I'm looking for a little bit of help on learning the ins-and-outs of living in London in the 1580's to the early 1600's, from either a book that I can purchase or from a few websites. What I'm trying to figure out is how a 'wealthier' family would have lived in that time, from the basics like the house, to social connections, to attire and behavior that was expected of them. Were they required to have arraigned marriages? What was the common source of death in that time (aside from the plague)? How was a young female supposed to behave in that time? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm desperately trying to get a feel for the lifestyle before I dive into my writing and make myself look like a butt for not knowing the culture of the time.
One resource that usually easy to find is books and pages on period clothing with in turn says a lot about everyday work and living for both sexes as well as children.
Yeah. Last night I did look a bit into it via Wikipedia, where it mentioned parts of attire and the sort (like how 'fashionable' men had a small long piece of hair over one shoulder, etc.) but otherwise didn't give too much information from what I already knew. That's why I'm eyeballing the idea of a few novels to read to sort of 'set the picture' in my head and give me a better idea of the settings and behavior.
Hey, Lilix, I would love to help, but pre-1700 is not my forte so my answers are general and maybe not as specific as you have wished for. I don't think there were arraigned marriages back then (that is course if you weren't royalty). For the most part, fathers and mothers wished to see their children marry well and wealthy. Therefore, some families higher in society had more "interest" than others as it was referred to at the time. I know for women a common cause of death was childbirth, but third-degree burn nearly tied with that, because women were constantly cooking over the hearth. Their dresses and petticoats would often catch a flame. And as far a young female was supposed to behave: she was expected to follow her mother's teaching, which was usually connected to housewifery, i.e. cooking, cleaning, and other menial duties. If you like, I think I could find a few things that could help. But don't depend on it, because I know more of America's history and not so much of England's.
That is the info for this blog http://www.georgianlondon.com/. Technically, the blog focuses on 18th century London, but I think it would at least offer some helpful facts.
Google 'Late-Elizabethan London,' it produces several results which should be helpful. Too bad it's not set 50 years earlier, or you could watch The Tudors and call it research.
The only problem with this, mammamaia, is that most of those mention what early 1500's were like, not the late 1500's. And from what I've gathered, there's some differences, so I'd like to be as accurate as possible. Tessie91, Agreen, thank you both for the help! And tell me about it, Agreen. I could have watched dozens of movies had it been a little later of a time-setting, haha! Such a pain to be picky sometimes, no? Nevertheless, thank you, everyone, again, for the help. My boyfriend jumped on the wagon to lend me a hand, too, so now I've got a few sites giving me pieces of what I need to get the opening chapters down. Yay!
seems to me you need to learn how to google creatively... those hits can be narrowed down easily enough, with a little work...
This is the Elizabethan Era - women were more likely to be educated than earlier, they still had arranged marriages from sometimes as young as six. They would have bathed about once a year, their teeth would be black syphillis was ripe - childbirth was the most likely source of death. She would have been most likely a prodestant or if catholic and not controversial what was known as a kissing catholic although catholic's had a better time under Elizabeth than before or after their situation wasn't great. She may have seen a witch or woman of wisdom to help prevent pregnancy etc Of course we had Shakespeare at the time she may have attended plays but not acted in them. Horrible Histories Terrible Tudors is great and try the BBC website it is great for history
The diary of Samuel Pepys was written 1660-1667. That will give you an insight into life at that time and it is not much later than you asked for.
You should put some effort into punctuation, if you wish to avoid confusion. This is, after all, a writing site.
