Why Tudor Tenants Brought Their Landlord a Goose (Michaelmas Explained)

About this episode

September 29th was one of the biggest days of the Tudor year, and most of us have never heard of it. Michaelmas, the feast of St Michael and All Angels, was when rent came due, farm servants' contracts ran out, London chose its Lord Mayor, and the lawyers and students all headed back to town. It was also goose day, and the reason tenants turned up at the landlord's door with a goose under their arm is funnier (and a little sadder) than you'd think. This is episode 1 of a four-part series on how the Tudors got ready for autumn. In this one: 🪽 Who St Michael was, and why he's weighing souls in English church doom paintings🌧 The Wenhaston Doom, hidden under whitewash for 300 years until a rainstorm in 1892 🪿 George Gascoigne's poem about tenants buttering up their landlords "for fear their lease fly loose" 🏴‍☠️ Busting the myth that Elizabeth I started the Michaelmas goose after the Armada 📜 Why the British tax year still starts on April 6th, thanks to an old quarter day 🎟 TudorCon From Home, October 23 to 25. We livestream the main room all weekend, and every talk is recorded with audio and slides so you can catch up afterward. Every ticket comes with a digital swag bag wort