Topic 3 - Daily Lives Flashcards
What cause the gap between the rich and the poor to widen?
- Elizabethan society was hierarchical, at the top with those who owned land - the landed gentry- the privileged few. At the bottom were those who worked on the land - the vast majority.
- Living standards depended on the hierarchy.
- The rich became richer during Elizabeth’s reign and the number of poor people grew. The gap between rich and poor widened.
- People could move up this hierarchy for example a skilled craftsman or trader could make money and buy some land.
How did the gentry show off?
- The gentry only made up 2% of the population but had over 50% of the land in England.
- The gentry also have political power. As JPs, they enforced the queens rules locally and as MPs they helped her to govern.
- To display their wealth and power individuals built magnificent country houses.
- These houses were based on renaissance ideas of symmetry and proportion.
- They have huge glazed windows, tall decorated chimneys, ornate fireplaces and decorative oak panelling.
- A fashionable feature was a long gallery running the length of the house used for exercising dancing and socialising the walls displayed works of art.
- The rich ate well. Plentiful food was supplied from the farms, gardens and all orchards around the house. The gentry can also afford to import fine wines and luxury foods from Europe.
What were the middling sort like in the towns?
They were tradesman and craftsmen who owned their own businesses. They are poorer than merchants who ruled the town but much more wealthy than the labourers.
What were the middling sort like in the country?
Yeoman or husbandmen who farmed some land of their own. They were nowhere near as wealthy as the gentry, but more comfortable than the labouring poor.
What were the middling sort lives like?
- A yeoman’s house had between 5 and 10 rooms separated into upstairs and downstairs. Sometimes service buildings like a bakehouse, dairy or brew-house were attached.
- The parlour was a sleeping room with feather mattresses and linen sheets. Children and servants slept upstairs.
- Chimneys, ceilings and glass windows were new home comforts.
- The middling sort ate well but there was less ceremony than in gentry homes.
- They had some meat (beef mutton and pork) reared on their own land.
- Bread was an important part of their diet and they drank beer and mead rather than wine.
What were the labouring poor like?
- They struggled to make a living because most didn’t have regular work on the farms. At harvest time it was busy, but at other times it was hard to afford rent, food and fuel.
- Houses were small, dark and smoky but usually had two rooms raise with a bare earth floor. There were no upper rooms, glass or chimneys. Smoke escaped through the thatch.
- Their diet was limited. Bread was the main food and was made from rye, a cereal cheaper than wheat. Pottage, a thick soup, was the usual meal.
- Wet weather led to poor harvest in 1594, 1595 and 1596. Many labouring people starved to death during this difficult decade.
When did people usually marry?
Couples saved money before getting married. Men usually married in their late 20s and women in the mid 20s. Gentry couples were richer so could get married younger.
What were views on illegitimate births?
There were no reliable contraceptions but illegitimate births (babies born to unmarried mothers) were uncommon because the church forbade sex outside marriage.
Why did people usually get married?
The decision to marry was often triggered by becoming pregnant. Up to 30% of brides were pregnant at their wedding.
How did people choose their partners?
In wealthy families, a young person would need their parents approval of their choice of partner, because property and state mattered. Young people in middling or labouring families were freer to choose their own partners.
What were the roles of husbands and wives?
- Wives were expected to obey their husbands.
- Husbands were advised to respect their wives.
- A woman’s property belonged to her husband.
- Elizabeth, and disapproved of violent, husbands and scolding, domineering wives.
- In poor and middling households wife’s helped their husbands in work.
- Divorce was difficult and required an Act of parliament but couples could separate informally. It was more common of marriages to end with death.
- When a partner died their spouse often remarried. Many children in England were brought up by step-parents.
What was Elizabethan childhood like?
Death: A quarter of all children died before the age of 10, so Elizabethan families were often small. Only the nobles and gentry had big families.
Obedience: Children were expected to obey and show respect to their parents.
Love: Parents formed strong, emotional bonds with their children.
Work: Poor children started work at home or on the farm at the age of 7. From the age of 13, many left home to become apprentices or servants. Most spent their teens gaining skills to prepare them for adult life.
Punishment: Physical punishment was more common than today. Beating was usual in grammar schools, but there is little evidence of cruelty to children at home.
School: Rich children went to school from the age of 7.
What were Elizabethan households like?
- Households rarely included members outside the nuclear family (a couple and their dependent children). Sometimes an older parent or orphaned child was taken in.
- Young people left home to work so most extended families were scattered. Relatives didn’t live in the same village, although people usually had relatives in nearby villages and towns.
- In difficult times people relied on neighbours for support.
- Unlike today few Elizabethan people had relatives living abroad.
What were the long-term problems that caused poverty in the 1590s?
Rising populations: Between 1520, and 1600 England’s population, almost doubled from 2.4 million to 4.1 million.
Rising prices: Population increase meant that, despite some improvement in farming, there was not enough food to meet demand so prices soared.
Low wages: Rising prices meant Yeoman farmers had increased income but with such competition for work, the wages of the labouring poor stayed low and didn’t keep pace with the rising price of bread.
What were the short-term pressures that caused poverty in the 1590s?
Harvest failure: Bad weather in 1586, 1595, 1596 and 1597 led to a bad harvest and food shortages. Food prices rocketed.
Downturn in cloth demand: From the early 1580s demand for English woollen cloth reduced, which increased unemployment and vagrancy.
Plague: More frequent outbreaks of the plague, made the situation worse.
