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Hey friends, welcome to the Renaissance English History Podcast. This is the weekly highlight reel of videos that I have put out on YouTube. So in case you don't know, you can go over to YouTube and watch all my videos. The channel is History and Coffee, and you can just search for my name as well, Heather Tesco, History and Coffee, and you will get it. And you can subscribe there. Thank you to the many people who already subscribe. And then what I've started doing is
weekly highlight reels of some of the videos that have gone out on YouTube that would be of interest to the podcast listeners as well. So thanks for listening. And you can also, like I said, go over and join me on YouTube history and coffee and search for Heather. And there I am. So let's get right into it.
And today we are going to talk about a Tudor murder mystery, the murder of Archbishop Christopher Bainbridge. So if you think that the court of Henry VIII was a dangerous place, just wait until you hear about what happened to his ambassador in Rome, Christopher Bainbridge, Archbishop of York, and a trusted diplomat who was poisoned in 1514, one of the many unsolved murders of this period.
But who wanted him dead? And could this murder have had deeper connections to the rise of Thomas Woolsey and even the young Thomas Cromwell? Let's get into it. Christopher Bainbridge was born around 1464 in Westmoreland to an established family. His career in the church was boosted by his uncle, Bishop Thomas Langdon of Winchester, who helped him secure powerful positions at a young age.
Bainbridge studied at Oxford, Ferrara, and Bologna, gaining a strong background in both theology and law. Over time, he accumulated an impressive list of positions, Dean of York, Dean of Windsor, Bishop of Durham, and eventually Archbishop of York in 1508. But despite his high-ranking title, Bainbridge never actually set foot in his archbishopric. Instead, he was sent on a far more important mission to represent Henry VIII in Rome.
In 1509, just months after Henry took the throne, Bainbridge was appointed the king's ambassador to Pope Julius II. His task was to steer the pope away from alliances with France and bring England closer to papal favor. He was successful, persuading Julius to shift his alliances and even earning himself a cardinal's red hat in 1511.
Bainbridge also wasn't just an ambassador. He commanded papal troops at the siege of Ferrara and played a role in the high-level diplomatic strategy. He was, by all accounts, a power player in the Pope's court.
But power, as always, came with enemies. By 1514, Bainbridge was losing influence under the new Pope Leo X. Leo was more open to French diplomacy, which meant that Bainbridge's fiercely anti-French stance was becoming a liability. He was also deeply unpopular among his peers, known for his quick temper and violent outbursts, even striking members of his own household.
Then, in July 1514, Bainbridge suddenly fell ill. His symptoms pointed to poison, and suspicion quickly fell on Rinaldo de Medena, a priest who served as Bainbridge's steward. Under torture, Rinaldo confessed he had poisoned Bainbridge's food. But the story didn't end there. He also claimed that he had been hired to do this by none other than Silvestro Gili, the Bishop of Worcester.
So why would Gigli want Bainbridge dead? Well, for starters, Gigli had been England's ambassador to Rome before Bainbridge, and after Bainbridge's death, he got his old job back. That's a pretty strong motive. There were others who may have benefited as well. Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII's rising star, succeeded Bainbridge as Archbishop of York. Was he involved? Was Bainbridge an obstacle to Wolsey's ambitions?
And then there's a really intriguing possibility. Was Thomas Cromwell involved? This was actually hinted at in season two of Wolf Paul in The Mirror and the Light, where there was a dinner party and they were bringing up
the idea that maybe Cromwell had been involved in this murder. Now, Cromwell wasn't yet a major figure in 1514, but he had been a soldier for hire in Italy as a young man. Could he have played a role in removing Bainbridge, either as a hired hand or working on someone's behalf?
Despite Rinaldo's confession, the case was quickly swept under the rug. Silvestro Gigli, the man Rinaldo accused of ordering the murder, was never charged. Instead, Gigli pressured Rinaldo to retract his confession, declared him insane, and ensured that he conveniently died in prison before any further investigation could take place.
No one was ever implicated. Gigli kept his position, Woolsey rose in power, and Henry VIII didn't seem particularly interested in seeking justice for his dead ambassador. As for Cromwell? Well, there's no real evidence linking him to Bainbridge's murder, but it's a fun theory, especially since he later became Woolsey's most trusted advisor. Could he have been working behind the scenes, eliminating an obstacle to Woolsey's rise?
