Masters and Servants in Tudor England

Although life in Tudor England was ordered in a strict hierarchy and the divisions between social classes were firmly maintained, a life of service was common for all classes, and servants were not necessarily the lowest stratum in society. At the upper levels of society the children of the wealthy would become personal attendants to royalty or to great lords or ladies as part of their upbringing. Further down the social scale apprentices were regarded as servants yet at the same time as members of the household or the family. Even more humble servants were not relegated to life behind a green baize door but shared their master and mistress's lives to a far greater degree than did many in later times. Alison Sim's new book looks at the daily reality of servant life in the Tudor period. She examines relations between servants and their masters, peering into the bedrooms, kitchens and parlours of the ordinary folk and into the more sumptuous apartments of royalty and the aristocracy. Her book both informs and entertains the modern reader and at the same time rescues from oblivion the lives and voices of the people who kept the wheels of Tudor life turning.