Tudor History with Claire Ridgway

Tudor Christmas Music Wasn’t Quiet: Instruments, Entertainers & Festive Noise

Tudor Christmas didn’t just sound like gentle carols, it was bold, noisy, and spectacular.In this episode of my Tudor Christmas Advent series, we step beyond singing and into the vibrant world of Tudor Christmas music, the instruments, entertainers, and soundscape that filled great halls, courtyards, streets, and chambers during the festive season.This isn’t church music.This is feasting, dancing, misrule, and display.You’ll discover:- Why loud instruments like shawms and sackbuts dominated festive evenings
- How pipes, tabors, and drums drove dancing and revelry
- Which softer instruments — like viols, rebecs, and lutes — were played later in the evening
- Who provided the music, from court musicians and household minstrels to the city waits
- And why Henry VIII himself was at the heart of Tudor Christmas music-makingIf you’d like to explore Tudor music even further, I recommend my interview with historian, musician, and historical instrument maker Jane Moulder, which I’ve linked here:https://youtu.be/07xLwzchEqsQuestion for you:Which Tudor instrument would you most like to hear played live?#TudorChristmas#TudorMusic#TudorHistory#EarlyMusic#HenryVIII#ChristmasHistory#MusicHistory

Christmas on the Streets: Tudor Mystery Plays & the Origins of the Coventry Carol

Tudor Christmas wasn’t just celebrated at home or in church, it was performed.In this episode of my Tudor Christmas Advent series, we step into the vivid, noisy, emotional world of Christmas mystery plays, public dramas staged in streets, market squares, and churchyards across medieval and early Tudor England.
You’ll discover:
- What mystery plays really were — and why the word “mystery” meant craft, not confusion
- How towns like York, Chester, and Coventry brought Christmas to life with pageant wagons and street drama
- Why King Herod was played as a terrifying, shouting tyrant
- How shepherds’ humour made the Nativity relatable to Tudor audiences
-  And how one of our most haunting carols, Coventry Carol, comes directly from a Christmas mystery playThese plays didn’t just tell people the Christmas story, they made them feel it.This video is part of my Tudor Christmas Advent series.If you’ve enjoyed it, please like, subscribe, and ring the bell so you don’t miss tomorrow’s episode.Question for you:Would you have watched a Tudor Christmas mystery play, or found it too intense?#TudorChristmas#MysteryPlays#CoventryCarol#TudorHistory#ChristmasHistory#MedievalDrama#BritishHistory#EarlyModernEngland

Christmas Wasn’t Just Feasting

Christmas in Tudor England wasn’t only about feasting, pageantry, and celebration.It was also a season of obligation, a time when charity and almsgiving were seen as essential acts of faith.In this episode of my Tudor Christmas Advent series, I explore how medieval and Tudor people understood Christmas charity: not as a sentimental gesture, but as a moral and religious duty rooted in scripture, custom, and community.We’ll explore:- Why charity was preached so strongly at Christmas- How St Thomas’s Day set the tone for a charitable festive season- What great households were expected to give- How royal and parish charity worked before and after the ReformationFor the Tudors, to give at Christmas was to prepare the soul for Christ’s birth, and to refuse was seen as a failure of faith.I hope you enjoy this quieter, more reflective look at a Tudor Christmas tradition that mattered deeply to people living through the hardest time of the year.If you’ve enjoyed the video, please like, subscribe, and click the bell so you don’t miss the rest of my Tudor Christmas Advent series.
 
#TudorChristmas#TudorHistory#ChristmasHistory#MedievalChristmas#StThomassDay#BritishHistory#HistoryLovers#TheAnneBoleynFiles#ChristmasAdvent#EarlyModernHistory

Play Along! A Tudor Christmas Trivia Challenge (Can You Beat Tim?)

Think you know Tudor Christmas?In this festive quiz episode, I’m challenging Tim, my long-suffering cameraman (and husband!), with questions drawn from my Tudor Christmas Advent series. From royal feasts and festive games to superstition, lost palaces, and winter weather, this is a chance to test your Tudor knowledge and play along at home.Grab a pen, keep your score, and let us know how you did!
 
#TudorChristmas#TudorHistory#HistoryQuiz#ChristmasTrivia#BritishHistory#HistoryLovers#AnneBoleyn#TheAnneBoleynFiles#ChristmasAdvent#LearnHistory

The Creatures That Shaped a Tudor Yuletide

Christmas in Tudor England wasn’t just about people, prayers, and pageantry, it was also shaped by animals.In today’s episode of my Tudor Christmas Advent series, we step into the world of Tudor Christmas animals: the creatures that filled festive tables, shaped religious symbolism, inspired superstition, and even featured in royal gift-giving and court entertainments.Drawing on medieval sermons, Tudor household records, chronicles, cookery books, and royal accounts, this episode explores the very real animals that defined a Tudor Yuletide, from the triumphal boar’s head to the ox and ass of the Nativity, from winter hunts and gifts of venison to cats watched for weather omens by the hearth.
 
