Children in Tudor England
Not Just the Tudors
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The Discipline of Children in the 16th Century
A manual by Hugh Rhodes from 1545 says that children should be punished sharply. John Dee in his diary does mention an occasion when his wife struck their daughter who was aged eight on the year and made her nose bleed. Magnus Peston, I think it was, was very severe on her daughter if she wanted to marry the family baby. This was said to be demeaning to the family. So you get a sort of permanent daily nail headlines through all this social literature in the 16th century. People have been too soft on the young. They're not taking the manners seriously. Very bad in merchant families, or suppose simply. And then somehow they don't have the good backbone qualities
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