This is the series finale of Tudor Monastery Farm.  Ruth, Tom, and Peter continue to live and work on the Tudor Monastery Farm.  It is September and the beginning of Autumn.  The time travelers are getting ready to close their year out.  The pea crop is harvested and the animals are coming back to the farm.  The barley harvest is ready to be harvested.

The Monastery was the largest landowner in England.  The fields were open and not enclosed by hedges.  Farmers were given land to farm.  Peter commented that it was all hands to the pump when it came to harvesting their crops.  Harvest would have been back-breaking work for the harvest.  Their tools are quickly getting dull from the work.  Tom was surprised to discover that.  Ruth and the women bind the barley into Sheafs.  Every stalk was important and the poor people were allowed to glean leftovers.  Ruth comments on the amount of work that the team had done in four hours and what needed to be done. 

Ruth then prepares the meat for the winter and she makes salt to help preserve their meat.  She learns how to make salts.  Salt was part of the cash economy, you had to buy salt.  Salt was imported from France or Spain, however, there were pockets of Britain that had brine springs.  Salt forms by boiling water.  This salt comes to the top of the water and forms a skin.  Ruth then carefully extracts the salt.  The first gatherings are the cleanest, Ruth tests this theory by throwing eggs into the brine.  The impurities will bind to a protein.  There were different grades of salt, the grey salt was used for household cleaners and the white was used for cheese.

In the meantime, Tom and Peter bring their sheep down back to the farm.  The 1530s would change sheep rearing.  After the dissolution of the monasteries, their land was sold off and landowners started to enclose the land.  The large monastery flocks were then broken up.  It was the last time that there would be big flocks in England.

The team then brings in the barley for storage.  Tom and Peter pick goss to prevent rodents from getting into the barley.  Goss is prickly which will discourage visitors and keep the air circulating underneath the barley.  Peter talks about how prickly Goss was.  He also observes that by taking the harvest in they are taking away the homes of the rodents.  The last of the barley is brought into the farm.  The harvest queen is crowned.

Fall is when the animals are slaughtered and Ruth uses her salt to preserve the meat.  The Tudor butcher formed two-pound chunks of meat.  After butchering, Ruth salts up the meat and then puts it into a brine.  After sitting in a brine for two days the meat would then be taken out and put in a barrel packed with salt.
Ruth prepares the Michelmas feast.  She cooks a goose for the feast.  She talks about when it was appropriate to eat geese.

To continue to learn more about the Tudor Monastery farm, continue to watch this fantastic series.

Tudor Monastery Farm is an excellent show for the classroom.  If you need a filler for a substitute teacher or just to share some living history with your students.  You can show certain episodes in an agricultural classroom as well.  Grab some clips and use this series in the classroom as part of a lecture.  You are only limited to your imagination when it comes to using YouTube in the classroom. 

You can access the YouTube Video here.  The worksheets for this series are available on my Teacher Pay Teachers page.

The monastery and others took care of the poor, rather than the state.  Helping the poor was a social virtue.  It was the measure of how a Christian would be judged.  Hospitality was also high on Tudor’s radar.  The Monasteries helped the poor through the almshouses or providing shelter.  They accommodated everyone.

The monasteries served as a backpacker’s hostel, a nursing home, as well providing a place for the rich.  By hosting the rich, the monasteries could help generate donations.  The team focuses on Tudor Hospitality in this episode.  Their task is to help the Monastery host a rich patron, as well as restore a room for a retired monk.

The boys attend to the pea crop before they can help out with the renovation and hosting the party.  They build bird scarers to help frighten the birds.  In Tudor times, there were bounties placed on birds.  The boys use shells to scare the birds away from the pea crop.

Ruth makes butter in the dairy.  This butter will be used for Abbot’s feast.  She separates the cream from the milk and starts making butter.  Butter was good for the health in Tudor times.  Everyone had a cow because you could graze the cow on the common land.  After the lands became enclosed and the poor had to rent land.  However, they could not afford to rent the land and butter became the domain of the rich.  This would be an excellent clip to show in an agricultural classroom.  Butter making would be a good experiment to do in the classroom.

