the kind of thing that you want to invest in
0:03:59 > 0:04:01and display in the home
0:04:01 > 0:04:06as a way of indicating that you have wealth, you have status.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09It's part of your, sort of, self-fashioning of your identity.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13And it was in the dining room
0:04:13 > 0:04:16where the taste for the new and exotic was clearly visible
0:04:19 > 0:04:21Overseas trade brought new goods.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24Potatoes, tomatoes
0:04:24 > 0:04:26and the abundance of things that were previously rare,
0:04:26 > 0:04:27like this.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29Did you know, until the 1540s,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32the English didn't have a word for this colour?
0:04:32 > 0:04:34And, of course, it led to the mass production of a substance
0:04:34 > 0:04:37so valuable and delicious,
0:04:37 > 0:04:39that it would become known as white gold.
0:04:41 > 0:04:42Oh, not tobacco.
0:04:42 > 0:04:43Sugar.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49Sugar had been a fantastically expensive commodity
0:04:49 > 0:04:51throughout the Middle Ages,
0:04:51 > 0:04:54but in Tudor times, the price dropped sharply.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56Through using slave labour,
0:04:56 > 0:04:58production costs were kept low.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00So, on the back of the slave trade,
0:05:00 > 0:05:02sugar became an attainable luxury
0:05:02 > 0:05:04for people of the middling sort.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07The rather bland medieval diet of
0:05:07 > 0:05:10bread, pottage, beans, lentils,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13oats, dairy and eggs, occasional meat
0:05:13 > 0:05:15and, if absolutely necessary, vegetables,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18began to be enhanced with sugar.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24What's the process by which we can produce sugar?
0:05:24 > 0:05:27It comes in to your house looking like this,
0:05:27 > 0:05:28as a sugar loaf,
0:05:28 > 0:05:30but, it has to be broken up.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32Someone's got to sit there with a hammer
0:05:32 > 0:05:34and, then, a pestle and mortar
0:05:34 > 0:05:36and if you want, sort of, an icing sugar to sprinkle over things,
0:05:36 > 0:05:40there's a lovely dish which is just a salad of lemons,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42sprinkled with dusted sugar,
0:05:42 > 0:05:43well, then, some poor lad's got to sit there
0:05:43 > 0:05:45and push it through a silk sieve.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50So, there's work hours in sugar, as well as expense.
0:05:53 > 0:05:58Sugar becomes something that's a sort of desirable...
0:05:58 > 0:05:59way of displaying status.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04So, you might use sweet treats at the end of a meal,
0:06:04 > 0:06:06the banquet course, it's known as.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14With no sense that sugar could be bad for you
0:06:14 > 0:06:16they would even show off and play with sugar,
0:06:16 > 0:06:19disguising it to look like some other delicacy.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24So, we've got here a little dish of nuts.
0:06:24 > 0:06:25There's little sugar shells
0:06:25 > 0:06:27with a little bit of sugar and almond in the middle,
0:06:27 > 0:06:29like a marzipan,
0:06:29 > 0:06:31dusted with cinnamon to give it the nutty colour
0:06:31 > 0:06:33and you get to eat a pure sweet.
0:06:33 > 0:06:34And what's this?
0:06:34 > 0:06:37Well, why on earth did I lay out some bacon out on the table
0:06:37 > 0:06:38when we're supposed to being spoilt?
0:06:38 > 0:06:40And bacon is a working man's food,
0:06:40 > 0:06:42but not in this case.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44It's been made to look like bacon
0:06:44 > 0:06:46by dying some of the sugar with cochineal
0:06:46 > 0:06:48and leaving the rest white to look like fat,
0:06:48 > 0:06:50but it's in fact all sugar.
0:06:50 > 0:06:51And what are these?
0:06:51 > 0:06:53Those are little Tudor roses in sugar
0:06:53 > 0:06:56and the middle one, I've covered that in silver leaf,
0:06:56 > 0:06:59so the one that looks silver is actually pure silver on top...
0:06:59 > 0:07:04- Wow.- ..and that's showing your diners real luxury
0:07:04 > 0:07:07cos you've taking a luxury ingredient like sugar,
0:07:07 > 0:07:08put man hours into it
0:07:08 > 0:07:10and then put a precious metal on top as well.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16From nowhere, sugar became the must-have item
0:07:16 > 0:07:18at any well-to-do meal.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22What would it have been like to have all this sugar?
0:07:22 > 0:07:23It must have been really intense.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Yes, I don't think we can really imagine it.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28We've grown up with sugar all of our lives.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30It's in most of our foods somewhere, even bread.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32So, to go somewhere where your diet
0:07:32 > 0:07:34has been virtually sugar-free,
0:07:34 > 0:07:36and be given a table full of sugar,
0:07:36 > 0:07:38I think it's going to be a huge release of energy.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Of course, you've got to have wine at a banquet.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48So, if you've just had sugar and alcohol for the first time,
0:07:48 > 0:07:49you're going to be buzzy.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55So, why don't you try one of the sugar nuts?
0:07:57 > 0:07:59This feels really naughty.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03As sugar became more popular
0:08:03 > 0:08:05and its consumption more widespread,
0:08:05 > 0:08:07the wealthy, ostentatious sugar lover
0:08:07 > 0:08:11would have little idea of the trouble that lay ahead.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17In the Museum of London's storage vaults,
0:08:17 > 0:08:22Dr Jelena Bekvalac studies the remains of almost 20,000 bodies
0:08:22 > 0:08:25spanning the city's history.
0:08:25 > 0:08:26It's a unique resource
0:08:26 > 0:08:29that reveals changes in disease patterns over time.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36I've come to see what evidence 16th-century teeth can provide
0:08:36 > 0:08:38for the impact of sugar on our health.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42Jelena, tell me about these different skulls.
0:08:42 > 0:08:43What are they telling us?
0:08:43 > 0:08:45Well, what they're showing us and telling us
0:08:45 > 0:08:50is the changes that we might see in the dentition and dental health.
0:08:50 > 0:08:51We see a marked change
0:08:51 > 0:08:54from medieval period, the early medieval period,
0:08:54 > 0:08:57coming through up until the more recent times.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59If I just turn this back over here,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02you can see you've got a lovely set of teeth here.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04And this is medieval?
0:09:04 > 0:09:06Yes. So, this is early medieval,
0:09:06 > 0:09:08and, I mean, they're a fairly young individual,
0:09:08 > 0:09:10they are an adult,
0:09:10 > 0:09:11but you can see here that
0:09:11 > 0:09:14you haven't got any changes of decay.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16You've got lovely enamel formation
0:09:16 > 0:09:19but if we come to this individual,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22you can see here that you've lost the molars.
0:09:22 > 0:09:24If you look at the mandible, you can just see there
0:09:24 > 0:09:26you've just got roots of the teeth
0:09:26 > 0:09:28where they've just really sort of been rotted away
0:09:28 > 0:09:31and the decay has completely destroyed all the enamel.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35So, this one's a medieval skull and this one dates from?
