Chapter 18 - Impact of economic & religious changes

• Economic Problems at the start of Liz's reign:

  • Inflation 
  • Bad harvests (common in all Tudors 2/10 harvests bad)
  • High mortality rate
  • High taxes
  • Poverty - may cause crime + unrest
• Parliament was ineffective at passing legislation to tackle the problems faced

  The government could use 2 solutions:

  1. More instruction for JP’s
  2. Royal proclamations

  • There was a lack of coherent policy - was a result of the govm’t failing to understand the issues faced 
• It was often down to local govm’t to deal with local economic problems.

  *often problems like bad harvests was localised

  The council of the North dealt with the rising wages 

  • They encouraged the councils of York and Hull to enforce earlier Wage Rates + establish appropriate WR
  • Local laws were also passed in towns e.g.Cambridge
• Statute of Artificers 1563:

  • Government tried to control wages 
  • Maximum wages for skilled workers 
  • Compulsory labour at harvest time 
  • 1 year guaranteed labour 
  • Compulsory 7-year apprenticeship
• Causes of poverty 

  • Rise in population (43% rise between 1550-1600) put pressure on food and wages
  • Harvest failures 
  • Disease - Plague + flu + smallpox - 20% of London died in 1563
  • Towns starting to grow due to pastoral (animal farming)
  • Unemployment in towns following wool embargos (1563-4, 1568-73, + 1580’s) they didn’t have other skills so didn’t get jobs.
  • Enclosure (not so much of a problem now)
  • Inflation - rising prices - lower real wages
  • Less money left to the poor following religious change (no monasteries etc…)
• How did govm’t dealt with poverty:

  • Acts had been passed in 1552 + 1555 - didn’t work 
  • 1563 act passed ensured secure employment

  Tried to deter the ‘undeserving poor’

  Continued the whipping of beggars

  • Other legislation was introduced later (1572, 76, 98, 1601)
• Stabilising the economy:

  1560 - 1561: all debased money was returned and replaced by new coins with more silver or gold. 

  • This limited money supply (reduced inflation)
  • Renewed confidence 
  • No debasement occurred for the rest of the century.
• Deborah - heroine from old testament who protects israelites 

  • Elizabeth is compared to her
  • Elizabeth did not want to be seen as a religious heroine (however many on the privy council still pictured her this way)
  • The religious zeal wasn’t reflected in policies 
• Radical bishop John Jewel stated: ‘the doctrine is everywhere most pure, but as to the ceremonies and maskings there is too much foolery… the slow paced horses retard the chariot. Cecil favours out cause most ardently’

  • Hints that the catholic ideas that remain ‘retard’ the protestant progress in England
  • Cecil favours radical protestants
• Religious changes

  1/20 of mary’s bishops accepted the Act of Supremacy

  Mathew Parker became Liz’s first Archbishop of Canterbury 

  • He was moderate 
  • Didn’t flee england during Mary
  • Had given up post under Mary due to being protestant
  • Had been chaplain to the radical protestant Boleyn family
• Some Bishops:

  • Edmund Grindal in London 
  • Richard Cox in Ely
  • John Jewel in Salisbury 
  • Edwin Sandys in Worcester 
  • Thomas Young in york 

  *some of these were returning exiles
• She with evangelicals disagreed over:

  • Clerical marriage 
  • Distrusted preaching 
  • Wanted to preserved more ornate appearance of church (evangelical’s wanted plain)
  • The appearance of ministers (popish clothing was detested by evangelicals)
  • The need for the church to serve the needs to the state (Erastian)
  • Vestarian controversy highlights this issue
• Views on the Religious settlement

  Elizabeth:

  • Religious cocnerns were dealt with 
  • No more was needed to be done 
  • Relationship between church and state was clearly highlighted

  Evangelicals + some advisers:

  • ERS was the first step for further reform 
  • Cecil and Dudley both believed more reforms would come
• ‘An apology of the Chruch of England” - John Jewel 1562 

  • Argued the CofE was returning to its true position abandoned centuries earlier by the Church of Rome
  • The CofE was essentially a continuation of the earlier church as described in the Acts of Apostles and the beliefs of reformers
• ‘Thirty Nine Articles of Religion’ 1563

  • had originally been drafted by Cranmer in 1553
  • Sought to define the difference between the CofE and the Catholic church 
  • Supportive of reformed doctrine (especially Swiss stuff)
  • Was unsuccessful in achieving wider aims concerning the rest of catholic pratice 
  • The leader’s vision of reform was not shared by the queen 
  • The CofE was ‘calvanist’ in its doctrine ‘but half reformed’ in its structure.