Tom and Peter make their way to the room they are restoring.  They tear up the floor as part of the renovation.  They plan to use lime putty to help with the renovation.  They gather limestone and wood to make a temporary kiln.  Limestone was a popular building material in the Tudor Times.  They set the limestone on fire and after the fire burns out they put the burned lime into the water and turn it into putty.  It is a volatile reaction.  The stones will turn to putty overnight.

Ruth cleans out her dairy equipment.  Cleaning was a vigorous affair in the Tudor Times.  They did not use soap.  One weapon in the cleaning arsenal was salt.  Salt killed bacteria.  Then everything was scalded with boiling water.  Finally, they laid their tools out in the sun to kill bacteria.  They knew that the sun worked in sterilizing tools.  She then harvests rushes for the room renovation.  The rushes will be made into mats.  Rushes were an important feature of the Tudor home.  They were used on the floor, baskets, mattresses, and hats.

After making the lime putty, the boys set to work on redoing the floor.  They make the floor out of sand, flint, and clay.  They add curdled milk to the mixture to bind the floor.  The sour milk smell will go away.  After mixing they then start laying the floor. 

To continue to learn more about the Tudor Monastery farm, continue to watch this fantastic series.

Tudor Monastery Farm is an excellent show for the classroom.  If you need a filler for a substitute teacher or just to share some living history with your students.  You can show certain episodes in an agricultural classroom as well.  Grab some clips and use this series in the classroom as part of a lecture.  You are only limited to your imagination when it comes to using YouTube in the classroom. 

You can access the YouTube Video here.  The worksheets for this series are available on my Teacher Pay Teachers page.

It is July and the time travelers are halfway through the year. The peas and barley are thriving. Pigs and sheep are also doing well. Ruth, Tom, and Peter are advised by the monastery about more ways the farmers earned money. The farm’s fortunes and the monastery’s fortunes are very much tied together. The Abbeys were a source of authority for the land.

One way the Tudor Farmers made additional money was through lead mining. Peter and Tom are off to attempt lead mining. They open up an abandoned mine. The mine they open up has not been operated in over 100. Lead mining often provided an extra income for the farmer. This in turn allowed the farmer to afford a few extra luxuries or they could invest in additional livestock. Lead was in high demand, especially from the churches. They used lead in their windows and gutters. After opening the mine Tom and Peter go into the mine.

Ruth finds another way to make money: eel fishing. The monasteries encouraged the people to fast from meat three times a week. Fish and eel made up for the lack of meat-eating. To do this she helps make a basket to catch the eel. Eel traps are made from two cones, one inside another. It was an ancient way of fishing. An eel is also easier to keep alive because you mainly need to keep the eel damp.

Tom and Peter go through the mine through the old tunnels that Tudor miners took. Monasteries granted leases for the Tudor farmer to mine lead. They discuss the history of the mine and mining in the Tudor period. The boys look for silver flecks in the wall. Then they start mining. Lead veins were set at 45 degrees which made working conditions challenging for the Tudor miner. About 50 barrels a day came out of the Tudor mines. The lead is then smelted to get the lead from the rock. They build a Tudor-style kiln to make white coal as well as to melt the lead ore. However, the boys get into trouble due to the wind. How do they solve the problem of their fire collapsing? Tune into Tudor Monastery Farm to find out.

Ruth sets the eel trap with Simon’s help. He is an expert in Tudor fishing. She lays out the traps in the shade because eels are drawn to dark places. She baits them with dead fish, “the stinkier, the better,” she comments. Simon and Ruth then check the eel traps. The first trap did not have an eel. The second trap had eels. Ruth tries to knock them back into the bucket, but since they look like snakes it made her nervous. A portion of the eels that were caught would go to the monastery.

Tudor Monastery farm continues to demonstrate that the Tudors were highly tuned to the natural world. Nature provided the Tudors with the tools they needed. To demonstrate this principle the boys use cotton grass to light the kiln fire. To continue to learn more about the Tudor Monastery farm, continue to watch this fantastic series.

