0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains very strong language.
0:00:05 > 0:00:08In December 1441, a 19-year-old woman named Margaret Paston
0:00:08 > 0:00:11was staying with her mother-in-law here in Norfolk.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16Her young husband was away in London,
0:00:16 > 0:00:18and she wrote to ask him to buy her a new girdle,
0:00:18 > 0:00:21a decorated belt to wear over her gown.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24She said ruefully, that she'd grown so shapely
0:00:24 > 0:00:28only one of the girdles she already owned would still fit round her.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32But there was a good reason for her changing shape.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35She was six months pregnant with her first baby.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40And that meant Margaret, like all other expectant mothers
0:00:40 > 0:00:43in the medieval world, was about to face the greatest danger
0:00:43 > 0:00:45she would probably ever encounter.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50She knew she'd need help in facing it,
0:00:50 > 0:00:54but the help she'd need wasn't the presence of doctors,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56it was the presence of God.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00They say the past is another country,
0:01:00 > 0:01:03they do things differently there.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06But just how differently did the medieval world approach
0:01:06 > 0:01:12life's great rites of passage - birth, marriage and death?
0:01:15 > 0:01:19The way we handle these fundamental moments of transition in our lives
0:01:19 > 0:01:22reveals a lot about how we think and what we believe in.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26For the people of the Middle Ages, this life mattered,
0:01:26 > 0:01:28but the next one mattered more.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31Heaven and Hell were real places,
0:01:31 > 0:01:34and the teachings of the Catholic Church
0:01:34 > 0:01:37shaped thoughts and beliefs across the whole of Western Europe.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42But by the end of the Middle Ages, the Church would find itself
0:01:42 > 0:01:44in the grip of momentous change,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47and the rituals of birth, marriage and death
0:01:47 > 0:01:50would never be quite the same again.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05For medieval women approaching the moment of labour and birth,
0:02:05 > 0:02:07like 19-year-old Margaret Paston,
0:02:07 > 0:02:11there were no antiseptics to ward off infection
0:02:11 > 0:02:13or anaesthetics to deal with pain.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17And male doctors were not allowed into the female space
0:02:17 > 0:02:19of the birthing room.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24What Margaret knew was that the pains of labour
0:02:24 > 0:02:27were the penalty for the original sin of humankind.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31So, to get through them, she needed the help of the saints
0:02:31 > 0:02:33and the blessing of God himself.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38So what was the medieval way of birth?
0:02:48 > 0:02:50Margaret was a member of the Paston family.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58They came from Paston village and by the 15th century,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01they had estates across north-eastern Norfolk,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04as well as a fine townhouse in Norwich.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12And they lived in one of the richest
0:03:12 > 0:03:14and most cosmopolitan parts of the country.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18Norwich was late medieval England's second city.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20But they weren't aristocrats.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23They were as ordinary, or extraordinary,
0:03:23 > 0:03:25as any other well-to-do family.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29But what makes them unique, and why we know so much about them,
0:03:29 > 0:03:32is that we still have their letters.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38It's a remarkable stroke of luck that we have them,
0:03:38 > 0:03:42because almost no private letters survive from this period.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45Most of the Paston Letters have ended up here,
0:03:45 > 0:03:49in the British Library, and they form the earliest great collection
0:03:49 > 0:03:52of private correspondence in the English language.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58More than a thousand documents survive,
0:03:58 > 0:04:01spanning three generations of the family.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04We don't know what the Pastons looked like,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07and most of the houses they lived in are long gone,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10but thanks to their letters, we can still hear their voices.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14I've been working on the letters for 25 years,
0:04:14 > 0:04:17but because they've been in print for a long time,
0:04:17 > 0:04:20I very rarely get to see the real thing,
0:04:20 > 0:04:22so this is thrilling,
0:04:22 > 0:04:25because the Pastons feel like my medieval family.
0:04:26 > 0:04:31That's because these letters give us glimpses of a human experience
0:04:31 > 0:04:33that speaks across the centuries.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38Today, birth is openly discussed.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43We go to classes to prepare for it, it's debated in the media,
0:04:43 > 0:04:47and childbirth even appears on television as entertainment.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53But in the Middle Ages, birth was a much more private experience.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56So we're very lucky to have one surviving letter
0:04:56 > 0:04:59in which Margaret Paston talks about her first pregnancy.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03Margaret wrote this letter at the point
0:05:03 > 0:05:05when her pregnancy was becoming public knowledge.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10She was getting so big, which is why she needed a new girdle,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13that she couldn't keep the news secret any longer.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16"I may no longer live by my craft," she says.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18"I am discovered of all men that see me."
0:05:20 > 0:05:23By now, of course, her pregnancy was completely certain,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25but it wouldn't have been for some time.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27There were no pregnancy tests,
0:05:27 > 0:05:29so women had to rely on physical symptoms,
0:05:29 > 0:05:32which would then be confirmed by the "quickening",
0:05:32 > 0:05:35the point at about four months when the mother could feel the baby
0:05:35 > 0:05:37moving in the womb for the first time.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41Margaret clearly wants her husband home with her.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43"You have left me such a remembrance," she says,
0:05:43 > 0:05:45"that makes me to think upon you
0:05:45 > 0:05:48"both day and night when I would sleep."
0:05:48 > 0:05:51Anyone who's ever been pregnant will know that feeling all too well.
0:05:54 > 0:05:55But that's all we know.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00There are no other details in the letters, literally nothing,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03to tell us what her experience of labour and delivery were.
0:06:05 > 0:06:06And that's because, in medieval England,
0:06:06 > 0:06:10the process of birth was hidden behind closed doors.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16The experience of this fundamental rite of passage
0:06:16 > 0:06:19was very rarely written into the historical record.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23So to get a glimpse of this hidden history,
0:06:23 > 0:06:25to open the door into the medieval birth chamber,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29we have to piece together fragmentary clues.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35And we can start with one small group of women
0:06:35 > 0:06:39whose experience of birth has left its mark in the pages of history.
0:06:44 > 0:06:45Royal women.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50Because when a queen gives birth, it isn't just a personal matter,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53it's a matter of national importance.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57After all, a royal baby might grow up to rule the country.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01And the significance of a royal birth was never greater
0:07:01 > 0:07:03than when a dynasty hung in the balance.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10In 1485, after years of civil war in England,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13known as the Wars of the Roses, Henry VII had won the crown
0:07:13 > 0:07:15and married Elizabeth of York.
