Subject: nobleman, gentleman

Culture: Tudor English

Setting: late Tudor / Elizabethan period, England mid-late 16thc

Event Photos

* Moore 2016 p6

"Swords or rapiers crop up occasionally in cases of Tudor murder, usually involving the upper echelons of society."

* Wrightson 1982 p160

"The circumstances of violent death do ... suggest that this was a society in which violence might be resorted to comparatively readily. This should not be exaggerated. There were few deaths as a result of armed affrays or private wars; although these could still occur, as in 1589 when Sir Thomas Langton and eighty men attacked. ... But such events were uncommon and increasingly anachronistic, even in the supposedly lawless north of England. Most gentlemen settled their disputes at law, as indeed did many of their social inferiors. Nevertheless, the evidence of homicide cases carries the implication that many people were volatile and that quarrels could easily degenerate into violence, especially when assisted by drink."

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Field Notes