Oh What A Time... - #162 The Youth (Part 1)

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

This week we’re looking at those who achieved the extraordinary and at incredibly youthful age! We have the Tudor boy King, Edward VI, to discuss. Britain’s youngest ever Prime Minister (just 24 years old!!), it’s Pitt the Younger. And from France, we’ll hear a bit of the life of Joan of Arc.And this week we’re discussing: what was life like before the advent of reviews? Have you ever seen the secret book that travel agents had in the 90s? If you’ve got anything to add on that or anything else, you know what to do: [e-mail] from now on Part 1 is released on Monday and Part 2 on Wednesday - but if you want more Oh What A Time and both parts at once, you should sign up for our Patreon! On there you’ll now find:•The full archive of bonus episodes•Brand new bonus episodes each month•OWAT subscriber group chats•Loads of extra perks for supporters of the show•PLUS ad-free episodes earlier than everyone elseJoin us at 👉 patreon.com/ohwhatatimeAnd as a special thank you for joining, use the code CUSTARD for 25% off your first month.You can also follow us on: X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepodAnd Instagram at @ohwhatatimepodAaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice?Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk).Chris, Elis and Tom x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oh, Whatter Time is now on Patreon. You can get main feed episodes before everyone else. Add free. Plus access to our full archive of bonus content, two bonus episodes every month, early access to live show tickets and access to the O Watertime Group chat. Plus, if you become an O Watertime All-Timer, myself, Tom and Ellis, will riff on your name to postulate where else in history you might have popped up. For all your options, you can go to patreon.com forward slash O Watertime.

Hello and welcome to Oh What a Time, the history podcast, the days to ask the question, what was life like before you could offer feedback on literally everything? And was it better? Obviously, there's the obvious things. You can offer Google reviews or TripAdvisor reviews on hotels, Airbnbs, restaurants, cafes, whatever. Also, if you download Map My Run or Map My Ride or Strava or any of those, you can offer feedback on other people's exercise. Can you?

That's incredible. Shipping in on Usain Bolt's training regime. But you can't offer feedback on a lack of exercise. Something has to show up. Yeah. What happened there, mate? This is why Crane is immune. So you couldn't go on Strava,

choose everyone who's running in Britain, and then sort it from slowest to fastest and then just go on the slowest one and start giving feedback about it. It's not like that, is it? It has to be someone you know. Is that right? Well, actually, you can follow anyone on Strava,

if I understand, if you search for their name. But what Strava doesn't do is link Britain or the world from least fit to fittest. Can you imagine that? I'm 29 millionth in the world. Which actually is quite good. I'm going to say it. That would be the most popular app in Britain if that was a case.

Well, actually, Crane, you might like this. There was an advertising campaign recently where I think it was Papa Johns. If you went on Strava and you did a run that there was shaped like a pizza slice, you would get a special discount. That's brilliant. That's a good idea, is it? Great. Yeah, yeah.

There's been a lot of people doing runs in the shape of cock and balls and stuff like that. That's been in the news before I've seen that. That's the obvious one, isn't it? And also, obviously, the first person to think of that, A, how poor rile,

but B, you have to admire it really. Because it hadn't occurred to me. Just on the subject of you can review everything these days. Obviously, one of the big things is, when you go on holiday, you can see a thousand reviews of almost whatever resort you're going to and there'll be star rankings, the food, everything would be ranked.

But do you remember in the 90s? And I'm sure listeners, someone will know whether or not this is true. I always heard a rumor that there would be a secret book that travel agents had that would give secret reviews of all the places they were selling so that travel agents would secretly know what every hotel and place was like. It was like an unspoken secret in the travel agency. This is a rumor I always heard that under the death. Secret trip advisor, basically.

Secret trip advisor for travel agents in the pre-internet age. I really hope that's true. And also, that begs a question, if you are being sent on a bad holiday, your local travel agent must have just hated you. So if they were sending you to a campsite in Normandy that they knew was terrible. What sort of agenda, big off?

You can't know, surely not. But like I'm looking at Stravano. I follow my lovely friend Rodry and he did Park Run in South Wales on Saturday. Now, I've done a little thumbs up. But it offers me the option of leaving a comment. There's nothing to stop me going,

bit slow, mate. But obviously I'm not going to do that. There must be people out there doing it. You carrying an injury? But I think it's a great time, and I'm very proud of him. He's a good mate of mine. I love the fucking exercises so much.

