Elizabethan the Age of Exploration 1558-88

• Education :

  • Elizabethans saw education as an important part of life and as a means to rise up the social ladder
  • Educational opportunities increased + the majority of children attending school but the majority of the population was illiterate
  • Education was a luxury for most, mostly boys attended school
  • Girls were taught at home
• Sports, Pastimes, and the Theatre :

  • Hunting, archery, fishing, wrestling and football were popular
  • Gambling on bear and cock-fighting was popular
  • Theatres became popular in Eliz's reign, several were built and attracted people from all sections of society
• Changes were brought by the Renaissance and the Reformation
• Vagabond- a person who wanders from place to place without a home or job
• Reasons for the increase in poverty and vagabondage :

  • Some farmers enclosed their land and switched to sheep farming, as well as some couldn't afford to pay rent
  • There was a rise in population, so there wasn't enough jobs
  • Inflation increased after 1570
• Vagabonds and those in poverty were feared because they might spread the plague and cause a rebellion
• As poverty and beggars increased the government passed laws to deal with them
• The 1563 Act for the Relief of the Poor said that there was a class who were the 'deserving poor' and the 'deserving work' and the 'idle poor'
• The 1572 Vagabonds Act stated that people caught begging would be whipped and burned through the ear
• The 1576 Act for the Relief of the Poor stated that each country would build two houses of corrections for beggars, and be forced to work
• Factors prompting exploration:

  • Development of charts showing longitude and latitude
  • New routes to India and China
• Technology :

  • Printing press made maps more accessible to English sailors
  • Astrolabes gave sailors better precision
  • Ship designs changed, becoming stronger, faster and bigger
• Astrolabe - An instrument used by sailors to calculate their position by the stars