Elizabethan society Flashcards
Society compared to the rest of Europe?
England was technically more stable than other European nations – France and the Netherlands had been ripped apart by religious wars.
Who dominated positions of power within society?
Aristocrats continued to dominate positions of power. Elizabeth was though reticent to create more peers – four Dukes met traitors’ deaths 1547 – 72 and Elizabeth created no more in her reign.
Position of nobility and gentlemen?
The traditional nobility began to decrease whilst a new ‘class’ of wealthy gentlemen and urban elites created through trade began to swell monopolising offices and local government.
Benefits for such new urban elites?
These new urban and country gentlemen snapped up land to justify their new wealth building great houses, deer parks and enclosures.
What percentage of the population lived below the poverty line?
60%
What group of people were the worst hit by the times of depression and inflation?
Landless poor- the people who relied on wages
Define the deserving poor.
A subset of the ‘deserving poor’ were the impotent poor – those who were too ill, disabled or old to be able to look after themselves.
Define the undeserving poor.
The undeserving poor were deemed to be those who avoided work, begged despite being able bodied, were women who got pregnant our of wedlock or wasted their money on drink
1572 legislation for undeserving poor?
For the first time people would be branded as the undeserving poor
1579 undeserving poor legislation?
First time offenders found away from their home parish would be whipped and sent back – two incidences would result in death.
1572 act for the poor?
People with a certain amount of wealth would have to pay a fixed rate which would then be distributed to the poor in the parish
1576 Poor Law Act?
First attempt to create a national form of administration for the relief of the poor. To be enforced locally with money raised and administered locally. In the 1576 Act each town was required to provide work for the unemployed, in effect, the first English Workhouse, or Poorhouse (without accommodation) and Houses of Correction for Vagrants and Beggars. Raw materials, such as wool, was provided and the poor supplied the labour. .
Law in 1601 regarding the poor?
601 each town to create a job role the Overseer of the Poor. Their job was to relieve the impotent poor (including even finding them accommodation in someone else’s house if they were homeless), setting able-bodied men to work and finding apprenticeships for poor children.
Population during Elizabeth’s reign?
4 million
How many lived in London?
150,000-although most people lived in the country side London was popular for migrants
