This Week in YouTube June 8
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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.

We are going to talk about another nighttime video, another sleep-related middle-of-the-night video. So I've gone down this rabbit hole because there's a book called At Day's Close, Nighttime in Time's Past or something like that. It's funny because all the things that we talk about, all the events that happen,

All of that is obviously when people are awake and during the day and everything like that, right? But there's this whole other half of life, which happens at nighttime. And the Tudors and people in pre-modern societies before there was electricity, before there was all of the kind of control over time that we have now with clocks and alarm clocks and...

lighting and all that kind of stuff. It was a very different world for people. And I'm at this period in my life right now where I'm up in the middle of the night quite a bit. If you are a woman of a certain age, you might relate to that.

That's all I'm going to say about that right now. But I am up in the middle of the night quite regularly. And it's had me thinking about kind of what nighttime was like for people in previous times before there was electricity and the ability to, you know, just kind of like doom scroll on your phone or read a book on your phone or watch TV or turn on a light or anything like that. So it's had me kind of really going down this rabbit hole of nighttime and how people slept. And I think

I think it's absolutely fascinating, actually. It's one of these things you just really don't think about all that much, but it's absolutely fascinating. So today we are going to talk about why the Tudors feared the midnight hour, the witching hour, what happened in between the two sleeps, and kind of some thoughts they had about that. All right. So to start with, let's talk about this hour in between sleeps, hour to in between sleeps.

So, it's the middle of the night. The fire had burned low already. The candle, the last candle flickered in its holder and was out. There was smoke curling up into the dark. It was midnight. And in Tudor England, this was not actually a time for sleeping. This was the time in between sleeps, what some people called the witching hour.

After the first period of rest, it was common to wake up naturally for an hour or so. This is the whole two sleeps thing where the tutors slept in two distinct first sleep and second sleep with time in between.

And that was what was very common before there was electricity, before there was artificial lighting. People would go to bed with the sunset, wake up in the middle of the night, have some time to pray or read or meditate. You would feed the fire, put fresh logs on the fire, hang out with your family very quietly. It was just a very peaceful time in the middle of the night. Others would just be still and just listen to the sounds.

But you were, you know, generally awake for an hour or so overnight, and then you would go back to sleep and wake up with the sunrise. Many people loved this time. Many people really enjoyed this peaceful time in the middle of the night. But others feared it because many Tudors believed that the hours between midnight and 2 a.m. were when the spirits stirred and witches traveled everywhere.

And the boundaries between the living and the dead were thinning. So like I said, Tudor sleep wasn't like our sleep today, or at least what people think our sleep is. Because what I've realized now that I'm kind of up in the middle of the night is there's a lot of people who are up in the middle of the night, right? We have this idea that you go to bed at, you know, 10 or 11 and you wake up at 6 or 7 and you just sleep the whole night through. But actually a lot of people get up. It was especially common before there was artificial lighting because people would just go to bed with the sun set.

So most people didn't sleep straight through the night. They slept in these two distinct phases. The first sleep typically began shortly after sundown and lasted till about midnight.

And after that came an hour or two of wakefulness before the second sleep. Now, obviously, this was different in the winter versus the summer because the sun obviously set much earlier. The sun in England sets in the winter at like 4 o'clock, 3.30, something like that. So, you know, you don't necessarily go to bed then. So this would change between the seasons. But, you know, just kind of in general, you go to bed a little after sunset, sleep until midnight, wake up.

and then go back to sleep until sunrise. During that in-between time, a lot of people got up quietly. Like I said, they stoked the fire. They visited the privy. Some used the time for prayer or meditation. Others reflected on their dreams, sometimes interpreting them as signs or warnings. But it was also a time of stillness and unease. The house was dark. The village was silent. And in the absence of activities, minds would wander. Nightmares lingered.

Some reported strange noises, scratching at the door, a chill across the bed. And while some were comforted by the solitude, others believed that this in-between hour wasn't just quiet, it was actually open. And what might slip through from the other side was always uncertain. Midnight marked a threshold. The Tudors believed it was the hour when the world became unstable, when temptation, danger, and unnatural forces grew stronger.

ghosts were said to rise around this time witches were believed to leave their beds and travel in spirit especially on feast days or holy day eves between the first and second sleeps the body was vulnerable and so was the soul

if you woke up between midnight and two some said that it meant that the devil had passed near your bed others believed it was a warning your conscience was stirring or your spirit was unsettled cunning folk the local healers and wise women often told people to stay inside during these hours if you had to go outside carry iron or wear rosemary sewn into your sleeve

Spring time, like we're in right now, added a whole other layer because fertility spirits were said to roam in May, especially around Beltane, the holiday that once had celebrated the shift from winter to summer. People would avoid traveling under a waning moon and doors were often marked with chalk or pinned with branches to keep the watchers out. The midnight hour wasn't just a spiritual threat. It was also seen as physically dangerous.

