Elizabethans Flashcards
The Rich & Gentry Food & Feastring
-gentry houses surrounded by orchards, gardens and farms which supplied the food
- feasts show off food and wealth
- many courses of meat and fish
-served at a great ceromony
- drank foreign wines
The Rich & Gentry Land and Power
- 2% of population owned 50% of land
- ownership of land = lots of power(justices of the peace)
The Middling sort jobs
- often independent tradesmen and craftsmen
- husbandmen who owned 5-50 acres of land
- yeomen who owned 50+ acres
The Middling Sort Houses
Well built with many rooms including:
- the hall (for living, and eating, sometimes kitchen_
- the parlour (living and sleeping room of yeoman and wife)
- chambers (children and servant bedrooms on 2nd floor)
- service rooms eg kitchen, brew house etc
- houses sometimes had glass windows or chimneys
Wife did most cooking rather than servants
The Middling Sort Food
- ate well but no ceremonies
- served food they produced
- bread was important
- gardens & orchards provided fruits & vegetables
- drank beer not wine
Labouring Poor Jobs
- made up 50% of population
- worked on farms
- struggled during non harvest seasons
Labouring Poor Houses
- some had an acre of land and built cottages
- small houses, with no upper rooms, often had only 2 rooms
- small windows without glass
Labouring Poor Food
- bread was the main food
- pottage (a thick vegetable soup)
- sometimes ate egg, cheese, or fish
- in bad harvest many struggled and often died
The Settled Poor
- those living in towns and poverty
- many were under 16 with little chance of surviving to adulthood
- Widows a large group of settled poor including Alice Reade’s husband left her with 4 children
Vagrant Poor
- wandered from place to place
- unmarried men/women travelling from place to place in groups
- often found dead in winter
The Unemployed Poor
Impotent Poor: Physically unable to work
Able Bodied: wanted to find work but couldn’t
Left to towns to support these people
Causes of Crisises
- population growth
- agriculture failed
- yeoman increased incomes but didn’t pay workers more.
The Price of Wheat Crisis
1585, 1595-1597:
- price of wheat increased from 25 shillings to 50 shillings
- downturn in demand for cloth so more unemployed
- more frequent outbreaks of the plague
- many died from starvation
York Case Study
- gentry and middling sort payed a ‘poor rate’
- ‘viewers’ made poor people lists
- people who couldn’t work got 3 halfpence
- vagabonds put in correction houses
Poor Law
1601
- Justices of peace oversaw poor
- begging forbidden, vagrants whipped
- Impotent were looked after
- Able bodied put to work or sent to corrections houses
Views on Marriage
- Men married in there 20’s whilst women married earlier
- illegitimate babies uncommon
- women often pregnant at weddings
- often informal seprations, rarely divorce
- women obey husbands but violence frowned upon
Views on Children
- gentry families large but 25% died before 10
- from 7 rich enough boys attend school
- began to work at 12/13
- children obey parents
- physical abuse common
Patronage
The power to control appointments to office or rights to privileges
The Privy Chamber
- ladies in waiting
- gossip
- loyalty to Elizabeth
The Presence Chamber
- open to everyone at court
The Privy Council
- a council of 19 advisers to help govern country
- extremely important part of government
- advise Queen
- Elizabeth did not attend meetings
Robert Dudley
-Elizabeth’s ‘sweet robin’, believed to be in love
- puritan
- many skills,
- earl of leicster in 1564
- fought in France in 1558, and Netherlands in 1585
Robert Devereux
- Elizabeths favourite until he joined the army
- Failed in Irealnd, lost job
- A threat to Elizabeth
- Rebellion collapsed, he was arrested, beheaded and guilty for treason.
Francis Walsingham
- lawyer, well educated
- strong puritan
- servant of state not queen
- Elizabethan never warmed to him
- Elizabeth didn’t care about death
- secretary of state between 1572-1590
William Cecil
- gentry lawyer
- moderate protestant
- used Parliament to change queens mind
- Elizabeth s ‘most trusted adviser’
- She didn’t like his decision on MQS
- Elizabeth upset at death
- secretart of state between 1558-1572 and 1590-1598
Puritan Opposition
- Puritans wanted Elizabeth to marry a protestant
- they wanted MPs to have freedom of speech
- Didn’t want Elizabeth to give monopolies to her courtiers
John Stubbes
November 1579 - he released a pamphlet criticising Elizabeth for nearly marrying a Catholic
- he was imprisoned for 2 years
The Golden Speech
30th November 1601
- last address to Parliament
How she controlled parliament?
- isolated extremists
- arranged business
- chose MP’s
- having councillors in parliament
- strong speeches
Lord Lieutenant
- overall responsibility for each country
Justices of the Peace
- 40 in each county
- informed poor laws and taxes
- came from gentry
Progresses
Elizabeth went on tour with advisers to make her seem important
