Enclosure Flashcards
(15 cards)
What was encusure
Fencing off this land
Giving individual ownership (usually to wealthy landowners)
Excluding peasants or poorer farmers from using it
What was r closure normally used for
Sheep farming as very profitable
Who were most vulnerable to enclosure
Poorest of society who relied on common land for food and those with copyhold tenants who leases were most open to challenge
What is rack renting
Practice of landlords rapidly increasing rents so tenants unable to pay and evicted
What is engrossing
Combining of two or more farms together occupants are forced to leave
List some actions aimed against enclosures
1517 Thomas Wolsey issued a commission of inquiry into illegal enclosures
What wa stage 1533 sheep and farms act
Restricted the number of sheep kept per father to 2,400
When was the tax on sheep introduced
1549 March
What is fold course
Tradition allowing landlords to use thier tenants land and common land to graze sheep lead to tenants enclosing their lands to protect themslef from landlords sheep
In east anglia what was enclosure like
Dominated by sheep farming
What did John Hales and Somerset do
Issued a series of commissions that were to inquire into illegal enclosure and report evidence back to government
When was the first commissioners appointed by Somerset and where
June 1548, one appointed in Midlands however found little evidence of illegal enclosure who refused to cooperate with them
After first failed commission of enclosure 1548 what did Somerset do
Ordering the ploughing up of illegal enclosures and in April 1549 issued new enclosure commissions told that illegal enclosures should be destroyed
Whose estates did Somerset target when looking into illegal enclosures
Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk and John Dudley Earl of Warwick
Consequences of Somerset’s commission on enclosures
Alienated landed Gentry and nobility who were targets of his commissions (they were first line of defence against rebellion) , commons of England now thought he was on their side Somerset seen as the Good Duke who would support them in their rebellion