0:09:35 > 0:09:37Probably about sort of the mid-16th century.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39So, this is later on and this is then sort of the time then
0:09:39 > 0:09:41you've had sugar being introduced.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43It's more freely available,
0:09:43 > 0:09:45and you can see the consequences in their teeth.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47So, in both the upper and the lower jaw,
0:09:47 > 0:09:49you've got these huge gaps.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51Imagine how painful it would have been to go through that.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53It must have been absolutely horrendous
0:09:53 > 0:09:55because I've had toothache and an abscess
0:09:55 > 0:09:58and it was absolutely horrible. It was really, really nasty,
0:09:58 > 0:10:01so, to have had that amount of teeth affected
0:10:01 > 0:10:02must have been absolutely ghastly.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07Unfortunately, the methods people in the Tudor period used
0:10:07 > 0:10:10to clean their teeth didn't really help.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14In fact, they unwittingly made things worse.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16The Tudors would use toothpicks a lot
0:10:16 > 0:10:19and they would wipe their teeth with tooth cloths.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23And they would use a variety of powders and pastes and solutions,
0:10:23 > 0:10:25often with rosewater,
0:10:25 > 0:10:27actually, often with sugar or honey in it, as well,
0:10:27 > 0:10:29which is not very helpful with the decay.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33They would sometimes use alabaster sticks
0:10:33 > 0:10:35and, with particularly tough stains,
0:10:35 > 0:10:37they might use a powder,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40which was ground coral and pumice stone,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43which would also take away the enamel, of course.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46They also had kissing comfits,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48which were perfumed sweets
0:10:48 > 0:10:50which would take away bad breath, but did nothing for the decay.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55Tragically, the Tudors had no idea
0:10:55 > 0:10:57that they were in the grip of what would become
0:10:57 > 0:10:59a centuries-long addiction.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05It's the sweet taste of sugar that attracts us all,
0:11:05 > 0:11:07but part of the reason for that
0:11:07 > 0:11:09is that it has an effect on the chemicals of our body.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15Sugar helps us absorb an amino acid called tryptophan,
0:11:15 > 0:11:19which is used to make the neurotransmitter serotonin
0:11:19 > 0:11:21and this a chemical that affects the brain
0:11:21 > 0:11:23to make us feel happy and content.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26It's one of the... Sort of like a pleasure chemical
0:11:26 > 0:11:28and so, sugar is linked to that.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31And so it's thought that that's why people like sugar
0:11:31 > 0:11:35and that's why it's sometimes described as being addictive.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40In 1592, the Tudors began recording deaths
0:11:40 > 0:11:42in mortality bills.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45They include all manner of apparent causes
0:11:45 > 0:11:47and all the biggest killers make an appearance.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49Plague,
0:11:49 > 0:11:50fever,
0:11:50 > 0:11:51consumption
0:11:51 > 0:11:54and, surprisingly, teeth are there too.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59Bad teeth?
0:11:59 > 0:12:01Can you really die from bad teeth?
0:12:01 > 0:12:03Yes.
0:12:03 > 0:12:04Yes.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06Absolutely. Tooth disease can be a killer.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08Teeth are deadly.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11If you've got that amount of decay happening
0:12:11 > 0:12:13and that can then also affect the bones,
0:12:13 > 0:12:15so, you can then form an abscess,
0:12:15 > 0:12:17and if that's then draining internally,
0:12:17 > 0:12:20you've got all that poison actually going inside you.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23That can cause you a lot of problems with your health.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27Teeth are pretty deadly, actually.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34The acid's bacteria produce eat into the teeth
0:12:34 > 0:12:37allowing infection to take root.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39Bacteria can then get into the bloodstream
0:12:39 > 0:12:41and attack other parts of the body.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45But without antibiotics,
0:12:45 > 0:12:49there was little the Tudor dentist could do
0:12:49 > 0:12:51beyond pulling teeth.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53MAN SCREAMS
0:12:53 > 0:12:56They would have had no understanding at all
0:12:56 > 0:12:59of the fact that sugar was damaging the rest of the body,
0:12:59 > 0:13:02so, high sugar levels could be predisposing them
0:13:02 > 0:13:05to develop diseases like diabetes
0:13:05 > 0:13:08and then the bacteria from the decaying teeth
0:13:08 > 0:13:11would be damaging, perhaps, the heart valves and the kidneys.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13So, it could be causing damage to all of the internal organs
0:13:13 > 0:13:16and they would have no idea until it was too late.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21MAN SCREAMS AND BONE CRUNCHES
0:13:21 > 0:13:25So, sugar really can be a killer.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27Yes, cos if you're affected that badly,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31then it can have that really awful effect on your on your health
0:13:31 > 0:13:34and then cause your...you know, your demise, cause you to die.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41Sugar was a slow-burn killer,
0:13:41 > 0:13:43taking centuries for its true impact to be felt.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46Now, it's considered by some to be responsible for
0:13:46 > 0:13:51some of the greatest health problems of our time.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54The biggest danger, though, wasn't what they ate,
0:13:54 > 0:13:56but the very construction of the home itself.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00I'm making my way into the main room of the house
0:14:00 > 0:14:02on the trail of the next killer.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06In fact, it's sitting right here,
0:14:06 > 0:14:07hidden in plain sight.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13It's not the fireplace,
0:14:13 > 0:14:14but the chimney.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19Before the chimney was widely adopted,
0:14:19 > 0:14:22early Tudor homes, like medieval houses before them,
0:14:22 > 0:14:25could easily fill up with life-threatening smoke.
0:14:27 > 0:14:28The typical Tudor house
0:14:28 > 0:14:30was a long house, then.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32It was, you know, a great hall house.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37There was a fire in the centre.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40A little hole in the roof took the smoke away.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43These early makeshift vents didn't work well,
0:14:43 > 0:14:47allowing noxious fumes to build up in the home.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50The chimney offered a brilliant solution.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54The change from having an atmosphere indoors,
0:14:54 > 0:14:56where you're constantly breathing smoke,
0:14:56 > 0:14:58and your eyes are weeping,
0:14:58 > 0:14:59to having one where its drawing
0:14:59 > 0:15:01and you've got clean air round you, is enormous.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04And, certainly, anybody who could afford to
0:15:04 > 0:15:07would've moved over as soon as he'd got to grips of
0:15:07 > 0:15:10the idea of this new technology being available.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14Not only did the chimney make the home more comfortable,
0:15:14 > 0:15:18it had a dramatic impact on its overall layout.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20Over the course of the Tudor period,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23with the introduction of...
0:15:23 > 0:15:26to begin with, quite experimental chimneys.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28More opportunities become possible
0:15:28 > 0:15:30for pushing the fire to the side of the room,
0:15:30 > 0:15:32enclosing the fire.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35It allows you to subdivide that space
0:15:35 > 0:15:38making possible new ideas of privacy and comfort,
0:15:38 > 0:15:39to some extent.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44So, the chimney ushered in
0:15:44 > 0:15:47the biggest change to the middling sorts' home
0:15:47 > 0:15:49for many centuries.
0:15:49 > 0:15:50For the first time,
0:15:50 > 0:15:54ordinary homes could have an upstairs level,
0:15:54 > 0:15:56separate rooms to sleep in...
