Elizabethans

• In November 1579, John Stubbs, a Puritan MP, wrote a pamphlet criticising Elizabeth's proposed marriage to the French Catholic, Duke of Anjou. Stubbs had his right hand cut off, as did his accomplice. 
• Elizabeth was Protestant so she rejected Catholic beliefs but she was not a religious radical. Elizabeth passed 2 laws in May 1559 to establish her Church. The Act of Supremacy re-established that the Church of England was independent and not ruled by the Pope. It also made Elizabeth Supreme Governor. Act of Uniformity made attendance at Anglican services compulsory so you could be fined for not attending.
• Government felt threatened by the recusants so laws were set out:

  • 1581 Act of Persuasions raised recusancy fines by 10,000%
  • 1585 Act against Priests punished those offering shelter to priests
  • 1587 Recusancy Act took land that was owned by a recusant
  • 1588, amid fears of an English Catholic uprising to support the Armada, 11 Catholics were executed
  • The 1593 Act Restraining Recusants isolated Catholics
• Seminary priests had to encourage faithful Catholics by saying Mass and hearing confession but were told not to try to convert anyone. Whereas Jesuits were specially trained to win people back to Catholicism. They were dedicated to serving the Pope so they came in disguise and used 'safe houses' to avoid arrest.
• Priests were sheltered by wealthy Catholics but hunted by Walsingham's spies. They made secret hiding places in their houses, called priest holes and the most famous designer of priest holes was Nicholas Owen who saved hundreds of priests from arrest. After 1585, priests on trial were asked the 'Bloody Question' about who they would be loyal to in the event of an invasion of England.
• Mary was Elizabeth's Catholic cousin and when Protestants deposed Mary from the Scottish throne, she came to England in 1568 hoping for Elizabeth's help but as feared, Mary soon became the focus of Catholic plots. She was a real threat to national security, made worse by Elizabth being excommunicated by the Pope in 1570.
• The Throckmorton Plot of 1583 aimed to replace Elizabeth with Mary. In 1583, the Pope, Philip II of Spain and a French Catholic had a plan with Francis Throckmorton, to place Mary on the throne but Walsingham's spies uncovered the plot and Throckmorton was arrested. In 1586, Anthony Babington communicated with Mary about a plot to kill Elizabeth. They were unaware that their notes was intercepted by Walsingham's spies providing evidence of Mary's guilt. Mary was put on trial, found guilty of treason and executed in February 1587.
• Elizabethan society was hierarchical. The gentry had political power and owned land which made them rich. As JPs, they enforced the queen's rules helped her govern. The 'middling sort' led comfortable lives, but were less wealthy and powerful. In the towns the middling sort were tradesmen and craftsmen who owned their own businesses. In the country the middling sort were Yeomen or husbandmen who farmed some land of their own. The labouring poor struggled to make a living because most did not have regular work on the farms.
• In the 1590s, poverty increased to crisis point. Long-term issues were the rise of population, rise in prices and low wages. Short-term issues were harvest failure, downturn in cloth demand and the plague. The government was more worried about the threat posed by vagrant poor (vagabonds) than helping the settled poor. There was a law from 1572 that vagabonds could be burned with a hot iron and sent away, or hanged. New laws were added eg 1589, it was illegal to shelter vagrants.
• Through the 1590s, the problem of poverty got so great that the government had to act. A series of laws were updated and brought together as the Poor Law Act in 1601. The law did not solve the problem of poverty but it provided a safety net and ensured that large numbers of people would no longer die if harvests failed.
• The London theatres were a revolutionary new form of entertainment. At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, people enjoyed 'miracle plays' which showed scenes from the Bible. These were banned because they were seen as a Catholic tradition. The first purpose-built playhouse, called "The Theatre" opened in 1576. In 1599, 'The Theatre' was rebuilt on Bankside as 'The Globe’.
• There was opposition to the theatre. London authorities feared that the theatres attracted rogues, thieves and prostitutes who would commit crime and spread plague. They also claimed that servants and apprentices were being enticed away from their work. Puritan preachers saw theatres as pagan and a reminder of Catholic miracle plays. They thought that theatregoing and plays encouraged sinful behaviour.
• Merrymaking declined at the end of Elizabeth's reign due to Puritan influence. Puritans thought these activities were wrong and Puritan ministers worked together with local gentry to ban these events. A popular interpretation is that they did this because they were killjoys who wanted to stop people having fun. 
• People known as ‘cunning folk’ or ‘wise women’ were thought to have special powers that they inherited. Elizabethans became increasingly fearful of witchcraft so they passed a law in 1563 that made witchcraft a criminal offence. Witches were said to use small animals called familiars to commit their evil acts.
• There are various explanations for increased witchcraft accusations:

  • Social (village tensions) = poverty was a problem and so people were less willing to help the poor so accusations followed disputes
  • Gender (attack on women) = repression of women stemmed from misogyny. Majority accused were women
  • Religion (rise of Puritanism) = Puritans believed that the Devil was trying to draw people into sin.
• John Dee (an adviser on science and astrology) had a vision of a 'British Empire' to rival Spain's. Dee proposed that English sailors should search for new routes to the rich markets of China and the East Indies. Francis Drake became a national hero when he was the first Englishman to sail around the world. In September 1580, he returned to England with vast amounts of pillaged treasure for investors, the queen and himself.
• Gilbert claimed territory in Newfoundland, but failed to establish a colony. His 1st attempt was a disaster and only the ship captained by his brother, Walter Raleigh, made it across the Atlantic. A second voyage was more successful as he claimed the land but he did not establish a colony. Raleigh made plans for a colony at Roanoke. The queen didn’t want Raleigh to to leave so Richard Grenville and Ralph Lane led the expedition. The journey to Roanoke was treacherous and when they arrived in July 1585 they lost their supplies. The colonists relied on the Algonquian to survive.
• There was demand in England for luxury goods but Portugal dominated this trade and Spain invaded Portugal in 1580, leading to fears that the spice trade would be disrupted. Ralph Fitch established England direct link with the Mughal Empire as the Turkey Company sent him to research trade opportunities. The East India Company was established in 1600. In April 1601, John Lancaster was given command of the East India Company's first fleet and his expedition established England's first trading post in the east, in Java, in 1602.