0:07:17 > 0:07:22But to ensure a peaceful future they needed a baby - an heir.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26So now, at the age of just 20,
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Elizabeth was pregnant for the first time,
0:07:29 > 0:07:33and the future of this brand-new dynasty rested on her shoulders.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Everyone - king, queen and country -
0:07:36 > 0:07:40was well aware of the significance of this imminent birth.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43Three weeks earlier,
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Elizabeth and Henry had moved their court to Winchester,
0:07:45 > 0:07:47the ancient capital of England,
0:07:47 > 0:07:50which was thought to be the site of Camelot,
0:07:50 > 0:07:53the legendary court of the heroic King Arthur.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57And it was the birth of a new royal Arthur
0:07:57 > 0:08:00for which England was now waiting.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06Just before the baby was due, an elaborate service was held
0:08:06 > 0:08:09here in the ancient cathedral.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11This was the ritual through which the Church
0:08:11 > 0:08:15asked God's blessing on a woman approaching her confinement.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20And Elizabeth, like Margaret Paston half a century earlier,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24knew that God's help would be vital for the ordeal that lay ahead,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27because no matter how powerful you were in life,
0:08:27 > 0:08:30birth in the Middle Ages was a dangerous business.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39Elizabeth was led in a magnificent procession to attend Mass
0:08:39 > 0:08:43here in the cathedral, surrounded by the lords and ladies of the court.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47And then, with the prayers of the assembled company
0:08:47 > 0:08:51ringing in her ears, she withdrew into her inner chamber,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54and the curtain was drawn across the door.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00The next time she emerged, if she survived, she would be a mother.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06These days, if we talk about a confinement,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09we mean the actual process of childbirth.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12For a medieval woman, like Elizabeth,
0:09:12 > 0:09:14its meaning was much more literal.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19A few weeks before the birth was expected to take place,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Elizabeth "took to her chamber".
0:09:22 > 0:09:25From this point onward, tradition dictated that she would be
0:09:25 > 0:09:30attended only by women, because men were banned from the birthing room.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36The inner chamber was smothered in tapestries,
0:09:36 > 0:09:38and only one window was left accessible
0:09:38 > 0:09:40to let in a sliver of light.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44Letting in too much light, it was believed,
0:09:44 > 0:09:48might damage the baby or strain the eyes of the labouring mother.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52The tapestries were richly patterned,
0:09:52 > 0:09:54but they didn't depict dramatic scenes
0:09:54 > 0:09:57which might upset a woman in labour.
0:09:57 > 0:09:58As one contemporary said,
0:09:58 > 0:10:03"Imagery is not convenient about women in such case."
0:10:03 > 0:10:06The floor was laid over and over with carpets,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09and the effect was to make the whole room almost womb-like.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13Dark, warm, quiet and enclosed.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22But all the comforts a royal treasury could provide
0:10:22 > 0:10:25couldn't protect Elizabeth from the dangers of childbirth,
0:10:25 > 0:10:28so she'd need spiritual comfort too.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32Holy relics stood ready on an altar
0:10:32 > 0:10:34to bring the protection of the saints
0:10:34 > 0:10:36for what she now had to face.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41At this point in contemporary accounts of Elizabeth's labour,
0:10:41 > 0:10:45the doors of the birthing chamber are firmly closed.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48The next we hear is that at about one in the morning
0:10:48 > 0:10:51on the 20th September 1486,
0:10:51 > 0:10:55Elizabeth of York gave birth to a boy, the first Tudor heir.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59And this baby, born in "Camelot", was named Arthur.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05And with the birth of this little boy came the birth of a dynasty,
0:11:05 > 0:11:09one of the most famous in English history - the Tudors.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13The royal couple had invoked God's help before and during the delivery,
0:11:13 > 0:11:17but the Church's influence on birth began much earlier,
0:11:17 > 0:11:19before the baby had even been conceived.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25For rich and poor, the great and the humble,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28the Church shaped ideas not just about birth,
0:11:28 > 0:11:30but about how birth came about.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34And that meant sex and the workings of the female body.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39And there were two women who dominated the Church's teaching
0:11:39 > 0:11:41on the subject of birth.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44Mary, the Virgin Mother of Christ,
0:11:44 > 0:11:49and Eve, the mother of mankind, who was most definitely not a virgin.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55This divided image of womanhood had a huge impact
0:11:55 > 0:11:58on the way medieval people understood the process of birth.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03And the Church's teaching was communicated not just through
0:12:03 > 0:12:06the sermons people heard in church every Sunday,
0:12:06 > 0:12:10but through the pictures they saw on church walls all around them.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15Once, every medieval church was covered in paintings
0:12:15 > 0:12:18designed to help people understand their faith.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22Now this church, St Agatha's at Easby in Yorkshire,
0:12:22 > 0:12:24is a rare survivor.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29This 13th-century painting depicts the Old Testament story of Creation
0:12:29 > 0:12:32which was crucial to the Church's attitude to birth,
0:12:32 > 0:12:35because birth could only ever follow sex,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38and sex was tainted by the Fall.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42Everyone knew the story of Eve.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45She was created out of Adam's rib to be his companion.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47But when she gave in to the serpent
0:12:47 > 0:12:50and took the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge,
0:12:50 > 0:12:53she caused the Fall from the Garden of Eden
0:12:53 > 0:12:55and brought shame to mankind.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01So women, the daughters of Eve, were weak in the face of temptation
0:13:01 > 0:13:04and driven by unruly sexual appetites.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07As the disapproving angel in this painting makes clear,
0:13:07 > 0:13:11they were a constant threat to the higher spiritual values of men.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18There were some in the Church who saw "godly" sex in marriage
0:13:18 > 0:13:22as a joyous thing, but many saw it as a necessary evil.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25All believed it should be confined to marriage
0:13:25 > 0:13:27and intended for the purpose of procreation.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31And the Church could be very prescriptive
0:13:31 > 0:13:34when it came to restraining this most basic of human urges.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38If we put together all the various rules
0:13:38 > 0:13:40in early medieval penitentials -
0:13:40 > 0:13:42handbooks for priests taking confession -
0:13:42 > 0:13:45people would have found themselves forbidden to have sex
0:13:45 > 0:13:49during Lent, Advent, Whitsun week and Easter week,
0:13:49 > 0:13:51on feast days and fast days,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays,
0:13:54 > 0:13:56or on their wedding night.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00And you couldn't have sex during pregnancy, menstruation
0:14:00 > 0:14:03or breastfeeding, during daylight, if you were naked,
0:14:03 > 0:14:08or, perhaps easier to follow this one, if you were in church.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13But there were ways in which the Church's teaching on sex
0:14:13 > 0:14:17potentially had a more positive impact.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20It was believed that men and women both had to produce seed
0:14:20 > 0:14:22in order to conceive,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24so godly sex, for the purpose of procreation,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27meant that women needed to have an orgasm.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33It seems unlikely that anyone ever actually followed
0:14:33 > 0:14:36the Church's detailed prescriptions about sex to the letter.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39But what's certain is that women continued to get pregnant.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45And when they did, the Church told them to expect a world of pain.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51In the Book of Genesis, God thundered at Eve,
0:14:51 > 0:14:55"I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57"In sorrow, thou shalt bring forth children."
0:14:59 > 0:15:02In other words, the risks and the pains of pregnancy and birth
0:15:02 > 0:15:05were direct consequences of the Fall,
0:15:05 > 0:15:08and all women inherited this burden of shame.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15So while children might be a blessing,
0:15:15 > 0:15:18the physical process of pregnancy and birth
0:15:18 > 0:15:20was one of suffering caused by sin.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26That knowledge can't have helped Margaret Paston's nerves
0:15:26 > 0:15:29as she waited to deliver her first child.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33But would she find any more help in the medical world?
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Oxford has been a university town since the Middle Ages,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45but back then, all academic study was pursued
0:15:45 > 0:15:48within the cloistered world of the Church.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51So the people who studied medicine were themselves clerics.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57So at the heart of the medical understanding of conception,
0:15:57 > 0:16:00pregnancy and birth, was a deep irony.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05These ideas were the preserve of men, who, in theory at least,
0:16:05 > 0:16:09were celibate and would never themselves father children.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14But that didn't mean they weren't fascinated by reproduction.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18Medieval scholars produced over 150 texts
0:16:18 > 0:16:23on the subject of Gynaikeia, the Greek word for "women's matters".
