OCR B GCSE History: The Elizabethans (daily lives)

What were the three main social groups in Elizabethan England?

Gentry, middling sort, labouring poor

What percentage were gentry?

About 2% (owned ~50% of land)

Why was land important for the gentry?

Gave wealth, status and political power

How did the gentry show their wealth?

Large houses, servants, feasts, imported food

What role did the gentry play in government?

JPs, MPs, enforced laws locally

What was the middling sort?

Skilled workers, traders, yeomen farmers

What was a yeoman?

Farmer renting 50-150 acres, fairly wealthy

How were middling homes different from poor homes?

Chimneys, glass windows, multiple rooms

What did middling families eat?

Bread, meat, vegetables, beer (less luxury than gentry)

What was the labouring poor?

About half the population, low-paid workers

What work did the labouring poor do?

Seasonal farm labour and manual work

Why was life difficult for the poor?

Irregular wages and rising food prices

What was the main food of the poor?

Bread and pottage

What caused famine in the 1590s?

Bad harvests (e.g. 1594-96)

What happened during famine?

Starvation and rising grain prices

What were houses of the poor like?

Small, dark, no chimneys, dirt floors

What was a key difference in diet between rich and poor?

Rich ate meat and wine; poor ate basic food

What was poverty divided into?

Deserving (impotent) and undeserving (vagrants)

Who were the deserving poor?

Old, sick, unable to work

Who were vagrants?

Able-bodied poor who wandered for work

How were vagrants punished?

Whipping, branding, even execution

What was the Poor Law (1601)?

System to support poor through local taxation

Who collected poor relief?

Local parish officials (overseers)

How were the impotent poor treated?

Given relief or almshouses

How were the able-bodied poor treated?

Given work or punished if refused

Why were the Poor Laws important?

Made helping the poor a responsibility of the state

What was the York case study?

Local taxation and organised poor relief system

At what age did people marry?

Men late 20s, women mid-20s

Were marriages arranged?

Usually chosen, but family approval mattered

What was expected of wives?

Obey husbands and run the household

What role did women have in work?

Helped in farms and family businesses

Was divorce common?

No, very rare

Why did many marriages end?

Death of a partner

Were families large?

Not usually (high child mortality)

What was child mortality like?

About 25% died before age 10

What happened to children at age 7+?

Work or education depending on wealth

What did boys do as teenagers?

Apprenticeships or farm work

What did girls do as teenagers?

Domestic service

Were parents strict?

Yes, obedience expected, physical punishment common

Did extended families live together?

Rarely, but kinship still important

What was the overall judgement of Elizabethan society?

Highly unequal with clear class differences but some stability through laws