Men in the Saddle and Women on Wheels: The Transport Revolution in the Tudor and Stuart Courts

Abstract

The transport revolution of the sixteenth century consisted in part of the adoption of four-wheeled transport for private and commercial purposes, and also in the social change that allowed men to ride in carriages rather than on horseback. The coach appeared as a general European phenomenon from the 1550s, but did not immediately represent the adoption of any technological change over its predecessors; by the early seventeenth century, richly decorated high-status vehicles had become a common sight, as had the urban traffic jam. These changes are exemplified in the extensive records of the production and decoration of coaches for the courts of Queen Elizabeth and James I, with the use of the high-status coach for courtly gifts and diplomatic presents. While Henry VIII may have used the carriage only very rarely, his daughter Elizabeth not only delighted in the creation of very expensively fitted coaches, but also continued to ride throughout her life. This era saw the development of coach etiquette for the particular situation of a travelling interior space (with a public face) used by both sexes, and the development of formal processional use (with occupied or empty coaches representing their owners), while the high status male rider continued as a phenomenon into the twentieth century.