0:15:58 > 0:15:59..a kitchen...
0:16:01 > 0:16:03..and a room to dine in...
0:16:04 > 0:16:08..and each one had its own chimney.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10It revolutionised domestic life.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13But these comforts came at a price.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16The chimney brought a host of hidden dangers.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20As the century went on,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24there were regular reports of fires sweeping through whole towns...
0:16:55 > 0:16:59And in Shakespeare's birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon,
0:16:59 > 0:17:00there were two major fires.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04One in 1594 that burnt down half the town
0:17:04 > 0:17:07and another a year later destroyed the remaining half.
0:17:13 > 0:17:15To find out what caused these fires,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18the Tudors examined the construction of the chimney.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27In the rush to introduce this new technology,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30you get a builder in or you do the work yourself,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33not necessarily to the highest specification.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35There's no building regulations,
0:17:35 > 0:17:37so, a lot of these early chimneys are built
0:17:37 > 0:17:40out of really inappropriate materials.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42Timber and wattle, so that's earth.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47You could stock your fire and light it.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49The wood would burn,
0:17:49 > 0:17:51the sparks would go up the back of the chimney
0:17:51 > 0:17:52and, then, all of a sudden,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55the wicker on the back of the chimney would catch alight
0:17:55 > 0:17:58and that could smoulder for hours and hours.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00You and your family would be fast asleep
0:18:00 > 0:18:03and that chimney was burning away unknowingly.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07And, then, of course, that would spread to the roof
0:18:07 > 0:18:10and then you wouldn't be getting out of the building then.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14As well as using flammable materials in its construction,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18Tudor builders had yet to work out the basic principles
0:18:18 > 0:18:20that make a chimney function.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22It took quite a while before they realised that
0:18:22 > 0:18:26you had to have an aperture in the front of the fireplace
0:18:26 > 0:18:29that was no more than 10 times the narrowest point in the chimney.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32If you don't do that, then, it won't draw properly,
0:18:32 > 0:18:34you'll get smoke spilling back into the room.
0:18:39 > 0:18:40The draw is the suction effect
0:18:40 > 0:18:43that quite literally draws smoke and gasses
0:18:43 > 0:18:44away from the fire,
0:18:44 > 0:18:45up the chimney
0:18:45 > 0:18:47and out of the house.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49But if the draw's not strong enough,
0:18:49 > 0:18:53smoke lingers in the chimney for far too long
0:18:53 > 0:18:55with deadly consequences.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58The smoke used to sit about halfway up the chimney
0:18:58 > 0:19:00and it would just tumble.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Now, anybody who knows anything about fires
0:19:03 > 0:19:06knows smoke is unburnt fuel.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08Forensic Fire Expert, Emma Wilson,
0:19:08 > 0:19:11can demonstrate the impact of unburnt fuel
0:19:11 > 0:19:13in a Tudor chimney.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17The smoke that has been produced by the fire
0:19:17 > 0:19:20at the base of the chimney ignites,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23and all of the smoke that's exiting the chimney
0:19:23 > 0:19:24begins to flame very quickly.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27The smoke itself catches fire?
0:19:27 > 0:19:28The smoke catches fire,
0:19:28 > 0:19:31yes, and I've got an experiment to show you
0:19:31 > 0:19:33how combustible smoke can be.
0:19:33 > 0:19:34OK, here we go.
0:19:36 > 0:19:37Whoa!
0:19:45 > 0:19:47So without an effective draw,
0:19:47 > 0:19:51thick soot deposits build up inside the chimney.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53Smoke hangs around in the flue
0:19:53 > 0:19:56until the heat builds up to ignition point.
0:19:57 > 0:20:02It's easy to see this effect in Emma's experimental chimney.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07So you can see the gas is coming out the top.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09Start to get the ticking.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12There you are, we've got flames out the top already.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14Gosh.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20Imagine the effect of these flames
0:20:20 > 0:20:22on a thatched roof.
0:20:30 > 0:20:31So I suppose at first
0:20:31 > 0:20:33people didn't realise that this happened with chimneys.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36No. If you'd never had a chimney before,
0:20:36 > 0:20:37how would you know that this could happen?
0:20:37 > 0:20:40How would you know that you had to clean the inside of your chimney?
0:20:40 > 0:20:43So, when people first started using chimneys,
0:20:43 > 0:20:44I imagine,
0:20:44 > 0:20:46you built it and you thought that was it.
0:20:46 > 0:20:47Whereas actually,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50we now know that cleaning your chimney regularly
0:20:50 > 0:20:53is something you've just got to do to prevent, erm...
0:20:53 > 0:20:55chimney fires from occurring.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59In Tudor times, as today,
0:20:59 > 0:21:01the consequences of fire
0:21:01 > 0:21:03could be devastating.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06Pamphlets, like this one from 1586,
0:21:06 > 0:21:08poetically chart the emotional impact
0:21:08 > 0:21:11of these frequent fires.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14So the chimney could be lethal...
0:21:21 > 0:21:23They describe really horrendous,
0:21:23 > 0:21:25heart-rending
0:21:25 > 0:21:27experiences of the individuals
0:21:27 > 0:21:29losing, obviously, their lives,
0:21:29 > 0:21:31their children and their property.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34And there's quite a bit of attention
0:21:34 > 0:21:36paid in these accounts to
0:21:36 > 0:21:38the kinds of goods being lost and burnt
0:21:38 > 0:21:43and a sense of just tremendous ruin and loss...
0:21:49 > 0:21:53There are accounts of a third of towns being taken out
0:21:53 > 0:21:56by these major fires that are sometimes traced back to
0:21:56 > 0:22:00just one individual not looking after their chimney properly.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05So, the chimney could be lethal.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11But the biggest cause of death was not fire itself.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17Dr Steven Gunn is conducting important, new research
0:22:17 > 0:22:21into some 9,000 coroners' inquest records
0:22:21 > 0:22:24from around the country during this period.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28These documents are a unique source of statistical data
0:22:28 > 0:22:30about Tudor life.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32And provide a whole new insight
0:22:32 > 0:22:34into death in the Tudor home.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36We actually, in the coroners' reports,
0:22:36 > 0:22:38find that there are more house collapses
0:22:38 > 0:22:40killing people than house fires
0:22:40 > 0:22:44because Tudor houses are mostly made out of things that burn quite easily.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47They're mostly timber-framed, but they burn quite slowly,
0:22:47 > 0:22:49so people have the chance to get out.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51The problem is they're building chimneys onto houses
0:22:51 > 0:22:54and of course, chimneys are large structures,
0:22:54 > 0:22:56so we have chimneys collapsing
0:22:56 > 0:22:59during fires, or when fires are lit inside them.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03Brick was the wonder-material that distinguished
0:23:03 > 0:23:05the architecture of the Tudor Age.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10But it turns out that early bricks had a hidden weakness
0:23:10 > 0:23:15when it comes to the defining feature of a 16th-century house.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17Coal and wood,
0:23:17 > 0:23:19they would burn inside a chimney,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22wood at about 1,000 degrees C
0:23:22 > 0:23:25and coal at about 1,200 degrees C.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28And that was way more than the brick could handle.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31So, the bricks just couldn't handle the heat whatsoever
0:23:31 > 0:23:33and they would explode.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37The mortar that was holding the bricks together would expand,
0:23:37 > 0:23:40then it would contract, fall out, the bricks would be split
0:23:40 > 0:23:43and the chimney would come crashing down.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45BRICKS CRASH DOWN
0:23:45 > 0:23:49So, for example, we've got an accident in Kent in 1518
0:23:49 > 0:23:52with a fire that breaks out at a house in Wingham in Kent.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Several men run to put the fire out,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58Thomas Adams, one of them's called, Arthur Oven, another one,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01they get to help put the fire out with other people,
0:24:01 > 0:24:03but again, in the course of the fire,
0:24:03 > 0:24:05the brick chimney collapses on top of them.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09So it's actually the collapsing material rather than the fire itself
0:24:09 > 0:24:10that kills them in the end.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15The Tudors gradually came to understand the risks to life
0:24:15 > 0:24:18and property that chimneys could pose.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22To tackle the problem, they drew up what were, effectively,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25the very first health and safety laws for chimneys.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32There are ordinances, for example, issued in Oxford in 1582
0:24:32 > 0:24:34that actually make it the responsibility of each
0:24:34 > 0:24:38individual householder to, er, construct their chimneys
0:24:38 > 0:24:40and their roofs in appropriate materials.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43So not thatch for the roof but tile or slate
0:24:43 > 0:24:46and brick or stone for the chimney...
