Chapter 21 - society

• Duke was the highest peerage title
• after 1572 elizabeth didn't create any more dukes
• the size of the gentry class grew over elizabeth's reign
• the population at the end of Elizabeth's reign was approximately 4 million
• there were poor laws/acts in the years:

  • 1572
  • 1576
  • 1598
  • 1601
• the statute of artificers 1562

  Regulated the 7 year apprenticeships of craftsmen

  Imposed maximum wages

  fixed some prices
• • 1572 Poor Law - established that local taxpayers had to contribute to poor relief for the local poor 
• • 1576 Poor law - poor law act was the first to create a national system of poor relief to be financed and administered locally. Towns were required to make provision for the employment of the deserving poor 
• 1601 the poor law act

  • the parish became designated as the institution that had to raise and administer the poor relief 
  • Each parish was to appoint an overseer to ensure efficiency collection and appropriate distribution of poor relief 
  • Their key responsibilities were relieving the impotent poor, setting the able-bodied to work, and apprenticing poor children
  • This was supervised by JP’s 
• Treatment of undeserving poor:

  1572 act added branding of the right ear as punishment 

  • Vagabonds of 14+ could be whipped and burned through the right ear 
  • Children could be taken and put into household service

  The second time you would be imprisoned

  1576 act - those who refused to work were to be sent to a house of correction

  1597 act - allowed for execution if you were caught for the third time.
• The poor laws were successful as there were no uprisings despite major food shortages

  These poor laws were seen as a reaction to the problems posed by the poor rather than a genuine attempt to tackle the cause of poverty 
• Elizabeth was proclaimed supreme governor of Ireland in 1560
• there were two outbreaks of rebellion in Ireland:

  • 1569 - 1573
  • 1579 - 1582
• First rebellion in Ireland:

  1559 - Shane O’Neil led a small rebellion in Ulster which lasted until 1566 

  1565 - the earl of sussex failed to defeat him so liz sent a small army of 2000 men to defeat him

  • Such a small army shows Liz’s reluctance to spend in Ireland 
• 1569 - gerald fitzgerald’s cousin, James Fitzgerald led a rebellion

   

  He fled to Europe in 1573 but returned to munster with a spanish invasion force in 1579 

  This rebellion was backed by the pope and associated with the counter-reformation. 

  The rebellion spread to Leinster, Ulster and Connacht and was eventually brutally suppressed by Lord Grey of Wilson between 1580-1583 
• irish rebellion no.3:

  NO.3

  Earl of tyrone hugh O’neill governed Ulster and was the Centre of Irish resistance. 

  He made links with spain from 1590 and in 1594 he began attacks on the english 

  1598 English were defeated in the Battle of Yellow River Ford

  • This made it seem possible that England would lose control of Ireland 

  Essex was sent with 16,000 men in 1599 but sides with the rebels 

  Essex replaced by Lord Mountjoy 

  Spanish forced arrive but are defeated in 1602 and Tyrone surrendered in 1603.
• Irish troops involved in the second armada of 1596 
• Results of Irish rebellions

  • Cost nearly £2 million 
  • The accession of James I meant Mountjoy wanted to return to london and secure power. he made a deal with Tyrone that restored Irish rule
  • Much of ireland left destroyed + impoverished 
  • Hatred between the irish and english arose 
  • Liz said the war ‘had brought the alienation of the people from us’
• wales became integrated under Elizabeth.

  English became the predominant language

  The book of common prayer and bible were both published in welsh.
• Cattle and Sheep rustling was common around the scottish border
• The warden of the 3 northern marches was responsible for English law and order on their side of the border.

  Were part of the council of the north.
• Great families in north:

  Percy’s (northumberland)

  Dacre’s (cumberland + north yorkshire)

  Neville’s (Westmorland)

  *Both Henry VII and Liz undermined their power by appointing southerners who were more loyal to the crown. 
• Liz maintained order throughout her reign:

  • Even with much harvest failure in the 1590’s there was still stability 
  • There were food riots in the south 
  • There was the oxfordshire rising in 1596 due to poverty
  • There was fear of vagabondage 
  • The rising did reflect a fear of social dislocation - but it was nothing more than fear
• Causes of the 1569 northern rebellion:

  • claimed Liz was illegitimate 
  • wanted Mary Queen of Scots as monarch
  • Religion - Mary’s supporters hoped for support from france and spain 
  • Political motives 
  • Appointments of gentry to the privy council + appointment of southerners to the council of the north caused tensions 
• Why the northern rebellion failed

  • Disorganised + Poor leadership 
  • No foreign support 
  • Geographically limited
  • Failed to gain support of other northern magnates 
  • Decisive action was taken by govm’t + local representatives 
  • Little enthusiasm for deposing liz
  • Cecil did take it seriously  + took personal responsibility for overseeing it 
• Aftermath of the northern rebellion:

  • Northumberland captured then turned over to Liz in 1572 and executed
  • Duke of Norfolk imprisoned then pardoned
  • Norfolk was executed 2 years later following the Ridolfi plot
• What did this rebellion show?

  • Failure to understand the north 
  • Reluctnace of people to rebel 
  • Difficulty to raise forces in the north - sparse population 
  • Showed ruthlessness of the government 
• The pope tried to help the Northern rebellion in 1569 by excommunicating elizabeth.

  however the excommunication came through too late, in 1570.

  The excommunication did give elizabeth reason to persecute catholics
• the two nobles that led the northern rebellion were:

  • the earl of westmorland
  • the earl of northumberland
• Nobles undertook house-building projects in order to grow their prestige and make sure they have a place suitable for housing the queen when she went on royal progresses
• from 1585 onwards Irish resistance was lead by the Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neil.

  He made links with the Spanish from 1590 onwards

  (There were Irish troops on the armada of 1596)

  He started attacks on the English in 1594

  He defeated the English at the Battle of Yellow River Ford in 1598
• The Earl of Essex was sent to fight the Earl of Tyrone in 1599 with 16,000 men

  Essex ignores orders from Elizabeth and signs a truce with Tyrone
• 3000 Spanish troops landed in Ireland in 1601
• 600 of Mary's supporters were executed after the Northern Rebellion
• the regional division of england was demonstrated by the inventory of a labourer in the south being 3 times that of a labourer in the north