0:16:25 > 0:16:27The basis for many of these was a text
0:16:27 > 0:16:29which became known as the Trotula.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33It was a text which was supposed, uniquely,
0:16:33 > 0:16:38to have been written in part by a female healer in 12th-century Italy,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41and it combines folkloric remedies
0:16:41 > 0:16:43with a more academic understanding of birth.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48Many English versions of the Trotula texts were made in the Middle Ages,
0:16:48 > 0:16:51and this brilliant manuscript is one of them,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54now kept here in the Royal College of Surgeons.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57Some of the chapters deal generally with women's health,
0:16:57 > 0:17:01but some relate specifically to conception and birth,
0:17:01 > 0:17:05including this one about an art that's been lost to modern science -
0:17:05 > 0:17:06how to choose the sex of your baby.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10"If she desire to have a man-child,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13"they must take the womb of a hare and the cunt
0:17:13 > 0:17:17"and dry it, powder it and drink it with wine.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20"If the woman desire to have a maid-child,
0:17:20 > 0:17:24"let her dry the stones of a hare," the testicles,
0:17:24 > 0:17:26"and do the same thing."
0:17:26 > 0:17:28I'm not entirely sure this would work,
0:17:28 > 0:17:30but at least wine was involved.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34So, thanks to texts like the Trotula,
0:17:34 > 0:17:36among academics, at least,
0:17:36 > 0:17:39there was a received wisdom about conception and childbirth.
0:17:39 > 0:17:44And it's possible to get a sense of that from an encyclopaedia
0:17:44 > 0:17:47that was compiled in the 13th century by a friar
0:17:47 > 0:17:51named Bartholomeus Anglicus - Bartholomew of England.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55He started his career here in Oxford before travelling to Europe
0:17:55 > 0:17:57where he wrote his encyclopaedia.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02It still serves as a wonderful handbook of medieval thought.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05So he says in his chapter on babies,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08"The little child is conceived and bred of seeds
0:18:08 > 0:18:11"with contrary qualities, and he is fed and nourished
0:18:11 > 0:18:15"in the mother's womb with blood menstrual of so vile matter
0:18:15 > 0:18:16"and unstable,
0:18:16 > 0:18:20"man taketh his nourishing and feeding from the beginning."
0:18:23 > 0:18:24Men like Bartholomew were relying
0:18:24 > 0:18:27on the most authoritative medical texts available,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31but they were based on very little contact with women
0:18:31 > 0:18:34and very little real understanding of how women's bodies worked.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38And that male perspective on medieval women
0:18:38 > 0:18:42is revealed in an amazing manuscript known as the Wellcome Apocalypse.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49I went to see it at the Wellcome Collection in London,
0:18:49 > 0:18:54with the female expert on medieval medicine, Carole Rawcliffe.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57..15th century. It's a sort of manual for life and death,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00because it takes you from the end of the world, through how to die,
0:19:00 > 0:19:05through knowledge about the body, and then into vice and virtue.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09And like Bartholomew, it has theology and medicine
0:19:09 > 0:19:11all in one package?
0:19:11 > 0:19:14You can't separate them in this period, it's impossible to do that,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18bearing in mind of course that many physicians are priests.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20Am I right in thinking from all that,
0:19:20 > 0:19:22that the right way to be was to be male?
0:19:22 > 0:19:25Women are seen as rather botched and bungled versions of men
0:19:25 > 0:19:28from this standpoint. It's a very male one, you know!
0:19:28 > 0:19:29Physically and intellectually?
0:19:29 > 0:19:31Physically and intellectually,
0:19:31 > 0:19:33because they're not developing as well as men.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38This is an extraordinary diagram of the female body.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41Could you just help me understand how it works?
0:19:41 > 0:19:45Women are effectively men inside out,
0:19:45 > 0:19:48so their organs haven't developed outside their body.
0:19:48 > 0:19:53And so the vagina, which is here, is an inverted penis and so on.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57You're really looking at a set of reproductive organs
0:19:57 > 0:19:59that haven't developed properly,
0:19:59 > 0:20:02that mark women as being inferior beings.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06- Ovaries which are, presumably, instead of testicles?- Yes, yes.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12And there's a real sense too that women are not only imperfect
0:20:12 > 0:20:15but also unclean.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18Bartholomew refers to menstrual blood as "vile matter",
0:20:18 > 0:20:21even though it's what the foetus is nourished by.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24The idea evolves that women are poisonous
0:20:24 > 0:20:27or slightly toxic at this time.
0:20:27 > 0:20:31Her gaze, for example, can make fruit die,
0:20:31 > 0:20:35tarnish mirrors and even killing children in cots,
0:20:35 > 0:20:37which, you know, explains cot death.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40But this is coming to us from clergy,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44and ordinary people who knocked around in ordinary life
0:20:44 > 0:20:47would not necessarily have ideas like this.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51What happens then when we get to the point of birth?
0:20:51 > 0:20:55There's all this sophisticated knowledge analysis of anatomy,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58of conception and how the whole thing works -
0:20:58 > 0:21:02is the door of the birthing room shut to male physicians?
0:21:02 > 0:21:05The actual hands-on business in the birth chamber
0:21:05 > 0:21:09was largely a female one, and it was a matter of decorum
0:21:09 > 0:21:12to leave it to women, because many of these people are priests,
0:21:12 > 0:21:14so it's not something that they should be dealing with.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19Given the limitations of medical knowledge
0:21:19 > 0:21:23and the fact male doctors wouldn't even enter the birthing room,
0:21:23 > 0:21:27women were on their own when it came to giving birth.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31It was direct experience, experience from within the delivery room,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34that shaped women's views of birth.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37And some of those experiences could be extreme and traumatic.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42One woman who knew that more than most
0:21:42 > 0:21:45was King Henry VII's mother, Margaret Beaufort.
0:21:45 > 0:21:51In 1455, Margaret Beaufort, heiress to a powerful Lancastrian dynasty,
0:21:51 > 0:21:56was married at the age of 12 to 26-year-old Edmund Tudor.
0:21:58 > 0:22:0212 was the earliest age at which the Church allowed girls to marry,
0:22:02 > 0:22:04but even then it was considered young
0:22:04 > 0:22:06to be married in the fullest sense,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09so consummation was often put off for a couple of years
0:22:09 > 0:22:12to make sure the bride was physically ready.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16But Margaret was such a valuable heiress,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19and her husband so keen to secure his hold on her inheritance,
0:22:19 > 0:22:22that he made her pregnant straightaway.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28If being pregnant at 13 wasn't terrifying enough,
0:22:28 > 0:22:31six months into the pregnancy, her husband, Edmund, died of the plague,
0:22:31 > 0:22:33leaving Margaret a widow.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39When she went into labour, she wasn't yet 14,
0:22:39 > 0:22:44and as a contemporary pointed out... "Not a woman of great stature.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47"She was so much smaller at that stage."
0:22:49 > 0:22:51It was a traumatic delivery,
0:22:51 > 0:22:56but Margaret did give birth to a healthy boy, the future Henry VII.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00But despite two more marriages, she never conceived again,
0:23:00 > 0:23:04and it seems likely that this labour, at such a young age,
0:23:04 > 0:23:06left her irreparably damaged.