0:25:07 > 0:25:09But even these laws couldn't prevent
0:25:09 > 0:25:12the Great Fire of London, 84 years later.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23Despite all the new luxuries of Tudor life
0:25:23 > 0:25:26and the proliferation of grand multi-roomed houses,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29in many ways the house remained firmly lodged
0:25:29 > 0:25:30in the medieval period.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34Much of what we think of as the basics of domestic life
0:25:34 > 0:25:36simply weren't there.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39For us, there's nothing more fundamental than the utility
0:25:39 > 0:25:41and convenience of running water.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45But for the Tudors, there was no such thing as a bathroom
0:25:45 > 0:25:46or a shower.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53My next hidden killer
0:25:53 > 0:25:55lies outside the four walls of the house.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01The woman of the house, and it almost certainly was the woman,
0:26:01 > 0:26:04needed to bring every drop of water that the family required
0:26:04 > 0:26:06to the door.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11This bucket, became a familiar and tedious burden.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14Water is a very heavy substance
0:26:14 > 0:26:16and so if you've got to acquire it
0:26:16 > 0:26:18from any distance for your household
0:26:18 > 0:26:20that's going to be, erm,
0:26:20 > 0:26:23quite a major part of the effort that's put in during the day.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28All sorts of chores that we today do inside our cosy, modern homes,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31the Tudors were forced to do outside
0:26:31 > 0:26:34particularly washing and laundry.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36This meant spending an awful lot of time
0:26:36 > 0:26:38down at the nearest water source,
0:26:38 > 0:26:41in all weathers, all year round.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Effectively making them an extension to the home.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48Because ponds and streams played such a major role in daily life,
0:26:48 > 0:26:52it's no surprise that they also appear in literature,
0:26:52 > 0:26:53often lethally.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56"But long it could not be till that...
0:27:05 > 0:27:07Many of Shakespeare's plays,
0:27:07 > 0:27:10and much writing of the time, feature characters drowning.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14And analysis of the coroners' reports reveals,
0:27:14 > 0:27:18for the first time, the number of deaths due to drowning
0:27:18 > 0:27:19in the Tudor period.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25The biggest contrast with today is the amount of drowning.
0:27:25 > 0:27:30So, in 2010 in the UK, about 2% of accidental deaths were drownings.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33In our period in the 16th century it's more like 40%.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35Gosh! Why so many?
0:27:35 > 0:27:39Well, people were exposed to open water
0:27:39 > 0:27:41in lots and lots of different contexts.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44The single largest cause is probably fetching water.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46But then there are lots of other things that people have to do
0:27:46 > 0:27:50for household purposes that involve going to the water.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52You have to take animals to water,
0:27:52 > 0:27:54you often have to travel across water
0:27:54 > 0:27:57and, of course, the other thing is people have to wash their clothes.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00We've got an accident here with a young woman,
0:28:00 > 0:28:03she's described as a spinster, so an unmarried woman,
0:28:03 > 0:28:05called Ursual Redsole.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08This is 1556 and it says,
0:28:08 > 0:28:15"She went to a pond, she was washing a little tunic called a petticoat
0:28:15 > 0:28:18"and she was sitting on a bridge
0:28:18 > 0:28:21"called a plank."
0:28:21 > 0:28:24And she fell off the plank into the pond and she drowned.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54So, why did so many drown?
0:28:54 > 0:28:56And often in quite shallow water?
0:28:57 > 0:29:00In the interests of science, I'm donning authentic Tudor garb,
0:29:00 > 0:29:03and heading down to a nearby pool.
0:29:03 > 0:29:08On a fresh spring morning, the water temperature's around 12 degrees.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14The coroners' reports suggest it was all too easy to slip
0:29:14 > 0:29:18and fall into the water, with potentially lethal consequences.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23And immediately it's really, really cold
0:29:23 > 0:29:25so much so that it's making me gasp.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28WATER RUSHES
0:29:28 > 0:29:32Our first reflex when our body hits cold water is to gasp.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34SHE GASPS
0:29:34 > 0:29:37You have a sudden intake in air and it's completely involuntary,
0:29:37 > 0:29:40and there's nothing you can do about it. And if you're under the water
0:29:40 > 0:29:43when that happens, you breathe in water.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45And as soon as that cold water hits the back of your throat,
0:29:45 > 0:29:49your larynx, your voice box, it can cause it to go into spasm.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53And that will effectively suffocate you.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55Even in relatively mild weather like this,
0:29:55 > 0:29:58the water temperature is a shock.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00My reaction may sound extreme,
0:30:00 > 0:30:04but the cold really makes me gasp to catch my breath.
0:30:04 > 0:30:09Water takes heat away from your body 25 times more quickly
0:30:09 > 0:30:11than in air of the same temperature.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14So you very rapidly lose heat from the body
0:30:14 > 0:30:19and as soon as that happens your bodily functions just stop working.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23As well as the cold and the shock, it's difficult to keep my balance.
0:30:23 > 0:30:25My clothes are dragging, getting caught up.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28- SHE GASPS - And it's hard to get a footing
0:30:28 > 0:30:32because it's very slippery and if you imagine there was any sort
0:30:32 > 0:30:36of current at all it would be very easy to go under.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38SHE GASPS
0:30:42 > 0:30:44And then the difficulty with getting out
0:30:44 > 0:30:47is that immediately my clothes are getting very heavy.
0:30:47 > 0:30:51This is all wool and it's getting completely waterlogged.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54Wool is uniquely good at absorbing moisture.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56Under the microscope, it reveals itself to have
0:30:56 > 0:31:00a surprisingly complex physical and chemical structure.