It's just the fact that you can offer this feedback that stays there forever. Yes. Before ignorance was, well, it was word of mouth slash ignorance as bliss. Well, you say that, but Chris has mentioned the idea of booking holidays. The idea of booking a holiday in the 80s must have been quite stressful because there is literally, what am I going to turn up to? Whereas now you get really analytical, you know, hundreds of thousands of people have left reviews on everything. And you can watch videos of the ABDBB.

click on a photo where you see outside the hotel room that there's building work going on there now and the pool that they claim exists doesn't exist. So you go, well, that's not the place whereas previously you turn up. It would just be, oh, there's a JCB outside my window. That was the classic thing you'd get on like holiday 97 or wish you were here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It would be some family from Suffolk who'd saved up for the holiday of a lifetime. And then they would turn up and their chalet did not exist. So then they had to sleep in a... Obviously it's awful, but they had to sleep in a bus depo and you know, everyone's in tears. But it just doesn't, maybe it does.

It's not happened to anyone I know, but maybe that still happened. When I went to New York in about, how old would I have been? It's about 2003, probably. My friend Sam and I stayed in a hostel. This is before. So this is kind of prior to the internet being a big thing and being able to read reviews of places you were going to. We stayed in this hostel and it was.

You could do it then, but only complete tech nerds from California did it. You were basically Zuckerberg did it You, Bill Gates And he was the only one Yeah, yeah Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Musk All the hotel reviews

Are either from Zuckerberg or Bill Gates At that point Yeah I loved it And it was only $20,000 a night E Musk So we stayed in this hostel And in the

The air vents What do you call that? The air conditioning vents Is that what you call of those big metal things that let's say in die hard someone might crawl through they're going around a building in our room a pigeon had somehow fallen down one of those and was at the bottom and was just sort of rattling around and slowly dying in there and we spoke to reception and they said well I just can have to wait for it to end oh my god so in these three days we were there

in this place was incidentally also had cockroaches like cockroaches in our room we were too poor to go anywhere else. We just had to listen to this bird, sort of see out its last three days in absolute misery. Now, my point being, now someone would have left a review about that. Someone would say, I stayed in a room and there was a pigeon in solitary confinement dying, don't go here, and people wouldn't go there. Then, no idea. So that's, I think, I think it's a good thing. Yeah, then it just became an unictor 20 years later. But I mean, when would that have been, crane, like the 90s? That was like 2,000. I think some of that.

Imagine imagine going around Tudor Britain staying in Inns. Like when you're 300, 400, 400 years away from a good reviewing service. You know, this might be

a candidate for correction corner slash, oh, what a shame. However, I read an article online a few years ago. I vividly remember this because I remember discussing it with Izzy, my wife. Where hundreds of years ago,

if you just needed somewhere to stay, you'd knock on someone's door and say, can I sleep in your house? I've been walking for 35 miles. And they would routinely go, yeah, sure. Which obviously doesn't happen anymore. Is that true? So you take in a traveller because it was just part of the culture?

Yeah, if you could carry on, I'm desperately going to try and find this article. We had something similar. Like, there's a, where I live, there's a big mum's WhatsApp chat from all the mums in the local area. It doesn't sound similar. And don't wait. And then it like. This is a couple of years ago. My wife was up breastfeeding one night, and suddenly there was a text.

Like, my husband's fallen asleep. I haven't got my key. I've been working late from another mum. She was like, is anyone up? Wow. My wife let in another mum that she didn't know who slept on a sofa. That's a lovely story. Yeah, it is absolutely.

Does that remind you of a story, Alice, from the Edinburgh Festival by any chance, a few years ago? No, no. when we went out and I lent you the key to our flat and you said, don't worry, I'll definitely be up when you get home. I get home at one in the morning, ringing on the doorbell, Ellis is fast asleep with his phone on silent and I sleep on our doorstep till seven in the morning. Ellis then let this, during the Edinburgh Festival,

I'm already knacker from my show. I come in, I see Izzy immediately burst into tears and trying to give me a bottle of champagne. She still talks about that. She still talks about that. A bottle of champagne. Yeah, I slept on a step because of this. man here who would definitely be up when I got home.

The kindness of Tom Crane. That was, I put my hands up, an enormous mistake on my part. Yeah, it was horrendous. The moment when my phone ran out of batteries, it was about four in the morning, I thought, well, I'm now here at the night was a low point. I offer you a partial apology. Why do you just leave the key out? It was Edinburgh, the early 2000.

