Soceity

Question 1

Continuity?
Nobles

Answer 1

Great landowners
Dominant political and social role
Senior military positions

Question 2

Change?
Nobles

Answer 2

No dukedoms created after 1572
Indulged in massive house building projects
Less opportunity to fulfil a military role

Question 3

Continuity?
Gentry

Answer 3

Included a wide social range (knights, gentlemen, esquires)
Prominent in local gov (by 1570)(
Served as MPs

Question 4

Change?
Gentry

Answer 4

Growth in numbers
Landed incomes increased, especially after 1570

Question 5

Continuity?
Bulk of population

Answer 5

Most lived in rural areas
Low standards of living
Pop growth

Question 6

Change?
Bulk of population

Answer 6

Growing mercantile and professional classes in towns, with political influence, sometimes bought landed estates and entered ranks of the gentry
Some families ‘married up’ increasing social mobility
Widening gap between rich and poor (60% of pop at or below poverty line)
Decline in real wages
Increase in landless poor

Question 7

Poor relief act
1572

Answer 7

Act required local ratepayers to pay a rate for the relief of their own poor

Question 8

Poor relief act 1576

Answer 8

Act required towns to make provisions for employment for the deserving poor

Question 9

Poor relief act 1597/98

Answer 9

Act provided a code for poor relief establishing overseers of the poor

Question 10

Poor relief act
1601 Elizabethan Poor Law

Answer 10

Created a national system for poor relief based on the parish (poor relief would be conducted on a local basis until 1929)

Question 11

What were each parish required to do?

Answer 11

Raise the rates for, and administer, poor relief through an overseer of the poor

Question 12

Who were the impotent poor?

Answer 12

Those unable to work
Were to be cared for in a poor house

Question 13

Who were the able-bodied poor?

Answer 13

To be given work in a ‘House of Industry’

Question 14

Who were the Idle poor?

Answer 14

To be sent to ‘houses of correction’ or prison

Question 15

What happened to the Pauper children?

Answer 15

They were to be apprenticed to a trade

Question 16

When was the Northern Earls rebellion?

Answer 16

1569

Question 17

When was Elizabeth proclaimed Supreme Governor of the Church of Ireland?

Answer 17

1560

Question 18

What religion was Ireland largely?

Answer 18

Ireland was largely catholic
Spoke mostly Gaelic and had customs and laws that differed from England’s
This made it difficult to enforce Protestantism
The behaviour of English incomes and the frequent use of martial law soured relations with the Irish lords
The troubles were a financial drain on the English crown as well as destroying and impoverishing much of Ireland, leaving a legacy of bitterness among the native population

Question 19

Relationship w wales?

Answer 19

Wales was well integrated into England, although some linguistic and cultural differences remained
- the council of wales and the marches continued to police the border so conflict there was no longer an issue
- the welsh language was no longer used in gov. The book of common prayer and the bible was translated into welsh, and welsh dictionaries and grammars were published
- much of wales remained poor

Question 20

When were the recusancy laws introduced and why?
What were they?

Answer 20

In 1593
Due to religious division, particularly after eli’z excommunication in 1570
These imposed punishments for those who had refused to attend American services

Question 21

When was the Oxfordshire rising and what was it?

Answer 21

Provoked by high food prices after a harvest failure
It was led by 4 men who were desperate enough to seize weapons and march on London
The authorities responded harshly to such incidents, although they were genuinely concerned about the poor, giving rise to the poor legislation

Question 22

What happened in northern earls rebellion?

Answer 22

Took place mainly in Durham and the North Riding of Yorkshire in 1569, with the subsequent rising in Cumberland in 1570. It was headed by the leading northern nobility, the earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, and was largely a ‘noble’ rebellion.

Question 23

Movies for the N’earls rebellion?

Answer 23

Religious - the north was religiously more conservative than the south and disliked the Elizabethan settlement
Religious/ succession related - the presence of MQS in England gave hopes for an alternative future.
Economic - the north was economically deprived, breeding resentments
Political - leaders resented their exclusion from their traditional aristocratic role in the north

Question 24

What was the course of the N’earls rebellion?

Answer 24

Rebels marched as far as York, before heading northwards again and taking Barnard Castle, in the county of Durham.
However, they suffered a lack of clear objectives, disorganisation and poor leadership
They did not get a mass popular following and they failed to gain foreign support
The crown acted decisively and sent a force north, at which the earls disbanded their forces and fled into Scotland
A subsequent rebellion in Cumberland was also put down

Question 25

What happened after N’earls?

Answer 25

The gov ordered mass executions of the rebels
Northumberland was executed in 1572 and Westmorland exiled to the Spanish Netherlands
The crown took over the rebel leader’s lands

Question 26

What was the significance of the N’earls rebellion?

Answer 26

It revealed the London government’s lack of comprehension of the difference between north and south and the problems in managing the localities.

Question 27

Did the structure of society change much under Eliz?

Answer 27

Not really
Except that gentry class increased in size and wealth and a consumer class began to arise from the landed, mercantile and professional classes

Question 28

What happened with the rich/poor gap in eliz’s reign?

Answer 28

It continued to widen, but a succession of poor laws attempted to alleviate poverty by introducing nationwide measures for poor relief

Question 29

Was the N’earls serious?

Answer 29

It was the only serious rebellion
However it was geographically limited and quickly suppressed