Last Years Flashcards
(11 cards)
What main argument can be made about Elizabethan government?
-Broadly effective during most of E reign
-BUT in decline in royal auth and quality of administration during 1590s
What reasons are there for decline in effectiveness of government?
-Anxieties over succession
-Deaths of ministers
-Problems in Privy Council and between factions
-Essex rebellion
What main argument can be made about political unity and what evidence is there for this?
Broad political unity had been achieved by 1603:
-All Eng people apart from small minority of militant Caths were loyal to the crown
On the other hand - E had reigned too long, reputation tarnished by events in last yrs, looking forward to accession of a new king
What main argument can be made about the economic condition of Eng by 1603?
-Eng had experienced considerable economic continuity during 16th C
-Hw, by beginning of 17th C evidence of some economic circumstance that would lead to commercial domination were in place in an early form:
-Setting up of trading companies to challenge domination of Sp, Portuguese and Dutch
-Beginnings of interest in America
-BUT not to be exaggerated
What evidence is there that domestic demand was thriving?
-Cottage industries (nail making, soap and brewing) flourished
-Total production rose during 16th C
What main argument can be made about the state of English society by 1603?
-Eng remained a socially divided society with huge differences in living standards between wealthy few and poor majority.
-Yet, society did not break down completely
What evidence is there for Eng remaining divided but had not broken down completely?
-Crucially, most of the time maj of pop could be fed (only one subsistence crisis in 1590s with deaths from starvation)
-Harvest failures and poverty from 1594-97 helped to shape reform of the POOR LAW - Limiting the worst effects of poverty at least for deserving poor
-Nobility were subject to taxation
What main argument can be made about the religious situation by 1603?
Situation = favourable - settlement was a success
What evidence is there for the success of the religious situation?
-Catholicism had declined
-Maj of Eng Cath managed to be loyal to the crown, only a minority were a threat seeking a Cath succession
What main argument can be made about the Church of England?
Majority of Eng people could identify with the Ch of Eng - an Anglican Ch associated with being Eng
What evidence is there that majority of people could identify with the Church of England?
-Puritanism as a movement had faded and individuals had assimilated within the Anglican mainstream (directly linked to decline in Catholicism)
-Separatism had virtually disappeared
-Broad consensus surrounding Ch of Eng with a substantial degree of religious unity
