Elizabeth - Section 4 Flashcards
what were the home of the gentry like?
country houses with over 50 rooms
with glazed windows
Food and drink in Gentry houses
expensive feasts
Examples of exotic meats
swan, pheasants, fish such as salmon,
What did the gentry do for a living?
Did not work
How did the gentry earn their money
Renting out their lands
Homes of the middling sort
Around ten rooms and over two floors.
What was the diet of the middling sort like?
Afford to eat a good diet of meat, fruit and bread
Was the diets of the middling sort as good as those of the Gentry?
No
What were the jobs of the middling sort?
Merchants, Small business owners, independent owners
What were the homes like of the labouring poor?
Small one room houses with no chimney or glazed windows
what was the diet like for the labouring poor?
Bread, pottage
What did the labouring poor rely on when it came to food?
A good harvest
Jobs of the labouring poor?
Travelled to look for work on farms
What type of society was Elizabethan?
Patriarchal Society
Patriarchal Society?
Social system where men have more power than women
What played a central role in Family life?
Marriage
Divorce in Elizabethan England
Very difficult, people were encouraged to remarry if their partner died
Belief about same sex marriage in Church
Forbidden by the church
Children from which social group went to school?
Gentry
What age did gentry children go to school?
7
What gender went to school?
Boys
Work as a child in poorer families (labouring poor)
Started work as early as possible on farms
Poverty at the end of Elizabeth’s reign
Increased
How many people lived in poverty by the 1580s?
30%
What were vagabonds and vagrants?
Unemployed people who roamed from town to town looking for work
Why was the middling sort and gentry worried about vagrancy? (2)
- Vagrants would commit crime
- Vagrants would spread the plague
Why was there actually an increase in poverty?
- Population increase
How much had the population increased during Elizabeth’s reign?
2.4 million to 4.1 million
How did inflation increase poverty? (Why was there actually an increase in poverty?)
Increased demand led to prices increasing. Price of wheat increased
How was failed harvests a reason for poverty increase? (Why was there actually an increase in poverty?)
The harvest failed in 1595, 1596, and 1597. There was even less wheat
What punishments did vagrants receive for supposedly causing poverty?
Whipped and burnt in the ear with a hot iron
What happened to vagrants if they were caught a second time?
Hanged
Did punishing vagrants work to end poverty?
No it did not deal with the cause of poverty
Wha did the 1601 poor law introduce?
Divided the poor into two categories
What two categories were the poor divided into?
The deserving poor and the undeserving poor
The deserving poor
People who wanted to work but couldn’t
Examples of the deserving poor
Elderly, children, disabled people
The undeserving poor
People who could work but didn’t
Examples of the underserving poor
Lazy people, criminals
How were the deserving poor treated?
Compassion
What kind of opportunities were given to the deserving poor?
Benefits, materials for work and apprenticeships for children
How were the undeserving poor treated?
Whipped and made to do hard labour
The poor law (tax)?
Paid for by a tax called the poor rate, managed by the justices of peace