Tudor Monastery Farm is an excellent show for the classroom. If you need a filler for a substitute teacher or just to share some living history with your students. You can show certain episodes in an agricultural classroom as well. Grab some clips and use this series in the classroom as part of a lecture. You are only limited to your imagination when it comes to using YouTube in the classroom.

You can access the YouTube Video here. The worksheets for this series are available on my Teacher Pay Teachers page.

Tudor Monastery Farm is in episode 3.  It is late spring and the farm has been run for two months.  The pig enterprise has been set up.  Ruth, Peter, and Tom sheered their sheep and sold the wool to the monastery.  They then learned how to drive oxen.  Now they focus on food and what the farmer ate.  Bread and ale were a staple of the Tudor diet.  The Tudor people had a high-calorie diet.  Bread and beer were 1/3 of the calories in the Tudor diet.  Since they worked hard on the farm, they were able to burn calories faster.  Ruth comments the only thing missing was Vitamin C but if you had the “occasional leaf” you were good on Vitamin C.  If the barley crop failed, the Tudor farmer could starve.  In the Tudor period, one in four harvests failed.

Religion guided the Tudor farmer in preventing a bad harvest.  Forty days after Easter, the Tudor farmer processed around the farm boundaries to ensure a good harvest.  It was called beating out the bounds.  There were no written parish maps to tell people where their boundaries were.  A second reason why the Tudor farmer processed around the farm was to remind the people of the boundaries.  Ronald Hutton talks about how they got the Tudor children to remember the boundaries.  Boys were often beaten and turned upside down.  After they did that they were given fruit cake as a treat.  The idea was to remember bitterly what a place looked like.

Tom and Peter then discuss the pigs.  It was the earliest form of factory farming.  Farming changed during the Tudor period and instead of being subsistence farming, they were profit farming.  The boys separate the piglets from the mothers to wean them.  The piglets are taken to the woods.  They are fattened up on acorns.  A boar is introduced to the mothers to breed.

In the meantime, Ruth collects wild yeast to make bread and ale.  Her experiment in capturing wild yeast is a success.  The idea was to collect the wild yeasts that were in the air.  Ruth’s experiment is a success.  She then works to spread out the barley on a floor to start the beer-making process.  The next step after spreading it out on the floor is to get it wet.  Days go by and they shovel it into a smaller and smaller pile.  Beer making was an intensive and time-consuming job.  Ruth then transports the barley to the bread oven and continues the ale-making process.  Tudors drank ale and not beer because beer required hops.  Tudor farmers worked from dawn to dusk. 

The only place where time counted was in the monastery. The monks had specific times when to pray, when to go to the chapel and when to eat.   Tom and Peter build a clock for the monastery.

To continue to learn more about the Tudor Monastery farm, continue to watch this fantastic series.

Tudor Monastery Farm is an excellent show for the classroom.  If you need a filler for a substitute teacher or just to share some living history with your students.  You can show certain episodes in an agricultural classroom as well.  Grab some clips and use this series in the classroom as part of a lecture.  You are only limited to your imagination when it comes to using YouTube in the classroom.  The discussion on Tudor pig breeding would be an excellent clip to show in an agricultural classroom.  Or you could create a science experiment on capturing wild yeast to demonstrate the scientific method.

You can access the YouTube Video here.  The worksheets for this series are available on my Teacher Pay Teachers page.

Tudor Monastery farm continues.  Subsistence farming was giving way to farming for profits.  Tudor farmers had an eye on profits.  The monasteries made money from their tenants and now their tenants wanted to make profits for themselves.   It was during this time that farming was changed.  Ruth, Tom, and Peter celebrate Pentecost with a Market day.  Tom and Peter are raising geese to market day.  Tom comments that he is nervous around the geese.  Geese were considered a good source of revenue.  Geese were kept for meat, eggs, and fat.  Tom and Peter hope to make money with them on Market Day.

