Society in Elizabethan England

Question 1

What remained the same in English society and what were there few of + why?

Answer 1

Society remained under aristocratic domination during the reign
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

Below the dukes what did the other four ranks of peerage (though few in number) sought to do and what did E do in contrast?

Answer 3

Enhance their social prestige through massive building projects - partly to ensure that they could accommodate the queen in appropriate surroundings on royal progresses e.g. The House of Burghley (then in Northamptonshire) built by Burghley and Wilton in Wiltshire (build by the Earl of Pembroke) were build on a grand scale
E chose not to emulate such grandeur , she was instead, inclined on cost grounds to modify some of the many building projects of her father

Question 4

Who came below the peerage and who did this include?

Answer 4

The Gentry - continued to elude precise definition and embraced a wide social range, from influential knights of the shire and 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 5

What about the gentry changed in E’s reign?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

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

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Why did the gap between rich and poor widen?

Answer 7

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 8

By the end of E’s reign what was the population like?

Answer 8

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

Question 9

What remained the only large city and what was the population?

Answer 9

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 10

What were the largest provincial cities?

Answer 10

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

Question 11

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

Answer 11

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 to attempt to create a national system of poor relief to be financed and administered locally - under the acts towns were required to make provision for the employment of the deserving poor

Question 12

What further acts helped the poor?

Answer 12

Further acts in 1598 and 1601 completed the legislative process
Under the Elizabethan Poor Law Act of 1601, the parish became designated as the institution required to raise the rates for, and to administer, poor relief. Each Parish was to appoint an overseer of the poor who was to ensure both the efficient collection of poor rates and appropriate distribution of relief to the poor. The overseer’s key responsibilities = relieving the impotent poor, setting the able-bodied to work and apprenticing poor children. Their activities were supervised by JPs

Question 13

Through the poor laws what had Elizabethan government done?

Answer 13

Taken upon itself the responsibility of ensuring a minimum level of subsistence for the deserving poor - this was a legislative achievement that remained largely intact until 1834

Question 14

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

Answer 14

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 15

During the panic of 1597 which act was passed?

Answer 15

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 16

What is the difference between the deserving and the undeserving poor?

Answer 16

The deserving poor were those actively seeking work or were too old, too young or too ill to do so, the undeserving poor described those whom society considered beggars or vagrants

Question 17

Who were the impotent poor?

Answer 17

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 18

What was Elizabethan England like compared to France or Spain?

Answer 18

A much more unified state and - relatively speaking, more peaceful as E’s reign witnessed only one serious rebellion (Northern rebellion in 1569) which collapsed fairly quickly, compared with greater social disorder in Spain and outright civil war across more than three decades in France

Question 19

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

Answer 19

The tendency of the aristocracy and greater gentry to abandon fortified castles and instead to build comfortable but indefensible country houses - more remarkable considering the limited resources of the state to enforce its power in Tudor England

Question 20

What should not be assumed despite this?

Answer 20

That the country was always peaceable - as Ireland, Wales and the north of England all posed problems

Question 21

What were the Elizabethan attitudes to Ireland and what reinforced this?

Answer 21

That Ireland should be subjected to a policy of ‘Englishness’ in both religious and secular matters
E proclaimed Supreme Governor of the Church of Ireland in 1560

Question 22

Despite her title what did E lack in Ireland?

Answer 22

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 23

What did Ireland become and why was this issue?

Answer 23

A breeding ground for fortune hunters - the ‘get-rich quick’ mentality of the English incomers and the frequent use of martial law led to bad relations with both the Gaelic Irish and the Old English (the descendants of the Normans and English who had settled in Ireland since the 11th century

Question 24

Considering these bad relations what is no surprise and what further soured the relations ?

Answer 24

That rebellion broke out in the south against such English rule in 1569- 1573 and 1579 -1582 - with the latter being linked with a Spanish invasion of County Kerry
Relations further soured by the brutality of the response of the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lord Grey of Wilton, to the second rebellion

Question 25

Which rebellion proved much more difficult and expensive for the English Crown to supress?

Answer 25

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

Question 26

What and where was the third Irish rebellion?

Answer 26

Centred in Ulster, where the clan chief Hugh O’Neill, created Earl of Tyrone by E in 1585, 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 27

What was the outcome of the third Irish rebellion / attempts of the Spanish to exploit it?

Answer 27

Attempt of the Spanish was unsuccessful but the fact the Spanish had so clearly signalled their intentions cause unease amongst E and her councillors
Made worse when the rebels were victorious in the Battle of Yellow Ford in August 1598

Question 28

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

Answer 28

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 29

In the content of Ireland and in some desperation what did E do and what was the outcome?

