Deadly bellringing and fatal bacon: grisly accidental Tudor deaths

Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. From drowning and agricultural mishaps to getting stabbed during a football match, crushed by a pig, scolded by porridge or suffocated by a fish, there were myriad ways to accidentally die in Tudor, England. Professor Stephen Gunn and Dr. Thomas Gromelski have compiled hundreds of these accidental deaths in their new book, An Accidental History of Tudor, England, and I spoke to Stephen to find out how looking at the records of deaths can teach us about everyday life in the era. What were some of the ways that people died or came to unfortunate ends in the 16th century?

Well, we found accidents a very good way to look at the whole of Tudor life because people have accidents doing all sorts of different things. People have work-related accidents doing lots of different kinds of jobs in agriculture, in industry and just in domestic work. People have accidents at home and relaxing, playing sport, playing football. People have accidents traveling, whether they're riding horses or walking along or just trying to cross bridges in the landscape, which could just be a plank of wood.

And so every different area of people's life throws up different kinds of accidents. So it gives us not a complete picture, but a pretty kaleidoscopic picture of the ways that people lived in 16th century England. What was the most common cause of accidental death in Tudor England? Well, the most striking one is drowning, because about 40% of all accidental deaths recorded in in coroner's inquests in the 16th century are drownings, and there are lots of reasons for that, both to do with how people move around the landscape, but also to do with people's work, which are nice examples of the kinds of big issues that looking at accidental death opens up in thinking about how people lived. Can you give us any more examples?

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