Elizabethan Society in the Age of Exploration 1558-88 Flashcards
(54 cards)
1
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What was education like at the beginning of Elizabeth England?
A
- No national system of education
- Help people prepare for their expected roles in life
- Focused on practical skills and possibly basic literacy - only 15-20% of the population could read and write
2
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What were the attitudes towards education?
A
- Very few children actually went to school and all schools had fees
- View was that only the rich needed to attend
- No need to provide a formal education for the vast majority of the population - especially labouring classes
3
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
How did humanism encourage education in the Elizabethan period?
A
- Believed education was valuable and not merely a way of preparing people for a role in life
- Educational opportunities gradually improved
4
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
How did protestantism encourage education?
A
- Protestants argued people should be able to study the Bible
- Required people to be able to read, boosting literacy
5
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What were the examples of Elizabethan education?
A
- Parish schools(up to age 10)
- Private tutors
- Universities(15 upwards)
- Grammar schools(boys 10-14)
- Petty schools(up to age 10)
6
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What were parish schools?
A
- Set up locally by Church
- Run by clergy
- Taught basic literacy to children of farmers and craftsmen
- Up to 10 years
7
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What were private tutors?
A
- Delivered education privately to members of nobility
- Finished education in household of another noble family
8
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What were universities?
A
- 15 onwards
- Oxford and Cambridge
- Geometry, music, astronomy, philosophy, logic and rhetoric, medicine, law and divinity
- Highest doctorate
9
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What were grammar schools?
A
- 10-14 boys
- Education of Church and charged fees
- Scholarships available for poorer families
- Children of gentry, merchants, farmers, craftsmen
- Taught Bible, debating, Latin, French, Greek, philosophy
10
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What were petty schools?
A
- Up to 10
- Run privately from people’s homes
- Children of gentry, merchants, farmers and craftsmen
11
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
How were ‘middling sort’ grammar schools different to grammar schools attended by the merchant and craftsmen class?
A
- Merchant and craftsman grammar schools focused on more practical skills like counting, writing and Geography
12
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
How were girls educated?
A
- Many girls received no formal education as it was felt they didn’t need it
- Girls from better off families attended Dame Schools up to 10
- Run by wealthy women in their homes
- Wealthy girls had private tutors
13
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What were the changes in eduction throughout Elizabeth’s reign?
A
- New grammar schools meant children were now educated independently of the Church
- Scholarships allowed people from poorer backgrounds to receive education
- Literacy improved because: printing press, parish schools, need to read Bible
14
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What kind of sports did nobility take part in?(4)
A
- Hunting - on horseback with hounds or birds, men and women
- Real tennis - played indoors, squash + modern tennis(only men)
- Fishing - by men and women
- Fencing - with blunted swords(only men)
15
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What kind of sports did farmers, craftsmen and lower classes?(2)
A
- Football - men only, ball to the other’s goal, very violent
- Wrestling - men of all classes took part in public wrestling matches with people gambling on outcome
16
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What were the spectator sports in Elizabeth England?
A
- Baiting - involved watching animals fight to the death, dogs attacking chained bears and bulls, bets were made
- Cock-fighting - Cockerels attacked each other using metal spurs and their beaks, bets were made
17
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What was literature like in Elizabethan England?
A
- New literature written, medieval literature still popular
- Mystery Plays(Catholics) replaced with new non-religious plays
- Purpose built theatres - Red Lion and the Rose
- Comedies, funded by wealthy noblemen. Sponsors included the queen
- All social classes attended the threatre, so purpose-built theatres had to be built to accomoadate growing audiences
18
Q
EDUCATION AND LEISURE
What was music and dancing like?
A
- Instruments like lutes(similar to guitars), spinets, harpsichord(similar to pianos)
- Muisicans were paid to play at official functions or public events
- Music played at fairs and markets, churches, barbers’ shops
- Written to accompany plays performed in public theatres
- Dancing remained as a popular pastime
19
Q
POOR
What was poverty during Elizabeth’s reign?
A
- Spending more than 80% of your income on bread
- Being unemployed or ill, no longer provide for yourself or family
- Unable to afford the rising cost of food
- Needing poor relief or charity(alms)
20
Q
POOR
What types of people were poor?
