England's First Lottery

<p>With a top prize of £5,000 and a celebrity backer in the form of Queen Elizabeth I, England embarked on its first ever national lottery draw at St Paul’s Cathedral on 11th January, 1569.</p><br><p>The results continued to be announced, day and night, for four months; a particularly prolonged process due to the fact that the prizes had to be divided into twelve, as the organisers had only sold a twelfth as many tickets as had been predicted. </p><br><p>In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why the cost of entry had been set so high (a year’s salary for a working class labourer); reveal the desperate ‘get out of jail free’ tactic to flog more tickets; and ask whether, despite its apparent failure, the event was, at least, proof-of-concept for the state funded lotteries we still know today…</p><br><p><strong>Further Reading:</strong></p><ul><li>‘It Could Be Ye: England’s first lottery’ (The History Press, 2019): <a href="https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/it-could-be-ye-england-s-first-lottery/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/it-could-be-ye-england-s-first-lottery/</a></li><li>‘11 January 1569: England holds its first lottery draw’ (MoneyWeek, 2021): <a href="https://moneyweek.com/421338/11-january-1569-england-holds-its-first-lottery-draw" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://moneyweek.com/421338/11-january-1569-england-holds-its-first-lottery-draw</a></li><li>‘January 11 - The first recorded lottery’ (The Anne Boleyn Files and Tudor Society, 2020):<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_-XqukRpgk" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_-XqukRpgk</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>For bonus material and to support the show, visit</strong><a href="https://create.acast.com/episodes/ca1f94a1-0921-446a-ae00-4d4bfd2ba3ef/Patreon.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong> </strong></a><a href="http://patreon.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Patreon.com/Retrospectors</strong></a></p><p><strong>We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts:</strong><a href="https://create.acast.com/episodes/ca1f94a1-0921-446a-ae00-4d4bfd2ba3ef/podfollow.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong> </strong></a><a href="http://podfollow.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>podfollow.com/Retrospectors</strong></a></p><br><p><em>The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.</em></p><p><em>Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham.</em></p><p><em>Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2021.</em></p><br><p><em>#1500s #Royals #Inventions #UK</em></p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

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