Tudor physicians believed that the body was ruled by the humors and that at night, especially between sleeps, vapors could rise from the stomach to the brain. These night vapors were blamed for nightmares, for sleep paralysis, and visions. Some even believed that dreams at this time could be messages from the divine or the demonic.

Sleepwalking was poorly understood but widely feared. A person wandering around at night was thought to be under the influence of the spirits, or worse, a witch who was working through them. Pregnant women were told not to be startled or exposed to fear in the night or it might mark the baby. Midwives recorded cases of infants born in the early hours with physical deformities, and some claimed that it was the hour of birth rather than the mother's actions that invited the bad luck.

as springtime came on and the days grew longer the fear of night didn't fade in fact it actually just kind of shifted with the return of fertility and growth anxieties turned toward the spiritual dangers of birth of lust of the unpredictable forces of the natural world

May Eve, once called Beltane, was considered especially dangerous. People tied rowan branches above doorways or left out little bowls of salt to ward off the spirits. Babies born in the weeks around May Day were said to be more susceptible to fairy theft.

and midwives sometimes whispered charms during midnight births. Even the moon was watched. A waning moon in the springtime meant a dangerous season. Animals might fall ill or crops might fail, and walking at night during that cycle was thought to attract misfortune or unseen watchers who had no business among the living. So to the Tudors, this midnight hour in between sleeps was a whole space. It was a whole thing. It

a space where the rules slipped between first and second sleep, between yesterday and tomorrow, between the living and the dead. What we might dismiss as simple insomnia or menopause, he saw as a warning or an invitation. It was a time to pray, to wait or fear what might be coming through the cracks.

And while we've long since abandoned the two sleep nights, at least kind of officially, many people still do it, but we have this idea that you sleep through the night. Some things haven't changed. The dark is still unsettling to us. Midnight still feels strange. And sometimes even now when we wake up and stare at the ceiling, it's hard to shake the feeling that we're not entirely alone.

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Today we are going to talk about that time that Catherine Parr ruled England when Henry was away in France and regents in general. So queen regents, because Catherine of Aragon also ruled when Henry was in France and had a stellar military victory at the time as well with the Battle of Flodden. So we will get into when the two Catherines

were regents and talk about the differences between the two and things like that. So picture this. Henry VIII is off to France, decked out in golden armor, dreaming of conquest and glory, another Agincourt, if you will. But back in England, it's not a council of dukes or earls running things. It's his wife. Twice in his reign, Henry left his queen in charge of the kingdom. Not

just as a figurehead, but as an actual regent, issuing orders, raising troops, and managing the business of ruling the kingdom. So today we're going to talk about two queen regents, Catherine of Aragon and Catherine Parr. They were very different women, but both were trusted with the highest authority that a Tudor queen could wield.

So Henry VIII fancied himself a warrior king, right in the tradition of Henry V. He dreamed of continuing the Hundred Years War and getting England back to its glory time of Crecy and Agincourt and all of that. So when the opportunity came to fight France, as it did in both 1513 and 1544, he grabbed his armor and headed off to Calais. But

Someone had to keep England running, and not just symbolically. There was the constant threat of Scottish invasion in the north, rebellions at home, and rival courtiers jockeying for power. In both cases, Henry turned to his wife, not a council, not a duke, a nobleman, but the queen. And these weren't just ceremonial appointments. The title "Regent" actually meant wielding real authority in Henry's absence.

Both Catherines issued royal proclamations under the Great Seal, maintained correspondence with foreign ambassadors, and had the final say in matters of state. It was one of the few times under Henry's reign in early Tudor history when women held that kind of power. Of course, later we would see women queen regnance themselves, Mary I, Elizabeth I, but under Henry, for the first time, we saw these very powerful queen regents.

Women wielding power not behind the scenes, but right out in the open. Now, a couple of examples before we get started of other queen regents in English history. One very famous one was Matilda of Scotland. She was the wife of Henry I. In the early 12th century, she was the daughter of Malcolm III and Saint Margaret of Wessex. She was highly educated, deeply involved in government. And when Henry I went to Normandy, she acted as regent.

