Author examines Tudors’ sex lives and birth beliefs

FERTILITY rituals, virility tests and rules against tip-toeing through the dew – the bedroom behaviour of the Tudors raises a few eyebrows.

And there were particular rules of the era if you were pregnant: don’t look at the moon for starters.

Mum-of-two Amy Licence, of Wincheap, knows a thing or two about giving birth to difficult projects.

Her book In Bed With The Tudors was written at the dining room table as toddlers ran rampant.

And she admits she might have glimpsed at the moon as she wrote the book “in her head” while the children slept.

The labour of love has born fruit, with the former Simon Langton Boys teacher seeing her history of “the sex lives of a dynasty” gain a growing audi- ence. She said: “My publishing contract came at the same time I found I was expecting my second child.

“At the moment, I’m starting my third book, but with a small baby, it’s even harder to find the time.

“I’m a historian of women’s lives, touching all aspects of their experiences from fertility, sex and marriage to superstitions, religion and customs.

“My book contains examples I found in the records of Canterbury women, such as Eleanor Pead, the first female midwife to swear an official oath in 1567.

Perform

“There was also a rather unpleasant medieval virility test I found, where a jury of matrons had to observe a supposedly impotent man ‘perform’ which can’t really have helped.

“There was also a case of a medieval woman giving birth in a public privy at St Dunstans.”

So what is the fascination with the Tudors – and their bedroom behaviour?

The world they lived in was so far removed from ours, says Amy, that the discrepancy is intriguing.

“The juicy details of their methods of promoting and preventing pregnancy and the discrepancy between our knowledge and theirs are fascinating,” she said.

Wincheap author Amy Licence