1500-1750

Question 1

How was food a factor?

Answer 1

• In this period most people lived/worked in the countryside
• The farming year set the pattern of work and leisure.
  Farming continued to be done by hand.
• If bad weather ruined the harvest people went hunger and society was under alot of pressure

Question 2

How were growing inequalities a factor?

Answer 2

• England became a more prosperous country
• Many gentry and ‘middling’ families became wealthier
• Life for poor laboring families was often very tough (especially after 1550)
• 1550/1560 = England populace 2x
• Increase food prices, falling wages + unemployment
• 1590s harvest failures + famine made it worse
• Vagrancy started/1650 pressure decrease
• 18th century 1/3 populace still needed assistance

Question 3

How were growing towns a factor?

Answer 3

• Most families lived in the countryside
• More people moved to town for work
• 1750 = 1/5 of populace lived in towns // minor compared to urbanization of industrial period
• London grew to be the biggest city in Europe //1550 = 120K 1750 = 700K+
• City of great wealth/poverty // early 18th century begin of gin craze

Question 4

How were new products/duties a factor?

Answer 4

• 1750= Bristol became an important trading port + town
• 2x size since 1600
• end of 17th century govern raised income from collecting high taxes on luxury goods (tea, tobacco and alcohol)
• Traders who wanted import luxury goods often had to pay 30% = price for consumer forced up

Question 5

How was travel a factor?

Answer 5

• ‘Carriers’ took cloth and other goods to towns by packhorse and cart
• People travelled on horseback or by cart
• More roads built and stagecoach travel became more popular
• Few banks so wealthy people often carried their money and jewellery with them

Question 6

How is the government a factor?

Answer 6

• Government increased its power over the people = began with the Tudor Monarchs who ruled 1509-1603
• Henry used art to project power and created a much more efficient bureaucracy = ensured his revenues increase
• Used Parliament to pass many new laws and under Henry’s children the power of state grew even more

Question 7

How was state religion a factor?

Answer 7

• 16th + 17th century religion still played an important part in people’s lives
• 1530s reformation led to bitter divisions in the Church = closing of monostaries
• Some people in England remained Catholic/Protestant yet all were expected to follow official state religion by the monarch

Question 8

How were puritans a factor?

Answer 8

• Later 16th century Protestants wanted to take the reformation even further (the puritans) removing all traces of the old Catholic religion
• Believed many people were living sinful lives (drinking, dancing, gambling, swearing etc.) and become closer to God using the teachings of the bible
• Parts of England where Puritanism were strong had preachers, Jps and constable trying to enforce higher standards of Christian behavior

Question 9

How were new rulers a new factor?

Question 10

How were the power in the localities a factor?

Question 11

How was the power of print a factor?

Question 12

What changed about the violence and disorder compared to the middle ages?

Answer 12

It decreased among late medieval noble. By 1550 the nobility and gentry were less likely to be involved in organized crime so the feuds between their supporters decrease therefore the violent crimes associated with this decreased (murder, robbery, rape, assault etc.)

Question 13

Why did violence and disorder decrease among nobility and gentry?

Answer 13

Landowners increased their income by improving their estate or by investing in trade rather than by robbing their neighbours

Question 14

How were disputes now being dealt with?

Answer 14

From the late 16th century the nobility and gentry settled disputes by dueling instead of feuding

Question 15

What stayed the same crime with ordinary people?

Answer 15

The types of crime committed by ordinary people were similar in both periods. With low levels of serious crime in both and most common serious crime property offences not against a person.
- Petty crimes continued to be far more common than serious crime
- Most common crime in both was the theft of low value items ,often by poor people, because the price of bread was high (crime of need)

Question 16

What happened to the amount of crime in the 16th and 17th century?

Answer 16

There was a dramatic rise in crime from the middle of the 16th century due to the huge increase in population, rising prices and falling wages however there was a huge fall from the middle of the 17th century as the country was under less pressure

Question 18

What type of crimes were seen as big problem in the 16th and 17th century?

Answer 18

Authorities were particularly concerned about vagrancy, moral crimes and witchcraft

Question 19

What type of crimes were seen as big problem in the 18th century?

Answer 19

Britain’s rulers were more worried about organised crimes such as smuggling and highway robbery

Question 20

How did life become increasingly difficult for poor labourers?

Answer 20

• Life became difficult for poor labourers due to the underlying reason was the rapid growth in populace = rapid rise in prices yet the wages of poor labourers failed to keep up with their staple food - bread.
• Pressure was worse in years of bad harvests due to bad weather or downturn in demand for English woollen cloth put people out of work

Question 21

What was rapid population growth in England?

Answer 21

2.4 million in 1520 to 4.1 million in 1600

Question 22

What did the increasing pressure on poor people cause?

Answer 22

Left many people with no choice but to leave their village and become vagrants

Question 23

What changed with vagrancy that led to their rise?

Answer 23

• In 1600s the restrictions stopping people from leaving there manor couldn’t be enforced (like in the Middle Ages) so large numbers of vagrants began to wonder searching for work, begging or even stealing to survive

Question 24

Why did people become concerned with the problem of vagrancy?

Answer 24

Printed pamphlet and books horrified people with sensational accounts of vagrants wandering in large gangs, committing thefts, assaults and murders (1567// Thomas Harman wrote a book warning people about ‘vagabonds’ like the ‘counterfeit crank’)

Question 25

How did vagrants become the stereotypical criminal of the 16th century?

Answer 25

Increase in literacy and rise in the printing press allowed people to read literacy like Harman’s in this period and influenced people’s attitudes through new forms of communication

Question 26

What was the reality with vagrants?

Answer 26

Rarely travelled in groups = travelled alone/two/three
Far less threatening than in popular books and pamphlets suggest and were mostly desperate people in search of work and driven to crime due to need (like crime)

Question 27

What type of vagabound was ?

Question 28

What type of vagabound was ?

Question 29

What type of vagabound was ?

Question 30

What led to the increase in concern for people’s sinful behaviour?

Answer 30

Growing influence of Puritan influence in the late 16th century

Question 31

What happen to villages and towns in strongly influenced puritan areas?

Answer 31

Puritan preachers tried to create well-ordered and ‘godly’ communities

Question 32

How did puritans try to create ‘godly’ communities?

Answer 32

By punishing moral crimes such as drinking swearing and sexual immorality