Society in Elizabethan England

Question 1

In English society, what were there few of + why?

Answer 1

There were few hereditary peers - the highest peerage title, Duke, carried inherent dangers in Tudor England as each of the four Ducal titles that existed 1547-72 (Somerset, Northumberland, Suffolk + Norfolk) met a bloody end with their holders suffering traitors deaths.

After 1572 E was careful not to create any more dukes

Question 2

By E’s reign what had the nobility become?

Answer 2

More peaceful than in earlier times and less concerned with defence

Question 3

Who came below the peerage /nobles and who did this include?

Answer 3

The Gentry -
Wide social range.

From influential knights figures of national importance e.g. Sir Christopher Hatton, to modest local landowners.

In between = the county gentlemen and esquires who dominated local government through their work as JPs and who often took on local office without reward.

Question 4

What about the gentry changed in E’s reign?

Answer 4

The gentry class increased and the proportion who were seriously wealthy also went up

Question 5

Had the other layers of society changed from the start of the century?

Answer 5

Differed little but the reign of E was a period in which the gap between rich and poor widened

Question 6

Why did the gap between rich and poor widen?

Answer 6

The period witnessed the beginnings of a consumer society amongst the prosperous members of the landed, mercantile and professional classes.

Landed incomes increased (especially after around 1570) whereas the poorer sectors of the population found themselves vulnerable to enclosure and the persistent decline in real wages

Question 7

By the end of E’s reign how big was the population and where did most live?

Answer 7

Roughly 4 million with the bulk of people still living in the countryside

Question 8

What remained the only large city and what was the population?
Who did London attract?

Answer 8

London - whose population, much of which now lived outside the bounds of the city, was probably as high as 15,000
London acted as a magnet for migrants for other parts of the country

Question 9

What were the largest provincial cities?

Answer 9

Bristol and Norwich but few other cities had populations in excess of 5000

Question 10

What two acts were passed in the 1570’s to relieve poverty?

Answer 10

An Act of 1572 established the principle that local ratepayers should be required to pay a rate for the relief of their own poor.

The Poor Law Act of 1576 - the first act for a national system of local poor relief - towns were required to make provision for the employment of the deserving poor.

Question 11

What further act in 1601 helped the poor?

Answer 11

Under the Elizabethan Poor Law Act of 1601, the parish was required to raise the rates for, and to administer, poor relief.

Each Parish was to appoint an overseer of the poor.

Key responsibilities = relieving the impotent poor, setting the able-bodied to work and apprenticing poor children, collection of poor rates and appropriate distribution. Their activities were supervised by JPs

Question 12

How long did the poor law of 1601 last until?

Answer 12

1834

Question 13

What was the treatment of the undeserving poor like in contrast and examples?

Answer 13

Remained harsh - an extremely repressive and ultimately unenforceable act against vagrancy had been introduced in 1547 and although it was quickly repealed, the idea remained that the undeserving poor should be whipped.

In 1572 an Act added branding to the range of punishments available to the authorities.

Question 14

During the panic of 1597 which act was passed?

Answer 14

One which laid down that first-time offenders should be whipped and then sent back to the parish of their birth and repeat offenders should be executed

Question 15

Who were the impotent poor?

Answer 15

A subcategory of the deserving poor which comprised those who could not look after themselves either because of age, infirmity or because they were orphans

Question 16

What suggested a confidence in social order and peace in E’s England?

Answer 16

The tendency of the aristocracy and greater gentry to abandon fortified castles and instead to build comfortable but indefensible country houses.

Question 17

Despite her title what did Elizabeth lack in Ireland?

Answer 17

The power to impose Protestantism on a population that was largely Catholic , mostly Gaelic in language and whose customary laws and landownership differed hugely from that of the English

Question 18

When were the first two rebellions in Ireland?

Answer 18

1569- 1573.

1579 -1582 - linked with a Spanish invasion of County Kerry.

Question 19

What external reason helped make the third Irish rebellion was the most dangerous?

Answer 19

The third Irish rebellion of the reign was closely linked to the Anglo-Spanish war

Question 20

What and where was the third Irish rebellion?

Answer 20

Centred in Ulster.

Clan chief Hugh O’Neill was created Earl of Tyrone by Elizabeth in 1585.

He rose up in rebellion in 1595 with the Spanish trying to exploit the situation by including an Irish group in the Armada of 1596.

Question 21

What was the outcome of the third Irish rebellion?

How successful were attempts of the Spanish to exploit it?

Answer 21

Attempt of the Spanish was unsuccessful but the fact the Spanish had so clearly signalled their intentions cause unease amongst Elizabeth and her councillors.

Made worse when the rebels were victorious in the Battle of Yellow Ford in August 1598.

Question 22

What happened as a result of the Battle of Yellow Ford and the aftermath?

Answer 22

Tyrone and his allies were in control of much of Ireland ‘beyond the Pale’. It looked as if Tyrone might establish an independent and Catholic Ireland that would look to Spain for support.

Question 23

In the content of Ireland, following Tyrone’s rebellion and in some desperation, what did E do and what was the outcome?

Answer 23

Sent the Earl of Essex to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant in 1599.

Essex had a large force but instead of confronting Tyrone, he made a truce before defying the queen’s orders and returning to court.

Question 24

What happened as soon as the truce expired?

Answer 24

Tyrone moved south and camped near Kinsale on the coast, to the south-west of Cork, hoping to link up with a Spanish army - this was to be the high point of his power

Question 25

What is Martial law?

Answer 25

Legal authority and political control exercised by military authority.