Chroniclers described her presiding over the courts and issuing writs. And in practice, she actually often governed England under Henry's absence, though not always with the formal title of regent. There was also very famously Eleanor of Aquitaine, legendary. She was named regent multiple times during Henry II's campaigns in France, had enormous power in both England and Aquitaine.

aquitaine and issued charters, managed royal business, oversaw governance. She even served as regent for her son, Richard I, when he was on crusade. And during that time, she also raised ransom money for Richard when he was captured after the crusade.

So that regency was much more formal and she was often referred to in contemporary documents as holding regnal authority. And then another very famous queen regent was Isabella of France. Now this was very complicated, the wife of Edward II. This was pretty complicated because Isabella led a rebellion against her husband and then ruled England as regent for her son, Edward III, from 1327 to 1330, alongside her father,

lover Roger Mortimer, although she wasn't named regent in a formal legal sense,

She absolutely held the reins of power and she controlled royal policy and government during her son's minority. Of course, then Edward got power and became an incredibly strong king on his own. But Isabella was a regent for a while after the rebellion against her husband. So that one, she wasn't named and trusted by her husband. She actually rebelled against her husband. So that's a little bit more complicated. So those are some examples of queen regents in English history leading up to Henry VIII.

But Henry is kind of unique. This is something that gets lost in the story of Henry and his six wives and his tyranny and his narcissism and all that. But he actually really liked strong, powerful women. When you look at his wives, the women he was attracted to, he was really attracted to intelligent women. And he trusted his wives more than other kings typically did. So the first time was when Henry invaded France in 1513 and named Catherine Veragon the regent.

And she rose to the occasion with a dramatic flair. Of course, she was the daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand, Isabella of Castile, Ferdinand of Aragon, the warrior monarchs in Spain who led the Reconquista and actually expelled the Moors, completely took Spain back from the Moors. So she had this warrior mother to look up to, and she totally embraced that. So that summer England was invaded by Scotland.

James IV saw his chance while Henry was away and marched south with a massive army. Catherine was six months pregnant and dressed in armor. She rallied troops in the north. She personally oversaw military logistics. She sent urgent dispatches. She coordinated defenses. She even threatened one bishop who was dragging his feet in raising the troops.

So she didn't actually go physically lead the troops herself, but she was very much involved with it. And that resulted in the Battle of Flodden, which was a crushing English victory. James IV was killed along with much of the Scottish nobility. Catherine wrote triumphantly to Henry. She sent him part of the Scottish king's bloodied coat as a trophy. She actually supposedly wanted to send the body itself, but it was deemed a little bit too grotesque.

She wasn't just filling in. She was ruling in the mold of her mother, Isabella, who had physically led armies herself. So Catherine of Aragon's regency wasn't passive. It was active, it was hands-on, and it was laced with martial pride. Then let's talk about Catherine Parr.

Fast forward to 1544, Henry's older, more paranoid, more murderous, and once again he sets off for France, this time to besiege Bologna. He leaves Catherine Parr in charge, but by now the stakes are different. The political climate is more dangerous. Catherine has to walk a far tighter line. She wasn't just Henry's sixth wife. She was also his nurse, his companion, his political ally. He trusted her enough to name her regent

and she accepted the job with care. While Catherine of Aragon marched troops and sent bloodied trophies, Catherine Parr governed through council meetings and legal decrees and diplomatic correspondence. She worked closely with Thomas Cranmer and senior officials to keep the machinery of government stable. She also had to deal with the increasingly tense religious divide at court

keeping reformist allies close while also avoiding the wrath of conservative factions who wanted her gone. Of course, this is the period when Stephen Gardner's trying to have her arrested, also tried to have Thomas Cramer arrested. So it was a really tricky time for her. She didn't command armies, but she survived the court intrigue and the plots and the whispers against her, which frankly in 1544 might have been even more impressive.

So Catherine of Aragon ruled like a warrior queen, trained from birth to be a ruler, proud of her bloodline, and ready to make war if needed. Catherine Parr, by contrast, was a scholar, a stepmother, a reformist. She ruled with precision, with intellect, and emotional intelligence. Both regions held power, but their styles could not have been more different. One fought enemies at the border; the other outmaneuvered them in council meetings.

And while Catherine of Aragon had this glorious military victory to write to Henry about, Catherine Parr managed something even more unusual and rare in Henry's world: she ruled and she lived to tell the tale. So we often think of Henry's wives as tragic figures or political pawns, but twice the king trusted a queen to take the throne in all but name. They didn't just keep the seat warm, they ruled, and in doing so they reminded everyone sometimes the smartest move Henry made was leaving.

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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