0:23:09 > 0:23:1240 years later, Margaret found herself in a position
0:23:12 > 0:23:16to influence the proposed marriage of her nine-year-old granddaughter
0:23:16 > 0:23:19to the 18-year-old King James IV of Scotland.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25Because of her own experience, Margaret argued against the match.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29Her views are made very clear in a letter by her son, Henry VII.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34"My mother is very much against this marriage.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37"If the marriage were concluded, we should be obliged to send
0:23:37 > 0:23:40"the princess directly to Scotland.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43"In which case, they fear the King of Scots would not wait
0:23:43 > 0:23:46"but injure her and endanger her health."
0:23:51 > 0:23:55So, who did women have to turn to in traumatic deliveries?
0:23:56 > 0:24:00Who was there to help them cope with even a straightforward birth?
0:24:00 > 0:24:04The answer was a woman with very particular skills.
0:24:04 > 0:24:05The midwife.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13There's a clue about how important the role of the midwife was
0:24:13 > 0:24:17to labouring women in Margaret Paston's letter to her husband.
0:24:19 > 0:24:20It was a little unnerving
0:24:20 > 0:24:23that the local midwife had a chronically bad back.
0:24:23 > 0:24:28"Elizabeth Peverel hath lain sick 15 or 16 weeks of the sciatica."
0:24:28 > 0:24:30But Margaret had been reassured by a message
0:24:30 > 0:24:32that she would nevertheless...
0:24:32 > 0:24:34"Come hither when God sent time,"
0:24:34 > 0:24:37even if she had to be "pushed in a barrow".
0:24:41 > 0:24:44So what might Elizabeth Peverel have done
0:24:44 > 0:24:46to help Margaret during her labour?
0:24:48 > 0:24:52This image from a 16th-century manual for childbirth,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55called The Birth Of Mankind, of course,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58shows what it calls The Woman's Stoole.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00It's what we might call a birthing stool,
0:25:00 > 0:25:02used to help a woman deliver
0:25:02 > 0:25:04in the sometimes more comfortable upright position,
0:25:04 > 0:25:06rather than lying down.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11And in this one, the woman is supported from behind
0:25:11 > 0:25:16in an embrace familiar to anyone who has attended an ante-natal class.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21These are practical and helpful suggestions for a normal delivery.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25And in the Trotula manuscript in the Royal College of Surgeons,
0:25:25 > 0:25:28there are some other clues about what a midwife might do
0:25:28 > 0:25:30if the situation became more challenging.
0:25:32 > 0:25:37There's a section concerning the delivery of the baby.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39Here...
0:25:39 > 0:25:43we have some wonderful pictures of the various ways
0:25:43 > 0:25:48the foetus might present, with instructions about what to do
0:25:48 > 0:25:51if it's in any of these rather acrobatic positions.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56Here the baby is upside-down, as it should be, but its head
0:25:56 > 0:26:00is... "Too much and too great, so that it can't come out.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02"In which case," the text says,
0:26:02 > 0:26:06"The midwife should anoint her hand with butter or with oil
0:26:06 > 0:26:09"and make the mouth of the privy member's large
0:26:09 > 0:26:12"and bring him out with her hand."
0:26:15 > 0:26:17The manuscript makes it sound straightforward,
0:26:17 > 0:26:21but what would a modern midwife think?
0:26:21 > 0:26:22BABY CRIES
0:26:24 > 0:26:28Janette Allotey is a midwife and chair of Departu,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31a group that studies the history of childbirth.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36When you're reading about medieval midwives,
0:26:36 > 0:26:40is there a huge gulf separating your experience from theirs?
0:26:40 > 0:26:42Or do you feel there are common threads
0:26:42 > 0:26:44stretching over the centuries?
0:26:44 > 0:26:46I think if I was speaking to you now as a midwife,
0:26:46 > 0:26:49I can empathise and I can understand
0:26:49 > 0:26:53where the midwives are coming from when they describe births.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56And, you know, basically,
0:26:56 > 0:26:59women still give birth the same way,
0:26:59 > 0:27:03so the mother would look to the midwife for direction
0:27:03 > 0:27:06and she would be supported by the other women that were there.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10That's the main thing, really - having confidence
0:27:10 > 0:27:13in birth and in the midwife.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16That can be said today as well.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18So the differences between then and now are, perhaps,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21more extreme in the medieval texts
0:27:21 > 0:27:25- than they are in what the midwives were actually doing?- Yes.
0:27:25 > 0:27:30And I think if the midwives could have access to the medieval texts,
0:27:30 > 0:27:33they may disagree with a lot of what was in them.
0:27:33 > 0:27:39The images actually don't bear much of a resemblance of reality.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41Erm...
0:27:41 > 0:27:44the foetuses look like little adults
0:27:44 > 0:27:49and they're in very roomy uteruses, with very thin walls.
0:27:49 > 0:27:54They are totally theoretical examples of what might happen,
0:27:54 > 0:27:56the positions they might get in,
0:27:56 > 0:28:00and also the descriptions of how to manage these foetuses
0:28:00 > 0:28:01in these difficult positions.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05Some of them are not actually very practical at all.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09There is very little detailed instruction on how
0:28:09 > 0:28:11to actually do these things.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13It says you can turn the baby around, push it up,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17move it around, and if you speak to any midwife or obstetrician,
0:28:17 > 0:28:20and they'll say it is not that easy.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22In a baby at term, there is very little room in the uterus,
0:28:22 > 0:28:25and it is a muscle - it's contracting all the time.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28You can't learn midwifery from books.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34Midwives had practical experience,
0:28:34 > 0:28:38but in some difficult births, without the help of modern medicine,
0:28:38 > 0:28:40experience wouldn't be enough.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44Who else could save a labouring woman?
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Once again, the Church stepped in, because God might help
0:28:50 > 0:28:51where man, or woman, couldn't.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00Here in Winchester College, there's a 12th-century manuscript
0:29:00 > 0:29:04which records the miracles that were believed to have happened
0:29:04 > 0:29:07through the intervention of St Thomas Becket.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13After his murder in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170,
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Thomas rapidly became one of the most popular saints in England.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21He was called upon in all sorts of desperate situations.
0:29:23 > 0:29:25And this manuscript offers one of the rare moments
0:29:25 > 0:29:29where we actually catch a glimpse inside the medieval birthing room.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33Here at the beginning of the manuscript
0:29:33 > 0:29:36is a beautiful illumination of the saint himself,
0:29:36 > 0:29:41Thomas Becket, and then page after page in Latin
0:29:41 > 0:29:44of miracles performed through his intervention.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47And the one we are looking for is here.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53It's a story told by a priest called Henry,
0:29:53 > 0:29:57Henricus, who came to Thomas's shrine at Canterbury,
0:29:57 > 0:30:01and there he told brother William about a woman from his parish
0:30:01 > 0:30:04who had had a difficult labour.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07Tellingly, we know the names of both the priests
0:30:07 > 0:30:10but not the woman or the midwives who attended her.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15Henry explains that the baby's head didn't come out first.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18Instead, one arm emerged and then it swelled up
0:30:18 > 0:30:20to the size of a man's leg -
0:30:20 > 0:30:23"grossitudine gambe virilis".