You know, people didn't have common sense. Oh, right. Unbelievable. Have you found an answer to that question, Elle, about people travelling around the country or knocking on door? No, not really. Just lots of inns. So if you are a medieval expert and you think that what I just said sounds valid, then please send us an email to helloorawatertime.com.

Well, I know an incredible story about this little baby at winter once in Israel. There was no room at the inn. You never guess what happened, Elle. Quite a twist. Right. Do you know what? Talking about reviews, if you're a long-term, listen to the show,

and you really enjoy the show, we haven't asked for it through a while. Do leave us a review. Leave a five-star review and write some nice things. It makes a huge difference in the show. It helps spread the word. And leave it in Latin as well. Oh, that's a good point.

Yeah. Let's go for ancient Greek, Latin. Leave it in any ancient language. And we will try and translate it on a, on a, on our, forthcoming show and we'll hope that it's pleasant. Right. Today's show, talking of history, we are talking about, how do you describe it, the incredible power of youth in history? I think that's a good way. Yeah, people who flourish early. Absolutely. I'm going to be talking about Joan of Arc and her incredible story later in the show. I'm going to be talking about

someone whose name I've heard for years and years and years, but don't actually know an enormous amount about, for me, he's always been a punchline from sort of blackadder. I'm going to be discussing Pitt the Younger. Oh, yeah. I don't know much about it. I remember, came up in like GCSE history. The guy's young. Because it's a PM, the guy is young.

Amazing. And what about you, Scal? I've got for you this week, Edward the 6th, the son of Henry VIII, the Boy King. This sounds great. I've learned some fascinating stuff. about him, I can't wait to share. Before that, let's crack into a tiny bit of correspondence. So, you sent us some correspondence, have you?

Well, let's take a look at you then. This email I absolutely love, because I had no idea that this was happening somewhere in the world during the pandemic, and I love that it did. This email is from Tom Upstone. It says pubs slash meat raffles. Hi, team, in reference to meat raffles being mentioned at the end of your pub episodes, I'm originally from England but have lived in Sydney, Australia for more than half my life, where meat raffles are still a huge part of the pub and club culture. Are they?

Yeah. You'll say this came from you, Chris, I think you were talking about. Because the pub near my house had a meat raffle on a Sunday right up until about 2006, something mad. You still get them in South Wales, but obviously in, you know, it's a certain kind of pub. So you turn up, you have a few drinks, you pay for a raffle ticket and at the end someone gets a ham hoc or something. A live pig is brought out and slaughtered in front of the bar. Sometimes it was like a huge leg of land, but sometimes it was a hamper. Now I'm thinking about it.

Well, there you go. A hamper. Was that an intentional pun by the way? It's a basket full of different parts of a pig. I actually won a meat raffle. I went to a raffle, yeah. Like a charity raffle. And I won a meat hamper.

But I forgot to collect it. So the universe owes me a meat hamper. I'd find the phrase meat hamper a bit sort of vague, worryingly vague. It's like when you go to the football and you have a meat pie and you say, what me is it? Listen, it's meat. You like it, but what kind? The lack of specificity is worrying me here. It's generic general meat.

Okay. Thank you. Why are you missing an arm? It's meat, no. Do you know what? It was shrouded in mystery. It was a charity raffle I contributed to and I won a meat hamper as part of the charity

But then it said you had to call the butchers To give them the heads up you wanted to collect it So I called the butcher And they were like, you've won what? That's like a meat hamper They're like a hamper And I was like yeah And I was like

It says I've got to ring it to collect it And they were like well just turn up And I was like the whole thing Has not filled me with any confidence I'm just going to leave it I love the idea that's a con that these people are running meat raffles around the country going, yeah, just talk to your local butcher and then they move to the next town with all the winnings. Yeah, exactly. Right.

Okay. Let's continue with this email. Tom Upton says, so they're big in Australia still meat raffles. Okay. He says, I live in an inner city suburb, well known for its cluster of small independent breweries with tap rooms where you can go and drink their wares, much like the middle age pubs you discussed. I'm also fortunate to have one of these, Willie the Boatman, three minutes walk away at the end. my street, which happens to be in the current Australian PMs, Anthony Albany's electorate. And during COVID, during the lockdown, the taproom wasn't open for drinkers, of course.

