Society Flashcards
(27 cards)
What kind of domination did Eng society remain?
-Aristocratic domination
-Limited number of hereditary peers
-Highest peerage title, Duke, carried dangers in Tudor ENg, often suffering traitor’s death e.g. Norfolk, N’land
-After 1572 E careful not to create any more Dukes
Explain the nobility and building projects
-Nobility became more peaceable and less concerned with defence = reflects change in society
-Nobles sought to enhance their prestige through massive building projects - partly to ensure that they could accommodate Q on her progresses and for their legacy
e.g. Burghley house build by William Cecil (Lord Burghley)
Explain the gentry
-Embraced a wide social range from knights to modest landowners
-County gentlemen and esquires dominate local govt as JPs and took burden of local office without any tangible reward
-Gentry class increased in size during E reign and the proportion who were seriously wealthy increased
Why did the gap between rich and poor widen?
- Beginnings of a consumer society amongst prosperous members of the landed, mercantile (merchants) and prof classes
- Landed incomes increased
- Whereas the poor section of the population = vulnerable to enclosure and persistent decline in real wages
What was the population like at the end of the reign?
1603 = 4 million
-Bulk lived in countryside
-Only large city = London with pop of 150,000 (most lived outside boundary of city)
-Other large cities = Norwich, Bristol but wit few more than 5,000
What was done for poor relief?
- 1572 Act - local rate payers required to pay taxes for relief of the poor in their own local area
- 1576 Poor Law Act - 1st attempt to create a national system of poor relief to be financed and administered locally - towns required to make provision for employments of deserving poor
- Poor Law 1601 -PARISH became designated institution to raise rates and administer poor relief
-Each PARISH to apt an overseer of the poor whose job it was to collect poor rate and distribute poor relief
-Overseers key responsibilities were
a) help the impotent poor
b) settling able bodied poor to work
c) giving apprentices to poor children.
All supervised by JPs
What did these Poor Laws show?
-E took on responsibility for ensuring minimum level of subsistence to deserving poor
-Successful legislation - stayed in tact until 1834
What were the different types of poor?
Impotent = not able to look after themselves due to age or infirmity or orphans
Deserving = actively seeking work or too old/young/ill to do so
By contrast, treatment of undeserving poor (beggars, vagabonds) remained HARSH with the belief that the undeserving poor should be whipped
Which acts increased harsh treatments of undeserving poor?
1572 Act - added branding to the range of punishments available to authorities
1597 Act - 1st time offenders were whipped and sent back to their parish, repeat offenders could be executed
How did the government control the country?
Privy Council:
-Implemented royal policy in regions
-Growing but unwelcome trend was for central govt to interfere much more with local (e.g. poor laws)
JPs:
-50 per country by 1600
-Questionable whether made any difference
-Difficult position - live in the counties
-Ignored some policies / gained personal profit
Agents:
-Unpaid men of standing in the communities who carried govt policy
-Took on increased workload because of prestige and influence it brought
Lord Lieutenants:
-Grew in status because they acquired additional duties
-One was appointed permanently in every community and came from noble family
-Had to raise the militia and troops, also supervise JPs and report to Privy Council
-Very prestigious title to have
Parish Officials:
-Own responsibilities e.g. organise poor relief
-Look after Parish Ch, arrest troublemakers, repair roads and rat catchers
-Jobs show govt was sophisticated in Elizabethan Eng
Give an overview of the state of Eng
-Eng = more unified State than Fr or Sp and more peaceable with only one serious rebellion (1569) compared to civil wars (Fr) and greater social disorder (Sp)
-Confidence in social order and peace = reflected in nobles and gentry abandoning castles and building country homes instead
-This all the more remarkable given limited resources of the State
-However -> Ireland, Wales and N of Eng all posed problems
What were the attitudes towards Ireland?
-Should be subjected to a policy of ‘Englishness’ in both reli and secular matters
-1560 E = Supreme Governor of Ch of Ireland. However she lacked power to impose Protestantism on Cath Irish whose laws differed hugely to Eng
What was the impact of martial law on Ireland?
Freq use of martial law (legal auth & political control exercised by military auth) by incoming Eng led to bad relations with Irish and Old Eng descendants of Eng who had settled since 11thC
What rebellions were there in Southern Ireland against Eng rule?