0:30:25 > 0:30:28For a day and night, she laboured in great distress,
0:30:28 > 0:30:32but nothing the midwives could do made a difference.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35In despair, she began to make her will.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39And because her life was in danger, Henry, the priest, was called.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44Priests were literate and might have some medical knowledge,
0:30:44 > 0:30:45but in this case,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49all he could suggest was cutting off the baby's arm.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52Until he remembered that he had some water, aqua,
0:30:52 > 0:30:55from the shrine of Thomas Becket,
0:30:55 > 0:30:57and as soon as the woman drank it,
0:30:57 > 0:31:01the arm disappeared back into the womb, and the baby began to turn.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05When the baby was finally born, it was already dead...
0:31:06 > 0:31:09..but the mother's life was saved,
0:31:09 > 0:31:12and that, in a complex and dangerous birth like this one,
0:31:12 > 0:31:15was a miracle.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21So despite the fact the Church taught that childbirth
0:31:21 > 0:31:23should be painful to pay for Eve's sin,
0:31:23 > 0:31:28one powerful thing it could also do was bring comfort and hope
0:31:28 > 0:31:29into the delivery room.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34And that spiritual reassurance
0:31:34 > 0:31:37could even take the form of physical objects.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43In the Museum of London, there's a jet bowl,
0:31:43 > 0:31:46which is a remarkable survivor from the medieval labour room,
0:31:46 > 0:31:49and it fascinates archaeologist Roberta Gilchrist.
0:31:50 > 0:31:55The material itself of jet was regarded by medieval people
0:31:55 > 0:31:58as holding special properties.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00One of the things that it could do
0:32:00 > 0:32:04was to ease a woman's pain in childbirth.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07And we know that this very, very special material
0:32:07 > 0:32:11wouldn't have been used for ordinary bowls.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14There's no way this is tableware - nothing else survives like this -
0:32:14 > 0:32:18but it was turned on a lathe, like a piece of wood.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20It is very similar to a wooden bowl.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24But the size of this, and the way you can cup it in your hand,
0:32:24 > 0:32:29suggests that this might have been used for even drinking from.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32I think what we have here is a very special thing...
0:32:32 > 0:32:36of an object that's used in childbirth,
0:32:36 > 0:32:40possibly from the kit of a midwife,
0:32:40 > 0:32:42who would have travelled from birth to birth
0:32:42 > 0:32:46and would have used this in the birthing room
0:32:46 > 0:32:49to serve a liquid of some kind to the woman.
0:32:49 > 0:32:54And the liquid would take up the special powers of the jet,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57so she would ingest the jet,
0:32:57 > 0:33:01and this is believed to help her
0:33:01 > 0:33:02with the childbirth.
0:33:02 > 0:33:07This is extraordinary, then, because it's so hard to get inside
0:33:07 > 0:33:10the birthing room in the Middle Ages.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14Does this give us a sense of a wider range of practices
0:33:14 > 0:33:16that midwives would have employed?
0:33:16 > 0:33:20Well, there are all sorts of things that are in organic materials
0:33:20 > 0:33:22that don't survive.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25We know that they would have been using parchment amulets
0:33:25 > 0:33:29and girdles and placing them on the woman.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33They would have been chanting using special charms.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37They would have used other materials like amber,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40and coral would also have been brought in.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43All of these were regarded as natural objects
0:33:43 > 0:33:47with special properties that could help people.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50How would the Church have felt about a bowl like this?
0:33:50 > 0:33:52Would it have disapproved?
0:33:52 > 0:33:55No. This is an interesting thing.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58This is what we call now "natural magic".
0:33:58 > 0:34:01Magic which draws on the properties of the natural world.
0:34:01 > 0:34:05The Church wouldn't have disapproved of natural magic,
0:34:05 > 0:34:11because it can draw on any demonic agency or intermediary agency.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15This would have been regarded as part of God's Creation.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18God creates the universe, God creates animals
0:34:18 > 0:34:21and gemstones and rocks and minerals,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24which are believed to have special properties.
0:34:24 > 0:34:26It is absolutely consistent with the Church.
0:34:30 > 0:34:34So a midwife, with the Church's blessing, might use a jet bowl
0:34:34 > 0:34:37to comfort a frightened woman in labour.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41And that woman would need as much comfort as she could find,
0:34:41 > 0:34:43because she would have no pain relief in childbirth,
0:34:43 > 0:34:47and the possibility of dying was very real.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51Perhaps these fears were preying on Margaret Paston's mind
0:34:51 > 0:34:54as she wrote to her husband, urging him
0:34:54 > 0:34:56to return from London to be by her side.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02"I pray you that you will wear the ring with the image of St Margaret
0:35:02 > 0:35:05"that I sent you for a remembrance till you come home."
0:35:07 > 0:35:09St Margaret was not only her own namesake
0:35:09 > 0:35:13but the patron saint of pregnant women and childbirth.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19We have no way of knowing what Margaret Paston had with her
0:35:19 > 0:35:22for comfort during her labour and birth,
0:35:22 > 0:35:24but it might have been something like this.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29This is a rare and truly remarkable document.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32It's a real privilege to be looking at it.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36It's a 15th-century prayer roll, and on it is a poem
0:35:36 > 0:35:39in French telling the story of St Margaret.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44St Margaret might seem like an odd choice for women in labour.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48She was a virgin martyr who died around the turn of the 4th century,
0:35:48 > 0:35:51but before her martyrdom, she was swallowed by the dragon.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54Here he is in the poem.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57She was then disgorged from the beast's belly
0:35:57 > 0:36:01when the crucifix she was holding got stuck in his throat.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05So the idea was that babies would be born as safely as St Margaret
0:36:05 > 0:36:09had been delivered from the dragon's stomach.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12But the really moving thing about this roll
0:36:12 > 0:36:14is how fragile it is,
0:36:14 > 0:36:16and that's because it was made to be used
0:36:16 > 0:36:19as a birth girdle to be placed around a woman in labour.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23Who knows how many deliveries it's seen,
0:36:23 > 0:36:27but this roll brings us as close as we can get
0:36:27 > 0:36:30to the experience of medieval birth.
0:36:34 > 0:36:39Whatever Margaret Paston did during her labour, it worked.
0:36:39 > 0:36:45She safely gave birth to a baby boy and named him John after his father.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51It might be easy now to dismiss the comfort of a prayer roll,
0:36:51 > 0:36:54a jet bowl or water from a shrine
0:36:54 > 0:36:56as little more than superstition.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00But we shouldn't be too quick to dismiss
0:37:00 > 0:37:04the effects of psychology on the physical process of birth.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15Lucyann Ashdown spent years as a midwife specialising in home births
0:37:15 > 0:37:19and delivered hundreds of babies, one of them mine.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25She is now a priest in rural Wales, and this combined experience
0:37:25 > 0:37:27has given her a clear idea
0:37:27 > 0:37:31of how effective special objects can be during labour.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33Birth is very powerful,
0:37:33 > 0:37:35and it feels as though it's a power outside yourself.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38But it's not...in one way. In one way it is, in another way it isn't.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41And particularly, you know, in the West, we're used
0:37:41 > 0:37:44to having quite a lot of control over our lives.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47Things we don't understand tend to make us feel anxious.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51So even if we're taking a very rational
0:37:51 > 0:37:54and scientific approach to this,
0:37:54 > 0:37:57there is a way in which faith
0:37:57 > 0:38:01could be very practically useful in overcoming fear?
