Elizabethen England

• Elizabethan Age


  1558-1603
• Power in Elizabethan England


  Privy council - 19 noblemen, given patronage, met daily

  Parliament - House of Lords and Commons(met only 13 times in whole of reign)

  Lord lieutenants

  Justice of the Peace
• William Cecil(1520-1598)


  - Secretary of State twice

  - Elizabeth's most trusted member

  - developed poor laws and religious policies
• John Knox(1558)


  "To promote a woman to rule... is insulting to god because it goes against his design"
• Catholic and Protestant main differences


  Catholic:

  - pope is head of church, representative of god

  - good deeds way to get to heaven

  - transubstantiation

  Protestant:

  - no centralised leadership

  - heaven can't be bought

  - consubstantiation
• Elizabeth's main suitors


  Robert Dudley:

  - childhood friend

  - scandalous wife's death

  - privy councillor(may make others jealous)

  Francis, Duke of Anjou and Alençon:

  - French king brother and heir to throne

  - Elizabeth was 46 when their marriage was considered so childless(if they married, England would fall under French rule)

  - Catholic

  King Philip II of Spain:

  - most powerful and wealthiest

  - Catholic
• Mary Queen of Scots


  - Catholic cousin to Protestant Queen Elizabeth

  - Elizabeth successor if she didn't have kids

  - Ruler of Scotland (exiled from there in 1568)
• Duke of Norfolk (Thomas Howard)


  - Elizabeth's second cousin

  - Catholic but protestant background

  - Lord lieutenant of the North

  - brother of Katherine Howard(Henry 5th wife)
• Northern Rebellion(1569)


  1. Duke of Norfolk left royal court without permission and headed North

  2. Group of northern lords led by Earl of Westmorland and Northumberland began a rebellion

  3. Took control of Durham Cathedral and celebrated illegal mass(4600 men marched south)

  4. Earl of Sussex raised an army and disbanded rebellion

  5. Northumberland executed
• The ridolfi plot (1571)


  Context:

  - Duke of Norfolk locked in Tower of London for 10 months but released to house arrest

  - Became involved in plot led by Catholic Robert Ridolfi from Florence

  - In 1570, pope had commanded Catholics to disobey Elizabeth

  Plan:

  1. Netherlands invade England

  2. Murder Elizabeth

  3. Mary take over and marry Duke of Norfolk

  Solution:

  - Elizabeth's spies found letters by Norfolk's house and executed him on 2 June 1572
• Earl of Sussex(1573)


  - Father helped to put down Northen Rebellion

  - Mother married Robert Dudley

  - Elizabeth made him privy councillor is 1595 and gave him monopoly of sweet wine

  - Succeeded against Spanish in 1596

  - Got into an argument with Elizabeth in 1598 in Privy Council meeting about Ireland and she hit him on the head and put him on house arrest

  - January 1599, made him Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
• Essex rebellion (1601)


  1. Essex held 4 privy councillors hostage with 200 followers

  2. Robert Cecil labelled Essex a traitor and many rebels abandoned march

  3. Essex found that his rebels had released the hostages

  4. Essex and his remaining supporters were arrested and Essex was executed on 25 February 1601 in private
• Golden age


  - art - portraits - Hans Holbein the younger

  - Exploration - America discovered

  - theatre and literature - poetry, Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe - 7 theatres and 40 companies of actors

  - buildings - stately homes, weren't designed with defence in mind - Hadwich Hall, The globe

  - Science - printing press so information could spread easily , magnetism, compass, astronomy
• Dukes and Nobles


  - dukes were powerful nobles - earned £6000 a year(1 million nowadays)

  - 14% of country's income went to 1% of nobility
• signs of wealth


  - pale skin

  - embroidery/lace work

  - jewellery(pearls)

  - meat

  - ruffs
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)


  - English poet and playwright considered one of the greatest writers

  - wrote 38 plays - histories, tragedies, comedies
• Reasons for poverty


  - Henry VII limited retinues - unemployment

  - Henry VIII reformation(1536-1540) - closed all monasteries - unemployment, less charity given to poor

  - Henry VIII - debased coins from 1542 - decreased their value for trade

  - bad harvest 1594-1598 so less food - inflation

  - enclosure - arable to sheep farming-unemployment

  - population growth from 2.8 - 4 million in Elizabethan Era

  - outbreak of flu in 1556 - killed 200,000
• deserving and undeserving poor


  - The 'deserving' poor were those who were poor through no fault of their own and therefore worthy of charity e.g. widows, orphans, the sick, the old, looking for work

  - The 'undeserving' poor were those who were able-bodied and who, it was believed, could find work but didn't want to
• Thomas Harman's types of undeserving poor - 'a caveat for common curserors(1566)'


  - 'baretop trickster' - women would lift her top to lure man into her house to rob him

