Quirky Roles in Tudor Royalty: A Butler's Tale
Photo: falco on Pixabay

Quirky Roles in Tudor Royalty: A Butler's Tale

July 11, 2023

I watched "Secrets of the Royal Servants".

Here are some interesting jobs in the British royal family during the Tudor dynasty that were introduced in the program.

The king's butt-wiping staff

This job was to wipe the king's buttocks after he had done his business. At the same time, they were responsible for maintaining the king's health by observing his excrement and consulting with doctors.

It sounds like an unpleasant job, but at the time it was very popular and everyone wanted to do it. The reason was that you could talk alone with the king in the privacy of a toilet room.

If the king chose the place, he would give you a place to live, and you could even receive the king's old clothes. Even though they were old clothes, they were more than expensive and valuable enough, because the king's kimono was made of the oldest silk and fur.

Photo: A stool from around 1650

A boy being whipped instead of the prince

The palace had a "whipping boy," a boy whose job was to receive corporal punishment.

He was with the prince when the prince took lessons from his tutor, and if the prince did not listen to the tutor, he was whipped instead of the prince.

This was because the tutor could not inflict corporal punishment on the prince.

The logic was that if they whipped a boy who was good friends with the prince, the prince would be heartbroken and listen to the teacher.

However, some of the princes deliberately rebelled because they wanted to see the boy whipped. Poor boy.

Photo: Edward VI and his Whipping Boy (Walter Sydney Stacey, 1882)

References

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