Lifestyles of the rich and poor Flashcards
How was the hierarchy in Elizabethan England organised?
(Top to bottom)
The monarch
Nobles and Lords
Gentry
Wealthy merchants and professionals
Yeomen and Tenant farmers
Cottagers and skilled artisans
Seasonal workers and unemployed
Who were the nobles?
Owned large areas of land
Included dukes, barons or earls
Who were the gentry?
Landowners
Less wealthy than nobles
Included knights, squires, gentlemen and gentlewomen
Who are wealthy merchants?
Successful sellers and business people
Who are wealthy merchants?
Successful sellers and business people
Who are ‘professionals’?
Emerging middle class
Worked less labour intensive jobs
Like lawyers, physicians, school teachers
Who were yeomen?
Owned their own houses with farms
Who were cottagers?
Lived in small cottages
Who were artisans?
Had a trade such as craft
Main features of houses of the rich
Built in the shape of E or H
Large windows to show wealth
Built with defensive structures outside like towers
Had a grand hall and above the long gallery
Gardens for leisure
Servants quarters
What was the grand hall?
Used as the servants dining room or hosted formal events
What was the Long gallery?
A place above the grand hall
A very wide corridor
For the owners to exercise, play music or for children to play
What did the rich women wear?
Ruffs (frilly collars)
Cape of cold
Long gown with a petticoat and hoops
Leather shoes and stockings
Lots of jewellery
What did the rich men wear?
Stiffened ruffle (frilly collar)
Jerkin (jacket)
Doublet (shirt)
Cape if leaving
Stockings and leather shoes
Trunk hose (breeches)
What were the rich’s clothes made out of?
Silk, linen, velvet, satin, leather and cloth
Expensive materials that had to have been exported thus showed their wealth
Households of the rich
Wives would stay home and supervise servants
Would make bread, ale, soap, candles and jams
Listen to music from hired bands
Education of the rich sons
Would be tutored at home
Languages (French, Latin or Greek)
Social etiquette
Hunting
Hawking
Education of the rich’s daughters
Tutored at home by governesses
Learn how to run a household
Features of houses of the gentry
Large manors
Servants quarters
Lots of land for farming
Made out of stone and brick (modernised)
Fashion of the gentry
Very similar to their social superiors (nobles)
But less expensive materials
Education of the gentry
Sons would go to private schools
Or university and learnt music, theology, maths etc
Houses of the poor
Small cottages
Only 1 room
Shared with animals
Few pots and pans as well as sleeping on hay
Fashion of poor men
Leather breeches
Doublet (shirt)
Jerkin (jacket)
Made of corduroy or canvas
Fashion of poor women
Petticoat
Mantle (cloak)
Doublet (shirt)
Education of the poor
Many were too poor to afford education
However some children went to a local school and learnt English
Working day for the poor
Spent the day farming or getting food
Causes of poverty Elizabethan era
Rising population
Rising inflation
Bad harvests
War taxes
Demobbed soldiers
Changes in farming
Breaking up of monasteries
Why did the rise in population increase poverty?
There is now a greater demand for necessities like food
Greater demand = higher prices and less resources
Why did bad harvests increase poverty?
Less food necessities = famine
Also raised the prices of food
How did inflation increase poverty?
Increase in prices but wages not keeping up with this
= inflation
Therefore people couldn’t afford necessarily
How did wars and soldiers cause poverty
Foreign wars costed a lot so taxes rose on people
Also when the wars ended many soldiers were now unemployed and homeless
How did changes in farming lead to poverty?
Farmers found it was cheaper to keep sheep not crops
Therefore employed less labourers = more unemployment
How did closing monasteries cause poverty?
Caused unemployment for monks, servants and labourers
They provided charity relief but were now shut
Government attitudes to poverty
It was your own fault if you were poor
Your position has been divinely appointed by God
When and how did attitudes to the poor begin to change?
Towards the end of Elizabeth’s reign
Government began to take actual action and help them, but mostly the impotent poor
Why did the attitudes to the poor change?
Risk that vagabonds will commit crimes
The poor may spread disease
Social order is disrupted if they band together
Vagabonds/ Vagrants
Homeless unemployed person who would beg and roam around
Often turned to crime
Idle poor
Included vagabonds that could work but chose not to
Able bodied poor
The poor who could work but chose not to or couldn’t find anywhere to
Encouraged to in order to avoid vagrancy
Impotent poor
Those who couldn’t work due to age or sickness
What were the public’s attitudes to the poor?
They spread disease
They turned to crime
They were lazy which is sinful
Violent and may rebel
Clapperdungeon
Put arsenic on the skin to look like they were bleeding for sympathy
Counterfeit cranks
Sucked on soap to foam at the mouth
Pretended to have epilepsy for sympathy
Abraham man
Pretended to be mad for sympathy
How did Elizabeth try to deal with the poor?
Separate the idle poor and impotent poor
And find solutions for both
However didn’t address the causes of it
And punished the idle poor
State of artificers law
Boys did 7 year apprenticeship
Gave them skills for a trade in the future
Vagabonds act
Death penalty reintroduced for reoffending beggars
Branding
Local people payed poor taxes
Overseers or the poor to help JP keep vagabonds off the street
2 Acts for the relief of the poor
To ‘help’ the poor
Idle poor sent to houses of correction
Punishment refusing to pay poor taxes
4 overseers per parish for JPs
Work to be found for idle poor
Act for the punishment of rogues
Death penalty not for vagabonds again
But beggars are whipped
And returned to their own parish/ house of correction
1601 Elizabethan poor law
Combination of the previous laws into one
The legal framework for how they challenge poverty
Contents of the Elizabethan poor law
Nationwide poor rate/ tax
Refuse to pay = jail
Begging banned = whipped or houses of correction
Alms houses for impotent poor
Alms houses
Places the gave our basic necessities for the impotent poor
Elizabeth’s successes when dealing with the poor
Acknowledgement that the government had responsibility
And that some people weren’t at fault for poverty
Did keep some beggars off the street
Elizabeth’s failures when dealing with the poor
Number of vagabonds increased
Didn’t deal with the root issue: houses of correction just kept them off the street/ moved them elsewhere
