HISTORY - Britain 1625 - 1701: Society

How did the population change between 1520 - 1680?

• 1520 = 2.5 million

• 1680 = 5 million

• 0.5% growth per year on average but this wasn’t equal across regions, happened more in London

What was the first cause of population growth?

Migration

• Particularly strong around times of revolution/ war

• Many foreign migrants arrives 1651 after commonwealth established due to apparent religious toleration

Which areas were most affected by migration? Give an example

• Mostly affected growth of towns

• eg: 35% of pop of Norwich were migrants by 1600

• They were skilled weavers from the Low Countries

Where else was there migration? Why?

• WITHIN England too

• Poverty meant people moving to towns to find jobs/ work

• Job security = more children

What percentage of the pop outside of London lived in towns over 5000 inhabitants in 1700?

5%

What was second cause of population growth? Why was this the case?

Mortality and fertility rates

• Death rates lower due to decline in plague, when epidemics reoccurred they were less deadly

• This was because of improved isolation of affected individuals

• Eg: London theatres closed for months

• Population recovered quickly from disease

• Population expansion uneven

How did a high death rate lead to a high fertility rate?

• Children who died were quickly replaced within 10 years

• Death of elder family members meant younger members married sooner

• The younger they married, the more children they’d have

What percentage of the population lived in London in 1650?

• 7%

• Approx 400,000 people

How did the growth of London impact Stuart economy?

• Was at the heart of road and shipping network

• Could support increasing demand for goods

• London 10 x larger than next largest = Norwich

How did the growth of London impact rural economy?

• Lots of agricultural goods needed to feed increasing population

• Needed 400% more grain between 1600-1680

Impact of population growth on other towns?

• 1600 = 8 towns with pop over 5000 including Norwich, Bristol, York and Newcastle

• Trade with the Low countries fuelled size of coastal towns

• Importance of Newcastle - shown in Scot’s occupation of it 1640 = massive coal shortages in London

Impact of population growth in general?

• Increase in poverty due to increase of towns

• Vagrancy increased (people moving between between towns to look for work, subject to harsh punishment eg whipping/ branding)

What fraction of the urban pop. lived near the poverty line?

• 2/3

• This increased with population growth

How did population growth impact rural life?

• Agriculture dominated the economy

• eg: in Gloucestershire 9,000,000 acres of land devoted to growing crops

• Cloth industry also important, related to 50% of professions there

How did inflation affect rural life?

• When the population was increasing at a reasonable rate the farmers were making easy profit

• After 1650, inflation meant small landowners couldn’t invest in their farms so had to sell to gentry

• Population increase = farms being enclosed = no longer communal land

• Pushed out small farmers

How many people lived in towns by 1701?

15% up from 12% in 1601

Why did population growth mean the poor got poorer?

• Competition for work = poverty

• This was because competition = lower wages = less money for food

• 1/3 of pop affected by poverty

• Settled poor didn’t get work

Why was there a shortage of food? What impact did this have on the poor?

• Enclosure meant the poor had no space to graze their animals

• Population growth meant there was a food shortage

• This led to rising prices of which the poor couldn’t afford

What were the vagrant poor? How were they treated?

• They travelled to sustain themselves

• Treated as criminals

• Though they only made up 0.5% of pop in 1630s

• However people believed their numbers were large and saw them as large threat to a stable society

What was price inflation like?

4% per year for consumable goods in 1st half of 17th century

What methods were put in to solve this problem?

• State relief (Poor Laws)

• 2/5 of villages and ½ in towns took jobs in servitude meaning they couldn’t live in complete freedom

• This guaranteed free housing/ food/ clothing which hid them from rising prices

• However apprenticeships took 7 years to complete and servants got treated badly ie beat

What impact did the poor laws have before the Restoration?

Elizabethan poor laws (1601)

• provision made for relief of those that couldn’t work due to disability

• those who could but didn’t were punished - this wasn’t always followed

• Overseers appointed to collect poor relief taxes and decided who received relief

• Poor could be sent to a workhouse at expense of local parishioners

• Begging allowed in home parishes but only to give food

What did Charles issue in 1631?

• Charles introduced policy of “Thorough” = govt more efficient

• issued book of orders to Jps to include provisions for the poor and treatment of vagrant advise

• However this had no new principles

Generally was Poor Relief good or bad before Restoration?

