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Socio-Economic Background (The term "Renaissance" is of French…

- - - - The consequences for the villages were devastating. Despite this terrible situation, however, the woollen industry was benefited by the increase in sheep rearing which, in turn, led also to an increase in the size of farms.
        
        Cloth making, which had always been the main industry in England, developed further. The rich merchants, and clothiers in particular, were now turning into capitalistic entrepreneurs. Together with the new country landowners, all of these groups now demanded and obtained greater participation in government affairs.
        
        The growth of industry led as a consequence to the development of towns, and also minor towns began to develop out. As a consequence of the development of industry, the craft guilds, especially those connected with cloth making, began to decline.
        
        Because of their regulations, concerned above all with the standard and the quality of the products, they could no longer compete with a market that privileged the profit and quantity over quality.
- - - - the phenomenon of enclosure;
        
        the confiscation of monasteries and consequent disbanding of the monks, who had always provided help, I the rise in price of certain products.
- - - - With the development of plantations in the new continent, the slave trade proved increasingly profitable. A regular traffic began, which was eventually defined as the "triangular trade", since it took place between England, Africa and the English North American colonies.
        
        On the other hand, England, like the rest of Europe, was not ready yet to pay regand to the rights either of negroes or other "slaves," as for instance the Irish, so often robbed and oppressed by English policies of the time.
- - - - ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN ENGLAND
        The crowning of Elizabeth I was welcomed as a return to stability after the short, tragic reign of Bloody Mary. Above all, the English needed order. Elizabeth, with her skill and courage, was able to give them more than forty years of relative peace and prosperity.
        
        The transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, however, had not yet been completed and England still suffered from deep conflicts.
        
        By the end of the century, Elizabeth's "Merry England" began to decline, and as successor, the choice of James I Stuart did not prove a happy one. The mood of the country changed. The religious tolerance, social content and patriotic enthusiasm that had marked the early years of Elizabeth's reign were replaced by disappointment and disillusion.
        
        On the other hand, new scientific discoveries were questioning traditional medieval beliefs. The studies of Galileo and Kepler confirmed what Copernicus had published in his treatise , so: the earth was no longer at the center of the universe, and was governed by scientific laws rather than divine intelligences.
        
        All this brought doubt and uncertainty, which, together with the complex historical context, was to permeate all the literature of the time.
- - - - Only as a widow did she enjoy certain privileges and have the right to make personal decisions. Women's education, however, spread, especially among the higher ranks, as documented by several examples.