For the vast majority of women in sixteenth-century England, motherhood was more than a choice. To become a mother was a duty to one’s husband, an expectation by society, and a defining facet of her femininity and value to the world in which she lived. In a time when nearly all women were expected and encouraged to have children, and raise them according to strict religious and societal standards, the role of motherhood was arguably one of the most important and discussed topics by females of the Tudor period. Many of them spent half their lives conceiving, bearing, and raising children – whether to join the humble ranks of workers, to inherit grand lands and titles, or even to sit upon the throne of England. Sixteenth-century mothers across social ranks were connected by the societal pressures, judgments, and expectations placed upon them – but what did the job of mothering actually entail?

‘Raising the Tudors’ explores the life of the sixteenth-century woman – from the onset of fertility in adolescence through the end of her childbearing years. From the prevailing medical theory of the four humours to the way Tudor physicians understood female reproductive anatomy and the process of conception, from the societal and romantic ideals of marriage to the experience of pregnancy and the travails of childbirth. It uncovers the role of the Tudor mother and the bonds she shared with her children through all stages of life – through infancy and toddlerhood, into adolescence and adulthood. It questions how she engaged with her children – how she cared for, taught, disciplined, and played with them. And finally, it examines her role in her adult children’s – and their children’s – lives and how her responsibilities and identities shifted as she aged. This book offers a comprehensive, thought-provoking, and at times sentimentally relatable view of the Tudor woman as she has never quite been viewed before. This is the story of motherhood in sixteenth-century England.