0:31:00 > 0:31:02It's made up of two internal layers.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06While the outer layer is water, dirt and stain-repellent,
0:31:06 > 0:31:08the inner layer is highly absorbent,
0:31:08 > 0:31:10so wool can take in more moisture
0:31:10 > 0:31:13than any other fibre before becoming saturated.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17Oh, my goodness, my clothes have doubled in weight.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20- SHE LAUGHS - It's like lifting up a huge bag.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22SHE GROANS
0:31:22 > 0:31:24I'm not just imagining it.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28Wool can absorb up to one and a half times it's dry weight,
0:31:28 > 0:31:33which means my clothes are much heavier as I try to get out.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35I didn't feel it when I was submerged,
0:31:35 > 0:31:38but as soon as I tried to stand up, it's a hefty, added burden.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42It's really not easy, struggling to stand up on slippery mud
0:31:42 > 0:31:46while freezing cold, and weighed down by wet wool.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53So it was a combination of heavy clothing, slippery banks,
0:31:53 > 0:31:58and the shock of the cold water that made drowning so prevalent.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01The Tudors were certainly aware of the problem
0:32:01 > 0:32:05and as the 16th century wore on, they began to take precautions.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09Towards the end of the Tudor period,
0:32:09 > 0:32:13people began to put covers on village wells.
0:32:13 > 0:32:15They fenced off water courses.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18They installed water pumps.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21And as communities worked together to create safe sources of water,
0:32:21 > 0:32:25so the risk of death by drowning declined.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33The idea of the home as something encompassed by four walls
0:32:33 > 0:32:35is a very modern notion.
0:32:35 > 0:32:40So much of their domestic life involved the space outside
0:32:40 > 0:32:42as well as the rooms inside.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47For the Tudors, instead the house was open and permeable.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50Humans...and animals,
0:32:50 > 0:32:53tumbled in and out in a colourful cacophonous mess
0:32:53 > 0:32:55from sunrise to sundown.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58HEN CACKLES
0:32:58 > 0:33:02The famous Dutch humanist Erasmus visited Cambridge
0:33:02 > 0:33:05and he was disgusted by the state of the rushes.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09These were the straw and the hay that they would put on the ground
0:33:09 > 0:33:12to keep the house warm, to keep the house dry.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15And he said that, occasionally, they would change the top layer
0:33:15 > 0:33:18but the bottom layer would sometimes stay there for 20-odd years.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21And it was full of ale,
0:33:21 > 0:33:23it was full of fish juice, it was full of vomit,
0:33:23 > 0:33:26it was full of the leakage of men, and of dogs
0:33:26 > 0:33:29and of other abominations not fit to mention.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35You'd have somebody who was called a gong farmer,
0:33:35 > 0:33:37who would clean your cesspit out for you.
0:33:37 > 0:33:38Disease was obviously rife
0:33:38 > 0:33:40there was dysentery, cholera, typhoid
0:33:40 > 0:33:43three of the biggest ones in the Tudor period,
0:33:43 > 0:33:46which would kill you no problems at all.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49So if you went to work one day with a cut on your arm or your leg
0:33:49 > 0:33:53and the gentry was going to the toilet and it covered you.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55It was only a matter of time before one of those diseases
0:33:55 > 0:33:58came knocking on the door.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00In these circumstances, then,
0:34:00 > 0:34:03it's easy to understand how something as basic and natural
0:34:03 > 0:34:06as childbirth was very dangerous.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10Around 20 out of every 1,000 women died in childbirth,
0:34:10 > 0:34:14in comparison to eight maternal deaths per 100,000 births,
0:34:14 > 0:34:15in Britain today.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19When women give birth, obviously, they're very vulnerable to infection.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22The lining of the womb is a raw wound
0:34:22 > 0:34:25and there may be cuts and tears in the genital tract.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29And all of those give an opportunity for infective organisms like bacteria
0:34:29 > 0:34:34to get into the blood stream and that can be a very dangerous thing.
0:34:34 > 0:34:39Because people had no idea about how infections were caused.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43The concept of micro-organisms like viruses or bacteria
0:34:43 > 0:34:46causing disease, that came hundreds of years later.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52Infection was a huge hidden killer in Tudor times,
0:34:52 > 0:34:55as we can understand from the coroners' inquest reports.
0:34:55 > 0:35:00That medical context explains why we have many of these accidental deaths
0:35:00 > 0:35:04because lots of these are people who cut themselves or break a limb.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07They might cut themselves on a knife, they might break a leg
0:35:07 > 0:35:12falling out of a tree in the yard next to their house picking fruit
0:35:12 > 0:35:14or whatever, and they wouldn't die from that now.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17But under 16th-century circumstances,
0:35:17 > 0:35:19they have infection in a wound
0:35:19 > 0:35:22or they have a blood clot which causes them problems
0:35:22 > 0:35:25from a broken leg and so, actually, the coroners' inquest reports
0:35:25 > 0:35:29report them dying five days, ten days, 15 days after the accident.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32But they still say that the accident was obviously
0:35:32 > 0:35:34the thing that caused it.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38The coroners' reports tell us that between 1558 and 1560
0:35:38 > 0:35:41unusual deaths from accidents around the country include...
0:35:41 > 0:35:45"Death from crushed testicles after playing games at Christmas."
0:35:50 > 0:35:53"56 deaths were due to archery.
0:35:53 > 0:35:55"And one to an escaped bear."
0:36:00 > 0:36:03But, whatever the cause of injury or sickness
0:36:03 > 0:36:06get ill in the 15th or 16th century
0:36:06 > 0:36:09and you'd be unlikely to call in a professional doctor,
0:36:09 > 0:36:11except in extremis.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13Most people of the middling sort
0:36:13 > 0:36:16would treat themselves at home using herbs and ingredients
0:36:16 > 0:36:19from recipes passed down through the generations.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24For the Tudor housewife,
0:36:24 > 0:36:26the medicine cabinet was limited to her knowledge
0:36:26 > 0:36:28and what was grown locally.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32In the garden of a home of the middling sort,
0:36:32 > 0:36:34there would be a special section
0:36:34 > 0:36:37laid out specifically for growing herbs.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39Remedies for daily ailments.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42In effect, a Tudor first aid kit.
0:36:42 > 0:36:47In a big Tudor house they would have their own physic garden
0:36:47 > 0:36:50and there's a vast early modern what's called a pharmacopoeia,
0:36:50 > 0:36:54which is a body of herbal knowledge and an understanding of which plants
0:36:54 > 0:36:56can help you, which plants can heal you
0:36:56 > 0:36:59and what conditions they can be used to treat.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02Now even the smallest cottage in the village,
0:37:02 > 0:37:04the person living there will have that same knowledge
0:37:04 > 0:37:06even if they don't have the physic garden,
0:37:06 > 0:37:10but they'll know where to go in their local area to go and pick herbs.
0:37:12 > 0:37:17Stuart Peachey is custodian of a small Tudor-style physic garden.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20What sort of plants did they think were useful medicinally?