Probably not, but considering the kinds of things he later got up to in Henry's service, it's not entirely out of character. Bainbridge's tomb still exists today, housed in what is now the venerable English College in Rome. His murder remains one of the most intriguing Tudor-era assassinations, with plenty of theories but no definitive answers. Was it simply a vengeful servant acting on his own? Or was there a larger conspiracy, one that helped clear the path for Woolsey to take Bainbridge's place?
One thing is certain, in the world of Tudor politics, no one was ever truly safe, even at the papal court.
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We got you. Visit Verizon today. Price guarantee applies to then current base monthly rate. Additional terms and conditions apply for all offers.
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something, a topic that is not for the faint of heart. We are going to talk about surgery, tutor surgeries. So I was thinking about this. My dad is having a pacemaker put in today. He's had a lot of heart issues. He's getting older. He had a triple bypass. So today he's getting a pacemaker. So I was thinking about surgeries and I was thinking about surgery in the tutor period. And so here we are. This video is the result.
All right, so surgery in the Tudor period was not for the faint-hearted. There was no anesthesia, no antibiotics, not even a concept of germs so much like we would know. So even the simplest procedures could be excruciating and often deadly. I remember reading Samuel Pepys's diary. He wrote about the experience of having a kidney stone removed in, I guess, the 1650s.
Oh, he almost died. And yeah, not a lot of fun. A skilled surgeon might save a patient's life, but just as often the cure was as bad as the disease. Amputations, crude attempts at cataract surgery, all performed with very basic tools and survival was often just a matter of luck.
But despite the brutality, Tudor surgeons were not entirely ignorant. Their knowledge was built on medieval traditions, drawing from ancient texts, Arab medical advances, and battlefield experiences. So who were Tudor surgeons? What exactly did they do? Let's take a look.
To understand Tudor surgery, we have to look back at its medieval foundations. English medicine in this period relied heavily on classical texts, particularly Galen and Hippocrates, whose theories on the four humors—blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile—dominated medical thought. Surgeons were expected to balance these humors, sometimes using surgery as a last resort when other treatments failed.
Medieval medical texts like the Trochula, which was a collection of writing on women's health in particular, and Bald's Leech Book, which was an Anglo-Saxon medical compendium, contained remedies from herbal poultices to primitive surgical procedures. These were practical guides rather than scientific breakthroughs, but they reflected the growing importance of hands-on medical knowledge.
But some of the most advanced surgical techniques actually came from the Islamic world. Physicians like al-Zarawi, a 10th century Arab surgeon, developed surgical instruments that would still be used centuries later. Things like scalpels, forceps, and catgut sutures for stitchy wounds.
Avicenna's canon of medicine, translated into Latin in the 12th century, also provided a systemic approach to surgery and influenced European medicine well into the Tudor period. Arab surgeons understood cauterization, blood circulation, even basic anesthesia using sponges soaked in opium or mandrake.
And what's so interesting is by the Tudor period, after the fall of Constantinople, these texts are starting to make their way up to the Tudor surgeons, to the Tudor doctors and physicians. So there is starting to be this understanding of some of these Arab developments. But for most people at this point, these medical techniques and advances hadn't yet made their way through. So the average Tudor surgeon had little access to advanced medical knowledge
and often relied on crude tools and risky procedures. While European scholars were rediscovering ancient surgical methods, England was lagging behind, clinging to medieval practices that often did more harm than good.
Unlike physicians who studied at universities and focused on diagnosing illnesses, surgeons were considered lower status practitioners. Many were actually barber surgeons. So you would combine haircutting with bloodletting, tooth pulling, and minor surgical procedures. Can you imagine that? You go get your hair cut and get your tooth pulled at the same time or have like a little minor surgery in between your hair trim.
The iconic red and white barber's pole that we see today actually has its origins from this period. The red symbolized blood and the white represented bandages.
Surgeons did not receive a formal education in medicine, but they trained through apprenticeships, learning by doing rather than through academic study. The Company of Barber Surgeons, formally established in 1540 under Henry VIII, attempted to regulate the profession, but standards varied widely. While some surgeons became highly skilled, others were little better than butchers with a sharp knife.