If you enjoy historically accurate Tudor Christmas traditions, do give the video a like, subscribe, and click the bell so you don’t miss the rest of the Advent series.And tell me in the comments: how do animals feature in your Christmas today?#TudorChristmas#TudorHistory#MedievalChristmas#TudorLife#ChristmasTraditions#HistoryAtChristmas

The Beloved Tudor Palace That Vanished

Step with me into a palace that no longer stands, yet once witnessed some of the most important Christmases of the Tudor age.In this episode of my Tudor Christmas Advent series, we journey to Richmond Palace, once known as Shene: a beloved winter residence of the Tudor monarchs, rebuilt by Henry VII after a devastating fire and transformed into one of the most elegant palaces of the dynasty.Although Richmond has almost entirely disappeared, surviving sketches, descriptions, and ground plans allow us to reconstruct it in our imagination - its great halls glowing with candlelight, greenery hung for Christmas, music echoing through long galleries, and the Thames mist curling around red-brick towers.This was a palace where:
Henry VII celebrated Christmas with ceremony and splendour
Henry VIII spent tense, politically charged winters during the Great Matter
and Elizabeth I passed her final Christmas, bringing the Tudor dynasty quietly to a close
Richmond was not just a festive retreat — it was a stage for power, diplomacy, celebration, and endings.If you enjoy uncovering lost Tudor places, imagining historic Christmases, and exploring the quieter, more atmospheric side of royal history, this episode is for you.If Richmond Palace still stood today, would you want to walk its halls at Christmastime?Let me know in the comments.Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and click the bell so you don’t miss the rest of my Tudor Christmas Advent series.#RichmondPalace#TudorChristmas#TudorHistory#LostPalaces#HenryVII#HenryVIII#ElizabethI#TheAnneBoleynFiles#TudorCourt

Three Chilling Tudor Christmas Superstitions You’ve Never Heard Of...

Christmas in Tudor England wasn’t just a season of feasting, music and Yule logs…it was also a time when the veil between worlds felt unusually thin.In today’s Tudor Christmas Advent episode, I’m stepping into the atmospheric world of real medieval and Tudor Yuletide superstitions - beliefs recorded in late medieval sermons, Tudor writings, and 16th-century accounts.These weren’t cosy Victorian myths or later folklore.They were ideas that shaped how people in the 1400s and 1500s experienced Christmas Eve itself, a night of wonder, fear, and expectation.In this video, I’ll share three of the strongest and most authentic Christmas superstitions from the period… and trust me, they’re haunting, surprising, and very revealing about Tudor beliefs.- Why did people avoid stables at midnight?- What did some fear they might see in a church porch?- And which spectral figure did Shakespeare expect his audience to recognise?Join me for a wonderfully eerie festive journey into Tudor England’s winter imagination.If you enjoy this darker corner of Tudor Christmas, please like, subscribe, and click the bell so you don’t miss the rest of my Advent series.And in the comments, tell me:Would YOU have been brave enough to test one of these superstitions at midnight?#TudorChristmas #TudorHistory #ChristmasHistory #MedievalFolklore #TudorSuperstitions #HistoryYouTube #TheAnneBoleynFiles #16thCentury #HistoryLovers #YuletideTraditions

What's Inside the Wonkiest Tudor House in England?

Imagine rounding a frosty corner and discovering a house that looks as if it’s stepped straight out of a Tudor fairytale or Harry Potter - crooked beams, bowing floors, glittering leaded windows, and a long gallery that seems to float above thin air.In today’s Tudor Christmas Advent episode, I take you on a winter wander through Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire, one of the most extraordinary, beautifully preserved, and delightfully wonky Tudor houses in England.Built and expanded across the 1500s by the Moreton family, this timber-framed masterpiece has survived centuries of weather, war, and subsidence to offer us a rare glimpse into the world of Tudor gentry life:- A Great Hall where winters were lit by fire and candlelight- Intricate carved panelling and glowing 16th-century glass- A famous Long Gallery perched improbably above the courtyard- A recreated Tudor knot garden sleeping under its winter frost- A private chapel that witnessed every shift of 16th-century religionAnd thanks to musician and historian Jane Moulder, who works at Little Moreton Hall, we’ll enjoy her beautiful winter photographs of the house, capturing its magical atmosphere in the coldest season.If you love Tudor architecture, Christmas ambience, or fairy-tale historic houses, you’re in for a treat.Tell me in the comments:Have you ever visited Little Moreton Hall?If not, which Tudor house would you most love to see at Christmastime?Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and click the bell so you don’t miss the rest of my Tudor Christmas Advent series!
 
#LittleMoretonHall #TudorChristmas #TudorHistory #HistoricHouses #TheAnneBoleynFiles #TudorArchitecture #NationalTrust #WinterHistory #ChristmasAdvent #HistoryYouTube #BritishHistory #FairytaleHouses