Key Issue 2 - Lifestyles of the Rich and Poor

Question 1

List in order the Elizabethan hierarchy.

Answer 1

• monarch
• nobles and lords
• gentry
• wealthy merchants and professionals
• yeomen and tenant farmers
• cottages and skilled artisans
• landless unskilled labourers and the poor and unemployed

Question 2

What percentage of the population lived on the edge of starvation?

Answer 2

Between 20% and 30%

Question 3

What were key features of the homes of the rich?

Answer 3

• expensive tapestries
• E or H shaped symmetrical houses
• constructed of stone
• timber framework
• big chimneys
• long gallery
• parlour
• landscaped gardens

Question 4

State three features of rich men’s clothing.

Answer 4

• breeches
• doubler
• stockings
• leather shoes
• stiffened ruff
• jerkin

Question 5

State three features of rich women’s clothing.

Answer 5

• farthingale
• ruff
• gown
• jewellery
• leather shoes
• stockings

Question 6

How were the wealthy nobles and lords educated?

Answer 6

Received private tutoring in languages, social etiquette, hunting, hawking and dancing.

Question 7

Who was expected to supervise the day-to-day running of the household?

Answer 7

The wife of the nobleman

Question 8

State five aspects of the lifestyle of the gentry.

Answer 8

• houses built of stone, brick or half timbered
• had at least eight rooms
• big windows
• wore modern and stylish clothing but less expensive
• children went to grammar school
• taught social etiquette, hunting, fencing, music and dancing

Question 9

State five aspects of the lifestyle of the lower classes.

Answer 9

• lived in much smaller homes with usually only one room
• earth floor, mud walls, thatched roof
• worked long hours, usually from 5am to 5pm
• life expectancy was low
• wore cheaply made clothes
• had little or no education
• spent leisure time in the tavern

Question 10

How did the Tudor government classify the poor?

Answer 10

• the “impotent poor” : those who were genuinely unable to work
• the “able bodied poor” : those considered capable of work but were incapable or unwilling to find employment or

Question 11

State five of the causes of poverty.

Answer 11

• rising population
• rising inflation
• changes in the cloth industry
• costly foreign wars
• dissolution of the monasteries
• rural depopulation
• changes in farming methods
• bad harvests

Question 12

What was the population in:

a) 1540s
b) 1601

Answer 12

a) 2.7 million

b) 4.1 million

Question 13

Why were people afraid of vagabonds?

Answer 13

• seemed to be idle and too lazy to find a job
• too prepared to turn to crime as a way of life
• helped spread disease by wandering from place to place
• increased chances of rebellion

Question 14

Name three types of vagrants.

Answer 14

• hooker
• clapper dudgeon
• doxy
• Abraham man
• ruffler
• drummerers
• counterfeit crank

Question 15

In which years were Poor Laws set?

Answer 15

1563
1572
1576
1598
1601

Question 16

How successful were the Elizabethan Poor Laws?

Answer 16

• did not end poverty, which kept rising
• did help thousands of people in need of support
• the threat of social unrest and rebellion was reduced
• the laws reflected a change of attitude
• the system of poor relief remained in place for the next 200 year and