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May 2025
45m 3s

What Made You Ugly In Tudor Times?

History Hit
About this episode

Why did royalty have worse teeth than commoners? How would the Tudor court have smelt? And when even the Queen of England can be accused of being a witch for a random mole, what hope did the rest of us have?


In this new mini-series, we'll be exploring the beauty standards - and ideas of ugliness - throughout time periods in history.


In this third episode Kate is joined by historian and author Nicola Tallis, to find out how both royalty and commoners achieved the desired looks of Tudor times.


This episode was edited by Tim Arstall. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.


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All music from Epidemic Sounds.


Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

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