A
- Widows or women abandoned by their husbands and their families
- Sick and elderly
- Orphaned children - 40% of the poor
- People on low wages
- Itinerants, vagrants and vagabonds - homeless epople who moved from their parishes looking for work
21
Q
POOR
What were the reasons for poverty in Elizabethan England?(7)
A
- Growth of towns
- Bad harvests
- Economic recessions
- Enclosure
- Sheep farming
- Population growth
- Increasing demand for land
22
Q
POOR
Why was population growth a reason for poverty?
A
- Population grew from 3 million in 1551 to 4.2 million in 1601
- Increased demand for food(driving up prices) increasing labour supply(driving down wages)
- Ordinary people could no longer provide for themselves or families
23
Q
POOR
Why was increasing demand for land a reason?
A
- As population increased, the people needed land
- Drove up rents and resulted in entry fees
- Many could not afford to pay these
24
Q
POOR
How was sheep farming a reason for poverty?
A
- Growth of wool trade meant many farmers preferred to rear sheep, instead of grow food
- Took away common land from local people, farmers did not have to hite as many workers and sheep ate crops
- led to enclosure: fencing off land for exclusive use, left them with nowhere to live or farm - became vagrants or itinerants
25
# POOR
How were bad harvests increasing poverty?
- Increased the price of food
- Caused food shortages
- Resulted in landowners turning to different forms of farming
26
# POOR
How did the support for the poor increase poverty?
- Dissolution of monasteries in 1536 under Henry VIII
- Those struggling had no support
27
# POOR
Why were there changing attitudes to the poor?
- Fear that poverty led to disorder and cause to rebellion
- Cost of dealing with the poor, especially the poor rates
- Population changes and enclosure meant poor were increasingly visible
- Changing economic circumstances: problems with wool trade, bad harvests, forced authorities to develop more constuctive attitude towards poverty
28
# POOR
What was the difference in the poor?
- Deserving poor: old or sick who could not help themselves
- Idle or undeserving poor: could work but chose not do so
29
# POOR
What policies were continuity?
- Poor rate: local tax by JPs, spent on improving lives of the poor, poor were given money or things to make and sell
- Charity: funded by local wealthy people, gave their name to the charitable foundation - e.g Lady Cecils Bequest
30
# POOR
What policies were progressive, response by gov caused by falls in wool trade?
- Statute of Artificers 1563 - Refusing to pay the poor rates would be put in prison, officials who failed to organise poor relief could pay a penalty of 20
- 1576 Poor Relief Act - JPs were required to provide the poor with wool and raw materials to make and sell things, poor who refused would be sent to house of correction
31
# POOR
What policy was repressive, targeted vagrants, deterring them through harsh punishment?
- 1572 Vagabonds Act
- Whipped and hole drilled through ear to warn
- Imprisoned if arrested again for vagrancy, then death penalty
- JPs had to regiester poor and find work for able bodied
- National poor rate introduced
32
# EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
What were the reasons for exploration during the Elizabethan age?(6)
- New technology
- Adventure
- Expanding trade
- Private investment
- Improvements in ship design
- Devlopment of standardised maps
32
# EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
How was new technology a reason for exploration?
- Navigation becoming more precise
- Nautical devices - quadrants made voyages safer, direct, faster
33
# EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
How was adventure a reason for exploration?
- Francis Drake undertook voyages of discovery and exploration
- Published accounts of voyages persuaded other to venture into unknown in the belief that treasure would be found
34
# EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
How was expanding trade a reason for exploration?
- Trade expading quickly in the New world
- English merchants needed new trading opportunities
- War with Spain in Netherlands had damaged wool and cloth trades
- Find new markets and new products to sell
35
# EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
How was private investment a reason for exploration?
- Private investors like Elizabeth fundedd many of the voyages of discovery
- Rewards could be enormous, though it was risky
- Increased incomes of Crown and nobility
36
# EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
How were improvements in ship design a reason for exploration?
- Ships or galleons had bigger sails, faster, greater firepower to protect themselves
- More stable and coul take on more supplies
37
# EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
How was the development of standardised maps a reason for exploration?
