30-06-2025
The Tudor way of death — drunken tumblings and dangerous dung carts
One day in August 1565 James Johnson got drunk. By early evening he was so intoxicated that he fell asleep in a Southwark alley. When he woke up 'barely possessed of a healthy and calm mind' he decided to empty his bowels in a ditch. Feeling light-headed, he fell into the filthy water, got tangled in his breeches and drowned.
Johnson's unenviable fate was documented for posterity because Tudor law required any suspicious or sudden death to be investigated by a coroner. And so after his body was discovered this official (assisted by a jury of at least 12 trustworthy local men) examined his corpse and questioned witnesses about the circumstances of his death. Once the coroner reached a verdict (in this case, of 'misfortune') his report was sent into storage at Westminster where over the course of the 16th century it was joined by records relating to nearly 9,000 similarly unfortunate individuals.
