Shuffle Board, Gazehounds, Silk Stockings and More.

It's Tudor Trivia Tuesday!

1. We learn from Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes that ‘The privy purse expenses of 1532 show that in January Lord William won £9 of [King Henry VIII] at "shovilla bourde," and "My lord of Rocheforde won of the King at shovilla bourde and betting at the game £45."’

2.  In upper class houses shuffle-board was played on a long narrow table.  Small metal pucks (called “groats”) were slid by hand along the surface.  If the groat passed the end line without going over the edge, the throw counted for two points.  If it straddled the end line it was worth one.  If it hung over the edge of the table without falling off it counted for three.

3.  Henry VIII formally created the Royal Navy in 1512.  Pay for the soldiers, mariners, and gunners was established at five shillings per month plus five shillings toward food.  Travel expenses for soldiers and sailors was established at six pence per day.

4.  The Royal Court of Wards was created in 1540.  It was combined with the office of the Master of Liveries, by order of the Parliament, in 1541.  Thenceforward it was referred to as the Court of Wards and Liveries.  Though kings had realized substantial sums from Royal Wardship since at least Henry II, the rules were not formalized until these dates.

5.  Dogs that hunted by sight rather than scent were called “gazehounds”.

6. The practice of “impressing” young boys with particularly fine voices into the boys’ choir of the King’s chapel (“Children of the Royal Chapel”) was begun in 1454, upon the order of King Henry VI.  Thomas Tusser, author of the book Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry (1557), was impressed.

There for my voice I must (no choice)

Away of force, like posting horse;

For sundry men had placards then

Such child to take:…

The boys were not paid a wage.  They often, however, found themselves scholarship boys and more by way of reward.  After a stint in the Royal Chapel Thomas Tusser was entered in St. Paul’s school (perhaps a Royal gift to the Boys of St. Paul’s choir), followed by Eton and Cambridge.

7. During Tudor times, Gentlemen of the King’s Chapel slept two to a bed.  The Boys of the Chapel slept three to a bed.

8. Queen Elizabeth’s “silk woman,” mistress Montague, presented her a pair of black knit silk stockings, for a new-year's gift, in 1560.  After wearing them for several days, the Queen swore she would never wear cloth stockings again.  How well she kept to her intention I am not aware.

9. It was a common saying in Tudor England that “Such as die maids do all lead Apes in hell.”  This is referred to in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew (II. i. 34):

I must dance barefoot on her wedding-day,

And for your love to her lead Apes in hell—

10.  “Livery cupboards” were small cupboards, in private chambers, into which (de)liveries of snacks were made and locked away for later consumption should the master or mistress get the munchies during the night.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• Hedingham Castle 1485-1562 with Virtual Tour Link.  January 29, 2019. “Mr. Sheffeld told me that afore the old Erle of Oxford tyme, that cam yn with King Henry the vii., the Castelle of Hengham was yn much ruine,…”
• Why Shakespeare Appears on Title Pages from 1598.  November 20, 2018.  ‘These he finds unconvincing.  The author’s name having appeared in a number of title pages after 1598, he continues, “it would seem foolish for publishers not to attach the Shakespeare brand to his previously unattributed plays—unless they had other reasons not to do so.”’ 
• The Battle Over Shakespeare's Early and Late Plays. September 24, 2018. “The answers to the post-Oxford dilemma, of course, are three.”
• Edward de Vere Changes the Course of History: Christmas, 1580. September 17, 2018. “First Secretary to the Queen, Sir Francis Walsingham, had been pressing the Queen since at least the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, in France, in 1573, to recognize that Catholicism was, by its nature, unalterably inimical to her person and her throne.”
• Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.