See Tudor history as you’ve never seen it before.
Presented by The National Archives
- Wednesday, 17 November 2021
- 19:30 20:30
- Online
For centuries, the part played in our history by disabled people has been overlooked. In this online event, historian Phillipa Vincent-Connolly invites you to see Tudor history as you’ve never seen it before.
She brings untold stories from the 16th-century front and centre in this talk.
Throughout history, how a society treats it’s disabled and infirm can tell us a great deal about the period. Before modern medicine, any impairment, disease or frailty was often a matter of life and death.
Very little was written down about the infirm and mentally ill during the Renaissance period. However, if we look closer, a complex story begins to emerge. Were society’s ‘natural fools’ as often elevated as they were belittled?
In this talk, Vincent-Connolly introduces us to characters like William Somer, Henry VIII’s fool at court, upon whom the king depended for entertainment and advice.
We also learn how the dissolution of the monasteries helped create an army of ‘sturdy beggars’ who roamed Tudor England without charitable support.
Historian Phillipa Vincent-Connolly is the author of the historical novel Timeless Falcon, a set of four books in this series. Her nonfiction book Disability and the Tudors: All the King’s Fools is published 30th November 2021, by Pen and Sword Books. Her non-fiction, PhD research is informed by her experience as a disabled person with cerebral palsy.
