Chapter 21 - Society in Elizabethan England

Question 1

why did elizabeth not create any more dukes after 1572?

Answer 1

the four ducal titles that existed between 1547 and 1572 (somerset, northumberland, suffolk and norfolk) all met traitors deaths

Question 2

what had the nobility become like by Elizabeth’s reign?

Answer 2

more peacable than in earlier times, and less concerned with defence

Question 3

how did the other ranks of the peerage seek to enhance their prestige?

Answer 3

• with massive building projects
• part of their motivation was to ensure they could accomodate the queen in appropriate surroundings on royal progresses. Houses such as burghley were therefore conceived and built on a grand scale

Question 4

which class increased in size during elizabeth’s reign?

Answer 4

the gentry class, and the proportion who were seriously wealthy went up.

Question 5

why did the gap between rich and poor increase during elizabeth’s reign?

Answer 5

• the period witnessed the beginnings of a consumer society amongst the prosperous members of the landed, mercantile and professional classes
• landed incomes increased, especially after 1570
• on the other hand, poorer sectors of the population found themselves vulnerable to enclosure and to the persistent decline in real wages

Question 6

what was the population by the end of elizabeth’s reign?

Answer 6

roughly 4 million

Question 7

what was the population of london? (the only large city)

Answer 7

probably as high as 150,000

Question 8

what were the largest provincial cities?

Answer 8

Norwich and bristol, but few other cities had populations in excess of 5000

Question 9

what did the act of 1572 do in relation to poverty?

Answer 9

it established the principle that local ratepayers should be required to pay a rate for the relief of their own poor

Question 10

what did the poor law act of 1576 do?

Answer 10

• it was the first act to attempt to create a national system of poor relief to be financed and administered locally.
• under the act, towns were required to make provision for the employment of the deserving poor

Question 11

what acts completed the legislative process for trying to address poverty?

Answer 11

1597 and 1601

Question 12

what did the elizabethan poor law act of 1601 do?

Answer 12

• under the act the parish became designated as the institution required to raise the rates for, and to adminster, poor relief.
• each parish was to appoint an overseer of the poor who was to ensure both the efficient collection of poor rates and the appropriate distribution of relief to the poor.
• the overseers’ key responsibilities were relieving the impotent poor, setting the able-bodied to work and apprenticing poor children. Their activities were supervised by the justices of the peace

Question 13

how did the treatment of the undeserving poor remain harsh?

Answer 13

• the notion remained that the undeserving poor should be whipped
• in 1572 an act added branding to the range of punishments available to the authorities
• during the panic of 1597, an act was passed which laid down that first-time offenders should be whipped and then sent back to the parish of their birth; repeat offenders could be executed

Question 14

how did britain’s unity compare to that of spain and france?

Answer 14

• Elizabeth only experienced one serious rebellion, which collapsed fairly quickly
• spain experienced greater social disorder
• and france had outright civil war across more than 3 decades

Question 15

what suggested a confidence in social order in england?

Answer 15

the tendency of the aristocracy and greater gentry to abandon fortified castles to instead build comfortable but indefensible country houses

Question 16

what made social peace all the more remarkable?

Answer 16

the limited resources of the state to enforce its power in tudor england

Question 17

why should it not be assumed that the country was always peaceable?

Answer 17

ireland, wales and the north of england all posed problems

Question 18

what were elizabethan attitudes to ireland?

Answer 18

ireland should be subjected to a policy of ‘englishness’ in both religious and secular matters

Question 19

when was elizabeth proclaimed supreme governor of the church of ireland?

Answer 19

1560

Question 20

why could elizabeth not impose protestantism on ireland?

Answer 20

she lacked the power to impose it on a population that was largely catholic, mostly gaelic in language and whose customary laws and landownership differed hugely from that of the English.

Question 21

what did the ‘get-rich quick’ mentality of the english incomers and the frequent use of martial law mean for ireland?

Answer 21

it led to bad realtions with both the Gaelic Irish and the old english (the descendants of the normans and english who had settled in ireland since the eleventh century.

Question 22

when did rebellions in the south of ireland break out against english rule?

Answer 22

1569-73 and 1579-82, the latter being linked with a spanish incursion into county kerry.

Question 23

what further soured anglo-irish relations?

Answer 23

the brutality of the response of the lord deputy of ireland, Lord Grey of Wilton, to the rebellion in 1579-82

Question 24

why was the third irish rebellion of the reign a particular problem?

Answer 24

• it was closely linked to the anglo-spanish war
• the spanish attempted to exploit the situation by including an irish contigent in the armada of 1596
• this was unsuccessful, but the fact that the spanish had so clearly signalled their intentions caused much unease among elizabeth and her councillors
• the rebels were victorious at the battle of yellow ford in august 1598
• as a result of this battle, tyrone and his allies were in control of much of Ireland ‘beyond the pale’.
• it looked as if tyrone might establish and independent and catholic ireland that would look to spain for support

Question 25

why did the queen send essex to ireland in 1599?

Answer 25

as a result of the rebels gaining control of much of ireland ‘beyond the pale’

Question 26

why did sending essex to ireland prove to be an error?

Answer 26

• essex had a large force, but, instead of confronting tyrone, he made a truce before defying the queen’s orders and returning to court.
• as soon as the truce expired, tyrone moved south and camped near kinsale on the coast, the south-west of cork, hoping to link up with a spanish army

Question 27

what happend with the third irish rebellion after essex was removed from his post?