However, you could still purchase takeaway beers, which I did weekly to support a local business. I like that. We bought quite a lot of wine during lockdown, which part of me, I convinced myself it was about supporting this small wine shop around the corner. Actually, it was just, you know, soften the blow of not being able to see my friends. And when you did... And I realised I didn't want to see my friends. I was actually really happy drinking on my own in my house.

Exactly. And it's softened the blow of the fact that I thought they were my friends, but in reality, they were acquaintances or I didn't care about. I've cut them all off. Yeah. And I'm glad I did. Now, this is a bit I love. When you did buy some beer,

you received raffle tickets for the Friday night live Facebook show, which included music from a socially distanced local performer culminating in a meat raffle drawer. So every Friday, if you bought beer from this place, there would be a Zoom night out, essentially, where the local community would all sit there, and there would be a meat raffle at the end of it. I won once, but the second time was even better.

Our local MP, the then leader of the opposition, was there with his famous in Australia dog Toto to draw the raffle. First name of a hat, mine. Wow. A piece of COVID history and a lovely leg of lamb. Thanks, Tom. That sounds quite nice. Yeah.

What you thought, I liked that as well. I'm shocked there is so much meat raffle innovation still happening. Yeah, yeah. I would have said the gold of age of the meat raffle was the 80s. I'm going to correct that. It was the pandemic years. Do you think, because this is a barbecue forward-thinking country, Australia, that is. It's a barbecue culture.

It's a barbecue country, good weather. The meat raffle kind of makes more sense there, I suppose. Yeah. Because I don't know, I can definitely use this this weekend in the the sun with a few tinnies with my friends, whereas here, just walking back from the pub with a leg of land, well, now I have to do a roast, I wasn't really planning on doing it. But we are a roast country, aren't we? We're a winter-based. We're a winter-based food economy. I'd rost in yesterday. Did you? Yeah. Is he loves it?

Don't you? You have one once a week, don't you? I wouldn't say once a week, I'd say two a month. That's high for me. Two to three a month. Or every other week. Or every other week. No, no, it might not be it without fair. I reckon I'm averaging two to three a month. Let me quickly take me through your plate yesterday just before we get on to some history, just to let's, we'll rate this. Well, I had a gig. I was doing a gig in Greenwich at the Creek Comedy Club.

So it was rushed, but my plate was roast chicken. Nothing better than wolfing down a roast before a gig, is there, L? Belching on stage in Greenwich. I'm probably 8 in 8 minutes. Not chewing like your bean down. That's a weird reference, but... Rose chicken, rose potatoes, rose parsnips, broccoli, peas, carrots, gravy. Broccoli?

Does broccoli have place in a roast? I don't know if it does. Do you think? Yes, it does, yeah. Slightly charred, man. Okay, fine. Just throw it in with the chicken for the last 20 minutes, for a bit of olive all over it. I've always been a bit of a parsnip denier, really.

Okay. Yesterday's parsnips were excellent. But they need to be christmills. I think, and ideally cooked with something with a bit of sweetness. I think that's the art. There's nothing more than an unhoneyed mushy parsnip. You need the honey to get rid of that nasty parsnip taste. Yeah, yeah.

And friend of the show, Joshua, I've always been an enormous Brussels denier, but friend of the show, Josh Whittaker made me Brussels on New Year's Day, and they were fantastic. A bit of panchetta in there. Well, let's quickly discuss his Christmas dinner of choice, which I've seen in the flesh because he's had Christmas dinner with me, for lasagna, then with all the other things you get with a... He is vegetarian, is a vegetarian lasagna.

But that's what, rather than nut roast, he's not a fun of nut roast, he'll have a lasagna and then all the other things you get with a Christmas dinner. But his lifelong vegetarianism has pushed him down the unorthodox route, is it? But I think lasagna doesn't feel like the obvious swap out, does it? My friend didn't like white meat and he would have a steak. He would just have steak and chips on Christmas dinner because it got on Christmas day because it was his favourite meal. I know someone who hates turkey to the extent they will have a barbecue on Christmas Day,

like in the cold outside in the garden. Oh, wow. Really? Yeah, burgers. Okay, I can understand that. Like, just go the other way, go fully the other way, commit. I don't think turkey's that good, if I'm honest. Well, that's why people only have it once a year.