• 1650 state relief stood at £188,000 nationally compared to £30,000 in 1614

• Yet still large gap in provisions for the poor which was filled by Church and wealthy individuals

When was the Settlement Act passed and by who?

• 1662

• Cavalier Parliament

What was the aim of the Settlement Act? How did they do this?

• Attempted to limit the movement of individuals claiming poor relief - poor had less freedom

• To get poor relief, had to receive settlement certificates to prove they lived in the parish = had to live there 40 days

How was someone defined as Poor after the Restoration?

if they had property worth less than £10

How was the Settlement Act abused? Who benefited from it?

• Was manipulated by officials

• Easier to arrest vagrants and expel newcomers to send to workhouse/ prison

• Owners of large estates benefited, could demolish empty houses and prevent return of those who’d left

What was the traditional structure of Stuart Society?

Monarch

Nobility (had property/ titles which had been generational)

Gentry (Had inherited titles could be granted by the monarch)

Merchants (Bought/ sold goods for profit)

Professionals (Those in a job requiring specific qualifications)

What percentage of the population belonged to nobility and gentry?

2% although most in gentry

How was the nobility changing?

• Decline of nobility began late 16th century into 17th century

• Largely down to high levels of spending expected from aristocratic family along with high rate of inflation

• Still kept great power

Give an example of how the nobility still retained power and influence

Marquis of Newcastle gave £900,000 to the Royalists in 1642 = massive amount

How much of all land and wealth did the nobility control?

15%

How was the gentry changing?

• Many important men (Pym, Monck, Cromwell) rising through parliament were gentry

• Numbers rose by 300% from early Tudors and dominated politics

• At county level they were JPs / judges

• Some argue gentry grew in power because nobility declined

How many gentry members were there and how much of land and wealth did they control?

Roughly 15,000 of them controlling 50% of land and wealth

How were the merchants changing?

• Merchant class grew as London and other towns grew

• They were looked down on by nobility/ gentry as their power wasn’t inherited but could accumulate as much wealth as them

How many merchants were there in 1688?

64,000

How did the navigation act help merchants?

• Safer overseas conditions led to their growing importance in ports eg: Bristol

• Especially London due to NAVIGATION ACT

How were the professionals changing?

• Numbers grew

• Due to improved living standards of gentry/ merchants so growth of service industry

• Increased demand for lawyers, doctors, architects and bankers and academics

• Much of professional class from gentry

• Education key to entry into professional class, excluding yeomen and all girls

What percent of students admitted to Inns of Court (where lawyers were trained) 1600-40 were sons of nobility/ gentry?

90%

What was status of women up to the Civil War?

• Had few rights in 1625, under complete control of husbands by law

• Unmarried women= suspicious and could be accused of witchcraft

• Role was to look after house + kids

• Education was little

• Typically viewed as irrational and a threat to the order of society based on moral teachings of the Bible

What would women be punished for?

• Gossiping

• Being a nuisance

• Deviating from expected behaviour

• The brank (metal device to stop them talking) was used

• Accused of witchcraft

What was the impact of the Civil war on women?

• Women took men’s roles who had gone to fight

• More common in gentry families where large estates needed to be managed

• At the end of the conflict little had changed for women

Give an example of a gentry woman taking up men’s roles

Brilliana Harley directed forces to defend family’s estates in Hertfordshire

How was Puritanism helping women?

• Some advocated widespread education leading to grassroots schooling influenced by Puritans morals

• Advocated religious structure where family was at heart of worship not church

• Thus women needed to be able to read to instruct their children in religious education

How did Puritanism not help women?

• Many still viewed educated women as dangerous

• even in Puritan circles education remained limited for women

• Even Quakers who advocated for women’s education founded only 4 schools willing to teach women of the 15 they set up

How did women fight back?

• Found themselves at forefront of political/ social campaign

• Elizabeth Lilburne and other leveller women eg: Katherine Chidley organised petition for John Lilburne (Leveller leader) to be released

• Signed by 10,000 women saying women created in image of God so should have equal freedom to men

• Parliament told women to go home, Lilburne not released

How many women petitioned for peace 1643?

6000

What did the Diggers do?

• Were a radical puritan group

• Advocated for male and female suffrage which Levellers never did

What did the Quakers do?

• Gave women the most freedom

• Quaker beliefs said God’s light was in every person

• Women had right to speak up in Church, preach and give their opinion

• Held separate meetings for women but also allowed them to speak in mixed meetings

• George Fox argued 1676 for continuation of separate women’s activities

What percentage of the population did Quakers make up 1680?

