Hedvig Amalia von Hessenstein

What people wore

Shiny head-cloths for feast days

On feast days, women polished their white linen head-cloths by rubbing them with a smooth glass rod until they were shiny.

Getting around

Special saddles for women riders

Women commonly used special saddles (tvärsadlar) for travel, which allowed them to sit with both legs on the same side of the horse, rather than riding astride.

At the table

Grain-based diet and survival mixtures

Ordinary Swedish families relied on a grain-based diet, consuming bread, porridge, and gruel as their primary energy sources. To extend limited grain supplies during spring, common people frequently mixed their flour with alternative ingredients like chaff, bark, or various plants.

Music

Folk instruments and church singing style

Common folk instruments in this period included the nyckelharpa, hurdy-gurdy, and drums, while country church congregational singing was often described by clergy as shrill and heterophonous.

Daily life

Self-sufficient rural households without schools

Schools did not exist in the countryside, and households were responsible for producing everything needed for daily life, including tools and clothing. Medical care was also absent in rural areas, leading families to rely on traditional home remedies found in household books.

What it cost

Rising cost of rye relative to wages

Between 1770 and 1784, the price of rye was 31 percent higher relative to the wages of day-workers compared to the period of 1735 to 1744.