Today is the feast day for the Holy Innocents, and it commemorates the massacre of baby boys that Herod ordered trying to kill the young Jesus. The Catholic church believes the children to be the first Christian martyrs. This would be the end of the reign of the Boy Bishop, which had started on December 6, St. Nicholas Day, when a boy would be chosen from the choir to lead all the masses, and take over the bishop’s duties. On this day, there would be a feast, and then things would go back to normal, much to the boys’ disappointment.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th-century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
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Episode 008: Christmas celebrations in Tudor England
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast,  the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop. She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.