  - 'Clapper Dudgeons' - hurt themselves/ cover in dirty bandages to seem harmed

  - 'Tom O'bedlan' - pretend to be mentally ill

  - 'Counterfeit crank' - suck soap to fake rabies
• Elizabethans response to poverty


  - 1531 beggars were whipped publicly(1st), ear burned(2nd), hanged(3rd)

  - 1576 - 'Act for setting the poor on work' placed responsibility to authorities to find work for poor

  - In London, Bridewall Place used as shelter for homeless, Bedlam hospital for mentally ill
• Poor law(1601)


  - Rich taxed to help poor

  - Workhouses for healthy poor

  - Alms houses for old and ill
• York response to poverty


  - increased number of beggars due to migration - 1515 issued beggar licence, 1528 Master beggar appointed to keep track

  - house of correction - prison for those who refused to work
• Norwich response to poverty


  - 1570, survey conducted that 80% of Norwich population in poverty

  - separated into 'idle poor' - knitting/sewing work and unfortunate poor' - food and support given

  - Norwich taxed rich citizens to pay for care of poor
• Ipswich response to poverty

  - 1569, licensing system for beggars

  - opened hospital to help old/sick to treat those who couldn't afford it

  - youth training scheme introduced to help children learn trade
• John Hawkins


  - 1562, broke into Portuguese monopoly in trading enslaved Africans, captured 300 Portuguese enclaves Africans and took them to Caribbean to trade for leather, sugar, pearls

  - 1564, enslaved 400 more Africans

  -enslaved a total of 1200-1400

  - knighted in 1588
• Trade with Asia

  - The Muscovy Company(1855) - monopoly in Moscow, Russia

  - The Eastan Company(1579) - monopoly in Scandanavia and the Baltic

  - The Levant Company(1581) - monopoly in Turkey and Middle East

  - Ralph Finch(1582) - sent by Elizabeth to India and South Asia
• Francis Drake


  - September 1578, First man to sail round bottom of South America

  - June 1579, lands in North America - called it New Albion

  - made £400,000 on his trips (gave 1/2 to Elizabeth)

  - Knighted in 1581
• Sir Walter Raleigh ( 1552-1618)


  - 1584 - Elizabeth gave Walter permission to control any land that was not already ruled by a Christian - had to give her 1/5 of all gold

  - banished from court in 1592 for 5 years for secretly marrying Elizabeth's lady in waiting
• Christopher Columbus


  - 1492 planned to go from Spain to Far east but ended up in America(the 'New world')
• Peter Wentworth


  1576 - Member of Parliament that argued Parliament should be able to discuss Elizabeth's succession - sentenced to Tower of London for 1 month
• Why was religion a big issue for Elizabeth?


  - reformation of Henry VIII's reign made country officially protestant

  - during Edward VI reign(1547-53) England became more protestant(introduction of Book of Prayer)

  - Mary returned the country to Catholic beliefs - reinstated the pope, brought back Latin mass - 300 protestant martyrs burnt
• Elizabeth Religious Settlement(1559)


  - allowed priests to marry, services held in English, Protestant book of common prayer brought back

  - catholics could worship in private

  - moderate protestant, Mathew Parker to oversee English church

  - Elizabeth was the governor and not the head
• Catholics at beginning of religious settlement


  - services didn't contain things that were offensive to Catholics

  - recusancy fines(fines for Catholics who refused to attend Protestant services) were low

  - Catholics kept beliefs in private
• Papal bull


  27th April 1570, Pope Pius V. Excommunicated Elizabeth from the Catholic Church and called on Catholics to end her rule
• Catholics at end of Religious Settlement


  - law passed in 1581 making it treason to attend Catholic mass

  - recusancy fines rose to around £20

  - law passed in 1585 making it treason to have a Catholic Priest in your home

  - law passed in 1593 that Catholics could not travel more than 5 miles from home
• Throckmorton Plot(1583)


  - led by Sir Francis Throckmorton to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her with Mary

  - invasion by French Catholic(Henry, Duke of Cruise) and uprising of English Catholics

  - Throckmorton was executed and Mary was placed under close guard
• Babington plot(1586)


  - Catholic Anthony Babington planned that him and 5 other men would kill Elizabeth, rescue Mary and place her on throne

  - managed to contact Mary through coded letters in a beer barrel but servants were spies for Sir Francis Walsingham

  - Mary was put on trial in October 1586 before 36 noblemen and was sentenced to death on 25 October 1586 - signed by Elizabeth on 1st February

  - Mary was executed on 8th February 1587 in private
• Act of uniformity(1559)


  - Catholics must attend church of England services but were allowed to worship in private

  - Priests must wear elaborate vestements
• Act of Supremacy(1559)


  - royal supremacy over the pope - 'Governor
• College at Douai(1568)


  William Allen(Catholic church) established seminary at Douai in Spanish Netherlands to train priests to become missionaries - 1st priest arrived in 1574