Answer 29

Sent the Earl of Essex to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant in 1599
Proved to be a error due to the readiness of Essex to disobey the Queen’s orders - 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 30

What happened as soon as the truce expired?

Answer 30

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 31

What is Martial law?

Answer 31

Legal authority and political control exercised by military authority.

Question 32

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

Answer 32

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 33

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

Answer 33

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 34

What did James find himself doing in terms of Ireland?

Answer 34

Found himself committed to returning to the policy abandoned 70 years earlier, of entrusting rule in Ireland to the local nobility, of whom the most important was the unreliable Tyrone

Question 35

What was the legacy of E’s policy in Ireland?

Answer 35

Much of Ireland had been destroyed or impoverished by continued conflict, the Crown had expended huge sums of money and the conflict had left a huge legacy of bitterness among the native population

Question 36

By E’s reign what was the situation in Wales?

Answer 36

The Welsh border was no longer a problem - the integration of England and Wales had continued. Though much of Wales remained relatively poor and while linguistic and cultural differences remained, borer issues were rarely an issue for the Elizabethan state

Question 37

What was Wales like throughout E’s reign in terms of Government?

Answer 37

The structure or border administration, most importantly the Council of Wales and the Marches, remained in operation
The Welsh language disappeared as a medium of government but it was preserved as a medium of religion with the translation of both the Boo of Common Prayer and the Bible into Welsh. The publication of dictionaries and grammars into Welsh also helped to preserve the language
Poverty did remain endemic and although many Welsh gentry seem to have prospered under E, the disproportionate number of Welshmen implicated in the Essex ‘Rebellion’ suggests a significant level of discontent with the political situation toward the end of E’s reign

Question 38

Why was the situation very different from Wales in the far north of England?

Answer 38

As long as Scotland remained a separate and independent state, the possibility of border conflict remained
The continuation on the borders of a lawless subculture which placed a large emphasis on casual violence and rustling cattle/sheep created problems for authorities in both countries

Question 39

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

Answer 39

With the wardens of the three marches - traditionally wardens had been appointed from the families of the great northern magnates such as the Percies and the Dacres - Henry VIII signalled a move away from this policy by appointing southerners -a policy continued by E

Question 40

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

Answer 40

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

Question 41

What did E do to counteract the difficulty posed by using southerners with no local land as border wardens?

Answer 41

She sometimes had to resort to the appointment of wardens from the second rank or northern landowners e.g. Sir John Foster who was more successful in exploiting his office for financial gain than in maintaining border security

Question 42

Why was border control an issue following the 1569 rebellion and when again?

Answer 42

Some of the rebel leaders escaped into Scotland.
Between 1578 and 1585, when the grip of the Protestant lords in Scotland was tenuous, the governing of borders once again became a key issue

Question 43

What happened with the Anglo-Scottish border in 1585?

Answer 43

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 44

Outside order administration where die primary responsibility for the maintenance of order lie?

Answer 44

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 (awarding the post to a southern magnate) created problems

Question 45

What was the reign like in terms of order?

Answer 45

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 46

Which events reflected a fear about social dislocation that didn’t represent reality?

Answer 46

The authorities fear of vagabondage as they reserved severe treatments for who them considered the undeserving poor
Food riots took place in London, Kent, Hampshire and Norfolk
The heavy-handed response of the government to the so called ‘Oxfordshire-rising’ of 1596 (in reality not a rising but an ill thought-out scheme by a tiny group of four men made desperate by their experience of poverty to seize armaments and march on London)

Question 47

Where did the only significant rebellion against E take place?

Answer 47

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

Question 48

Who led the Northern rebellion?

Answer 48

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

Question 49

What helped cause the Northern Rebellion?

Answer 49

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 50

When did the rebellion begin and what happened?

Answer 50

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 51

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

Answer 51

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 in an attempt to pressurise the government - instead they moved back to Durham and besieged the crowns stronghold of Barnard castle which fell to the rebels on 14th December

Question 52

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

Answer 52

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

Question 53

What happened a month later (northern rebellion)?

Answer 53

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 54

For what reasons did the rebellion fail?

Answer 54

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

Question 55

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

Answer 55

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 56

What did the rebellion reveal?

Answer 56

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 57

In what way was the rebellion geographically limited?

Answer 57

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 58

What were the outcomes for the leaders of the rebellion?

Answer 58

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 59

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

Answer 59

The Council of the North was reconstituted in 1572 and placed under the control of the Earl of Huntingdon (an outsider with no local ties who owed his influence entirely to his relative , the queen. 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