0:38:01 > 0:38:02Definitely.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05We know scientifically, if we are going to use scientific information,
0:38:05 > 0:38:09we know that fear is not good to have around in any high quantities,
0:38:09 > 0:38:12although at the very end for the birthing itself,
0:38:12 > 0:38:14it's quite helpful, because it helps the baby to come out.
0:38:14 > 0:38:19Essentially, it's not an emotion you want with any degree of power.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23We also know that in medieval birthing rooms,
0:38:23 > 0:38:25there were quite often relics or other holy objects
0:38:25 > 0:38:28- or prayer rolls.- Yeah.
0:38:29 > 0:38:31It's... I think, I don't know.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34Maybe the term would be a transitional object, I don't know.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37You know, you would definitely, you would have people...
0:38:37 > 0:38:38I remember there was one woman,
0:38:38 > 0:38:41her lounge wall, had one side of it,
0:38:41 > 0:38:43the birthing pool would have been here and the wall there.
0:38:43 > 0:38:45It was covered in photographs
0:38:45 > 0:38:47and covered in kind of affirmations.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49Erm...
0:38:49 > 0:38:51That's one aspect I've seen.
0:38:51 > 0:38:53People work quite hard at setting up the space.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57It might be about the colour of the fabric, or candles
0:38:57 > 0:39:00or familiar objects or photographs of family.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03Then there would perhaps be more explicably spiritual things,
0:39:03 > 0:39:05which might have mirrored, say, a rosary,
0:39:05 > 0:39:08so you might have women who have had a blessing ceremony
0:39:08 > 0:39:11and been given beads by different women who have attended that.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14Those kind of, erm...
0:39:16 > 0:39:18..symbols that are comforting,
0:39:18 > 0:39:21you don't necessary understand the full impact
0:39:21 > 0:39:22of what that means for that person.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24I think it does connect
0:39:24 > 0:39:27with what you were saying about the medieval practices.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30Again, even if we are being quite sceptical
0:39:30 > 0:39:33of the faith behind all of that,
0:39:33 > 0:39:37- still the placebo effect can be very powerful, can't it?- Mmm.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39I'm not even...
0:39:41 > 0:39:44I'm not sure I'm incredibly comfortable with the word "placebo",
0:39:44 > 0:39:48because I think there's something more subtle and deeper about that.
0:39:49 > 0:39:51Clearly, in the medieval period,
0:39:51 > 0:39:54the kind of capriciousness of gods and demons, or whatever,
0:39:54 > 0:39:57was probably more present than it is in some ways now.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00The fear would still be great now.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03Perhaps we focus it more around psychological elements.
0:40:04 > 0:40:08I think there are connections that we've, probably, inadvertently...
0:40:08 > 0:40:10we're tapping into without knowing.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15The presence of God and his saints was vital
0:40:15 > 0:40:16during the perils of labour,
0:40:16 > 0:40:20but they were still needed even after a successful delivery,
0:40:20 > 0:40:22because the dangers didn't stop.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26In a world with no defence against infection,
0:40:26 > 0:40:29the days and weeks after a birth could be a vulnerable time
0:40:29 > 0:40:31for both mother and baby.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36And one of the best ways to give thanks for a baby's arrival,
0:40:36 > 0:40:38and to ask God for his continued protection,
0:40:38 > 0:40:40was to go on pilgrimage.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47And one of the most important sites of pilgrimage in England
0:40:47 > 0:40:49was the shrine at Walsingham in Norfolk.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54It was a site particularly associated with childbirth,
0:40:54 > 0:40:58because it contained a replica of the Holy House of Nazareth
0:40:58 > 0:41:02where the Angel Gabriel visited Mary to tell her she would give birth
0:41:02 > 0:41:04to the son of God.
0:41:05 > 0:41:09And in January 1511, a very special pilgrim came here
0:41:09 > 0:41:12to thank God for the safe arrival of his son.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18For the young King Henry VIII,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21having a son and heir to continue the Tudor dynasty
0:41:21 > 0:41:24was an all-consuming ambition.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27And after two years of marriage, his wife, Catherine of Aragon,
0:41:27 > 0:41:30had given birth to a son on New Year's Day.
0:41:34 > 0:41:38Henry lost no time in setting out to Walsingham as a pilgrim.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45Henry walked the last mile to the shrine barefoot.
0:41:45 > 0:41:49It's an extraordinary image.
0:41:49 > 0:41:53The great King Henry VIII making such a show of humbling himself.
0:41:53 > 0:41:55But it's a telling sign
0:41:55 > 0:41:59of just how dangerous and unpredictable childbirth could be.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03Henry and Catherine knew that all too well,
0:42:03 > 0:42:08because they had already lost one child, a stillborn daughter.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11But now Henry had a male heir.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13The Tudor dynasty was secure,
0:42:13 > 0:42:17and England erupted with joy at the news of the royal birth.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23Henry was elated.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25When he arrived here at Walsingham,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28he kissed the holy relic of the Virgin's milk
0:42:28 > 0:42:30and made offerings at the shrine.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34And then he went back to London to celebrate with a lavish tournament,
0:42:34 > 0:42:39where he jousted as Sir Loyal Heart in front of his beloved wife,
0:42:39 > 0:42:40the mother of his son.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47But even a king couldn't be sure of heaven's favour.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51The celebrations had come too soon,
0:42:51 > 0:42:54because ten days later, tragedy struck.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59Henry and Catherine's longed-for baby was dead.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06The royal couple were heartbroken.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09The Queen... "Like a natural woman," said one chronicler,
0:43:09 > 0:43:11"made much lamentation."
0:43:14 > 0:43:17The Church recommended patient submission
0:43:17 > 0:43:20to the workings of God's will.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24But this can have offered little comfort in the face of such loss.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28Though many babies died before, during or after birth,
0:43:28 > 0:43:30the fact that it wasn't unusual
0:43:30 > 0:43:32didn't make their families' grief any less.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40In 1454, Margaret Paston was pregnant for the fifth time.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43She wrote to her husband, John, about some errands he wanted done
0:43:43 > 0:43:46and asked him to buy her some dates and cinnamon,
0:43:46 > 0:43:51and she added, "I pray you, if you have another son,
0:43:51 > 0:43:53"that you will let it be named Henry,
0:43:53 > 0:43:55"in remembrance of your brother, Henry,"
0:43:55 > 0:43:57a brother who'd died in childhood.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01Losses stayed with families,
0:44:01 > 0:44:04and losing babies, common though it might have been,
0:44:04 > 0:44:05was clearly not taken lightly.
0:44:09 > 0:44:12Touching evidence of the traces of this grief
0:44:12 > 0:44:16has been found by Roberta Gilchrist, during her work as an archaeologist.
0:44:17 > 0:44:19You get infants buried in houses,
0:44:19 > 0:44:22rather than on consecrated ground.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25Certainly, one of those had a whelk shell
0:44:25 > 0:44:30and also a spindle wool, used for weaving, buried with it.
0:44:30 > 0:44:34That suggests their parents really didn't want to let them go?
0:44:34 > 0:44:37Well, you could interpret it in various ways.