0:37:20 > 0:37:23Well, we've got things like tansy here.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26Now, tansy's useful in springtime about the end of Lent
0:37:26 > 0:37:30because they thought that the intestinal worms they suffered from
0:37:30 > 0:37:32was partly result of all the fish that they'd eaten
0:37:32 > 0:37:34over that Lenten period.
0:37:34 > 0:37:36And tansy's very good
0:37:36 > 0:37:39because it's a relatively mild poison that kills the worms.
0:37:39 > 0:37:41Next to that we've got rue.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44Now rue is one of a battery of different plants
0:37:44 > 0:37:46that can be used to induce abortion.
0:37:46 > 0:37:47Penny royal is another one.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50Lungwort with its spotted leaves there,
0:37:50 > 0:37:54that one is good for infections of the lung, easing the chest
0:37:54 > 0:37:57and would have been used as a general herb in that area.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59So the Tudor garden's really the ultimate in
0:37:59 > 0:38:01organic natural medicine?
0:38:01 > 0:38:04Absolutely. It's free as well as far as they're concerned.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09According to some sources, 150 plants were considered
0:38:09 > 0:38:13to have useful medicinal qualities, all grown in the garden
0:38:13 > 0:38:15and prepared in the home.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20People have this vast storehouse of medical knowledge and remedies
0:38:20 > 0:38:23and they passed them around and that might be to their families.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25It might be to their friends and neighbours
0:38:25 > 0:38:29and, of course, when that happens the medicine spreads out in, sort of,
0:38:29 > 0:38:32ever-growing circles.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35It's also worth remembering that virtually our entire corpus
0:38:35 > 0:38:39of medical remedies, tablets today are based on plants.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44We are still using perhaps the same plants, but we're distilling them
0:38:44 > 0:38:47or using them in different ways. The power lies within the chemicals,
0:38:47 > 0:38:51in the plants and that's what worked then and it works now.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56But herbal cures weren't without their dangers.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00Get the dose wrong, and you'd find yourself in trouble.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03Many of these plants are safe in small doses,
0:39:03 > 0:39:07and toxic in high doses. For example, something like tansy
0:39:07 > 0:39:10which, actually, was very widely used as a way of
0:39:10 > 0:39:13purging worms from your body in the springtime,
0:39:13 > 0:39:17later in the year that becomes toxic as the active ingredients
0:39:17 > 0:39:21build up in concentration and you can make yourself quite ill with it.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24And mixed up with some effective, practical cures,
0:39:24 > 0:39:27were some very odd believes.
0:39:27 > 0:39:29There was this idea that something that looks like the thing
0:39:29 > 0:39:32you're trying to treat, might actually help it.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36And so there's a plant that's been called pilewort, for example,
0:39:36 > 0:39:39because its roots look a bit like piles,
0:39:39 > 0:39:41and this was used to treat haemorrhoids or piles.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45Because the plant looked a bit like what it was treating.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49These superstitious beliefs along with the unpredictability
0:39:49 > 0:39:53of some herbal cures, meant that Tudor medicine always
0:39:53 > 0:39:55had the potential to go disastrously wrong.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01But a radical German invention seemed poised to change
0:40:01 > 0:40:03all of this for the better.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07Johanes Guttenburg had invented his moveable type printing press
0:40:07 > 0:40:1040 years before the Tudor era.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14One of the things that is changing with medicine at this point
0:40:14 > 0:40:17is that with the introduction of printing,
0:40:17 > 0:40:20which occurs just before the start of the Tudor period,
0:40:20 > 0:40:23it is far easier to disseminate knowledge.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27People have written books on medicine since classical times,
0:40:27 > 0:40:30but what you're now seeing is the printed page making that
0:40:30 > 0:40:32more widely available.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37Initially, printing presses were used mainly
0:40:37 > 0:40:38to produce religious texts.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42But by the mid-16th century, printers had found a new market -
0:40:42 > 0:40:46publishing home manuals, a mixture of remedies and recipes.
0:40:48 > 0:40:50These books were enormous.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53John Gerard's runs to about 1,700 pages.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57Profusely illustrated and designed to enable you to clearly identify
0:40:57 > 0:41:00the plants and know what their effects are
0:41:00 > 0:41:03and what the toxicities are, to some extent,
0:41:03 > 0:41:04as well as what the benefits are.
0:41:07 > 0:41:12Bestsellers were reprinted over and over again to meet popular demand.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16Historians estimate that maybe 400,000 medical books were printed
0:41:16 > 0:41:19altogether in the Tudor period.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23Suddenly those who could afford it had access to thousands of recipes
0:41:23 > 0:41:27in just one book - far beyond their previous knowledge.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31And all written by a supposed medical expert.
0:41:31 > 0:41:36At first glance, the books appear to contain no shortage of sound advice,
0:41:36 > 0:41:40like John Gerard's recommendation against planting deadly nightshade.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04These medical books made their way into the Tudor home
0:42:04 > 0:42:07where they would have played a pivotal role in everyday life...
0:42:07 > 0:42:09or death.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13They are there to help people in the absence of a doctor.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17They're, sort of, called things like Every Man His Own Physician.
0:42:17 > 0:42:22And they may be set out by body parts, so therefore you just simply
0:42:22 > 0:42:26leaf your way through and find something that's wrong with you.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30But the medical tomes weren't necessarily the wonderful cure-alls
0:42:30 > 0:42:32they first appeared to be.
0:42:32 > 0:42:37Some of the recipes found in their pages seem very odd today.
0:42:37 > 0:42:40This is Andrew Boorde's Breviary Of Health, a medical treatise
0:42:40 > 0:42:43that was something of a bestseller in the 16th century.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45And it includes all sorts of remedies,
0:42:45 > 0:42:48including this one here for the palsy.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52So it says, "Take a fox with all the skin and all the body quartered
0:42:52 > 0:42:56"and with the heart, liver and lungs and the fatness of the entrails,
0:42:56 > 0:42:57"stones and kidneys,
0:42:57 > 0:43:02"steepeth it long in running water with calamint balm and caraways
0:43:02 > 0:43:05"and bathe the patient in the water of it,
0:43:05 > 0:43:08"and the smell of a fox is good for the palsy."
0:43:11 > 0:43:16To the Tudors, cures like this were rooted in perfectly reasonable ideas
0:43:16 > 0:43:19about the body and disease.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21A living thing, something that has been alive
0:43:21 > 0:43:24has what's called an animus, a living spirit.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28And so if part of you is withered, dying,
0:43:28 > 0:43:32then it makes a perfect logical sense to use something
0:43:32 > 0:43:35from something that's been alive and restore the spirit to yourself.
0:43:35 > 0:43:40Cures incorporating the blood and bacteria-ridden guts of an animal
0:43:40 > 0:43:45stood a high chance of being fatal if applied to an open wound.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49Like this remedy for a sexually transmitted disease.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54Nicholas Culpeper's 1618 herbal has a remedy for the clap,
0:43:54 > 0:43:58which is to kill a chicken and while it's still warm
0:43:58 > 0:44:01to dip your privy parts in it, to soothe and calm.
0:44:04 > 0:44:07But there was a basic problem with all the cures.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11they were all based on a fundamental misunderstanding.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17The trouble with all the recipes and cures in the home manuals
0:44:17 > 0:44:19is that they are pre-scientific.
