Elizabethan Daily lives Flashcards
The Gentry
Owned 50% of land
Political power and usually made of the Justices of Peace
Built large houses to show off wealth
Ate lots of meat and drank foreign wine
The Middling Sort
Usually tradesmen who owned their own businesses
Houses usually had 5-10 room and an upstairs
Occasionally had servants
Had meat but also relied on bread and vegetables
Drank mead and beer instead of wine
Labouring Poor
Did not have regular work on farms
Work was busy during harvest
Small dark smoky houses
Mainly ate bread, vegetables and pottage
Several starved to death
Elizabethan Marriage
Men married late 20s
Woman married mid 20s
Illegitimate children were uncommon as sex outside of marriage was heavily frowned upon
30% of brides were pregnant
Wealthy partners usually had arranged marriages
Middling sort and labouring poor got to usually chose their own partners
Same sex ,arraign was unknown
Elizabethan Husbands and Wives
Wives were expected to obey their husbands
Husbands were expected to respect their wives
Woman’s property belonged to the husband
Did not accept violet husbands or domineering wives
Divorce was difficult and frowned upon
Often remarried if their spouse died
Elizabethan Children
Beating was common in homes and in schools
Rich kids went to school from aged 7
Poor children went to work from 7
Poor kids usually left home at 13
1/4 of kids died before aged 10
Only rich families had large families
Elizabethan extended families
Sometimes grandparents lived in homes
Relied upon neighbours more than family
Elizabethan Poverty (long term causes)
Rising population
Rising prices
Low wages
Elizabethan Poverty (short term causes)
Harvest failure
Downturn in cloth demand
Plague
Elizabethan responses to poverty
Government was more worried about of the threat of the vagrant poor rather than helping the poor
Called Vagrant Poor Vagabonds
Could be hung for repeatedly begging
1589- it became illegal to shelter vagabonds
Poor rate introduced (tax to help the poor)
What were impotent poor?
Unable to work
Got an allowence
What were able-bodied poor?
Wanted to work but could find any
Got given wool to spin at home
What were vagabonds?
People who chose to not work but beg instead
Put to work or banished from the city
Poor Law 1601
Justices of peace collected Poor Rate Tax
Begging was forbidden
Vagrants were whipped and sent back to their home towns
Work was given to able-bodied poor
Anyone who refused to work was forced to do hard labour (e.g. mining)
Theatres
Many people enjoyed miracle plays but they were later banned as they were seen as a Catholic tradition
Actors were sometimes viewed as Vagabonds
William Shakespeare
Was affordable to everyone