In 1500, the common lands were not enclosed.  Our time travelers turned their sheep out onto these lands.  Sheep produced thicker fleeces because of the grass the sheep were kept on.  May was the time for sheep shearing.  The time travelers work on making crooks to help drive the sheep from the grasslands back to the farm.  The crooks were invaluable to the Tudor shepherd.  With the aid of a sheepdog Ruth, Tom, and Peter drive their sheep back down to the farm.  It is comedic to watch Tom, Peter, and Ruth drive the sheep down back to their farm.

Tom and Peter wash the sheep.  The farming manuals at the time recommend that the sheep be washed before they sheer them.  They wash their sheep before shearing.  Washing the dirt, dung, and rocks out of a fleece helps the sheering process.  If a sheerer came across a rock in the fleece, the blades could get damaged.  Cleaning the fleece also increases the farmer’s profits because if a fleece is matted with dung it is not usable.

Peter who is feeling unwell with a cold, turns to nature to cure it.  The Tudor garden was seen as a pharmacy.  Many plants could be used to cure what ails the farmer. 

Ruth explores the differences with monastic herds because the sheep could provide different sources of income.  Sheep cheese had started going out of fashion because cows produced more milk.  Ruth milks a sheep to help supplement the farm’s income.  She will use the milk to make cheese.  She works in the dairy and makes sheep’s cheese.  Working in the dairy was considered a woman’s work during Tudor times.  Tudor Dairies were also cleverly designed to regulate temperature so the dairy was the coolest place on the farm.  They were built on the north wall and away from the sun.

Peter works on steam bending wood to make a bench to help sheer sheep.  He has never done it before but is willing to give it a try.  He explains the process of what he is doing to steam bend wood.  He digs a trench, lines it with rocks, fills it with damp hay, and builds a chimney to get the fire going.

Tudor Monastery Farm is an excellent show for the classroom.  If you need a filler for a substitute teacher or just to share some living history with your students.  You can show certain episodes in an agricultural classroom as well.  Grab some clips and use this series in the classroom as part of a lecture.  You are only limited to your imagination when it comes to using YouTube in the classroom.  I would pull clips out from the discussion on the Tudor Dairy or Tudor cheesemaking for an agricultural classroom.  Ruth is an excellent narrator as to why the Tudor Dairy was designed the way it was.

You can access the YouTube Video here.  The worksheets for this series are available on my Teacher Pay Teachers page.

We will kick off August with Tudor Monastery Farm.  This is a fantastic series to show in a history or an agricultural classroom.  While the monks prayed, they rented the monastery lands to farmers.  The farmers would work the lands, making money for the monastery as well as themselves.  Ruth Goodman, Tom Pinfold, and Peter Ginn are our time travelers going back in time to live as Tudor farmers.

Ruth, Tom, and Peter make their way to Weald and Downland to set up their farm.  It is 1500 and the monasteries were almost as powerful as the state.  They live during the reign of King Henry VII.  England was slowly emerging from the Wars of the Roses.  The world was heavily religious and religion weaved its way through everyday life.  The people believed they risked eternal damnation or social isolation if they did not follow the religious rules.  The church was central in Tudor England.  Religion explained everything, from the growth of crops to weather to personal wellbeing.

It is spring.  James Clark introduces Tom, Peter, and Ruth to their farm.  He explains how the Tudor farm operated.  The Monastic Farmers had to have a good head for business.  They rented their lands from the Monasteries.  Clark brings the time travelers to the house where they will live.  Tom, Peter, and Ruth tour the house.  Peter comments that the house will be hard to heat.  However, Ruth addresses this issue beautifully by stating that a fire in the middle of the room is a better use of heat.

Tudor farmers had to turn a profit to pay their landlords.  They have five acres of enclosed fields, as well as access to the common lands and woods.  The land was the most valuable asset of the monastery.  The Tudor Farmer raised sheep.   Sheep tied the farmers and the monasteries together.  English wool was of the highest quality.  They also planted peas and barley.  They may have raised pigs. 