- 1569-73 1st rebellion
- 1579-1582 - linked with Sp arrival in County Kerry
- brutal response of Lord Deputy of Ireland (Lord Grey of Wilton) further soured Anglo-Irish relations - 1595 rebellion - closely linked to Anglo-Sp war proved difficult and expensive to suppress
-Centred on Ulster where clan chief Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone rose up in rebellion
-Sp attempted to exploit by incl a Irish contingent in Armada 1596 which was unsucc BUT caused unease amongst PC
-Made worse when rebels were victorious at Battle of Yellow Ford in Aug 1598
-Result -> Tyrone and allies were in control of much of Ireland and it looked like Tyrone might est an indep and Cath Ireland who would look to Sp for support
What problems were there with Essex in Ireland?
-Sent to Ireland 1599 -> error as he disobeyed E orders
-Had a large army but did not confront Tyrone, instead he made a truce before defying Q’s orders and returning to court
-As soon as truce expired Tyrone moved south, camped SW of Cork hoping to link up with Sp army
How did England make significant progress with Mountjoy?
-Apted new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and with George Carew made more signif progress in Ireland
-Despite arrival of 3,000 Sp trps Sept 1601 the Eng triumphed on Xmas Eve 1601
-Tyrone retreated back to Ulster eventually negotiating peace with Mountjoy March 1603
-Mountjoy offered generous terms in order to leave Ireland and attend new King James I
What was the legacy of James I with Ireland?
-James returned to the policy of entrusting rule in Ireland to the local nobility
-Much or Ireland had been destroyed by continuous war
-Crown spent huge amounts of money
-Legacy of bitterness amongst Irish
Were there any issues with Wales?
-By E reign the Welsh border was no longer a problem. Integration of Eng and Wales had continued .
-Although much of Wales remained relatively poor, lang and cultural differences remained
-Council of Wales and Marches remained in operation
-Welsh language disappeared in govt but preserved in religion with translation of Book of CP and Bible into Welsh
-Poverty remained although many Welsh gentry prospered under E
-Disproportionate Welshmen implicated in Essex rebellion suggests a signif level of discontent with political situation towards end of reign
Were their any problems in the North?
-So long as Scot remained separate and indep state the possible if border conflict remained
-Also, lawless subculture with emphasis on casual violence cont on border creating problems for authorities on both sides
-On the Eng side responsibility for borders lay with wardens if the marches, trad adpted from families of great northern magnates e.g. Percies
-H8 moved away from this policy by apting southerners which E cont.
-Prob with this = difficult for nobles without a landed base to control either the northern landed families or the border clans
Explain Elizabeth’s border administration
-E sometimes apted border wardens from 2nd rank of northern landowners, most notably Sir John Forster who exploited the office for financial gain rather than maintaining border security
-Border security = issue following 1569 N Rebellion as some of rebels escaped to Scot
-Bet 1578 and 1585 when Prot lords had a tenuous grip on power, the governing of borders = key issue
-1585 murder in a border incident of Francis Russell, son of E of Bedford, looked as if it might create a long term problem in Anglo-Scot relations. BUT skilful diplomacy ensured James VI accepted an annual pension of £4000 and hints at his succession to Eng throne
-Primary responsibility for maintenance of order lay with Council of N based in York. E did not make a mber of the northern nobility President of Council of N due to her mistrust of them and the alternative (apting a southerner) caused problems
Explain how E’s reign was a period of relative order
-One signif rebellion, Northern Rebellion 1569 had little to do with social and economic aspirations of the poor
-Even in 1590s with severe harvest failure, rising prices and plague created a desperate situation for many, social stability held up
-Yet, the authorities certainly feared vagabonds and treated undeserving poor severely
-Food riots took place in London, Kent and Norfolk
-Heavy handed response of the authorities to the so called ‘Oxfordshire rising’ of 1569 reflected a fear about social dislocation wh9ich did not reflect reality
-The Oxfordshire rising was not a real threat but an ill thought out scheme by a tiny group of four men to seize armaments and march on London due to poverty
In what ways was the Northern Rebellion religiously motivated?
Genuine religious fervour among both leaders and ordinary participants - evidenced by them seizing Durham and hearing a Cath mass in cathedral
In what ways was the Northern Rebellion politically motivated?
-Rebel leaders, E of N’land and Westmorland had political motives
-Considered themselves dishonoured having been displaced from their traditional aristocratic role of controlling N govt
In what ways was the Northern Rebellion a courtly conspiracy?
-Due to Westmoreland’s brother in law, D of Norfolk
-Proposed that Norfolk should marry MQS who cold be restore to Scot throne
-E = furious when she discovered this