Yeah, but on the best day of the year. If it was good, people would say, we should have this all the time. But nobody has said that. People have it once, they're like, fine. I had to see a physio a little while ago because I hurt my shoulder. Her favorite food is Chinese, Chinese takeaway. So she has a Chinese banquet on Christmas lunch. But more than that, she has it on her own

because she doesn't want to have her family's turkey roast at her flap, and then she goes to her family to spend the afternoon with them. So she has her own Chinese takeaway for a while. I think she's absolutely nailed. Christmas. I think that is the most well-adjusted balanced thing I've ever heard. And she also unapologetically orders everything

and then just has tiny takeaway leftovers for the coming days. She is an icon in my eyes. Absolutely. Well, if you're listening, thank you for that tip. I will try and do it in the future. If any of you have anything you want to get in contact with a show about, here's how.

All right, you horrible look. Here's how you can stay in touch with the show. You can email us at hello at ohwatertime.com and you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at oh what a time pod. Now clear off. And thank you to all our wonderful patrons who support the show, get bonus episodes, early release episodes and much more. And one of the benefits of being an oh what a time all-timer. Our top tier is that we will figure out where in history your name may have been before. And up this week, gentlemen, Sam Cartlidge.

Sam Cartlidge, what a brilliant name. One of the early physios? I mean, that's exactly what I was going to say, but it's set a root one, isn't it? It is, yeah. He's the kind of person who, I don't know, we're still benefiting from his work on the ACL, which was done in 1910.

The first man to map it. Yeah. He named knees. He came up with the word knee. Before that we had no description for the bit midway down our leg. And he came up with the word me. Yeah, it was just called middle leg, wasn't it? Middleleg hinge.

And he was like, I think there's a better word than middle leg hinge. That's where Frodo lived. Yeah. Sam Cartilage. I've got another one. Sam Cartlish sounds like the first person to sail solo around the world, like in one of those small yachts. Yeah.

The tiny sailing ones. I don't mean like an early explorer. I mean maybe in the 80s, about in 1984, that sort of time. Those people. who would, like when they would roll the Atlantic. Yes. Which seems impossible, but has been done. There must be a point.

The worst bit must be halfway. When you think, I can't turn round. Yeah. I've just got to keep going. But do you think it's been so grueling to that point? You're like, yes, I'm halfway. Is it actually like two thirds of the way through? You're like...

No, but then you could be rescued. No, I'm with you, Elle, because it's that feeling of like, you have no choice now, you're trapped. And you've already done half, and you've got to do all of that again. But those guys have support crafts and stuff, don't they? No, they don't actually, not the early ones. They didn't. They really were solo journeys.

And I think there would be some kind of monitoring, obviously, but it was, it's really very, very dangerous. Yeah, absolutely. If you get caught in a storm and a small boat, it's really dangerous. It's three miles, three miles. Three miles. Three miles, sorry. Fine, I'm doing that. I'm thinking about my strife.

Do you remember how I once said I was confident that I could swim the channel with almost no preparation? Yeah. I don't think I could row across the Atlantic. I'll give that. I'll give that. I'll give credit to anyone who's done it. It is out of the question that I could roll the Atlantic. Yeah.

Well, there you go. What was it? Keith Cartilage, what was the name? Sam Cartilage. Sam Cartilage sounds like someone who'd mess up your knee. He's a physiognizant past any of his exams. He was one of the first surgeons. Yeah, but God, he was cheap.

He was also a barber and a cobbler. And a butcher. You'd walk into the pub complaining about, oh, my knees really had not last week. Who did it? Keith Cardlidge. What? Yeah.

Oh, no. Yeah, they're doing a meat raffily today. Who donated it? Keith Cartlidge. Oh, my God. What meat is it? Don't ask. Well, there you go.

Thank you very much for being a. Patreon subscriber, thank you for naming these. We appreciate all your hard work. So thank you very much to Sam Cartlidge for subscribing and becoming a know-what-time All-Timer. You can become one, two, and here's how. Hello again, you horrible lot. Enjoying the show?

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Stop dawdling! So at the end of this show on the youth from history, I'm going to be telling you the incredible story of Joan of Arc. I'm going to be discussing Pitt to the Younger. And let's go back in time right now to January 1547. You'll never guess who's dead, King Henry VIII. RIP. No, Henry the 8th.

I've got him in the end. Old clean living Henry the 8. I did not see it coming. His physique? His two-decade-long battle with gout ended in defeat. Yeah. Well, gout often affects defeat, doesn't it? Very, very.