Tom, Peter, and Ruth get to work right away.  Tom and Peter work on a pig enclosure since it was against the law for pigs to run free.  Tom picks up hazel rods for the pig enclosure.  There is a good discussion on the rules landlords imposed on their renters.  The higher the rent you paid, the more access you had to the supplies you needed for the farm.

Tudor farmers had to master a variety of building skills.  Tom and Peter work on the pig enclosure.  They weave hazel woods around the fence posts.  They also put together a dead hedge to help keep pigs in.  They finish the fence.  Peter comments that the Tudor building sources its materials from the landscape.  The fence they built can keep an elephant in the enclosure.

Peter forms a guild for the Tudor farmers.  Guilds were formed to help keep everyone prosperous and to help the transition into the afterlife.  There were saints for every day of the calendar year.  Peter forms a farmer’s guild with St. Benedict as their patron and St. Scholastica as a supporter. 

Tudor Monastery Farm is an excellent show for the classroom.  If you need a filler for a substitute teacher or just to share some living history with your students.  You can show certain episodes in an agricultural classroom as well.  Grab some clips and use this series in the classroom as part of a lecture.  You are only limited to your imagination when it comes to using YouTube in the classroom.

You can access the YouTube Video here.  The worksheets for this series are available on my Teacher Pay Teachers page.

The series concludes with Anne Boleyn's execution.  Borman explores the documents that lead up to that event and hope that Henry VIII would grant her a reprieve.  

Anne believed that there would be a reprieve from Henry VIII.  She was up all night the day before her execution.  Her mood swung wildly between composure and hysteria.  She cheerfully welcomes death, the constable of the tower noted. 

The four men who were found guilty of adultery with the Queen were executed on Tower Hill.  Anne would be executed within the tower walls.  A scaffold was built.  Cromwell wanted Anne executed quickly so Henry VIII would not change his mind.  Henry VIII wanted to get rid of Anne.  Cromwell persuaded Cramner, the Archbishop of Canterbury to write off the marriage between Anne and Henry VIII.  Elizabeth was made a bastard. 

Cramner had his doubts about Anne's guilt and spent a sleepless night before her execution.  He knows her better than anyone.  She would have told him if she was guilty.  He believes her innocent and that Henry would save her.  However, Alexander Alice, a friend of Cramner came to him in order to tell him a chilling nightmare.  Alice saw Anne's execution in his dream.  Cramner now knows that Anne is going to be executed.  He goes to Anne for her final confession and communion.  She confirms her innocence with him, and if she was lying it meant she would have condemned her soul.

The people in the meantime are starting to mutter against the execution.  Are they coming to the side of Anne Boleyn's side?  Cromwell is growing nervous.  He had the people cleared out of the tower.  Anne prepares for her execution.  She dresses with a red kirtle and black dress. 

Henry VIII dictates that Anne Boleyn be executed by the sword, rather than by burning or executed by the axe.  It was the first time that a Queen of England was executed.  A precedent was being set with this execution.

To continue to learn more about the day of Anne Boleyn's execution, continue to watch the documentary.

I would use this documentary for research into Tudors and would show clips from it to a class as part of a lecture.

For use in the classroom: just highlight, copy and paste into a word document or a google document for use in the classroom.  You can easily format these questions to your specifications.  All questions should fit onto one page after formatting.

You can find the link for the YouTube video here.

The Fall of Anne Boleyn Episode 3 Questions

1. Who wanted Anne dead?
2. Who was waiting in the wings to replace Anne?
3. Who had Thomas Cromwell annul the marriage between Anne and Henry VIII?
4. Did Thomas Cramner support Anne?
5. What role did he play in Anne’s life?
6. Did Thomas Cramner believe Anne to be innocent?
7. Who had a terrible nightmare?
8. What was the nightmare about?
9. Both Anne and Thomas Cramner hoped the king would do what?
10. How many times was Anne execution delayed?