Outside of barber-surgeons, there were itinerant healers and midwives who performed minor surgical procedures, such as lancing abscesses, setting bones, or even crude forms of cesarean sections, though, of course, survival was incredibly rare. Battlefield surgeons working under horrendous conditions gained valuable experience in amputations and wound care, but their techniques were often more about speed than precision.
What kinds of surgeries did tutors have? Well, surgical procedures in Tudor England were typically desperate measures performed with little understanding of hygiene or pain relief. If a person needed surgery, it was usually because all other options had failed and the results could be horrifying.
You would have amputations, perhaps the most infamous of Tudor surgeries. Amputations were performed without anesthesia using saws and knives. A skilled surgeon could remove a limb in under a minute, but without antiseptic, infection was a major killer. Cauterization, pressing a red-hot iron against the wound, was the preferred method to stop bleeding, though it often led to sepsis.
Then there was tree panning, which involved drilling or scraping a hole into the skull, usually to relieve pressure from head injuries or to release bad humors believed to cause madness or even epilepsy. While shock and infection killed patients, remarkably, some survived and even lived for years with gaping holes in their skulls. You could also have a bladder stone removal. This surgery was dreaded by all.
Stones were extracted through an incision in the perineum, the area between the legs, a procedure so agonizing that it was often done in just a few minutes to minimize suffering. The risk of fatal infection was extremely high.
then there was cataract surgery needling those with cataracts might undergo couching a technique in which a sharp needle was used to push the clouded lens out of the patient's line of sight there was no guarantee of improved vision and infection or total blindness often followed i'm really squeamish about eye stuff
Tooth extraction. There were no dentists, of course, as we know them today. Tooth pulling was a service offered by barbers, blacksmiths, and even executioners. Make a little money on the side in between executioners if the crime wave wasn't going on, if things were peaceful. Why not pull some teeth? It was a violent procedure. Teeth were often broken off rather than cleanly removed, and there was no treatment for resulting infections. See a pattern here? It's a lot of infection happening.
There was also wound treatment. Battlefield wounds were treated with whatever was available. Some Tudor surgeons used wine as an antiseptic, an idea borrowed from Arab medicine. Others relied on cauterizing the wound. French surgeon Ambroise Paré discovered that turpentine, egg yolk, and oil worked better than cauterization.
a major innovation that some English surgeons later adopted. Surgical instruments were terrifying. Rusty saws, knives, and even hammers were used in the absence of delicate tools. Hygiene did not exist, and many operations took place in very unsanitary conditions, with surgeons wiping their blades on their aprons before moving on to the next patient. I remember the movie
Glory, the Civil War movie came out when I was in high school about the first black regiment, the 54th, right? The 54th Massachusetts. And I remember there was a scene in the very opening showing. I think it was after one of the early battles. Can't remember right now. But anyway, there was a scene showing battlefield surgeons.
And they were like rinsing their knives off in like pans that were bloody already from other people. And, you know, it was just this the scene of showing that, you know, sometimes I think I'd like to go back in time and other times I think, no, I'm really good right here.
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Anyway, let's talk about survival rates and pain management, why don't we? Undergoing surgery in the Tudor period meant experiencing the full force of pain really without a lot of relief. I mean, there was things like opium, but anesthesia as we know it did not exist. Opium, mandrake root, and alcohol were used to dull pain, but they were unreliable, often administered in insufficient doses. There
Most patients were held down by assistants and expected to endure the procedure with nothing but sheer willpower. Thank you, no. The biggest killer wasn't always the surgery itself. It was blood loss and infection. With no knowledge of modern germ theory, surgeons operated with unwashed hands and reused instruments caked in dry blood.
Arteries were cauterized with red-hot irons to stop bleeding. This, like I said, often led to sepsis. If the wound didn't kill you immediately, the infection likely would. Yet some people actually survived against all odds. Battlefield surgery provided grim but valuable experiences, and records exist of men enduring multiple amputations and living to tell the tale.
One French soldier who had his arm removed by Ambrose Prey recovered due to the surgeon's innovative use of ligatures instead of cauterization, a practice that Tudor surgeons eventually adopted. Though survival rates were shockingly low, every success laid the groundwork for future improvements.
Despite its brutality, Tudor surgery was evolving, shaped by war, regulation, and Renaissance science. One of the most influential figures in the advancement of surgery in Northern Europe, like I said, was this Ambrose Prey, a French surgeon who revolutionized battlefield medicine. Instead of cauterizing, he developed ligatures, the tying off of blood vessels to control bleeding.
