Were people embalmed during the Elizabethan times?

Question

I recently watched the 1968 Romeo and Juliet movie starring Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting . I noticed that when Capulet and Lady Capulet thought Juliet was dead that they simply covered her with a sheet and put her in the family vault. She could not have been embalmed because she woke up later.... and so goes the story. But, anyway, I was wondering if was normal not to embalm people in that time period of if they just did that in the movie?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Certainly the Tudor monarchs were embalmed and apparently the process was not very successful in the case of Elizabeth I, whose corpse embarrassed people by exploding as the result of the gases produced.

Answer 2

PER YOUR QUESTION: "Embalming in Europe. . .began to come back into practice in parallel with the anatomists of the Renaissance (Henry VIII/Elizabethan times) who needed to be able to preserve their specimens."

What you observed In the movie was an example of "poetic license" that Shakespear used in his plays. If Juliet had been embalmed, she would not have been able to come back to life.

POETIC LICENSE: license or liberty taken by a poet, prose writer, or other artist in deviating from rule, conventional form, logic, or fact, in order to produce a desired effect. [Origin: 1780–90] )

Answer 3

Ya know, I wouldn't doubt it! Crazy Bethan's!