And ankles. You know what that? Wow. Say what you want about Tom Cray, but he knows how to write in the voice of Tom Cray. Don't say what you want about Tom Cray, just to be clear. Let's make it pleasant. Was it Henry VIII, who they tried to shove into a coffin? Was it you who told us that?

No, that's William the Conqueror. Ah, and he was too big. He's stamped on it and it went everywhere. Oh my goodness me. I'll still think about that. And they exploded in the coffin. All went everywhere. You'd have been a great medieval chronicler grave.

And all the bits went everywhere. My medical journal. His bits doth went up the wall. Wow. Poor old Henry the 8th. Well, when we think of Henry the death of Henry the 8, obviously, he's. He's got gout, he's overweight. But you forget that at one point he was the very image of Renaissance kingship.

He was athletic, musical, learned, flamboyant. Green sleeves is an absolute banger. Run around on a horse with one of those poles until he fell off. But by the end of his life, obviously crippled by illness, severely overweight, politically just exhausted after years of religious upheaval. But at this point, in Jeremy 1547, on his death, bed, he would have felt relief because he had produced a legitimate male air. That air was Edward, born to Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour.

But there was a problem. Edward is only nine years old when Henry dies. Right. The 10th birthday would not come until October 1547, and obviously Henry's died in the January. So this is quite a big inconvenience. England had undergone profound religious transformation during Henry's reign. You had the break with Rome that was just about incomplete at this point, still contested, still unstable.

Abroad, you've got Catholic powers like Spain watching closely. And at home, Edward's elder half-sister Mary, a committed Catholic, and daughter of Catherine of Aragon, remained the focal point for the opposition. The throne, the reformation, the political unity of England and Wales are all up for grabs. And here is Edward, the boy king. It's a dangerous time. I love my seven-year-old, and I think he's great.

I think he's brilliant. He's not two years away. He's not ready. He's not ready to run a country in two years' time. No, no, no. My daughter's 11. She'd certainly bring different fresh angles to the role. What would those angles be?

I'm genuinely intrigued. Well, certainly you're seeing... Mandatory break time? Two break times. Vegetables, banned. Seriously, though, at nine years old, with almost infinite power, it would go to your head, wouldn't it?

How could you not make mad rulings? I think it would absolutely crush you. And I remember the kind of nine-year-old I was, and I think I'd be crushed more than that. I don't think I'd feel emboldened. Yeah, absolutely. So England had at that point had a recent experience of child monarchs. So you had Edward III, who became king at 14 in 1327.

Relatively older, in that case. Yeah. Yeah, he's basically middle age. It's weird you now retrospectively go, actually, we didn't realize how good we had it. The bum fluff king. And you've got our mate Richard II, who was obviously involved in the Peasant's Revolt with our West Ham supporting friend, Watt Tyler. Richard the second took the throne at the age of 10 in 1377.

The youngest, though, at this point, Richard the 6th. not barely even nine months old when crowned in 1422. Definitely too young. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Some real fresh ideas coming from that cradle. North of the border over in Scotland, they've got some more extreme examples.

Mary Queen of Squat, Scots became queen. Mary Queen of Squat. Sounds like someone who's running a sort of health and fitness Instagram page. That's a great idea. You're doing a fitness DVD with Mary Queen of Squat. Your whole personality is the important. of squats and you just happen to be called Mary. Is she also dressed up in the garb from that time, do you think?

I think you have to sort of really embrace the character of Mary Greener's squats, don't you? Surely. You can't just say it. I think it has to be with huge oil paintings in the background. It's that sort of, the setting has to be right and the Alph. Yeah, like everyone in the Tudor court is squatting. Yeah.

And I also think it's modern dance songs, sort of things you'd listen to in the gym, but played by Tudor bands. Oh, yes. So you're using the instruments of the Tudor period but you're playing Call on me by Eric Pritz. Exactly, there you go.

Also, if she was wearing regal dress it would be heavy and it would make the squats harder. Yes. Brilliant. But you wouldn't be able to check her form because their dresses are so big. Oh, yeah. So you'd have to do tight modern versions.