1%

What was the impact of legal changes on women?

• Charles II lifted restriction on women performing in stage plays (may have only been due to his love of theatre)

• Marriage Act 1653 allowed civil marriages, could have been revolutionary but as it gave men fewer rights over their wives = largely ignored/ evaded

• Adultery Act 1650 - men and women could be sentenced to death for adultery but men’s sexual misdemeanours still considered a lesser crime than a woman’s

How many women and men got charged for adultery in middlesex?

24 women vs 12 men

What were the origins of the Levellers, who led them and what did they want?

• Most important radical group

• Active from 1645 and origins were religious radicalism of the army

• Leaders were John Lilburne etc

• Wanted a wider electorate and equality under the law

Where did Levellers get support from? Who in particular?

• Army after the Civil War which made them more influential

• Rainsborough, who spoke against Cromwell and Ireton, argued there was nothing in the bible which justified excluding the poor from politics

What did the Leveller’s demand?

• House of Commons be the central body

• Lords abolished

• New system based on universal male suffrage

• New constitution

• Equality before the law and religious freedom

• Wanted to reform law courts and end imprisonment for debt

What was the Levellers most influential work?

An Agreement of the People 1647-9 (several editions)

How were they influential? How were they not?

• Leaders were imprisoned in 1649 and Rump parliament crushed movement

• Ideas influenced later movements

How did their ideas scare others into being more conservative?

• They threatened privileges of those in the Rump Parliament

• Disagreements between the leaders so no consistent message

• National support was low, didn’t appeal to rural poor

When did the Ranters appear and what did they believe in?

• Small group of preachers who appeared in London 1650

• Believed those predestined by God were incapable of sin so could ignore man-made codes of social morality

• Included: immoral sexual behaviour, drinking, swearing and crime

• Accused for more than what they did so their leaders were imprisoned 1651

Which Act banned the Ranters?

Blasphemy Act 1650

How were the Ranters not impactful?

• Most info about them came from their enemies so hard to judge their impact

• Enemies were conservatives trying to keep people on the straight and narrow

• Fear of Ranters greater than the actual threat they posed

• Rump used this fear to further restrict religious toleration

What did the Digger’s believe and what did they do as a result?

• claimed ownership of land was based on man-made laws which were invalidated by king’s death

• meant they could set up communes for the poor on common land

What modern ideas did the diggers have?

• common ownership of means of production

• compulsory education for boys and girls

• abolition of Monarchy and House of Lords

How were the Diggers impactful?

• Thew grew and became small community

• Message more relevant to rural communities

What did the Diggers do that meant they were not impactful?

• Leaders of the group interviewed by leader of NMA (Fairfax) and they refused to remove hats for him = insult

• were resented by local farmers and landowners

• Their radicalism meant less support and attention

When did the Seekers emerge and what did they believe in?

• Group of loosely organised dissenting groups emerging in the 1620s

• Believed churches/ traditional clergy unnecessary, God to be sought within the individual

• They denied any religious or moral authority outside of individual conscience

How did the Seekers influence the Quakers? When did they emerge?

• 1650-2 Seeker claims about about individual conscience taken up by George Fox

• Said religion came from voice of God from within

How were the Quakers ideal for rural districts?

They needed no external support/ networks to function

What was the “Missions to the South” and when was it? Was it successful?

• 1654

• Carried out by 60 “First Publishers of Truth” and had some success

• However vagrant laws could be used against wandering preachers = imprisonment

• However persecution didn’t stop them and their movement flourished

How many Quakers were there by 1660s? How were they rendered not impactful?

• Est. about 35,000 Quakers in England

• However other more radical groups ensured a conservative reaction which would destroy them and the Quakers

How was England a Confessional State in 1625?

• May not have been uniformly enforced but concept of single, national religion upheld by govt was accepted and unchallenged

• Those who couldn’t conform accepted right of the state to punish them and paid their fines or left country

• People who didn’t conform did this bc they disliked the version of religious practice

What was England like 1640-1660?

• Civil War and resultant chaos allowed others to explore/ debate alternatives to CoE of Charles I

• Some started opposing divine right of monarchy and others wanted end to all state institutions

• They didn’t receive widespread support but did start debate = change in role of monarchy

What was England like in the years up to 1660?

