Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England Quotes

“Romantic and sexual ballads sung in villages had been sung for centuries and would continue to be sung.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Tudors were not prudish about phallic-shaped foods such as asparagus and those that might suggest bawdy jokes such as the newly discovered ‘apricock’.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Marriage, despite the ability of King Henry VIII to achieve divorce twice, and the fact that clergymen could marry after the English Reformation, remained for life. Divorce was frowned upon and incredibly difficult to achieve in Protestant England.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Societal change is slow, especially for ordinary people. It was not until the seventeenth century that nearly all human beings would consider themselves unique and therefore free to pursue their own happiness provided they respected the rights of others.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Anyone convicted of adultery or sexual transgressions were forced to undergo public shaming rituals such as kneeling at church in front of the whole congregation wearing nothing but their underwear and holding a lighted taper.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“It was a pity that he became such a narcissistic, neurotic and cruel monarch, and not particularly successful in marital love.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“The discovery of a birthmark or extra nipple became a key factor in determining a witch’s guilt.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“English witchcraft tests tended to favour the accuser. Ducking the accused witch in the village pond was one such test in which the guilty floated and the innocent sank or were pulled to safety by ropes. The accused could be weighed against the Bible. If the Bible was heavier the accused was a witch.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“The earliest evidence of venereal protection resembling a condom appeared during the Tudor era. A sheep’s intestine turned into a condom was used on occasion, mainly to prevent catching syphilis during coitus with a prostitute. Fish bladders were also used. The gut would be cut to size and dried out, requiring soaking in milk or water in order to rehydrate.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“In the ancient world sex workers were usually sanctioned by the state and protected by law, and though they may not have been respected they were accepted.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Tudor society had double standards, however. Any sexual positions other than the missionary position with the man on top and woman beneath were rejected as other positions might incite lust.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“The accounts that emerged in some histories written after Anne Boleyn’s death, accusing Anne of witchcraft and having a child with her brother which was born deformed and secretly burned, are refuted by more thorough historians such as Eric Ives. Disappointingly, the nonsense exists in some very popular historical fiction, though, in actuality, there were no such accusations at the time.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Henry’s poems were never fresh new compositions but rather lines added to existent poems and songs.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Geoffrey Chaucer was England’s Virgil. During the first three and a half decades of the Tudor era he remained England’s pre-eminent poet.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“In order to ask a lady to dance a man was expected to remove his hat with his left hand and offer his right hand to lead her out to dance. The right side during the sixteenth century was the side of honour.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Love was a theme that permeated Tudor dance. Many court dances mixed a variety of steps based on the theme of love.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“The medieval and early Tudor fear of sorcery emphasised how dangerous female cross-dressing could be since any woman practising unconformity in this way was suspected of sorcery and witchcraft”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Other interesting snippets about cross-dressing activity exist for this period. Henry III of France (1551–1589), for instance, is reported to have dressed as an Amazon, and encouraged his male courtiers to do likewise.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Cross-dressing during the medieval and early Tudor era might simply reflect admiration and affection for the opposite sex.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Men wore an undershirt to bed or slept nude. As well as to provide warmth in bed, everyone wore a form of nightcap to keep devils out of their ears while they slept.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“A charge made against Anne Boleyn at her trial in 1536 was that she laughed at Henry’s attire.10”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Both Francis I and Henry VIII were avid mirror collectors and vain monarchs, and always competitive. During their meeting on the Cloth of Gold in 1521 a parade of wealth was displayed to ensure an alliance between France and England (and England’s safety). A later painting of this majestic occasion shows the two kings holding gloves, wearing flat caps decorated with feathers, badges and buttons, with parures – jewellery that matched their clothing. Henry’s codpiece is outlined by the rings on his index finger pointing towards it.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“In paintings and manuscript work young Renaissance men appear utterly gorgeous, jewelled and colourful. The images aim to show beauty as a signifier of inward purity and Godliness, and therefore nothing to do with sex. But they are sexy, and doubtless they appeared so during the sixteenth century, depending on who was looking.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“After eating, many fastidious Tudors used tooth picks to remove fragments of food. Disposable toothpicks were available and purchased by the wealthy as Tudor accounts prove.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“In a subliminal way the Tudors knew instinctively that douching or washing out the vagina was unnecessary. It was sexier to smell whiffy in that area or perhaps they picked up on the fact the vagina is self-cleaning.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Nostradamus, who was a French court physician at one point in his life, published a book of recipes in 1552. He claimed that the very fashionable golden colour was possible, as was dyeing hair black.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Pubic hair, on the other hand, was much admired during the Renaissance and among some, if not all Tudors. The slang words for pubic hair during the era included ‘feathers’, ‘fleece’, ‘flush’, ‘moss’, ‘plush’, ‘plume’, and, interestingly, ‘the admired abode’.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Gentlemen and gentlewomen kept chamber pots within their personal apartments at court. An excavated Tudor piss pot on display at Hampton Court still contains traces of genuine Tudor urine.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Rose oil eventually lost popularity by Elizabeth I’s reign when musk, civet and ambergris competed with rose as the perfume most valued at court. Could this be because once rose oil became so readily available it lost its exclusivity value?”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England

“Sir Thomas More is known to have had a rosemary bush planted beneath his study window so its pleasant scent wafted up towards him as he worked.”
― Carol McGrath, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England