Society and Economy

Question 1

Statistics to show population boom

Answer 1

1470 - 1.5 million

1525 - 2.3 million

1550 - 2.5 million

1603 - 4 million

Question 2

What % of rural and urban poor lived at or below subsistence level?

Answer 2

Over 50%

Question 3

In terms of inflation, what situation did Liz inherit?

Answer 3

Over the course of the 16th century, inflation was at around 400%

Prices doubled from 1500-1540

Elizabeth announced a scheme to withdraw debased currency early on in her reign

Question 4

Previous poor law legislation

Answer 4

1531 - impotent beggars allowed to beg with a license (fined otherwise)

1536 - Poor Law encouraged money raised through donations to help impotent poor

1547 - funds collected through Churches used to assist impotent beggars. Somerset’s harsh Vagrancy Act introduced

Question 5

Timeline of Elizabeth’s Poor Laws

Answer 5

1563 - Statute of Artificers

1572 - Poor Relief Act

1576 - Poor Relief Act (again)

1595-7 - Food riots

1597 - Act for the Relief of the Poor

1601 - Poor Law

Question 6

Details of Statute of Artificers

Answer 6

1563

Aimed to reduce unemployment by compelling workers to take on a 7-year-long apprenticeship and to fix wages and prices to slow down inflation

Dictated that local people would contribute to poor relief (could be fined or imprisoned for refusal)

Idle poor who refused to work were to be whipped and sent back to parish of origin

Enforced by JPs - effectiveness of act dependent on the local JP

Question 7

Details of the Poor Relief Act

Answer 7

1572 - first attempt at a national system

Distinction made in law between the idle poor and deserving poor

Compulsory contributions made to poor relief - JP would assess people’s weekly ability to pay, creating a fair system

Overseers of the poor appointed in each parish to help organise poor relief.

Punishments for vagabonds increased - hole bored in ear and whipping for 1st offence, imprisonment for 2nd offence, execution for 3rd offence

Towns and cities in charge of finding work for the able bodied poor

Question 8

Details of the second Poor Relief Act

Answer 8

1576

Reasserted distinction between deserving and undeserving poor

JPs instructed to provide able bodied poor with raw materials to enable them to work by making things to sell

Those to refused to work were sent to prisons called Houses of Correction

Question 9

Details of the Act for the Relief of the Poor

Answer 9

1597

Confirmed compulsory poor rate, which everyone in the parish needed to contribute to

Deserving poor to be provided for in alms houses

Every county to have at least one House of Correction

Pauper apprenticeships set up to train men until the age of 24 and women until the age of 21

4 overseers appointed in each parish

Question 10

Details of the Poor Law

Answer 10

1601 - Amended version of 1597 act

Clear distinction between deserving poor and idle poor

Amalgamated provisions of previous acts (with details added such as that begging was forbidden)

System of poor relief until 1834

Question 11

What happened in terms of policy towards Ireland in 1560?

Answer 11

Elizabeth declared Supreme Governor of the Church of Ireland

However, she lacked the power to impose Protestantism on a population that was largely Catholic, mostly spoke Gaelic and had a distinct set of customary laws

Question 12

Why did relations with the Gaelic Irish deteriorate?

Answer 12

Frequent use of martial law

Rebellions broke out in the south against English rule in 1569-73 and 1579-82. Anglo-Irish relations were soured by the brutality of the response of the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lord Grey of Wilton, to the latter

Question 13

Details of the 1569-73 rebellion in Ireland

Answer 13

James FitzMaurice and the Earl of Desmond led a rebellion due to hatred of English interference

They attacked Cork and Kilkenny with 4500 men

They were defeated through use of ‘scorched earth’ tactics by the English

Question 14

Details of the 1579-82 rebellion in Ireland

Answer 14

FitzMaurice launched an invasion of Munster, encouraged by the Pope and supported by 800 Spanish soldiers

Joined by other clans like the Desmonds and the Fitzgeralds

1580 - English army under Lord Pelham destroyed the lands of the Desmonds

Lord Grey was sent to suppress the rebellion, but lost the Battle of Glenmalure (this prompted him to brutally put down the rest of the rebellion - Fitzgerald killed in 1583)

Question 15

What prompted Tyrone’s rebellion?

Answer 15

Earl of Tyrone rebelled in 1595 looking to exploit the conflict with Spain by including an Irish contingent in the 1596 Armada

Question 16

When did it become clear that Tyrone’s rebellion was a problem?

Answer 16

August 1598 - 6,000-strong force of Ulster rebels won the Battle of Yellow Ford

This was the only major military defeat inflicted by rebels on a government army in the Tudor period

Question 17

How did Elizabeth respond to the problems in Ireland?

Answer 17

1599 - sent Essex to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant with a force of 17,000 soldiers. He disobeyed the Queen’s orders by making a truce with Tyrone and returned to court

Question 18

How was Tyrone’s rebellion put down?

