elizabethan court and power

What was the order of the chain of being?

Monarch → nobles → gentry → everyone else

examples of nobles, and what was their income?

robert dudley and robert devereux. nobles had about £6000 in income a year, about a £1million today

what jobs did gentry usually do?

JPs, merchants, knights, lawyers, MPs, sometimes in court

Examples of gentry?

william cecil, francis walsingham

what did mps do?

controls the taxes and economy

made up of houses of lords and commons

elizabeth had to run laws through parliament and receive money through parliament

what was a jp?

Justices of the Peace - they were very powerful and had high status

they enforced laws and settled disputes, and listened to Elizabeth’s policies

Could send people to prison and pass death sentences

selected from gentry

How would gentry show off wealth?

their education - needed a university education to be a courtier, did this by showing off in libraries

building country houses, like hardwick hall

what did building country houses include?

fashionable architecture, out of brick stone and glass (expensive materials)

decorated lavishly, with fireplaces, paintings and tapestries

making it suitable to host elizabeth on progresswha

what facilitated the building of new countryhouses?

henry viii dissolving the monasteries - they covered ¼ of land in england, and so a lot of land was for sale