22 & 23 - economy and culture (not religion)

• domestic trade was more important that foreign trade
• luxury goods were becoming more available which shows that the English population was becoming richer
• Cloth trade was diverted away from antwerp and instead went through emden and amsterdam, away from spanish control 
• Early 20th century historians saw the growth of shipbuilding as signalling good trade.

  Later 20th century historians believed that the wool industry failing forced England to search for new markets, meaning more ships had to be built.
• JOHN HAWKINS:

  • Hawkins was supported by Liz and Dudley 
  • Hawkins made 3 expeditions but was blockaded by the Spanish in mexico on the third one and lost 4 of 6 ships
  • Liz’s support was significant as it shows that she was willing to harm relations with Spain in order to gain money
• FRANCIS DRAKE

  • Also took part in privateering like John hawkins 
  • 1573 - captured £40,000 of spanish silver in Pananme (John Oxenham tried to repeat this but failed)
  • 1577-1580 - captured spanish merchant ship with silver, returned with £400,000 - £600,000 profit (4000% more than was invested)
• • Hakluyt’s discourse of western planting (1584) was presented to the Queen by Raleigh which also promoted colonisation 
• england made settlements in Virginia and Roanoke but these had relatively poor organisation and had little backing from Elizabeth initially
• • Walsingham did fund attempts to extract minerals from canada, find a north-west passage through the American continent.
  • also funded Humphrey Gilbert’s exploration of newfoundland 
  • Elizabeth also doesn't back these missions
• 9 /44 harvests failed under elizabeth
• yeoman farmers prospered under Liz
• • There were successive poor harvests from 1594 - 1597 
  • ford shortages and poverty triggered the Oxfordshire rising in 1596
  • food was also exported which worsened problems
• 1597 - 25 homeless people starved in Newcastle
• • By 1596 real wages were only half of what they had been 10 years earlier 
• Regional problems - Norwich had 25% poverty in 1570
• Inflation from 1500-1600 WAS 400%
• There was no real economic policy and government reacted to probelms rather than prevent them
• • Thomas Tallis + William Byrd were greatest composers 
  • but they were both catholic
  • Byrd’s skill + connections at court ensured his safety from execution despite his obvious support for catholics 
• Madrigal music form - originated in Italy 

  1601 The Tripumph of Oriana - 25 madrigals collected by Thomas Morely to honour the Queen
• better education meant the literacy rate increased

  people also engaged in watching plays from various playwrights
• • Most influential writers were Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser 
  • Spenser saw himself as a moderniser of the english language and helped revive the sonnet 
  • However, they were both political outsiders and critiqued Liz’s court. 
• the only popular prose literature was John Foxe's Acts and Monuments
• Portait miniature became most important art form - best artists were Hilliard and Isaac Oliver
• architecture was funded by the nobility BUT the queen didn't find any projects herself.

  • Robert Smythson - first named english architect - worked on longleat in wiltshire + others