Hilary Mantel wrote historical novels
Hilary Mantel was a successful writer and was popular with both critics and readers. I have written about my thoughts on the Wolf Hall series in a previous post. In that, I concentrated on the quality and style of Ms Mantel’s writing. Now I will say something about the history lessons contained in the books.
 HILARY MANTEL |
Hilary Mantel wrote fiction not history textbooks
She may have invented certain incidents and must have invented most of the dialogue in the books, but I am pretty sure the historical background she presents is reliable as well as realistic. That is what impressed me most, although I knew a lot of it already, or thought so. Apart from new discoveries, I found my existing knowledge of the period took on a new depth.
What struck me most about the history in Wolf Hall?
The biggest eye-opener was that the Tudors were living in the mediaeval world. I have often heard that the period was a bridge between the Middle Ages and modern times. Hilary Mantel shows that Henry VIII and his contemporaries stood at one end of that bridge.
What aspects of the mediaeval world do I mean?
- Religion. Of course, everyone in England, as in most of Europe, was a Roman Catholic, but I had not realised how far the Church intruded into daily life. People fasted not only in Lent but in many seasons and on many saints days. You were not even supposed to have sex on Fridays, Sundays and fast days. People thought of the date in terms of so many days before or after a certain holy day.. No wonder people thought Protestantism was revolutionary.
- Superstition. This is not just about elements of Catholicism that many people today would consider superstitious, such as reverence for religious relics and shrines. I mean belief in witchcraft, ghosts and the acceptance that certain actions brought bad luck. Even brave warriors were afraid to go through a forest at night, not for fear of outlaws, but because of the danger of encountering fairies, goblins, and various supernatural beings.
- Medicine. Doctors were expensive and they had some strange unscientific ideas. No wonder folk remedies were popular, even if they blurred with witchcraft. Equally, it is no wonder so many women were wrongly deemed barren and others died in childbirth.
Would science lessons have helped?
Probably. Some things, however, had little to do with science.
- Class. I know class is an issue today. I have met a few snobs! Today’s class distinction is trivial compared with the mediaeval version. Aristocrats ruled and looked down on even the wealthiest of merchants. Different classes of peasant were aware of their relative status compared with other peasants. Almost everyone accepted the social order as if God had ordained it.
- Language. As if class distinction wasn’t enough anyway, language made it worse. Do you ever find jargon infuriation? Educated people, such as noblemen and the clergy spoke Latin and a lot of them spoke French. Henry VIII tried to promote English as part of his break from Rome. It was a start.
- Transport. If you complain about potholes, think how lucky we are! Roads, where they existed, were almost always in a very bad condition. Rivers were popular thoroughfares. Hence, rich people liked houses by the river.
Hilary Mantel makes you glad to live in the 21st Century!
If you are not certain, try reading Wolf Hall and its sequels. I hope you find the characters and the events interesting, but in any case soak up the mediaeval atmosphere. They say the past is another country. It’s one you might like to visit, but I’ll bet you will be glad to come home.