- Mercator Map 1569
- Gave sailors and traders greater confidence they were going in the right direction
38
# EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
How was the triangular trade a reason for exploration?
- John Hawkins discovered iron goods and guns could be sold from Britain to West Africa to buy slaves, they were shipped to the Americas in exchange for rum, spices and tobacco, shipped back to Britain
- Merchants and traders across England copied this triangular trade
39
# EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
Why did Drake circumnavigate the globe? 1577-80
- He was attacking Spain - his main purpose was to raid Spanish colonies as reations with Spain were declining
- Revenge - Spanish attacked Drake's fleet and most of his men had been killed
- Profit - Loot, booty and trade meant there were huge profits to be made, people were willing to invest in the expedition, including Elizabeth
40
# EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
Why was Drake's circumnavigation of the globe significant?(6)
- England's reputation as a sea faring power increased
- Drake's expedition resulted in Nova Albion near New World, encouraing further trade and exploration
- England increasingly saw her navy as best means of defence
- English ships began to trade elsewhere: China, West Africa, India
- Declining relationships with Spain: England in conflict with Pope as he had given North America to Spain
- Knighting of Drake on Golden Hind was the final straw for Phillip II
41
# RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA
From what years were the expedition to Virginia?
1584-85
41
# RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA
Who was Sir Walter Raleigh?
- One of Elizabeth's favourite courtiers
- Explorer, author and historian
- Needed to raise huge amounts of money and ecourage potential English colonists to leave their homes and settle in a land they knew little about
- Raleigh did not lead the colonists, persuaded people to leave England and settle in Virginia
42
# RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA
Why was Virgnia colonised?
- Trade - explorers and colonists could trade woollen clooth and hunting knives in return for gold and others sold at a profit, produce crops, sugar cane, tobacco
- Less dependent on Spain, France and Italy for imported goods
- Welcoming friendly natives
- Raleigh was able to persuade investors that it would be profitable
- Base to attack Spanish settlements and colonies
- Easier to fund other ventures
43
# RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA
Who went to Virginia?
- Party of 107 colonists set out for Roanoke, Virginia in 1585
- Led by Richard Grenville
- Soldiers, sailors, some craftsmen, merchants and farmers
44
# RALEIGH AND VIRIGINA
What happened during the colonisation of Virginia?
- 1584 - new colonisation of North America planned by Raleigh
- 1585 - English colonisation begins, 107 men
- 1586 - Surviving colonists abandon colony after starving and facing hostile Native Americans, return
- 1587 - New colonists return to Virginia and set up a colony at Roanoke - three years later abandoned and disappeared
45
# RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA
What did the colonists take?
- Food and salt for preserving it
- Fresh water for voyage
- Tools and equipment, ploughs and seeds
- Weapons to protect themselves
46
# RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA
Why did the colonisation of Virginia fail?(5)
- Lack of food
- Poor leadership
- Lack of skills and experience
- Native American attack
- War with Spain
47
# RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA
Why was the lack of food a reason why?
- Left England too late to reach Virginia in time to plant crops
- One of their five ships let in seawater, ruining the food
- Unable to provide for themselves, abandoned the colony
48
# RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA
How was poor leadership a reason for failure?
- Richard Grenville was hot headed and did not get along with the governor of the colony
- John White for the second time abandoned the colony in 1587
- Those involved had little direciton or purpose leading them to abandon
49
# RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA
How were lack of skills and experience a reason for failure?
- Merchants and landowner lacked physical capacity for manual work
- Lack of stone - vulnerable to Indian attack
- Soldiers could defend expedition but lacked ability to farm land
50
# RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA
How was the Native American attack a reason for its failure?
- Algonquian Chief Wingina led an attack on the colonists - led to crisis within first expedition
- May have led to settlers becoming slaves or assimilating into tribes
- Second expedition wiped out possibility
51
# RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA
How was the war with Spain a reason for its failure?
- Threat from Armada meant few ships were available to visit or resupply the colonists
- Colonists were increasingly isolated and vulnerable to attack
52
# RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA
What was the significance of the attempted colonisation of Virginia?
- Served as a template for future settlements
- Took power away from Spain and boosted the economy
