Elizabeth I: Society and Economy in Mid-Tudor England

What was the situation with Population Growth during the Tudor period?

• 1470 - Population 1.5 million.

• Mid 1520’s - 2.3 million

• Mid-century - 3 million.

• End of Elizabeth’s reign - 4 million.

• Fastest growth during mid 1540’s, good harvests from 1537-42, 1546-8.

• Population dipped in the 1550s, bad harvests from 1549-51, and 1554-56.

• Over 50% of rural and urban poor lived at or below subsistence level.

What was the situation with Inflation during the Tudor Period?

• Over the course of 1500s, inflation around 400%.

• Price double 1500-1550.

• Fastest increase from 1520-1540.

• Elizabeth announced a scheme to withdraw debased currency in the early years of her reign.

What was the situation with the Nobility (The Peerage)?

• Social Status: Remained the dominant force in English society.

• The Decline of Duke: Between 1547 and 1572, the four existing dukes (Somerset, Northumberland, Suffolk and Norfolk) all died ‘traitors’ death’.

• Elizabeth’s policy: After 1572, Elizabeth was careful not to create any more dukes.

• Changing Role: The nobility became more peaceful and less focused on defense/warfare than in previous eras.

• Prestige through Architecture: To enhance their status and host the Queen on ‘royal progresses’, they built ‘prodigy houses’ (e.g. Burghley House and Wilton).

What was the situation with the Gentry?

• Composition: A wide social range including influential knights, county gentlemen, and modest local landowners.

• Growth: The class increased in size during Elizabeth’s reign and the proportion of ‘seriously wealthy’ gentry rose.

• Political Role: Dominated local government. They served as Justices of the Peace (JPs), often taking on the burden of local office without direct financial reward.

• Notable Example: Sir Christopher Hatton was a figure of national importance from this class.

What was the situation with the Lower Orders and the Wealth Gap?

• Widening inequality: The Gap between the rich and the poor increased significantly during this period.

• The ‘Consumer Society’: Prosperous members of the landed, mercantile, and professional classes began to experience the beginnings of a consumer culture.

• Economic Pressures on the Poor: * Vulnerable to enclosure (fencing off common land).

• E.g. Suffered from a persistent decline in real wages. Landed incomes increased (mostly after 1570), benefiting the wealthy but not the laborers.

What were the trends happend with population & Urbanisation?

Total Population: Reached roughly 4 million by the end of Elizabeth’s reign.

Rural vs. Urban: The bulk of the population still lived in the countryside.

London’s Dominance: * London’s population reached roughly 150,000.

• Acted as a ‘magnet’ for migrants from across the country.

Provincial Cities: Norwich and Bristol were the largest outside London, but very few other cities had more than 5,000 residents.

What happened in 1531 with Tudor Poor Law legislation?

• Impotent beggars allowed to beg with a license, fined otherwise.

What happened in 1536 with Poor Law Legislation?

Money raised through donations to help impotent poor.

What happened in 1547 with Tudor Poor Law legislation?

• Funds collected through Churches used to assist impotent beggars.

• Idle unemployed were considered vagrants on 1st offence, branded, and sold into slavery.

• 2nd offence - sold into lifelong slavery.

• 3rd offence - death penalty.

What happened in 1552 with Tudor Poor Law legislation?

• Compulsory census to reduce unauthorised begging. Vagrancy Act repealed.

What happened in 1563 with Tudor Law legislation?

Statue of Artificers - Aimed to enforce potential workers to take on seven-year apprenticeships, enforce a minimum period on one year for any worker’s job and to fix wages and prices, enforced by JPs. Quickly became redundant.

What happened in 1572 with the Tudor Poor Law legislation?

Donations to impotent poor became compulsory, better distinction between genuinely unemployed and ‘idle poor’.

What happened in 1576 with Tudor Poor Law legislation?

Houses of Correction established - Punished those who refused to work, JPs ordered to buy raw material to provide work for able-bodied workers.

What was the siuation with Civil Unrest during the 1590s?

1590 - Riots in London against Foreign artisans.

1596 - Anti-enclosure riots in Oxfordshire. Leaders executed.

1596-7 - Food riots in Somerset, Sussex and Kent.

Due to inflation, poor harvest, high taxation and the effects of the war with Spain.

What happened in 1597 with Tudor Poor Law legislation?

Act for the Relief of the Poor - Confirmed compulsory poor rate. Each county had to have at least one House of Correction. Impotent poor were to be provided for, vagrants still treated harshly.

What happened in 1601 with Tudor Poor Law legislation?

Elizabeth Poor Law - Amended version of the 1597 Act. Remained substantially intact until 1834.

Created a national system for poor relief based on the parish (poor relief would be conducted on a local basis until 1929):

• Each parish was required to raise the rates for, and administer, poor relief through an overseer of the poor.

• The Impotent poor (those unable to work) were to be cared for in a poorhouse.

• The able-bodied poor were to be given work in a ‘House of Industry’.

• The Idle poor and vagrants were to be sent to a ‘House of Correction’ or prison.

• Pauper children were to be apprenticed to a trade.