Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

William Paget (1506-1563) was a quintessential Tudor politician. He worked for Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I: in short, he survived. He, also, like many of the best Tudor politicians, owed his office to his ability rather than his blood, which was not very blue. He had his share of peccadilloes, of course, but […]

The lovemaking of other ages is often obscured from us. A natural reticence, which the twenty-first century has largely given up on, draws a veil around medieval or Tudor sex. Our few exceptions include some rare pornographic accounts and a handful of legal descriptions where sex was getting someone in trouble and needed to be […]

There are three characters in this sorry tale: a 14 year old girl, her forty-one year old step-father and her thirty-six year old step-mother; the girl’s biological father and mother are both dead. The child attracts her step-father’s attention (sexually-speaking) and he begins to take liberties with the girl: though how far these liberties went […]