Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Elizabethan society - Coggle Diagram
Elizabethan society
-
Structure of society
-
Publication of books published in English- encourages ordinary people to read- Bible published in English
Only 1 in 10 men could read and write at the beginning of the 16th century by the end ¼. Women reading and writing increases from 1% to 10%
Order of society
Yeoman- rural society- independent farmers who owned their land- farms varied in size depending on region+type of land
Husbandmen(coutnryside)- farmers who held small land by tenure, some freeholders others occupants of land or property with no right of control- majority of population cottager or day labourers
Gentry- large landowners not allowed to sit in House of Lords- knights and esquires wealth from 10-200 per year- mixed with peerage and worked in local politics
Merchants(towns)- small part of population- towns grew due to migration from countryside- top of social ladder in town with burgesses- most wealth in town and position in town gov
Nobility- e.g Duke and duchess of Suffolk, Duke of Norfolk, Dudley Earl of Leicester, Countess of Shrewsbury
Skilled craftsmen- masons, tailors, butchers, carpenters- statute of artificers 1563 had to complete 7 year apprenticeship before qualifying, also laid down rates of pay
Peerage- major landowners- aristocracy sat in House of Lords- 57 at start of reign, 55 by end
Casual labourers- usually migrants from coutnryside- in hard encomic times main source of vagrants and beggars
-
Poor and vagrancy
causes of poor
Enclosure of common land passed peak- during crisis of 1590s issue of husbandry and tillage regarded as major economic problem
1598 Act on Husbandry and tillage attempted to retain tillage and with it employment in the countryside
-
-
harvest failures created famine- 1590s worst for poor harvests- poor harvests in 1556+1586 created famine in 1555-57, 1586-87 and 1596-97
-
-
-
Types of poor
Impotent poor- 'deserving poor' those unable to work due to age, handicap or infirmity- needed support by community they lived in
Able bodied poor- those capable of work- encouraged or forced to work to prevent them being vagrants or beggars
-