Answer 18

Essex was replaced by a far more competent commander in Lord Mountjoy, who secured a victory over 3,500 Spanish troops in Kinsdale in 1601

This defeat robbed Tyrone of his main support base and in 1603 (after Liz died), he surrendered

Question 19

Issues with Scottish border administration

Answer 19

Liz had to resort to wardens from the second rate of northern landowners (e.g. Sir John Forster) to administer the border, rather than the traditional Dacre and Percy families.

Border security was an issue in 1569, when rebel leaders were able to escape into Scotland

Murder of Francis Russell in 1585 could have caused tensions, but this was resolved with skilful diplomacy

Question 20

Did the decline of towns continue into the reign of Elizabeth?

Answer 20

Yes - population rises caused an increase in urban poverty (but govt responded with a system of poor relief)

No - religious wars in France had brought many skilled refugees to England (due to peace brought about by the settlement) who established industries such as glass and paper making, trade routes were extended

Question 21

Did the growth of London cause other towns to decline?

Answer 21

Yes - by the 1590s, 93% of cloth went through London docks, smaller ports like King’s Lynn suffered from lack of trade, London was 4x bigger than the next biggest town

No - many port cities flourished (e.g. Newcastle, Bristol and Exeter), to compete with London towns had to diversify and specialise in trades and services (e.g. Woolwich became a supplier for the Royal Nay and Nantwich grew as the centre of the salt industry), increased centralisation benefitted northern cities like York, which became the seat of the Council of the North in 1561

Question 22

Population growth in London

Answer 22

Grew from 120,000 at the start of Liz’s reign to 200,000 in 1600

This was due to an expansion in trade, an increase in the number of government officials and lawyers etc….

Question 23

Impact of triangular trade

Answer 23

John Hawkins established the transatlantic slave trade in 1562, transporting slaves from Africa to be sold to Spanish colonists

He bought ginger, animal hides, sugar and pearls with the proceeds, making a huge profit and repeating the journey in 1564

Question 24

Developments in ship design

Answer 24

Galleons (ships that were designed to carry large cargoes) were developed in the 16th century. They allowed for more supplies to be taken on board, essential for long journeys.

Sterns were lowered on galleon ships, making them more stable in rough seas

Question 25

Developments in navigation

Answer 25

By 1584, the English mathematician Thomas Harriot worked out a simpler way of using the Sun to calculate the true sailing direction of a ship, making voyages safer and more direct

The use of astrolabes and quadrants made voyages more efficient

Question 26

Examples of trading companies set up

Answer 26

The Eastland Company was set up in 1579 (limited effect)

The Levant Company was set up in 1581 which was successful in its attempts to develop trade with the Ottoman empire

The East India Company was set up in 1600 (had less investment than the Dutch East India Company, so found it difficult to compete)

Question 27

Development in maps

Answer 27

Improved navigation and records of voyages contributed to more accurate maps

In 1560, the Mercator map was developed, which used parallel and evenly spaced lines of longitude an latitude, giving a far more realistic image of the world than any previous maps

Question 28

When and why did Drake circumnavigate the world?

Answer 28

1577-1580

Set out with the aim of raiding Spanish colonies on the Pacific

Made great profits from the Americas - some estimates put Drake’s treasure haul at £500,000,000 in today’s money

Question 29

Consequences of Drake’s exhibition

Answer 29

England established as a respectable sea-faring nation

Gathered a great deal of useful information about the Americas and kept logs of their voyage to be shared with other sailors

Nova Albion claimed by Drake in the name of Elizabeth

Angered Philip II

Question 30

Why was the colonisation of Virginia significant?

Answer 30

Undermined Spain - provided England with a base from which it could attack Spanish colonies as well as undermining Spain’s monopoly over the New World

Established the roots of the British Empire

Economic benefits - by controlling Virginia, England would not need to rely on other countries like Spain, the Italian States and France for wines, spices and other luxuries. Tobacco and sugar also came from Virginia

Question 31

Evidence of economic depression

Answer 31

According to David Palliser, 9 of the 44 harvests in Elizabeth’s reign could be described as bad

e.g. Newcastle reported a burial of 25 homeless people, who most likely died of starvation

Question 32

Details of food riots

Answer 32

London and the South East - 1595

East Anglia - 1596-7

Caused by inflation, poor harvests and high taxation

Question 33

Evidence of Golden Age in art

Answer 33

Formal portraiture remained important (but Liz did not have an artist as gifted as Holbein)

Portrait miniature became the most important aspect of Elizabethan art (notable artists here would be Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver

Her courtiers developed architecture through new buildings like Burghley House in Northamptonshire and Wilton House in Wiltshire

Question 34

Evidence of Golden Age in literature

Answer 34

• Increased educational opportunities of the 16th century led to the emergence of a more educated population.
• Public treated to plays by Shakespeare, Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe.
• Plays appealed to variety of social classes.
• Most infamous sponsoring of a play was Earl of Essex sponsoring Shakespeare’s ‘Richard II’.
• Foxe’s ‘Book of Martyrs’ had a wide readership amongst ‘Godly’ Puritans.
• Two most influential writers of Elizabeth’s reign – Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spencer. Both had works highly critical of Elizabethan court.