6. Society in Elizabethan England

Question 1

What continuity was there in Elizabethan society?

Answer 1

Aristocratic domination of society

Question 2

What was the highest peerage title?

Answer 2

Duke

Question 3

What dangers were there with the title of Duke?

Answer 3

Between 1547-1572 Somerset, Northumberland, Suffolk and Norfolk all held the title and were eventually killed. After 1572, Elizabeth was careful not create new dukes.

Question 4

How did the lower ranks of the peerage try to enhance their prestige?

Answer 4

Through building projects to accommodate the queen on royal progresses.
e.g. Burghley House by Lord Burghley.

Question 5

What happened to the number of gentry during Elizabeth’s reign?

Answer 5

The number increased, the proportion who were highly wealthy increased too.
The lower layers differed little from the start of the century.

Question 6

What was the role of the gentry?

Answer 6

Ranged from influential knights and figures of national importance to modest landowners.
Country gentlemen and esquires dominated local government through their work as JPs.

Question 7

What happened to the gap in wealth during Elizabeth’s reign?

Answer 7

The gap between the rich and poor widened.

Landed incomes increased especially after 1570. Poorer people, became vulnerable to enclosure and decline in real wages.

Question 8

How did the approach to poor relief change in the later years of Elizabeth’s reign?

Answer 8

Saw further measures to relieve poverty.

Question 9

What did the 1572 poor law achieve?

Answer 9

Local ratepayers were required to pay rate for the relief of their own poor.

Question 10

What did the Poor Law Act of 1576 achieve?

Answer 10

Was the first act to create national system of poor relief financed/administered locally.
Towns were required to make provision for the employment of deserving poor.

Question 11

What did the Poor Law Act of 1601 achieve?

Answer 11

Parishes were designated as institution to raise rates for and administer poor relief.
Each parish was to appoint an overseer of the poor to ensure efficient collection of poor rates and appropriate distribution of relief.

Question 12

What were the key responsibilities of an overseer in each parish?

Answer 12

Helping impotent poor, Providing able-bodied poor with work, apprenticing children.
They were supervised by JPs.

Question 13

How long did these legislative achievements last?

Answer 13

Until 1834

Question 14

What did an 1572 Act introduce?

Answer 14

Added branding to punishment

Question 15

What did the act of 1597 introduce?

Answer 15

Passed during the panic of 1597.
Said that first-time offenders should be whipped and sent back to the parish of their birth, repeat offenders were to be executed.

Question 16

How did Elizabeth view Ireland?

Answer 16

Elizabeth believed that Ireland should be subjected to a policy of ‘Englishness’ in both religious and secular matters.

Question 17

When was Elizabeth proclaimed Supreme Governor of the Church of Ireland?

Answer 17

1560

Question 18

What was the impact of Elizabeth becoming Supreme Governor of the Church of Ireland?

Answer 18

She lacked the power to impose Protestantism on the population that was largely Catholic.

Question 19

How did bad relations develop between the Irish and Old English?

Answer 19

The ‘get rich quick’ mentality of English incomers and frequent use of martial law.

Question 20

When did rebellions break out against English rule in Ireland?

Answer 20

1569 to 1573 and 1579 to 1582

Question 21

How were the rebellions in Ireland dealt with?

Answer 21

Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lord Grey of Wilton responded brutally.
This worsened relations between English and Irish rebels.

Question 22

What happened during the third Irish rebellion of Elizabeth’s reign?

Answer 22

Clan chief Hugh O’Neill rose in rebellion in 1595.
Proved much more difficult and expensive to suppress.
The Spanish attempted to exploit the situation by including the Irish in the Armada of 1596.
Although this failed, their intentions caused unease.

Question 23

When did Irish rebels defeat the English at the Battle of Yellow Ford?

Answer 23

August 1598
Worsened unease with Elizabeth’s councillors.
Rebels were now in control of much of Ireland.
They aimed to establish an independent and Catholic Ireland.

Question 24

When did Elizabeth send the Earl of Essex to Ireland?

Answer 24

1599.
Essex disobeyed orders and made a truce with the rebels instead of confronting them.
When the truce expired, Tyrone reverted back to his plans with Spain.

Question 25

Who did Elizabeth appoint to replace the Earl of Essex to deal with Ireland?

Answer 25

Lord Mountjoy and Sir George Carew

Question 26

What was the impact of appointing Lord Mountjoy and Sir George Carew?

Answer 26

The English made significant progress under their command.

March 1603- Tyrone retreated to Ulster before eventually negotiating peace with Mountjoy.

Question 27

What was England’s relationship with Wales like?

Answer 27

The Welsh border was no longer a problem.
Much of Wales remained relatively poor.
Only cultural and linguistic differences remained.

Question 28

What was the significance of poverty in Ireland?

Answer 28

The disproportionate number of Welshmen implicated in the Essex ‘rebellion’ suggest a significant level of discontent with the political situation.

Question 29

What were relations like between Scotland and England?

Answer 29

Scotland remained a separate and independent state. The possibility of border conflict remained.

Question 30

How was the Anglo-Scottish border administered?

Answer 30

Border administrative responsibility lay with the wardens of the three border marches.
Elizabeth continued Henry VIII’s tactic of placing southerners as wardens.
This made it difficult for nobles without a local landed base to control either the northern landed families or the border clans.