He introduced a gentler wound treatment, like I said, this mixture of egg yolk, rose oil, and turpentine, which dramatically improved healing compared to the standard practice of pouring boiling oil onto wounds. Though his methods were controversial, they eventually gained acceptance across Europe, including in England.
In England, Thomas Vickery, who was Henry VIII's royal surgeon, compiled one of the most detailed Tudor-era anatomy books, A Profitable Treatise in the Anatomy of Man. This book aimed to educate surgeons of the human body, though much of its content was still based on medieval ideas. A major turning point came in 1540 when Henry VIII formalized the Company of Barber Surgeons.
merging London's two main surgical guilds. This was an attempt to regulate and professionalize the field, ensuring that at least some surgeons had proper training. However, barber-surgeons remained distinct from physicians and were still considered a lower-class profession.
One of the biggest shifts in Tudor medical knowledge came from the Renaissance emphasis on human dissection. The most important anatomical work of the period was Andreas Vesalius' De Humanae Corpus Fabrica from 1543, which corrected centuries of misinformation based on animal dissections.
While England lagged behind the continent in adopting these ideas by the late 16th century, more English surgeons were learning from direct observation rather than medieval texts.
Another driver of progress was war. Conflicts in France and Scotland provided surgeons with extensive, if gruesome, experience. Battlefield medicine required quick amputations and innovative wound treatments, leading to improved speed and technique. While survival rates were still low, Tudor surgeons were gradually refining their craft, learning from each operation, even if their patients often paid the price.
So, surgery in the Tudor period was a brutal, often fatal affair, but it was not entirely stagnant. Many procedures were still rooted in these medieval traditions, but the period also saw the first steps towards modern surgical techniques.
The influence of Perret, Vickery, and Renaissance anatomical studies helped surgeons to gain a better understanding of the human body. The creation of the Company of Barber Surgeons attempted to reinforce some standards and wartime necessity pushed surgeons to improve their speed and efficiency. But of course, it was still a matter of luck. So...
I'm not signing up for any surgery from any Tudor barber surgeon anytime soon. So I'm a hard no thank you on that. What do you guys think? Are you glad we live in the time of modern medicine?
Sometimes I think about it and I think we tend to see ourselves so advanced, like science has advanced everything. And I think we lose a lot of the mystery and the magic of life with this idea, this enlightenment idea that everything has an answer and everything can be solved with science and everything like that. So, you know, I tend to kind of like skirt a little bit of the woo-woo world and a little bit of the spirituality world and would like us to bring some of that back. And every time I start thinking that too much,
Then I just remember medicine. I'm just so grateful that I live now. I don't know, maybe in a past life, I had some kind of horrible eye experience. And that's, that's what I'm so squeamish about that. Have you ever had a past life reading done? I'm just curious. I have had one done. And I learned a lot of very interesting things about my potential past lives. It was a psychic in Camden that told me all about myself, but
Not sure how much of it I believe, but it was certainly really interesting and it explains a lot. So that got sidetracked. Thanks so much for listening to this week's YouTube highlights. Remember, you can go over and subscribe. History and Coffee, Heather Tesco, you will find me there. And we'll be back again next week with more highlights from what went out on YouTube throughout the week. Thanks so much. Have a great week.
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Now at Verizon, we have some big news for your peace of mind. For all our customers, existing and new, we're locking in low prices for three years guaranteed on MyPlan and MyHome. That's future you peace of mind. And everyone can save on a brand new phone on MyPlan when you trade in any phone from one of our top brands. That's new phone peace of mind. Because at Verizon, whether you're already a customer or you're just joining us,
We got you. Visit Verizon today. Price guarantee applies to then current base monthly rate. Additional terms and conditions apply for all offers.
Under Biden, Americans' costs of living skyrocketed. Food, housing, auto insurance. Lawsuit abuse is a big reason everything's more expensive today. Frivolous lawsuits cost working Americans over $4,000 a year in hidden taxes. President Trump understands the problem. That's why he supports loser pays legislation to stop lawsuit abuse and put thousands back in the pockets of hardworking Americans.
It's time to make America affordable again. It's time to support the President's plan.