Changes attitudes towards the poor

• Two typed of poor in Elizabethan England:

  • Impotent
  • Able-bodied
• How poverty gave people a negative attitude:

  • Fear that it may cause rebellion
  • Dealing with the poor costed people due to poor rates
• Enclosure and migration to cities made poverty more visible
• Authorities were forced to have a more constructive attitude towards poverty, as poverty meant there were less people to grow food and trade wool
• Vagabonds were demonised and were often whipped or hanged if caught begging or threatening people
• Poor rates were a local tax set up by justices of the peace. The tax was spent to buy things which the poor could sell
• Charities were often funded by local wealthy people. They would give large amounts of money for the charity to be named after them. It was believed doing this would increase their chances of going to heaven
• The statute of artificiers of 1563 ensures anyone who refused to pay poor rates could get a fine of up to 20 pounds
• The 1576 poor relief act made that justices of the peace had to give the poor wool and raw materials to sell. However, if the poor did sell these, they could be sent to houses of correction
• The 1572 Vagabonds act made that vagabonds were whipped and their ears were drilled every year
• If vagrants were arrested for a third time, they could be executed
• Elizabeths had empathy for some vagabonds, so less than 10 percent of vagabonds were whipped