In The Tudor Period

15. When the Thames froze over in 1564, people played football on the ice

Many courtiers “shot daily” at targets set up on the frozen water, and “both men and women went daily on the Thames in greater number than in any street of London” until the ice began to thaw on 3 January. In 1608, the river froze over again. According to a letter written by John Chamberlain in Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain: 1603–1624, “certain youths burnt a gallon of wine upon the ice, and made all the passengers partakers”, while one “honest woman had a great longing to have her husband get her with child upon the Thames”.
When the Thames froze in London before Christmas 1536, Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, having attended a service in St Paul’s Cathedral, spurred their horses across the frozen river and galloped to the Surrey shore, making for Greenwich Palace, where they would keep a lavish Christmas court.



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