• Questioning of concept of uniformity itself

• Strengthening in those who desired religious freedom/ toleration to extent that they couldn’t be eradicated

• First time people began to argue that political loyalty didnt need to depend upon agreement over religion

What was England like 1685 - 8?

• James II attempted to establish political model based on confessional state

• Many opposed for political/ secular reasons

• 1688 can be argued that confessional state was no more and any attempt to re-impose would fail

What was Hobbes’ background?

• Hobbes had royalist sympathies, tutored Charles II in Paris during his exile

• His work was a contradiction: inspired those seeking absolute monarchy but also underpinned number of ideas now associated with liberalism eg: freedom/ tolerance

When did Hobbes publish his most famous work and what was it?

• The Leviathan

• 1651

What were Hobbes’ ideas?

• He argued people are guided by lust for power so we live in fear of each other

• Only way to escape this is to agree “social contract” where we give all power to one man/ political body (the Leviathan)

• Doing this may ask they give up some of their individual liberties to be protected

• Leviathan makes the laws and decides who is imprisoned

How did Hobbes’ ideas relate to the Stuart monarchy?

• For Hobbes, alternative to Leviathan was anarchy so people will always give into it and agree social contract

• Before existence of governments, Hobbes said humans were defined by perpetual war so strong govt avoids this

• He was an advocate for the Stuart Monarchy

What was Locke's background?

• Most outspoken supporter of liberalism

• His ideas influenced the Whigs and he supported them not Tories

• Locke’s father was Puritan, fought for parliament during Civil War

• Entered service of Earl of Shaftesbury (founder of Whigs)

• This allowed him to publish his work

What were Locke’s ideas?

• He opposed absolute monarchy

• Favoured individual rights

• Rejected need for absolutism to ensure functioning society

• Opposed divine right and believed all were equal before God

• Also put forward “social contract” but meant that no govt could interfere with basic human rights

What was Locke known as?

The father of empiricism

How did Locke’s ideas relate to Stuart Monarchy?

• His ideas contributed to debate between Whigs and Tories

• Rejected Tory ideas of need for absolutism

• Against resurrection of conf. state

• Shaftesbury agreed with this so campaigned against succession of James II

• According to Locke if a govt acted incorrectly and repressed liberties of its people they could destroy it as in Glo Rev

• His work seen as justifying Glo Rev even tho was written before it

What was the Scientific Revolution?

• Name given to emergence of modern scientific beliefs and methods from 1550

• New discoveries peaked 17th century as ideas came out that challenged accepted views on nature eg: kepler and Galileo

Who was Francis Bacon and what was he best known for?

• Didn’t make any discoveries, remembered for his contribution to the scientific method

• Wanted to pursue the “experimental and rational” as opposed to science at the time which was heavily influenced by beliefs of the Church

• Key elements of his “Baconian method” were discovery aided by accumulating as much data as possible about the subject to reject preconceived theories

What was the impact of Bacon’s method?

• Not widely implemented before 1640

• After this, change in social attitudes caused by Civil War = work was revisited and emulated by others

• His ideas helped lead to the founding of Royal Society

How were Bacon’s ideas applied to religion?

• Some applied his method to study of religion which led to Lord Falkland concluding the Church could benefit from toleration

• Rational interpretation of the Bible shows it contains many contradictions = many dif interpretations

• Thus no denomination has right to dictate way for people to worship

Who was Isaac Newton?

• Came to prominence at end of the period

• Had theories about calculus, classical mechanics, gravity and laws of motion

• His work “Principia Mathematica” wouldn’t have been possible without the hundreds findings before him eg Galileo

What was the Royal Society and when was it formed?

• Also known as the “invisible college”

• Formed 1645, included many men sharing an interest in experimental investigation

• 1660 = Restoration helped by Charles II being interested in science

• Had men from all areas of study incl civil servants, poets, astronomers etc

Why was the Royal Society so attractive?

• More attractive than Oxbridge to most intellects

• Partly because they excluded religious nonconformists

• Also because Royal Society pushed boundaries of science whereas Oxbridge did not

Why was there debate around the Royal Society’s significance?

• Questioned if it just allowed its scientists to air their discoveries rather than help make them

• Sharing knowledge was its main function

• Also encouraged foreign scholars to share their discoveries

• 1655 published the first scientific journal “Philosophical Transactions”

• Carried out many public demonstrations