The Fall of Anne Boleyn Episode 3 Answers

1. Who wanted Anne dead? - Thomas Cromwell
2. Who was waiting in the wings to replace Anne? - Jane Seymour
3. Who had Thomas Cromwell annul the marriage between Anne and Henry VIII? - Thomas Cramner
4. Did Thomas Cramner support Anne? - Yes
5. What role did he play in Anne’s life? - Personal confessor
6. Did Thomas Cramner believe Anne to be innocent? -Yes
7. Who had a terrible nightmare? - Alexander Alice
8. What was the nightmare about? - Anne’s execution
9. Both Anne and Thomas Cramner hoped the king would do what? - Grant Anne a reprieve
10. How many times was Anne execution delayed? - Twice

Tracy Borman explores the arrest of Anne Boleyn and looks at original documents to explore her trial, was the trial going to end in the court proclaiming her innocence?  Does she stand the chance of a fair hearing?  Can Anne save herself?  Or did one man's determination to remove Anne from Henry VIII's life cause the court to swing the other way? 

It is May 15: Anne Boleyn's trial will begin in the Tower of London.  The Tower of London will hold the most infamous trial in all of history.  The atmosphere is electric and the public looks forward to seeing what she has to stay for themselves.  Cromwell and Anne were at loggerheads over their influence with the King and Cromwell decided that Anne must go.  Cromwell personally selected the judge and jury for the trial.

The future queen Jane Seymour was sent out to the country before the trial.  It would have caused gossip for the court if she was there.  However, at the start of the Trial, Jane was brought back to London and was kept in Chelsea.

Anne's trial began.  She was escorted to the court by four ladies, placed there by Cromwell, so they could spy on her.  She seated in front of judge and jury.  She looks in control.   However, Cromwell would make sure that the King would get the verdict he wanted.  The only records that survive from the trial are for the prosecution and nothing from the defense.

Anne was accused of 20 acts of adultery.  She is sure of her innocence.  Anne is the picture of innocence and the crowd senses.  She uses her mind.  However Cromwell pushes the incest issue, twisting the closeness of the siblings to show how depraved Anne was.  It seems Cromwell might have pushed things too far, and the crowd was turning to support Anne Boleyn.  She put up a robust defense.  Would Anne Boleyn be found innocent?  Could Anne Boleyn be found innocent?

In the meantime, another trial was being held in Westminster.  It was of the men who were accused of committing adultery with Anne Boleyn.  Only one confessed guilty and the rest of the men confessed not guilty.  Their trial would determine Anne's fate.

To continue to learn more about the trial, keep watching.

I would use this documentary for research into Tudors and would show clips from it to a class as part of a lecture.

For use in the classroom: just highlight, copy and paste into a word document or a google document for use in the classroom.  You can easily format these questions to your specifications.  All questions should fit onto one page after formatting.
 
You can find the link for the YouTube video here.

The Fall of Anne Boleyn Episode 2 Questions:

1. Who felt Anne should go?
2. Who oversaw the trial?
3. Where was Henry VIII lying low during Anne’s trial?
4. How did Henry VIII know if Anne was found guilty?
5. What was Jane Seymour given with the king’s picture?
6. What was Anne allowed to do during the trial that a commoner wasn’t?
7. What doesn’t survive from Anne’s trial?
8. Who were the four men Anne was accused of adultery with?
9. What was said of Anne during the trial?
10. Who else was Anne accused of committing adultery with?

The Fall of Anne Boleyn Episode 2 Answers:

1. Who felt Anne should go? - Thomas Cromwell
2. Who oversaw the trial? - Duke of Norfolk
3. Where was Henry VIII lying low during Anne’s trial? - Whitehall
4. How did Henry VIII know if Anne was found guilty? - A cannon would be fired
5. What was Jane Seymour given with the king’s picture? - A locket
6. What was Anne allowed to do during the trial that a commoner wasn’t? - Sit in a chair
7. What doesn’t survive from Anne’s trial? - Her defense
8. Who were the four men Anne was accused of adultery with? - Henry Norris, Mark Smeaton, William Brereton, Francis Weston
9. What was said of Anne during the trial? - No one could look at her and believe her guilty
10. Who else was Anne accused of committing adultery with? - Her brother, George Boleyn

Death was frequent in the Tudor period, however the home proved to be a dangerous place.  Suzannah Lipscomb explores the hidden killers of the Tudor Home.