Yeah, exactly. Love it. So that's Mary Queen of Squats, but Mary Queen of Scots became queen when she was just six days old in 1542. Her father, James V, he himself had been crowned

at 17 months. But child monarchs actually... There has to be a better system. Yeah, that's what I'd say after a while. There is, and there was, and they realised it. Child monarchs create instability

because they kind of breed factionalism, and obviously, child monarchs can be swayed in certain ways and you get courts, you get courts build up. With sweets. Yeah, pretty much. Power inevitably kind of drifts away from the crown and into the hands of the ambitious adults surrounding those child monarchs. So Edward V. 6th himself would be no exception.

So he's king, Edward the 6th. But in practice, England at this time was ruled by a regency council, first dominated by Edward Seymour, the Duke of Somerset, and later by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. That's such a good point, though, Chris. Your worry is not the kid. It's basically who's the kid's talking to. It's the advisors in the council.

If you've seen bring up the bodies, which was on BBC recently, Edward Seymour, a bit of a baddie. Yeah. If you sign this legislation, you can get all the smarties you want, and I'm not going to tell them. What do you think about that?

What's a smartie? It's 1542. So yeah, you've got John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, Edward Seymour, the Duke of Somerset, and these men are controlling policy, patronage, military power. And Edward, meanwhile, is kind of being carefully managed. Molly cuddled. He's being educated, he's being observed,

and he's gradually being introduced into the mechanics of rule. Yeah, Edward the 6th was unusual in one respect among child monarchs. And I didn't know this. It has blown my mind. Edward the 6th kept a diary. Oh, I love it. It exists. It's part Chronicle. That's fantastic. I didn't know that.

Yeah, me neither. I've been reading bits of it. I couldn't believe it existed. I never knew this about it. How old is he? So he comes to the throne. I mean, he's comes to the throne at nine years old. Okay.

Just to tell you how the story is going to go, he will die. What sort of nine-year-olds keeping a diary, though? The King of England, mate. How about that? Fair enough, yeah. Maybe at age nine I didn't have enough to write about. I was a king of England, maybe it's worth recording. I got given a diary when I was nine.

Did you? And I thought, yeah, that's a good idea. And the first day I had nothing to say. The second day, nothing to say. Third day, I had had to go shopping in town with my mum. And I said, went to town of my mum, didn't like it. And that was the one and only entry. I remember I found out about nine months later they came.

Yeah, I've got a very boring life. Why would I want a chronicle this? I just play with Matthew next door every day and go to school. And that's it. Not quite Samuel Peeps, is it? No, no. But he's keeping a diary. I love that. Yeah.

So it's amazing. I've been reading little bits of it. So it's part chronicle, part exercise, part kind of personal record. And it gives insight into what it's like to grow up as a king. So it begins almost formally as if practicing the art of history. He recounts events leading to his father's death and reflects a reflexes, reflects upon his own upbringing. Until the age of six, he notes he was raised among the women,

a typical early Tudor childhood. Then he had formal education. Edward was trained in Latin and French theology, philosophy, and the liberal sciences. He was taught to read scripture closely and to see himself as a Protestant ruler with a providential role to play. And as he gets older, the diary becomes more personal.

He records family tensions, especially with his elder sister, Mary. On dream stuff. Age 15 to 17, you don't really want to read it. Maybe not read that. On one occasion, he writes pointedly about having suffered his old assistant Mary's behaviour, which is a kind of reminder that it's not just formal politics, there's very real domestic strain happening there.

Edward, it comes across. It's far more reflective than I was at that age. You're a king. Craig, this is the second time we've had to tell you. You were not a king. But my point being, I would not have been at age 9 or 10 writing diary pieces reflecting on my upbringing and my relationship with family members. But no one was telling you that you were the most important person in England. My mum was.

I've latterly come to realise that may not be true. Yeah, it's like when my mum used to say I was handsome when I was about 18 and I just used to think, that means nothing. Because if anything comes up, that's going straight in the diary. Fettling it comes a bit, we're both going to prison. Yeah. So, yeah, unlike Tom, Edward the 6th knew he was king, and he expected obedience, especially from his sister, and he writes a lot of that in his diary.

So like any teenage boy as well, Edward is recording his pastime. So he describes in his diary that he has competitions with his companions. So they have challenges involving archery, which is writing about horsemanship, athletic skill. One contest involved running at base, which is a vigorous team game

in which players captured opponents and held them at a designated base. Variants of the game were known as Prisoner's Base or Prisoners' bars, but his ancestors of what we might now recognise as capture the flag. Oh, okay. Which you may well have played on Golden Eye on the N64.