0:44:37 > 0:44:39I think that it may have something to do with
0:44:39 > 0:44:41keeping an infant in the family.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44You could also say these are very poor families
0:44:44 > 0:44:48who couldn't afford to pay the priest or pay a burial fee.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50It could be a combination of things.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54The fact that these are carefully prepared burials.
0:44:54 > 0:44:59One of them is lying on its side, in a sleeping position.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02They're not casual, or heartless, disposals -
0:45:02 > 0:45:05they're very careful constructions,
0:45:05 > 0:45:09and that could possibly... we could conjecture,
0:45:09 > 0:45:13that these are mothers that want to keep their children close to them.
0:45:13 > 0:45:16So despite the fact that losing children
0:45:16 > 0:45:18was such a common experience,
0:45:18 > 0:45:20it wasn't taken lightly at all.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23No. It obviously had a huge emotional impact.
0:45:25 > 0:45:28Roberta has also found cases where emotion might override
0:45:28 > 0:45:31the Church's teaching about the significance
0:45:31 > 0:45:33of the sacrament of baptism.
0:45:35 > 0:45:40We have a number of burials excavated of women who died in childbirth,
0:45:40 > 0:45:44some of them with the foetus still intact.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47And although that's very upsetting for us to consider,
0:45:47 > 0:45:52the important thing there is that medieval people were actually
0:45:52 > 0:45:55going against Church ordnances to do this.
0:45:55 > 0:46:01Because if a woman died with a child that had not been baptised,
0:46:01 > 0:46:04the convention was supposed to be that the child was removed
0:46:04 > 0:46:08from her womb, because it couldn't be buried in consecrated ground,
0:46:08 > 0:46:10because it hadn't been baptised.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14But, clearly, medieval people couldn't face that,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18and the sympathy for the mother and the child prevailed,
0:46:18 > 0:46:22so they certainly burying women and child intact.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30The medieval Church taught that it was essential for a baby
0:46:30 > 0:46:32to be baptised before it died,
0:46:32 > 0:46:36because an unbaptised soul was barred from heaven.
0:46:39 > 0:46:43Today, we think of baptism as a chance to celebrate a new life
0:46:43 > 0:46:45and name the child.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48These were elements of a medieval baptism,
0:46:48 > 0:46:51but the main purpose was something quite different.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54A newborn baby hadn't lived long enough to commit
0:46:54 > 0:46:56any sins of its own.
0:46:56 > 0:47:01But like all of humanity, it was born in a state of original sin.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05And baptism was the sacrament that removed that stain,
0:47:05 > 0:47:07bringing newborns into the Christian fold
0:47:07 > 0:47:11and, if the worst should happen, opening their way to heaven.
0:47:15 > 0:47:18Normally, that holy ritual would be carried out by a priest,
0:47:18 > 0:47:21but, of course, a priest was a man
0:47:21 > 0:47:23and therefore barred from the birthing room.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29So, because death was never far from birth in the medieval world,
0:47:29 > 0:47:32the Church was forced to make
0:47:32 > 0:47:35one truly extraordinary concession to midwives.
0:47:35 > 0:47:40In an emergency, if a baby were dying in the delivery room,
0:47:40 > 0:47:42they could perform a baptism.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47It was the only time a woman could ever administer a sacrament.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50So, in extreme circumstances, a midwife could hold
0:47:50 > 0:47:53the power of eternal life in her hands.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00The 14th-century cleric John Mirk wrote a rhyming set
0:48:00 > 0:48:03of instructions for parish priests, which included
0:48:03 > 0:48:07a homily on how a midwife should christen a baby.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11"Though the child but half be born,
0:48:11 > 0:48:13"Head and neck and no more,
0:48:13 > 0:48:15"Bid her spare, never the later,
0:48:15 > 0:48:18"To christen it and cast on water."
0:48:19 > 0:48:23And he told them what they should do if more drastic action were needed.
0:48:23 > 0:48:25"And if the woman then die,
0:48:25 > 0:48:27"Teach the midwife that she hie
0:48:27 > 0:48:30"For to undo her with a knife
0:48:30 > 0:48:32"And for to save the child's life
0:48:32 > 0:48:35"And hie that it christened be,
0:48:35 > 0:48:38"For that is a deed of charity."
0:48:38 > 0:48:40In other words, a midwife should perform
0:48:40 > 0:48:43what we would call a Caesarean -
0:48:43 > 0:48:45thankfully, given the lack of anaesthetics,
0:48:45 > 0:48:49only if the mother had already died.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53Even if the baby breathed for only a minute or two, it was enough time
0:48:53 > 0:48:56for a midwife to perform this vital sacrament
0:48:56 > 0:49:01and save the baby's immortal soul, if not its mortal life.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07Given how sacred this responsibility was,
0:49:07 > 0:49:09the Church needed to know that these women
0:49:09 > 0:49:11could be trusted with such power,
0:49:11 > 0:49:13and by the 16th century,
0:49:13 > 0:49:17midwives even had to be licensed by the Church.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19And the issue of good character still plays
0:49:19 > 0:49:21a part in the role of midwives today.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27Women were given Episcopal licences if they were going to be midwives,
0:49:27 > 0:49:29which is an interesting connection, for me,
0:49:29 > 0:49:32about what sort of character of person they were.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35And, still now, when you qualify as a midwife,
0:49:35 > 0:49:39your midwifery lecturers and your clinical placement have
0:49:39 > 0:49:42to send a statement saying that you are of good character.
0:49:42 > 0:49:44So there's something there about the kind of person you are,
0:49:44 > 0:49:46but there was a more sinister edge which was worrying
0:49:46 > 0:49:48about women in general.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52So fear of female mystery and the power of birth.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56So, you know, if a baby had died, you could be accused of infanticide,
0:49:56 > 0:49:59so there's something about that midwife being trusted
0:49:59 > 0:50:00to witness that.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03And then, you might want to hand your baby over to the devil,
0:50:03 > 0:50:08so you might pray incantations over to that effect.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11So you need, again, a woman of good character
0:50:11 > 0:50:16that can witness to the space being held in a Christian way.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22In medieval England, from conception, to labour,
0:50:22 > 0:50:24to the celebration of a new life,
0:50:24 > 0:50:26the Catholic Church shaped
0:50:26 > 0:50:30the way birth was understood and the ritual that surrounded it.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36But suddenly, in England, the power of this Church was broken.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40And this radical change in England's religious landscape
0:50:40 > 0:50:43would reach into the very heart of the birthing chamber.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48Ironically, it was a birth, or the lack of one,
0:50:48 > 0:50:50that helped to spark this Reformation.
0:50:51 > 0:50:55The death of Henry VIII's son after his pilgrimage to Walsingham
0:50:55 > 0:50:58was just the first of many miscarriages
0:50:58 > 0:51:01and stillbirths that Henry and his queen Catherine had to endure.
0:51:03 > 0:51:05They had one surviving daughter,
0:51:05 > 0:51:10but by 1527, Henry was convinced that the only way that he could
0:51:10 > 0:51:14continue the Tudor line was to divorce his ageing wife, Catherine,
0:51:14 > 0:51:17and marry the woman who, he believed, could give him a son.
0:51:19 > 0:51:21But when the Pope refused to grant Henry a divorce,
0:51:21 > 0:51:24Henry chose to break from Rome
0:51:24 > 0:51:27and make himself head of the Church in England.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31As Henry's Reformation gathered pace,
0:51:31 > 0:51:33monasteries were destroyed,
0:51:33 > 0:51:36churches whitewashed, and altars and icons smashed.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40But the effects were also felt in the most private
0:51:40 > 0:51:45and intimate of life's rites of passage - birth.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53In the summer of 1535, Henry VIII's chief minister,
0:51:53 > 0:51:57Thomas Cromwell, sent out his men to confiscate fraudulent
0:51:57 > 0:52:01and superstitious objects that monasteries exploited,
0:52:01 > 0:52:04he claimed, to extort money from gullible believers.
0:52:06 > 0:52:08Among them were the many relics,
0:52:08 > 0:52:12images and holy objects that were lent out to give spiritual support
0:52:12 > 0:52:14and comfort to women in labour.
0:52:15 > 0:52:17By the beginning of 1538,
0:52:17 > 0:52:20the dissolution of the monasteries was well under way,
0:52:20 > 0:52:24and, on Cromwell's orders, their relics and images were stockpiled
0:52:24 > 0:52:27here in Chelsea, ready to be destroyed,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30including those taken from the shrine at Walsingham.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34Rumour had it, they were still working miracles, even in storage.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40The old beliefs about the ways in which the saints might
0:52:40 > 0:52:44protect women in childbirth hadn't vanished overnight,
0:52:44 > 0:52:46but suddenly the comforts they offered
0:52:46 > 0:52:48had been snatched from women's hands.
0:52:49 > 0:52:53Not only that, but the new Church was soon telling midwives,
0:52:53 > 0:52:56and the women they tended, what they could and couldn't do.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02The reformist Bishop of Salisbury, railing against
0:53:02 > 0:53:05"intolerable superstition and abominable idolatry",
0:53:05 > 0:53:07told midwives...
0:53:07 > 0:53:09"To beware that they cause not the woman,
0:53:09 > 0:53:12"being in travail, to make any foolish vow
0:53:12 > 0:53:17"to go in pilgrimage to this image or that image after her deliverance."
0:53:19 > 0:53:23A labouring woman could no longer wrap herself in a prayer roll
0:53:23 > 0:53:25or put her faith in water from a shrine.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30Instead, she was... "Only to call on God for help."
0:53:31 > 0:53:34This religious upheaval had been driven by Henry's
0:53:34 > 0:53:38determination to marry Anne Boleyn.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42But she too failed to give him the son he longed for, and soon,
0:53:42 > 0:53:43she lost her head.
0:53:45 > 0:53:50By 1537, Henry was married to his third wife, Jane Seymour.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53That autumn, she was heavily pregnant,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56and as she went into confinement at Hampton Court,
0:53:56 > 0:53:59the task of producing a male heir fell to her.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04The ritual of Jane's confinement was much like that of the queens
0:54:04 > 0:54:05who'd gone before her -
0:54:05 > 0:54:08she retreated to her rooms with great ceremony,
0:54:08 > 0:54:10surrounded by her women.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15But there were signs of the changes that were coming.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18Just outside her door, three royal physicians -
0:54:18 > 0:54:21Doctors Butt, Owen and Chamber - were standing by.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26In time, male doctors would force their way into the female
0:54:26 > 0:54:27world of the delivery room.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31But Jane's physicians were still outside.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34Medical science had yet to replace the spiritual comforts
0:54:34 > 0:54:39that the Reformation had done its best to do away with.
0:54:40 > 0:54:44Jane went into labour on the 9th October 1537.
0:54:44 > 0:54:49Two exhausting days later, her baby was still not born.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55At last, at two in the morning on Friday 12th October,
0:54:55 > 0:54:57Jane Seymour gave birth to a son.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02Letters had already, optimistically,
0:55:02 > 0:55:05been prepared, in which the queen announced that,
0:55:05 > 0:55:09"By the inestimable goodness and grace of almighty God,
0:55:09 > 0:55:11"we be delivered of a prince."
0:55:13 > 0:55:16Three days later, Jane was well enough to sit in state,
0:55:16 > 0:55:20with Henry at her side, as her son was carried here
0:55:20 > 0:55:24to Hampton Court's Chapel Royal for his magnificent christening.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28The prince was named Edward, and three days after that,
0:55:28 > 0:55:31he was proclaimed Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall,
0:55:31 > 0:55:35the traditional titles for the heir to the English throne.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42It had taken Henry 28 years and three wives,
0:55:42 > 0:55:44but at last he had his heir.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48But the cost was high.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52He had swept away the Church of Rome from medieval England,
0:55:52 > 0:55:55and the mother of his son would pay the ultimate price.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00As the celebrations at the royal birth continued,
0:56:00 > 0:56:01Jane herself was ailing.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08A week and half after the birth, Thomas Cromwell was told,
0:56:08 > 0:56:10"There is no likelihood of her life."
0:56:13 > 0:56:17Jane died on the 24th October 1537.
0:56:17 > 0:56:20She was 28 years old, and she'd survived
0:56:20 > 0:56:24the birth of her first and only child by just 12 days.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28Cromwell blamed those who had cared for her.
0:56:28 > 0:56:30They had... "Suffered her to take great cold,"
0:56:30 > 0:56:34he said, "and to eat things that her fantasy in sickness called for."
0:56:36 > 0:56:39It seems more likely now that she had developed septicaemia
0:56:39 > 0:56:41or suffered a fatal haemorrhage.
0:56:44 > 0:56:46The truth of the matter was that
0:56:46 > 0:56:49although the religious comforts that accompanied a medieval birth
0:56:49 > 0:56:51might be stripped from the labour room,
0:56:51 > 0:56:53the reason why they were there in the first place
0:56:53 > 0:56:55couldn't be so easily removed.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01As Jane's death proved, whatever ritual surrounded it,
0:57:01 > 0:57:04birth was still a very dangerous business.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08Henry remained in mourning for three months,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11until the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary.
0:57:12 > 0:57:14But it was the sorrows of Eve -
0:57:14 > 0:57:15the dangers that faced women
0:57:15 > 0:57:18who could not expect a miraculous birth -
0:57:18 > 0:57:21that had taken his wife from him.
0:57:21 > 0:57:24For a queen as much as a peasant, no matter what the doctors knew,
0:57:24 > 0:57:27and no matter what ritual the Church prescribed,
0:57:27 > 0:57:31the experience of childbirth remained eternally unpredictable.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39The scientific revolution that would transform our understanding
0:57:39 > 0:57:43of the process of birth, and replace God with science,
0:57:43 > 0:57:46was still more than a century away.
0:57:46 > 0:57:47But the medieval way of birth
0:57:47 > 0:57:50with the comfort of relics and the help of the saints
0:57:50 > 0:57:51was gone for ever.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57The Reformation had reached right into this most domestic
0:57:57 > 0:57:59and secret of life's rituals.
0:58:03 > 0:58:04Next time, I'll be looking at life's
0:58:04 > 0:58:08next great rite of passage - marriage.
0:58:08 > 0:58:10In the medieval world,
0:58:10 > 0:58:13you could get married in a pub or even a hedgerow.
0:58:13 > 0:58:15But the Church tried hard to impose order
0:58:15 > 0:58:18on this matrimonial free-for-all.
0:58:18 > 0:58:20So how far did it get in controlling
0:58:20 > 0:58:22those most unpredictable of human emotions -
0:58:22 > 0:58:25love and lust?
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