Cobs, Fountains of Red Wine, Evil May Daye and more.

It's that time again!!!
Welcome to Tudor Trivia Tuesday!!!

1) In 1561, the weekly charge including “dyett,” and " lodging" for a prisoner in the Fleet prison ranged from £24 16s. 8d. for an archbishop, duke or duchess, down to  £1 18s. 2d for a yeoman. “A poore man that hath his parte at the [poor] boxe,” paid nothing, except 7s. 8d. upon dismissal.

2) ‘Even down till the removal of the [Fleet] prison, the Farringdon Street entrance had a grated window, over which was cut "Please remember the poor prisoners having no allowance," and a deplorable looking object, standing behind this grating, holding a money-box, and imploring most piteously for charity.’  Memorials of the Temple Bar.

3) The water carriers of London were called “cobs”.  They were a common feature of the city,  delivering their orders from cisterns at the ends of several conduits constructed from the 13^th to the 16^th century to the better neighborhoods.

4)  Printers who held Crown patents were not required to register their books with the Stationers Company.

5) As Anne Bolyn passed the Fleet Street Conduit on the way to her coronation at Westminster, on May, 31, 1533, the storage tower “surmounted by angels, and with music that made ‘a heavenly noyse,’ poured claret and red wine”.

6) The prominent architect and stage designer Inigo Jones was born in the parish of St. Bartholomew the Less, Smithfield, in 1573.  He would die at Somerset House in the Strand, June 21st, 1652.

7) Infamous in its day, the riots of "Evil May Daye" occurred on May 1, 1517. The apprentices and journeymen took to the streets in search of foreign workers and businessmen who they felt were taking their jobs.  A unknown number of those foreigners were severely wounded or killed. Seventy of the rioters were seized, some being summarily executed.  In all, 400 rioters were arrested and tried and some 50 were hanged.

  

8) On January 23, 1570/1 the Queen, attended by the nobility, went in state from her house in the Strand, to open the first Royal Exchange. She dined that evening with Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of the exchange, and chief financial agent for three Tudor Monarchies, at his house in Bishopsgate Street.

9) In 1563, the Plague hit St. Dunstan's parish hard. It recorded 358 burials in twelve months.  In August, September and October alone, 146 were due to the Plague.

10) In 1561 Queen Elizabeth founded a Free Grammar School, in St. Dunstan’s parish, upon the petition of Sir Nicholas Bacon and Sir William Cecil, "for the education, erudition and instruction of children and youths in Grammar, for ever to continue." The school did not survive the English civil war.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• The Fascinating Itinerary of the Gelosi Troupe, 1576.  June 10, 2019.  “The Spanish soldiers had not been paid and unpaid soldiers tend to rob and loot.  The citizens were prepared to give them a fight.  Violent flare ups were occurring everywhere.”
• A Thousand Years of English Terms.  June 2, 2019.  ‘One person did not say to another, “Meet you at three o’clock”.    There was no clock to be o’.  But the church bell rang the hour of Nones and you arranged to meet “upon the Nones bell”.’
• A Most Curious Account of the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth I: April 28, 1603.  April 28, 2019.  “Once it was clear that James I would face no serious challenges, Cecil and the others could begin to give attention to the matter of the Queen’s funeral.”
• The Battle Over Shakespeare's Early and Late Plays. September 24, 2018. “The answers to the post-Oxford dilemma, of course, are three.”
• Stratford Shakespeare’s Undersized Grave.  July 22, 2018.  “Mr. Coll’s considers this evidence to support an old rumor that Shakspere’s head had been stolen in 1794.  But I submit that he is merely making his observation based upon a coincidence.”
• Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.