My guess, his opponents, weren't being too tough on him. Well, in May 1551, a major match was held at Greenwich with teams dressed in elaborate colours, one in black and white and one in yellow. A large crowd of young nobles attended. Edward's team lost. And he writes in the diary

complaining about unfair scoring and terrible referees. Oh, wow. How wrong am I? VAR. So there you go, Tom. Could you be more wrong in one episode? Let's find out. So Edward's writings are not confined to sport and ceremony.

As he entered his mid-teens, he began to think seriously about government, trade and international relations. So in March 1552, he composes a short essay, arguing for the establishment of an English training port capable of competing with Antwerp. Antwerp then was the great commercial hub of Northern Europe. He actually suggests Hull as a gateway to the North Sea and Southampton as England's portal to the channel. What amazing things to be thinking about at this age. Yeah. Yeah. Hold is he again, sorry? In March 1552, this is.

So when did he die? So he's like 14, 13. Yeah. Amazing. Wow. And a good idea. His reasoning was clear. England possessed valuable commodities cloth tin, coal lead,

such as quote unquote, such as few realms have the like. Direct trade would enrich the kingdom and weaken its rivals. Trade was not just commerce. It was strategy. So Edward's thinking about this. My school jotters at that point Basically had different versions of the Ashton Villa lineup And players I'd like them to sign

And what I thought they'd be valued at That's what all my school jotters had in the back I was just constantly rearranging the villa team That I supported at that point Drawings of guitars All Time Wheels 11s Yeah Oh the best

Yeah I certainly Little to know sort of port stuff And hardly any mentions of Antwerp No poor stuff. Unless Villa were playing Antwerp in the European car. Just mindless speculation on how much you could acquire Andy Hinchcliff for. Yeah, literally.

And it's a perfect example. Great effort. Yeah, so it's sophisticated thinking for a teenager. So this is a monarch who's thinking about how to grasp economic power, trade policy and national security. But Edward the sixth, tragic. He never lived long enough to rule independently. So he was always sick. basically.

His body had been ravaged by illness. There's one account I read where Edward the 6th, having been bedridden for some weeks, comes to the window in the Tower of London, I think it is. And the onlookers are absolutely shocked to see the sight of him. He's just wasting away so visibly. He dies.

Someone's yelling, Edward the sick more like. That's the sort of banter he'd be dealing with. If you shouted that in 1553, you are getting hung. Maybe within minutes It's worth it As I'm dangling I'd have a satisfied grin on my face Everyone'd be laughing their way to the gallows

Yes he dies in 1553 to age just 15 His reign had lasted barely six years But the decisions that defined England in that period Were largely made by others Not necessarily by him Yet in fragments of his diary It shows us a young ruler In the process of becoming curious,

analytical, increasingly confident that youth was no barrier to judgment. And his love for sport and competition comes across, and Edward VI lays down some understanding of the fact that England's future lays in trade, wealth, and a Protestant alliance. These are ideas that would shape the country long after the Boy King himself was gone. I remember as a kid, one of the first things you learn in primary school when you're turning to history, the tutors and the Stuarts,

and his Edward VIII story struck me as so tragic. And it's a brief reign wedged between Henry the 8th and Elizabeth I. It looks like a historical footnote and it kind of is, but it does give a glimpse of a modern state that is about to be born. I'd love to read that diary. That sounds fascinating. Fascinating, isn't it? Yeah.

Amazing. I actually get, like, a brilliant historian, Dr. Darrell Leeworthy wrote it in his notes. And I was like, how have I never heard of this? I was just Googling excerpts. It's incredible. Have we done an episode on diaries, haven't we, I think? But I'm not sure Edward VIII came up. No, we definitely did some more peeps, which is a book I'm still meaning to read.

But that's fantastic. Yeah. Samuel Pepys, for a point, what did he bury in his garden during the Great Fire in London? I said you know this. Quite weird. Samuel Pepys? Yeah, what did he bury in his garden?

A massive wheel of cheese. Oh, yeah. I never really understood that. It's just a weird thing to do in the middle of a fire, isn't it? Yeah. Not the best place to keep cheese. We need to run, Samuel. Everything's on fire.

Let me just quickly just bury this cheese. Get me the spade and the Camembert. Now! Well, that's it for The Youth. If you want Part 2, it will be out tomorrow. But from next week onwards, part 2 is going to start getting released on a Wednesday after Part 1, which will come out on Monday.

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