Towards the end of the Tudor period, the middle class had money and they spent it on their homes.  They built new kinds of houses.  The first hidden killer of the home came through the kitchen: sugar.  With trade and colonization new foods were introduced to the Tudor diet and sugar was one of these new dietary items.  Food was a way the Tudors displayed their wealth.  Sugar was white gold and they disguised it as normal every day food.  There was consequences to their sugar addiction: it ruined their teeth.  The archeological record shows how it ruined their teeth: they lost their teeth, it causes decay, and there were infections that eventually killed the person.

Chimneys also killed people as they did not realize that they needed to clean them nor design them to draw the smoke up to them.  Chimneys allowed builders to divide the house into rooms, rather than living in a great hall, people could live in individual rooms.  However, due to build up in the chimney, the smoke could catch fire and then eventually catch the house on fire.  Houses started being built from brick and chimneys were redesigned to allow the smoke to be drawn out and not build up soot in the chimney.  They also discovered that they had to clean their chimneys.

With digitized records, Suzannah was also able to note that one of the biggest causes of death was drowning.  A corner's report documented the case of a woman, who fell into a pond while washing a petticoat, drowned.  There were many instances of people just slipping and falling into the water and drowning.  She demonstrates this cause of death by dawning period clothes and walking into a shallow pond.  Her reaction to getting into the water is immediate and she had a hard time getting out of the pond due to her woolen clothes.  A participant in the documentary shares that when you first hit the cold water, you gasp from the cold and take in water.  To avoid this cause of death, water courses were fenced off and there were covers on wells.

The Tudor Garden was also a hidden killer of the home.  It was a source of medicine for the family.  There was a body of knowledge available to the Tudor Housewife and she would use that to help heal her family.   However, there were plants in the garden that would kill.  It was the ultimate in free medicine for a family.  150 plants had medicinal qualities.  Tansy was a mild poison, however if you constantly take it becomes toxic. They believed if the plant looked like if what it was treating it was a good plant to use.  The Gutenberg Press helped spread the medical knowledge of the day.  They were popular materials of the day and explored the benefits of each plant.

If you want to learn more, continue to watch the documentary.

This would be a documentary I would use for research for a class lecture.  There are some science elements to this documentary as Suzannah applies the scientific method to hidden killers.

For use in the classroom: just highlight, copy and paste into a word document or a google document for use in the classroom.  You can easily format these questions to your specifications.  All questions should fit onto one page after formatting.

You can find the link for the YouTube video here.

Hidden Killers of the Tudor Home Questions:

1. Who made up the middleing sort?
2. Where were the first hidden dangers introduced in the house?
3. What was “white gold.”
4. Can bad teeth kill you?
5. What new technology help make the home easier to live in?
6. How do you prevent chimney fires?
   
7. What was the extension to the home?
8. What percentage of accidental deaths were due to drowning?
9. What was considered a Tudor first aid kit?
10. What was widely used, but became toxic towards the end of the year?

Hidden Killers of the Tudor Home Answers:

1. Who made up the middleing sort? - Professionals, artisans, yeoman farmers, merchants
2. Where were the first hidden dangers introduced in the house? - Kitchens and dining rooms
3. What was “white gold.” - Sugar
4. Can bad teeth kill you? - Yes
5. What new technology help make the home easier to live in? - Chimney
6. How do you prevent chimney fires? - Cleaning them
7. What was the extension to the home? - Water sources, rivers, ponds
8. What percentage of accidental deaths were due to drowning? - 40%
9. What was considered a Tudor first aid kit? - Garden
10. What was widely used, but became toxic towards the end of the year? - Tansy

Today I am featuring a list of Tudor Documentaries available on YouTube.  This by no means is a comprehensive list of what is available. 

This would be a good start for research or to show in a class while there is a substitute teacher in the room.  Some of these videos have worksheets with them.