0:44:19 > 0:44:21The Tudors simply didn't know about the bacterial pathogens
0:44:21 > 0:44:24that cause infection and disease.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27Their theory of the body was of the four humours.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31Four key fluids that needed to be kept in balance to remain healthy.
0:44:31 > 0:44:33Disease was simply thought to be a result of
0:44:33 > 0:44:35an imbalance of the humours.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38Nowadays we know that there's no scientific basis for that at all,
0:44:38 > 0:44:41but if you've got a theory of disease that's simply wrong,
0:44:41 > 0:44:43how can you cure it?
0:44:45 > 0:44:47Unfortunately for the Tudors,
0:44:47 > 0:44:51they believed they were following sound medical advice.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54These are scientific men, leaders of the medical world
0:44:54 > 0:44:57writing these texts and the danger is then
0:44:57 > 0:44:59that they become effectively gospel.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03The knowledge in the books would have been perceived
0:45:03 > 0:45:06as being at the cutting edge of medicine.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10And the recipes endured for so long because really effective treatments
0:45:10 > 0:45:13for infectious disease were still hundreds of years away.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21Part of the problem was that no-one had seen inside the body
0:45:21 > 0:45:22for centuries.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26Human dissection had been banned throughout the Middle Ages.
0:45:26 > 0:45:31But in the 1540s, Henry VIII allowed surgeons to use the bodies
0:45:31 > 0:45:34of those hanged at the gallows for their medical research.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39Detailed studies of human anatomy became widely available
0:45:39 > 0:45:43for the first time, marking the beginnings of scientific enquiry
0:45:43 > 0:45:45into the body.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49But they didn't come soon enough to help with our next problem.
0:45:53 > 0:45:58I'm going upstairs, into the bedroom to find our next hidden killer.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16People are as promiscuous in the past as they are today.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20It's certainly socially frowned upon and all the printed literature
0:46:20 > 0:46:23and all the religious literature and all the morality says
0:46:23 > 0:46:26you shouldn't do it, but people still do it.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30You've only got to look at the court cases and the illegitimacy records
0:46:30 > 0:46:34and the bastardy bonds to see how many illegitimate children
0:46:34 > 0:46:36were being born as a result of unmarried sex.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43Children weren't the only consequences of such activities.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49In 1497, a disease was recorded in the British Isles
0:46:49 > 0:46:51for the first time.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55And its route in seemed to be via the most intimate of acts
0:46:55 > 0:46:57in the most private place in the home...
0:46:57 > 0:46:59the bedroom.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04Hospitals were being deluged with people suffering from a disease
0:47:04 > 0:47:06they'd never seen before.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09William Clowes, a doctor in London,
0:47:09 > 0:47:14noted that every other patient at his hospital had the same symptoms.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28William Clowes produced a medical treatise
0:47:28 > 0:47:30describing the symptoms of the disease.
0:47:30 > 0:47:35So he talks about it producing "pains or aches, ulcers, nodes
0:47:35 > 0:47:39"and foul scabs with corruption of the bones."
0:47:39 > 0:47:43Then he goes on here and talks about "venomous pustules,
0:47:43 > 0:47:47"scabs upon the forehead, brows, face and beard,"
0:47:47 > 0:47:50as about the secret parts.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53Its cause, he says, was that it was "a pestilent infection
0:47:53 > 0:47:55"of filthy lust."
0:47:55 > 0:47:59A sickness "very loathesome, odious, troublesome and dangerous.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02"A notable testimony of the just wrath of God."
0:48:05 > 0:48:08We now know that in fact, these horrific symptoms
0:48:08 > 0:48:14were caused by a virulent bacterial infection which we call syphilis
0:48:16 > 0:48:19While they may not have understood its bacterial origin,
0:48:19 > 0:48:22the Tudors knew enough to link its progress to sex.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26The symptoms are very manifest.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30And to a society that's obsessed with signs and symptoms,
0:48:30 > 0:48:33it's very clear to them how this has come about.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39The first stage gives the characteristic boils
0:48:39 > 0:48:41and marks on the sexual organs.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44So it's seen as a result of sin, of promiscuity.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49Many Tudor towns had their bawdy house or brothel,
0:48:49 > 0:48:52and these certainly aided the spread of the disease.
0:48:58 > 0:49:00Errant husbands carried the infection
0:49:00 > 0:49:05right back into the heart of the home as a poem of the time warns.
0:49:26 > 0:49:30Whatever the source of infection the association with illicit sex
0:49:30 > 0:49:33meant a sufferer was certain to become a social outcast.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40It carried a terrible stigma if you had syphilis scars,
0:49:40 > 0:49:44then you were seen as a sinner, you were seen as a prostitute,
0:49:44 > 0:49:46you were branded a syphilitic whore.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50Consequently, the telltale signs of syphilis
0:49:50 > 0:49:53were sometimes cleverly disguised.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57It was a real stigma to have damage to your nose
0:49:57 > 0:49:58because people knew immediately
0:49:58 > 0:50:02that you must have late stages of syphilis.
0:50:02 > 0:50:06And so they even made wooden and metal false noses so that
0:50:06 > 0:50:09people could try and cover up the damage that syphilis had done.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11So, you must have really thought...
0:50:11 > 0:50:14Here, in the Museum of London's bioarchaeology department
0:50:14 > 0:50:17there's further evidence of the impact of the disease
0:50:17 > 0:50:19on the city's population.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25Some of the treatises I've looked at from the 16th century talk about
0:50:25 > 0:50:27things like ulcers in the head and on the corners of the mouth
0:50:27 > 0:50:28and things like that.
0:50:28 > 0:50:30Do you ever come across anything like that?
0:50:30 > 0:50:33Yeah, we do. We have an individual here that we can see
0:50:33 > 0:50:36from their skull that they're actually showing these lesions
0:50:36 > 0:50:39that we would identify as being associated with venereal syphilis.
0:50:39 > 0:50:43You can see here that's incredibly destructive.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45And if you imagine this poor soul being alive
0:50:45 > 0:50:48and there's so much of it eaten away - it's horrific.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51It must have been absolutely horrendous because you've got
0:50:51 > 0:50:55those changes that we can then see, obviously, now in the dry bone.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58But then you would've had the changes that would then be
0:50:58 > 0:51:02expressed in the soft tissues in the skin as sores.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04We might see the infection affecting your eye,
0:51:04 > 0:51:06which then can lead to blindness.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09Or also then, sort of, around the nasal area and then you can destroy
0:51:09 > 0:51:13the soft tissues of that part of your face, as well.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16The bones show how sufferers could have lived with syphilis
0:51:16 > 0:51:20for decades. The bacteria slowly eating away
0:51:20 > 0:51:21different parts of the body.
0:51:23 > 0:51:28And with so many victims, a lot of effort went into finding a remedy.
