Elizabeth I - A Golden Age?

Question 1

How many grammar schools were endowed during Elizabeth’s reign?

Answer 1

27
More than £250,000 were contributed to school endowments

Question 2

How many schools were there?

Answer 2

130 new schools were founded. The total number of schools was 363 and 160 grammar schools.

Question 3

What was the literacy rate?

Answer 3

5% of women were literate compared to 30% of men
Less than 20% of the population were literate
1% of women could actually sign their name in a study done by David Cressy however many learnt to read before they learnt to write

Question 4

What was the triumph of oriana?

Answer 4

In 1601 Morley put together a collection of 25 madrigals by 23 different composers entitled The Triumph of Oriana which explicitly honoured the Queen.
Nearly 1500 secular pieces survived this period

Question 5

What were some Shakespeare plays of the period?

Answer 5

Shakespeare wrote comedies such as Love’s Labour’s Lost (1592) and The Comedy of Errors (1593), histories such as Henry VI (1592) and Richard II (1595) as well as tragedies such as Hamlet (1599) and King Lear (1604).

Question 6

What happened to printing?

Answer 6

Printing flourished: 1559 - 1579 = 2760, 1580 - 1602 = 4370

Question 7

What was a limitation of theatres?

Answer 7

Theatres had to close when the plague swept through London in 1563, 1578-79, 1582, 1592-93 and 1603.

Question 8

What was the portrait minature?

Answer 8

Popularised by artists such as Hillard and Oliver. The end result was a wealth of colour and intricate jewels. Some showed English achievements such as the Spanish Armada and the Church of England.

Question 9

What happened with architecture?

Answer 9

Courtiers and other wealthy individuals would condition new buildings due to family acquisition of former monastic lands. Robert Smythson worked on Longleat in Wiltshire and Wollaton Hall in Nottinghamshire.
Buildings were characterised by their symmetry and size.

Question 10

What were some famous portraits?

Answer 10

The Pelican Portrait 1575
The Phoenix portrait 1575
The Ermine portrait 1585
The Armada portrait 1588
The Ditchley portrait 1592
The Rainbow portrait 1600
The Sieve Portrait 1579

Question 11

What was education like?

Answer 11

Curriculum was modelled on humanist principles as classical Greek and Latin were studied to promote intellectual growth.
At university, all degrees involved grammar, rhetoric and logic, with compulsory lectures in mathematics, music, theology, astronomy and geometry.