Elizabeth section 4

Question 1

What were homes of the gentry like?

Answer 1

Country houses, with sometimes over 50 rooms
Country houses had glazed windows and decorated chimneys

Question 2

What was food and drink like for the gentry?

Answer 2

Gentry hosted feats, expensive food was carried by servants on silver platters.
- They had a rich diet: exotic meats (swan, pheasant, salmon) marzipan and wine

Question 3

How did the gentry make a living?

Answer 3

The gentry did not work but earned money from renting out their lands

Question 4

What were the homes of the middling sort like?

Answer 4

The homes of middling sort had 10 rooms and over 2 floors
- They had windows and chimneys but were less decorated than the gentry ones

Question 5

What was the food like for the middling sort?

Answer 5

They could afford to eat a good diet of: meat, fruit and bread/beer
However they could not afford the luxuries like the gentry

Question 6

How did the middling sort make a living?

Answer 6

The middling sort were merchants, small business owners or independent farmers

Question 7

What were homes like for the labouring poor?

Answer 7

The poor lived in one room houses with no chimney or glazed windows

Question 8

What was the food like for the poor?

Answer 8

The diet for the labouring poor was bread however this relied on a good harvest.
Vegetables from garden could be made into pottage

Question 9

How did the poor make a living?

Answer 9

The labouring poor travelled looking for seasonal work on farms

Question 10

Was marriage important in Elizabethan time?

Answer 10

Marriage played a central role in family life.

Question 11

What was Elizabethan society like?

Answer 11

Patriarchal as wives were expected to obey their husbands always

Question 12

What was divorce like?

Answer 12

Very difficult to do however people were encouraged to remarry again

Question 13

How did the Gentry access education for their children?

Answer 13

They had to pay for their sons to go to school from age 7

Question 14

How did children in poorer families work?

Answer 14

They began to work from a younger age on the farm or at home

Question 15

What did children do once ages 12/13?

Answer 15

They left their family home to work as servants

Question 16

Why was wider kinship not important?

Answer 16

Elizabethans did not have a strong bond with extended family
They did not live with grandparents, aunts or uncles
Many people moved away from homes to get away from extended families
Most people turned to neighbours for help- not families

Question 17

How much did poverty increase in Elizabethan england?

Answer 17

By 1580’s, 30% of population was living in poverty

Question 18

What were vagrants/vagabonds?

Answer 18

Unemployed people who roamed the streets looking for work

Question 19

Why were middling sort and gentry worried about vagrancy?

Answer 19

They thought they would commit crime
They worried they would spread the plague

Question 20

What were some reasons why poverty increased?

Answer 20

1. Population Increase
   During Elizabeth’s reign, population increased from 2.4 million to 4.1 million

Question 21

What were some reasons why poverty increased? (2)

Answer 21

2. Inflation- increased demand led to prices increasing. Wheat increased by 250%

Question 22

What were some reasons why poverty increased?

Answer 22

3. Sheep farming
   English cloth was fashionable so sheep farming became profitable

Question 23

How were vagrants treated?

Answer 23

Vagrants who were caught for first time were whipped and burned through ear with a hot iron
If they were caught again, they could be hanged

Question 24

Why did this punishment not work?

Answer 24

As it did not help decrease the poverty in England

Question 25

When was the poor law introduced?

Answer 25

1601

Question 26

What was the Poor Law?

Answer 26

A law that treated some poor people with compassion, depending how “deserving” they were

Question 27

What was the Poor Law split into?

Answer 27

The deserving poor and The undeserving poor

Question 28

What were the deserving poor?

Answer 28

People who wanted to work but couldn’t (elderly, children, disabled)

Question 29

What were the undeserving poor?

Answer 29

People who could work but didn’t (criminals, lazy people)

Question 30

How did the deserving poor get treated?

Answer 30

1. Poor relief (benefits)
2. Materials for work
3. Apprenticeship for young people

Question 31

How were the undeserving poor treated?

Answer 31

They were threatened with deterrents such as whipping and hard labour