Torture In The Elizabethan Era

Several interesting facts stood out to me about the Elizabethan era. One of which had to do with how alcohol in the form of wine and beer was consumed. It was quite bizarre to learn that wine and even beer were combined with spices and herbs. Beer was flavoured with just about anything, including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and rosemary. It probably wouldn’t be ideal to try these recipes, though.

The forms of torture were undoubtedly brutal. I was aware of the horrific burnings on a stake that took place across Europe, but I did not know about the stretching technique which overextended prisoners to the point of torn limbs, according to elizabethanenglandlife.com.

Another curious fact had to do with babies during this time. Although

children were baptized fairly quickly (usually within 2 to 3 weeks after birth), I wasn’t aware that they weren’t given a name until the eventual baptism. I always thought they were named unofficially before the religious ceremony. Instead, newborns were referred to as “the infant” or “baby” until the day of their baptism.

Similarly, I also learned that Elizabethans kept their babies wrapped during infancy to inhibit them from freely moving their limbs, as they believed that there would be a danger of growing them crooked or deformed.

It was interesting to discover the common names for boys as they related to former kings like William, Henry, and Arthur. For females, they were often named after figures from the Bible.

Aside from what was learned in class, I was also interested in learning about sports and music throughout this era.

The Music industry saw a major shift as it was slowly being introduced to the Theatre. Music would slowly become more and more important as the Elizabethan era carried on. Its importance would be noticed in the works of William Shakespeare who makes more than five hundred references to music in his plays and poems.

In terms of sports, various activities were played and watched, forming a large part of the Elizabethan entertainment. Games and Sports included archery, bowling, dice, hammer-throwing, quarter-staff contests, quoits, skittles and wrestling. Animal Sports featured Bear (Shakespeare makes a reference of this in his play, Macbeth) and Bull baiting. Others included Dog and Cock fighting. Most sports entertained the nobility during this time.