The Elizabethan Era's Most Horrifying And Disgusting Realities

 Black teeth were all the rage

The Elizabethan era began on November 17, 1558, when Queen Elizabeth I ascended the throne. The era is remembered as a time of beautiful clothing, stately homes and great art, but it wasn't all frilly collars and gold accents. Poor and rich alike were constantly living in filth, eating lots of sugar and meat, and dying if they breathed the wrong way. Let's take a look at the Elizabethan customs that made this era one of the most metallic periods in Western history.

Sugar is delicious; No one is debating that. But the Elizabethans were so obsessed with the dessert that they ate it whenever they got the chance. As the Tudors imported more and more sugar from the West and East Indies, they used it for everything from salad dressings to fruit preserves and even some medical treatments. Sugar was so expensive that it was rarely eaten by anyone except the rich, but the care of the mouth is not the same as it is today, it causes their teeth to rot. Although it was an uncomfortable situation for the upper class, all the peasants saw that there was a new look that they had. Poor people did whatever they could to show their teeth were falling out because fashion follows the rich, for better or worse.

Rich or poor, Elizabeth rarely ate vegetables

Such dietary practices were often dictated by one's budget, but regardless of wealth, Elizabethans were getting no fat. Unless it was a special occasion, the poorer classes did not have the possibility to eat meat, so they ate bread, eggs and cheese for most of their meals. In the lean times, he ate a meal called "potage," which was actually a thick vegetable soup with oats. A lot of cottage cheese was probably eaten after Queen Elizabeth ordered in 1563, in another of her out-of-touch moment, that everyone should eat fish on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. The poor either found a way to buy fish or spent three months in prison, so the average Tuesday night was probably nothing to write home about.

On the other hand, wealthy families who could actually afford meat ate it at every opportunity. Whether it was mutton, venison, or rabbit, he stuffed his gullet with meat. It was often combined with various fruits to bring out the sweet taste, but the carrot was rarely seen.

No one drank water

Thanks to inaccuracies in the local water supply that promised anyone who drank anything from a long night on the chamber pot to death, Elizabeth was a dehydrated bunch. Instead of risking a deadly disease, Elizabeth of all classes drank wine whenever she wanted to quench her thirst. It was really just trading one headache for another, but at least they had some fun at first.

There were plenty of options available to Elizabeth. They could choose from German wines called wine, beer, brandy and Rhenish, but the lower class people mostly stuck to beer. Elizabeth probably wasn't going around blackout-drunk all day as her systems were used to drinks, which weren't as strong as they are today, but they certainly sparked constant buzz.

A popular "sport" involved chasing bears to attack dogs.

There weren't many ways to spend time in the 1500s, so between work and theatre, people preferred to commit pure animal violence. A favorite pastime of Elizabethan was bear-baiting, a "game" where a bear was taken into a pit and chained. The onlookers then watched and bet as the bear was attacked by large dogs. The "game" usually ends when either the bear bows to the dogs or they succumb to it. Elizabethan court official Robert Lenham said there was nothing better than a fun evening of bear-biting: