Tudor City [1500 - 1640]
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The early Tudor period brought a dramatic rise in the city’s prosperity, and by the 1520s it had returned to a position among the top half-dozen English towns, after London, Norwich, York, Bristol and Newcastle. The foundation of this new prosperity was the Devon cloth industry: cloth woven in rural Devon was brought into the city for dyeing and finishing before being exported to France, the Mediterranean and the Low Countries.
Exeter played a part in some of the most dramatic events of Tudor England. Citizens defended their walls against the army of the pretender Perkin Warbeck in 1497, and again against the south-western rebels in the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549. Some of the famous figures of Elizabethan Devon are associated with the city - among them the Devon sea-captains Walter Ralegh and Francis Drake, and Nicholas Hilliard, the painter of miniature portraits at the court of Elizabeth I.
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The early Tudor period brought a dramatic rise in the city's prosperity; it was among the wealthiest English cities like Norwich, York, Bristol and Newcastle in the 1520s. This wealth was based on the Devon cloth industry: cloth woven in the county was brought to Exeter for dyeing and finishing before export to France, the Mediterranean and the Low Countries. Some of the famous figures of Elizabethan England are associated with the city - like the Devon sea-captains Walter Ralegh and Francis Drake, and Nicholas Hilliard, the painter of miniature portraits at the court of Elizabeth I.
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A canal was constructed between Exeter and Countess Wear in 1564-6. The city chamber then began to improve both the canal and the port facilities at Exeter quay. The rebuilding of the frontage of the Guildhall in 1592-4 was the most important civic project of its day. It provided a first-floor meeting chamber for the council of twenty-four who controlled the city's affairs.
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Exeter was at the centre of political life during the Tudor period. Its defences were needed to protect the city from uprisings, such as in 1497 when the army of Perkin Warbeck attacked or in the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549.
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The Reformation brought about enormous changes in Exeter society. St Nicholas Priory was dissolved in 1536, and soon after Henry VIII's commissioners organized the destruction of its church. In the early 1570s parish churches were required to replace their old medieval chalices, used in the Catholic mass, with communion cups for Protestant worship. Old silver chalices were melted down to make new vessels. The Exeter goldsmiths produced most of the new cups needed by the many hundreds of Devon parishes.
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Exeter continued to thrive as a regional centre for manufacture with industries in bell-founding and glassmaking developing during this time. Among the building trades, the city's wood-carvers, stonemasons and plaster workers are well represented throughout Devon. The main source of employment for the people of Exeter was the cloth trade, but evidence for this is very elusive in the archaeological record.
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The centre of the old city was home to a powerful elite of Exeter merchants. Their houses were built on the long narrow burgage plots of the medieval town. Many of these houses were built in a local style with a front block two rooms deep, with a small courtyard behind, and a detached kitchen to the rear which was often connected to the front by a gallery. Each building had a narrow shop on the ground floor, with working space behind. On the first floor were the best rooms, the hall and parlour. Above these were bed chambers and lofts. These houses were all of ‘mixed construction' of stone and wood. The sides were solid stone walls which acted as firebreaks, since fire was a constant danger, whilst the front and back walls were of timber, often jettied out over the street and rear courts.
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Improvements in medical ideas and practice are reflected in the archaeological record from the Tudor city. Finds of stills for distilling potions, flasks used in examining patients' urine and jars to hold wet and dry drugs show an increased interest in diagnosing and treating patients.
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Foreign trade to the Tudor city continued from France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland. During this time Exeter was also involved in the trade with Africa, shown by the production of manilas, an African form of currency.
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Much evidence for dress in the Tudor city comes from paintings of Exeter's wealthier residents.
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During this time more evidence survives for children in the city. Formal education for boys from the wealthier families was developed, and some traces of the schools and their educational material survive. Several games balls have been discovered by archaeologists which may have been used by children in their spare time.
