Life in Elizabethan England

• The Gentry homes had

  • country houses, with over 50 rooms
  • glazed windows
• The Gentry's food would be:

  • Feasts, expensive food was carried food was carried by servants on silver platters
  • rich varied diets, exotic meals like swan and pheasant, fish like salmon, sweets like sugar and marzipan
• How did gentry make a living:

  did not work, earned all their money from renting out lands
• Middling sorts homes:

  • Had around 10 rooms over 2 floors
  • had windows and chimneys but less decorated than in the gentry houses
• Middling sorts food:

  • could afford a good diet of meat, fruit and bread - and beer
  • could not afford the luxuries enjoyed by the gentry
• How did middling sort make a living:

  • were merchants, small business owners or independent farmers
  • self made rich
• Labouring poor homes in England

  • lived in small one room houses with no chimneys or glazed windows
• Labouring poor's food:

  • the staple diet was bread but relied on a good harvest
  • vegetables from the garden could be made into pottage
• How did the poor make a living:

  • travelled around looking for seasonal work on farms
• Marriage played a central role in Family life:

  • The gentry had their partners chosen for them by their parents, but others could choose who they married
  • It was a patriarchy but domestic violence was frowned upon
  • sex outside of marriage was forbidden, most couples would get married if they were pregnant
  • Divorce was difficult but encouraged to remarry if their wife or husband died
  • Same sex marriage was forbidden
• Parents cared for their children, but sent them away at a early age:

  • High rates of infant mortality meant families were usually small
  • The gentry paid for their sons to go to school from the age of 7
  • In poor families, children started to work in home or on the farm as soon as they were old enough
  • at the age of 12 or 13, girls and boys left their family homes to work as servants or apprentices
• Elizabethans did not have strong bonds with extended family:

  • most families did not live with grandparents or uncles and aunts
  • many people moved far away from home so they weren't close to extended family
  • Most Elizabethans turned to their neighbours when in trouble, not their family