Elizabethan England: Daily life. Flashcards
types of lives.
the gentry, middling sort, labouring poor.
characteristics of the gentry: housing, land, money, food.
multiple storied houses with lots of glass windows
lavish food- fine meats, venison and swan, wine and white bread.
owned most of the land and made their money by renting it.
characteristics of the middling sort: housing, land, money, food.
2 storied housing, chimney, some glass windows.
simple meats, pork, beef, beer, mead, bran bread.
owned a fair bit of the land but not as much as the gentry.
characteristics of the labouring poor: housing, land, money, food.
1 storey building, no glass windows but had a thatch.
pottage soup and bread.
was lucky to have an acre or 2 of land.
what was the political and economic situation for the gentry?
acted as Justices of the Peace.
helped the monarch to maintain law and order in the provinces.
Some were Members of Parliament and helped the queen to govern the country. there was a divide between the gentry and the ‘common people’ not impossible to cross that divide.
Those men who made money through trade or law could sometimes buy land and then they could enjoy the wealth and status of a gentleman.
types of work for the middling sort.
town the ‘middling sort’ was made up by the tradesmen and craftsmen who ran their own businesses.
In the countryside the ‘middling sort’ was the yeoman and the husbandmen who farmed some land of their own.
Although they did not have the vast amounts of money of the gentry they lived a more comfortable existence than the labouring poor.
work for labouring poor.
countryside on the farms of yeomen and husbandmen. Few labourers worked on the same farm throughout the year and most went from farm to farm looking for work. Although farmers needed lots of labour at harvest time for the rest of the year labourers could struggle to find work. They often found it difficult to pay their rent and buy food or fuel.
food from the harvests involving labouring poor.
During good times labourers might have eggs, cheese, fish or bacon but during hard times labourers struggled to put food on the table. In 1594 the bad weather caused terrible harvests and grain prices soared. This led to hardship for many labourers and when the harvests of 1596 and 1598 also failed many labourers and their families starved to death.