Answer 27

• the english made significant progress under the new lord lieutenant, Lord Mountjoy, and Sir George Carew
• tyrone seemed saved by the landing in kinsale of over 3000 spanish troops during september 1601
• however the english triumped on christmas eve, 1601
• tyrone retreated back to ulster before eventually negotiating a peace with mountjoy in march 1603
• by then, unbekown to tyrone, elizabeth had died, and mountjoy appears to have offered generous terms in order to be able to leave ireland and attend the new king, James I.

Question 28

what eventually happened to ireland?

Answer 28

• James found himself returning to the policy of entrusting rule in ireland to the local nobility, of whom the most important was the utterly unreliable tyrone
• meanwhile, much of ireland had been destroyed or impoverished by continued conflict, the crown had expended huge sums of money and the conflict had left a huge legacy of bitterness among the native population

Question 29

did elizabeth have many issues with wales?

Answer 29

border issues with wales were rarely a problem

Question 30

why were there rarely any issues with Wales?

Answer 30

• the structures of border administration, most importantly the council of wales and the marches, remained in operation
• the welsh language disappeared as a medium of government. However, it was preserved as a medium of religion with the translation of both the book of common prayer and the bible into welsh. the publication of dictionaries and grammars in welsh also helped to preserve the language

Question 31

what suggests a significant level of discontent with the political situation from welshmen, towards the end of elizabeth’s reign?

Answer 31

the disproportionate number of welshmen implicated in the essex ‘rebellion’

Question 32

why did the possibility of border conflict with scotland remain?

Answer 32

so long as scotland remained a separate and independent state

Question 33

what created problems for the authorities in both scotland and england?

Answer 33

the continuation on the borders of a lawless subculture which placed a large emphasis on casual violence and rustling of sheep and cattle

Question 34

who did administrative responsibilty lie with on the english side of the border?

Answer 34

• the wardens of the 3 border marches
• traditonally, wardens had been appointed from the families of the great northern magnates such as the percies and the dacres.
• Henry VIII had signalled a move away from this policy by appointing southerners, a strategy continued by elizabeth.

Question 35

what was the problem with using southerners to control border administration with scotland?

Answer 35

• it was difficult for nobles without a local landed base to control either the northern landed families or the border clans.

Question 36

what did the one significant rebellion in the north, the northern rebellion, have little to do with?

Answer 36

the social and economic aspirations of the poor

Question 37

where did food riots take place?

Answer 37

in london as well as kent, hampshire and norfolk

Question 38

what was the ‘oxfordshire rising’ of 1596?

Answer 38

an ill-thought out scheme by a tiny group of four men made desparate by their experience of poverty to seize armaments and march on london.

Question 39

what did the heavy handed response to the ‘oxfordshire rising’ reflect?

Answer 39

a fear about social dislocation which did not reflect reality

Question 40

who headed the northern rebellion in 1569?

Answer 40

the leading northern nobility, the earls of northumberland and westmorland

Question 41

what played a part in the northern rebellion?

Answer 41

genuine religious fervour among both leaders and ordinary participants

Question 42

what were the political motives of the northern rebellion?

Answer 42

• they considered themselves dishonoured by having been displaced from their traditional aristocratic role of controlling northern government
• it has also been argued that the rebellion was tied in with a courtly conspiracy, at the centre of which was westmorland’s brother-in-law, the duke of norfolk.
• it was proposed that norfolk should marry MQS who could be restored to the scottish throne

Question 43

what gave a clear indication of the catholic nature of the northern rebellion?

Answer 43

they marched on durham, seized the city, and heard mass in the cathedral

Question 44

where did the northern rebels march on after durham?

Answer 44

york, however they made not attempt to capture it, neither did they march south to pressurise government

Question 45

what did the rebels do instead of taking york or marching south?

Answer 45

they moved back into the county of durham and beseiged the crown’s stronghold of barnard castle, which fell to the rebels on 14 December

Question 46

what happened when news reached the rebels that a crown force was on its way north?

Answer 46

• the earls disbanded their forces and fled over the border into scotland
• the following month, northumberland’s cousin, Leonard Dacre, restarted the rebellion in cumberland, only for his force to be heavily defeated at North, east of carlisle, by a royal force under the command of the queen’s cousin, Lord Hunsdon

Question 47

what were the reasons the northern rebellion failed?

Answer 47

• hopeless disorganisation, with a lack of clarity concerning the rebels’ objectives
• poor leadership
• lack of expected foreign support
• decisive action by the authorities

Question 48

what did cecil do, to try and solve the northern rebellion?

Answer 48

he spent huge amounts of time on the matter, commissioning and studying a map of durham to help him come to decisions about appropriate courses of action.

Question 49

what did the northern rebellion reveal?

Answer 49

• the government’s lack of comprehension of the differences between north and south
• the problems of managing the localities and the difficulty of raising forces to deal with potential threats.
• it also demonstrated the ruthlessness of elizabethan government in punishing those who had offened it.
• mass executions of rebels were ordered, although how many were carried out is difficult to say

Question 50

what were the other limitations of the northern rebellion?

Answer 50

• geographically limited, few rebels came from outside durham or the north riding of yorkshire
• the rebel earls gained no support from the equally conservative nobility of other parts of the north and there appeared to be little enthusiasm to get rid of elizabeth.

Question 51

what did the crown do to reinforce the control over the north?

Answer 51

• the council of the north was reconstituted in 1572 and placed under the control of the earl of huntingdon.
• huntingdon was an outsider with no local ties who owed his influence entirely to the favour of his relative, the queen.
• he had strong puritan inclinations, his commitment to religious reform was seen as an advantage in the north.