Death, Disease and ViolenceBy Anna, Patrick and Arianna

Wars, Plots and Uprisings• Irish Revolt – Nine Years’ War• Gunpowder plot• Enclosure riots• Anglo-Spanish War• Babington Plot - Mary Queen of Scots• Ridolfi Plot, Throckmorton Plot• Essex Rebellion – staged an ‘ill will’ stirring play• Bye Plot

Fighting

• Every upper/middle class boy required to learn fencing

• Joust Tournaments• Archery, wrestling, hunting, hawking• Bear and Bull baiting, dog and cock fighting

Torture• The Rack

• The Scavenger's Daughter • The Collar

• The Iron Maiden• Branding Irons• The Wheel• Thumbscrews

• The Gossip's Bridle or the Brank• The Drunkards Cloak• Ducking stools

• The Pillory and the Stocks

Punishments

• Criminals might be chained to the banks of the Thames

• Whipping, Cutting, Branding and Burning with hot irons, Pressing, Boiling in oil water or lead, Starvation in a public place, Cutting off various items of the anatomy - hands, ears etc

Highwaymen

• By the middle of Elizabeth’s reign, the authorities were showing alarm at the increasing use of pistols by highway robbers.

• King Henry IV, Part One, in which one of the main characters is the highway robber Sir John Falstaff. In Falstaff and his associates, Shakespeare thoroughly debunked the idea that there is anything brave or admirable about committing robbery.

• English highwaymen behaved, or tried to behave, like gentlemen

Death

• Doctors still treated people based on ‘humours’, a lot of which was based on astrology

• More used to death than they are now• A normal man would die at around his 40th birthday• Shakespeare lived to 52, but many of his plays

where based on the prevalence of death around him

• It is thought Hamlet is based on the death of his only son Hamnet

Major Diseases

TyphusChloleraMalariaSyphilisPlague

Disease

Bubonic Plague- Repeated outbreaks- Transmitted by fleas living on rodents- Both people living in towns and on farms were at risk of

catching the Black Death- The cause was unknown, they were therefore unable to

cure it- Bad hygiene increased the spreading- In 1593, around 20,000 people died of the disease- Those with the disease were confined with their houses

Disease

Symptoms• Acral gangrene: Gangrene of the extremities such as

toes, fingers, lips and tip of the nose• Chills• General ill feeling • High fever (39 °Celsius; 102 °Fahrenheit)• Muscle cramps• Seizures• Painful lymph gland swelling called a bubo• Skin color changes

Disease

Treatment• Several classes of antibiotics are effective in treating bubonic

plague. • Mortality associated with treated cases of bubonic plague is about

1–15%, compared to a mortality rate of 40–60% in untreated cases.• People potentially infected with the plague need immediate

treatment and should be given antibiotics within 24 hours of the first symptoms to prevent death.

• Other treatments include oxygen, intravenous fluids, and respiratory support.

• People who have had contact with anyone infected by pneumonic plague are given prophylactic antibiotics.

Disease

• The bubonic plague really tested the medical knowledge at the time.

• Ignorant of the disease, doctors typically prescribed anything from amulets to sweet-smelling things.

• In an attempt to slow the disease's spread, regulations were passed. One was to temporarily close all London theaters when the death rate was high. People believed this would help to prevent human contact.

• Another policy was to kill cats and dogs. Since there were few cats around to hunt rats, which carried the fleas that carried the plague, the bubonic plague was not hindered.