0:51:28 > 0:51:29The problem was -
0:51:29 > 0:51:34all too often the so-called cures could also finish you off.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37This little volume by Clowes is full of all sorts of remedies
0:51:37 > 0:51:39for dealing with syphilis.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43Page after page suggest different cures which indicates somewhat
0:51:43 > 0:51:45that none of them worked.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49And after 40 or 50 pages of these various cures,
0:51:49 > 0:51:52Clowes identifies one more, he says -
0:51:52 > 0:51:56"This is for the curation of the disease called the French pox."
0:51:56 > 0:52:00And it's called 'quicksilver', that is mercury.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04Mercury had long been thought of as a useful treatment
0:52:04 > 0:52:08for skin conditions because it seemed to have a beneficial effect.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12From around the 1300s it had been used to treat skin complaints.
0:52:12 > 0:52:17So whether it was psoriasis, or leprosy or any sort of infection,
0:52:17 > 0:52:19they would put mercury on it.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22And so when they saw that people with syphilis
0:52:22 > 0:52:24were developing skin lesions they thought they would use
0:52:24 > 0:52:27the usual treatment for skin lesions which was mercury.
0:52:28 > 0:52:32Mercury can be administered in all manner of different ways.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34A man's penis can be injected with mercury.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38There is, sort of, what you might think of as, a bit of,
0:52:38 > 0:52:42adulterated underpants which have been dipped in mercury.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45You can put those on, and that would do it.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49It may have had an affect locally on the area that was being treated.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52But of course we know that the initial chancre,
0:52:52 > 0:52:55the first sign of syphilis, would actually heal up
0:52:55 > 0:52:58and go on its own anyway within several weeks.
0:52:58 > 0:53:00And so perhaps after several weeks of mercury treatment,
0:53:00 > 0:53:03if the skin lesion had gone, they would assume it was
0:53:03 > 0:53:06because of the mercury rather than the natural course of the disease.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11Some of the ways Tudor doctors applied mercury to the body
0:53:11 > 0:53:13were ingenious.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16I took one of the more complex recipes to a specialist laboratory
0:53:16 > 0:53:18to analyse its make-up.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23Baxter's Cream was a blend of...
0:53:29 > 0:53:32We mixed it together and...
0:53:32 > 0:53:37surprisingly it actually formed a nice...even suspension.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40We were expecting to see globules of elemental mercury
0:53:40 > 0:53:45but in fact it ended up being a nice, silver cream...which is shown here.
0:53:45 > 0:53:47Wow.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51In the final concentration, it contains 35% of elemental mercury.
0:53:51 > 0:53:5335%?
0:53:53 > 0:53:56Yes. So huge concentrations.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59Why didn't they just put mercury straight onto the skin?
0:53:59 > 0:54:01You couldn't apply elemental mercury to the skin
0:54:01 > 0:54:03because it would just fall off.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10So this was a method of putting mercury into a cream
0:54:10 > 0:54:13and then to actually put this on the skin
0:54:13 > 0:54:15to treat the lesions from the syphilis.
0:54:15 > 0:54:16So this is actually very clever.
0:54:16 > 0:54:20So they've made a way of making a cream so that, actually,
0:54:20 > 0:54:24mercury could be absorbed into it and then rubbed into the skin.
0:54:24 > 0:54:29Yes. And it also tells us that they are able to make a cream...
0:54:29 > 0:54:32which can be applied to the skin to give the same concentration
0:54:32 > 0:54:34of pure elemental mercury vapour.
0:54:34 > 0:54:36They knew what they were doing?
0:54:36 > 0:54:39Yes, they did, yeah, it's incredible that they knew how to do that.
0:54:39 > 0:54:40Would it have had an impact?
0:54:40 > 0:54:43Well, elemental mercury doesn't actually
0:54:43 > 0:54:45diffuse through the skin very quickly.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48About 1% of this cream would go through the skin.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51But the main hazards are actually due to the inhalation.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57That's why we can't take the mercury cream out of a sealed container -
0:54:57 > 0:54:58it's lethal.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03When we measure the concentration of mercury vapour
0:55:03 > 0:55:05coming from the cream,
0:55:05 > 0:55:06it's off the scale.
0:55:06 > 0:55:08At a body temperature, say,
0:55:08 > 0:55:12of around 34 to 37 degrees centigrade that would have released
0:55:12 > 0:55:18a gas phase concentration of about 50mg per meter cubed.
0:55:18 > 0:55:24And the work room air limit that we can tolerate today is 0.02.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28So that's over 2,500 times more concentrated.
0:55:28 > 0:55:29Wow, that's extraordinary!
0:55:29 > 0:55:32So even if you weren't afflicted,
0:55:32 > 0:55:34being in the room, administering the treatment,
0:55:34 > 0:55:35would have been hazardous.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39Mercury typically affects the nervous system
0:55:39 > 0:55:45and so it can cause pins and needles, numbness in the hands
0:55:45 > 0:55:47and it can affect all of the nerves.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52You could start to lose your sense of balance
0:55:52 > 0:55:56and not be able to tell exactly where you are in relation to the world.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59But then once it starts to affect the rest of the nervous system,
0:55:59 > 0:56:02it can get to the brain, and it can cause dementia,
0:56:02 > 0:56:05memory loss, convulsions, and then even death.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09So while Tudors showed great invention,
0:56:09 > 0:56:11they were actually making the bedroom itself
0:56:11 > 0:56:16a deadly chemical trap, filling it with poisonous vapours.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18They would use great doses of it.
0:56:18 > 0:56:20So much so, actually, that one doctor said
0:56:20 > 0:56:23that after examining the bone of someone who died of syphilis
0:56:23 > 0:56:27he could see quicksilver quivering underneath it.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35And amazingly even today, historians can't agree
0:56:35 > 0:56:38on where syphilis came from.
0:56:38 > 0:56:39There are a couple of theories.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42One, that Christopher Columbus brought syphilis back
0:56:42 > 0:56:46from the New World and that was the first time it had been introduced
0:56:46 > 0:56:48to Europe and that's why it suddenly appeared.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51But another suggestion is that there was some mutation
0:56:51 > 0:56:53in the bacterium around that time.
0:56:53 > 0:56:56It suddenly became much more virulent and destructive
0:56:56 > 0:57:00and caused this severe disease that suddenly appeared.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02So nobody really knows.
0:57:04 > 0:57:10There would be no effective cure for syphilis until centuries later
0:57:10 > 0:57:12with the advent of antibiotics.
0:57:15 > 0:57:18To treat syphilis properly, and all infection,
0:57:18 > 0:57:22doctors first needed an accurate understanding of the body,
0:57:22 > 0:57:24and a better theory of disease.
0:57:25 > 0:57:27They needed equipment.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30The first microscopes, for example, were developed in the last decade
0:57:30 > 0:57:32of the Tudor period.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45Without a doubt, the Tudor century witnessed a revolution
0:57:45 > 0:57:49in the way people lived their lives.
0:57:49 > 0:57:53The changes that took place created the Tudor house we know today
0:57:53 > 0:57:56with its picturesque beams and fireplaces.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04New technologies had transformed the fundamental nature of domestic life.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10And had started to usher in the Modern Age.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20As with any period of change there were dangers, some of which
0:58:20 > 0:58:24took centuries to expose and some of which are with us still.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27Their roots firmly located in the Tudor age.