Question 26

Once the English were shorn of Essex’s weak leadership what happened in Ireland and what did Tyrone appear saved by?

Answer 26

England made significant progress under the new Lord Lieutenant, Lord Mountjoy and Sir George Carew.

Tyrone seemed saved by the landing in Kinsale of over 3000 Spanish troops during September 1601

Question 27

What was the outcome of the landing of 3000 Spanish troops in Ireland un 1601?

Answer 27

The English triumphed on Christmas Eve 1601 - Tyrone retreated back to Ulster before eventually negotiating a peace with Mountjoy in March 1603 - by then, unbeknown to Tyrone, E had died and Mountjoy appears to have offered generous terms in order to be able to leave Ireland and attend the new king, James I

Question 28

On the English side of the Anglo-Scottish border who did administrative responsibility lay with?

Answer 28

Henry VIII appointed southerners instead of wardens from great northern magnates -a policy continued by E

Question 29

What was the problem with E’s approach to the Scottish border?

Answer 29

It was difficult for nobles without a local landed base to control either the northern landed families or the border clans

Question 30

What happened with the Anglo-Scottish border in 1585?

Answer 30

The murder in a border incident of Francis Russel, son of the Earl of Bedford, looked as if it might create a long-term problem in Anglo-Scottish relations. But skilful diplomacy ensured that James VI accepted an annual pension of £4000 along with hints about his possible succession to the English throne.

Question 31

Where did primary responsibility for the maintenance of order lie in the North?

Answer 31

With the Council of the north based in York - E felt unable to grant the office of president of the Council to a member of the northern nobility, of whom she trusted none but the alternative.

Question 32

What was the reign like in terms of order?

Answer 32

A period of relative order - the one significant rebellion in the north had little to do with the social and economic aspirations of the poor - even in the mid- 1590’s when a perfect storm of severe harvest failure, rising prices and outbreaks of plague caused a desperate situation for many, social stability broadly held up

Question 33

Where did the only significant rebellion against E take place?

Answer 33

Mainly in Durham and the North Riding of West Yorkshire in 1569, which linked to a rising in Cumberland in 1570

Question 34

Who led the Northern rebellion?

Answer 34

Headed by the leading northern nobility, the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland

Question 35

What helped cause the Northern Rebellion?

Answer 35

Genuine religious passion played apart amongst both leaders and ordinary participants.

The rebel leaders also had political motives - they considered themselves dishonoured by having been displaced from their traditional aristocratic roles of controlling northern government,

Also been argued the rebellion was linked to courtly conspiracies - it was proposed that Westmoreland’s brother-in-law, the Duke of Norfolk, should marry Mary QoS, who could be restored to the Scottish throne - a plan which triggered a volcanic response from E when she discovered it

Question 36

When did the rebellion begin and what happened?

Answer 36

Began on 9th of November - the rebels marches on Durham, seizing the city on 14th of December and heard mass in the Cathedral therefore giving a clear indication of the Catholic nature of the rebellion

Question 37

After seizing Durham where did the rebels march on and what happened?

Answer 37

On York - camping for a time on Bramham Moor west of the city , however they made no attempt to capture it nor did they march south - instead they moved back to Durham and besieged the crowns stronghold of Barnard castle which fell to the rebels on 14th December.

Question 38

What happened when news reached the rebel leaders that a crown force was on its way north?

Answer 38

The earls disbanded their forces and fled over the border into Scotland

Question 39

What happened a month later (northern rebellion)?

Answer 39

Northumberland’s cousin (Leonard Dacre) restarted the rebellion in Cumberland, only for his force to be heavil defeated at Naworth, east of Carlisle, by a royal force under the command of the queen’s cousin, Lord Hunsdon

Question 40

For what reasons did the rebellion fail?

Answer 40

Hopeless disorganisation, with a lack of clarity concerning the rebels’ objectives
Poor leadership
Lack of expected foreign support
Decisive action from the authorities

Question 41

How did the Crown’s servants act in difficult circumstances of rebellion?

Answer 41

Sensibly - at court, Cecil in particular spent huge amounts of time on the matter, commissioning and studying a map of Durham to help him come to decisions about appropriate courses of action

Question 42

What did the rebellion reveal?

Answer 42

The London government’s lack of comprehension of the differences between the north and the south , of the problems of managing the localities and the difficulty of raising forces to deal with potential threats.

Also demonstrated the ruthlessness of E’s government in punishing those who had offended it - mass executions of the rebels were carried out, exact numbers unknown

Question 43

In what way was the rebellion geographically limited?

Answer 43

There were few rebels from outside Durham and the North Riding of Yorkshire.

The rebel earls gained no support from the equally conservative nobility of other parts of the north and there appeared to be little enthusiasm to get rid of E (doesn’t mean there was widespread enthusiasm for the government just unknown what would replace it)

Question 44

What were the outcomes for the leaders of the rebellion?

Answer 44

Northumberland was eventually executed in 1572.

Westmoreland, still young at the time of the rebellion, spent the rest of his wife as a pensioner at court in the Spanish Netherlands, becoming increasingly depressed and bitter about his fate
The lands of the rebels were forfeit to the crown

Question 45

What was done to reinforce the crown’s hold on the north after the rebellion?

Answer 45

The Council of the North was reconstituted in 1572 and placed under the control of the Earl of Huntingdon.

He also had strong Puritan inclinations - not an advantage at court in the north but where Catholics were perceived as potential enemies to the crown, his strong commitment to religious reform was seen as an advantage