Each documentary has a link to the episode on YouTube or an Amazon Link.

Henry VII
The Winter King - YouTube
Henry Tudor took the throne of England on the Battle of Botsworth.  The narrator covers his reign and how he tried to have complete control of England.

Henry VIII
Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant - Episode 1  Episode 2  Episode 3  Episode 4
David Starkey discusses the mind of Henry VIII, what made him the man he was.  Starkey starts with Henry's childhood and how his mother impacted his views.  Then goes into the impact of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon had on his life and the impact the divorce had on his mental state.  Actors play the roles of the people in Henry VIII's life.

Anne Boleyn Files - YouTube
Claire Ridgeway posts daily content on the Tudor Period, if you have a question about the Tudor Period then this is the page to get your questions answered.  If you need a filler for a lecture or a writing prompt this would be an excellent source to use.

The Last Days of Anne Boleyn: YouTube
Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII was executed at the tower.  This is the story of her final days and what lead up to the execution.

Hidden Killers of the Tudor Home: YouTube
Suzannah Lipscomb explores the hidden killers of the Tudor home.  She explores the garden, the impact of sugar, and a common cause of death.

The Fall of Anne Boleyn: Episode 1  Episode 2  Episode 3
Tracey Borman, traces the last 72 hours of Anne Boleyn's life.  She looks at why she fell and why Henry VIII replaced her with Jane Seymour.

*Henry VIII: Man, Monarch, Monster - Episode 1  Episode 2  Episode 3
Historians take a look at King Henry VIII, they look at him as a monarch, man and monster and how he became the man he became.

Six Wives of Henry VIII
David Starkey narrates this series on the Six Wives of Henry VIII.  He covers the marriage of Catherine of Aragon and what lead to the divorce.  The the marriage with Jane Seymour.  What lead to the marriage to Anne of Cleves, the break up of that marriage.  This was the first time I learned that Anne of Cleves was rejected because she didn't recognize Henry III and not because she was ugly.

Six Queens of Henry VIII - Amazon
Suzannah Lipscomb and Dan Jones narrate this docu-drama about the six wives of Henry VIII.  They cover the six wives of Henry VIII over four episodes.

Henry and Anne: The Lovers Who Changed History - Episode 1  Episode 2
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are two highly controversial historical figures.  In this documentary, Suzannah Lipscomb explores their story from the start of their relationship to the finale.

King Edward, Lady Jane, and Queen Mary
The Boy King: Edward VI: YouTube
David Starkey narrates this documentary on Henry VIII's only surviving son King Edward VI, and how England would have been very different if he survived and had a child.  He has the

*England's Forgotten Queen: Life and Death of Lady Jane Grey: Episode 1  Episode 2  Episode 3
Helen Castor explores the life and death of Lady Jane Grey, the nine-days queen of England.  She was the first woman to be proclaimed Queen of England and one of the more controversial characters in Tudor History.  She goes into each day of her reign and the activities that happened on that day.

The Origins of Bloody Mary - YouTube
David Starkey explores the story of Queen Mary I from her childhood, the struggles with her father and how she survived to become Queen.  He goes into details on how she ruled England and concludes with her death.

Queen Elizabeth I
Tale of Two Sisters - YouTube
Historians explore the relationship between Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.  They were sisters, they were both rivals for the English throne and they became enemies.

Elizabeth I - Episode 1  Episode 2  Episode 3  Episode 4
David Starkey narrates the story of Elizabeth, from her growing up years, her time under the reign of Mary I, the start of her reign as well as her avoiding the issue of marriage.  He covers the the rebellions, the religious settlement, as well as the Spanish Armada.

Elizabeth I - Episode 1  Episode 2  Episode 3
Suzannah Lipscomb narrates this docu-drama on Elizabeth I from her growing up in Catherine Parr's household to her arrest to her become Queen.  Then she covers the events of Queen Elizabeth's reign.

Abducted: Elizabeth I's Child Actors - YouTube
A surprising documentary on the child actors that performed in Elizabeth I's theaters in England.  Many child actors were kidnapped off the streets.