History - Early Elizabethan England

Government within Early Elizabethan England…

• The court

• The privy council

• Justices of the peace

• Lord Lieutenants

• Parliament

Elizabethan society…

The country side:

• The nobility

• The gentry

• The yeomen farmers

• The tenant farmers

• The landless the labouring poor

• The homeless & vagrants

The towns:

• The merchants

• The professionals

• The business owners

• The craftsmen

• The unemployed

Problems/issues individual to Elizabeth…

• Age

• Financial/economic difficulties

• Legitimacy

• Religion

• Marriage

• Government support

Elizabeth’s character & strengths…

• Elizabeth was charismatic & confident

• Elizabeth had a great grasp for politics

• Elizabeth was well educated

• Elizabeth had conformed to developing ideas surrounding Protestantism

• Elizabeth was resilient

Financial/economic difficulties…

• The crown was £300,000 in debt

• The crown had an annual income of ONLY £286,667

• The crowns income from rents were falling

• Mary Tudor had sold off crown lands for military purposes

• Financial strength had a direct relation to Elizabeth’s security on the thrown

• Due to increased importance in beating France, the crown needed further economic support. To provide this, the gold and silver content within the production of coins had been reduced. Ultimately, this had resulted in inflation due to how the value of the currency fell

How monarchs could raise money…

• Income from renting out their own land

• Taxing trade (custom duties)

• Special additional taxes (subsidies)

• Profits of justice

• Loans

How Elizabeth could solve her financial problems…

• How Elizabeth could solve her financial problems

• Raise taxes

• Improve the quality of money through increasing gold & silver content in the coinage

Challenges abroad…