Development of the Horse-Drawn Coach
Overview
Although carriages were used in continental Europe as early as 1294, vehicles to carry passengers first appeared in England in 1555. That they did not appear earlier was due to the appalling condition of English roads, which were little more than cattle tracks and water courses. Winter was an especially treacherous time for wheeled transport. In England, in the twelfth century, wagons were used by distinguished persons for travel. Because they were comparatively more comfortable, litters supported by two horses (one in back, one in front) carried ladies of rank, the sick, and also the dead.
Background
The earliest surviving carriages (from the 1500s) were four-wheeled, with an arched tilt (covering) of leather or fabric over a bent-wood hooped frame. Although the wooden body and tilt framework from earlier carriages also survive, the undercarriage and wheels are gone. These carriages are long, and were mainly used by aristocratic ladies. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, a new type of body—a box slung on wheels, or coach—was invented.
Passengers in early carriages could look forward to a jerky ride. Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) suffered so much from her first experience riding to the opening of Parliament in 1571 that she never used that particular vehicle again.
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