elizabethan england

• Hierarchy in countryside


  • 1. Nobility
  • 2. Gentry
  • 3. Yeomen
  • 4. Tenant farmers
  • 5. Landless and working poor
  • 6. Homeless and beggars
• Hierarchy in towns


  • 1. Merchants
  • 2. Professionals
  • 3. Business owners
  • 4. Skilled craftsmen
  • 5. Unskilled workers
  • 6. Unemployed
• Government


  • Court - Noblemen who advised the queen
  • Parliament - Houses of Lords and Commons. Advised Elizabeth's government
  • Privy Council - Nobles who helped govern the country
• Elizabeth's problems when she became queen in 1558

  • She was young and inexperienced
  • She was Protestant so not supported by English Catholics
  • Many people (especially Catholics) thought she was illegitimate and had no right to the throne
  • She was unmarried
  • The Crown (government) was £300,000 in debt
  • Mary I had sold off Crown lands and borrowed from foreign countries
  • France, Spain and Scotland were all Catholic countries and believed Mary, Queen of Scots had a stronger claim to the throne of England than Elizabeth
  • France and Scotland were old allies
• Elizabeth's character


  • She was very well educated, confident and charismatic
  • She believed in her divine right to rule
  • She had an excellent understanding of politics
  • She was strong willed and stubborn
• Religious Divisions in 1558


  • Catholic
  • Protestant
  • Puritan
• Catholic


  • Pope is head of the church
  • Priests can forgive sins
  • Bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ
  • Services in Latin
  • Churches highly decorated
  • Catholics were the majority in the north and west of England
• Protestant


  • No pope
  • Only God can forgive sins
  • Bread and wine represent the body and blood of Christ
  • Services in English
  • Churches should be plain and simple
  • Protestants were the majority in the south-east, East Anglia and London
• Puritan


  • Very strict Protestants (shared many beliefs but more extreme, e.g. no decoration in churches, no bishops or cardinals)
  • Puritans found in London and East Anglia
• The Church of England in society

  • Enforced the Religious Settlement
  • Gave spiritual and practical advice
  • Preached the government's message
  • Everyone had to pay a 10% tithe (tax) to fund the Church
• Elizabeth's Religious Settlement, 1559


  1. Aimed to establish a religious form that would be acceptable to Catholics and Protestants

  2. The Act of Uniformity established the appearance of churches and how services should be conducted

  3. The Act of Supremacy made Elizabeth the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. All clergy had to swear an oath of allegiance to her

  4. The Book of Common Prayer introduced a set of new church services to be used in all churches

  5. The Royal Injunctions forced all clergy to teach Royal Supremacy, keep an English Bible, report people who refused to attend church
• The majority of ordinary people and 8,000 of the 10,000 clergy accepted Elizabeth's Settlement
• Challenges to the Religious Settlement


  • Puritan challenge at home (THE PURITAN CHALLENGE WAS VERY SMALL)
  • Catholic challenge abroad
  • Catholic challenge at home
• Puritan challenge at home


  • Disobeyed parts of the Religious Settlement
  • Crucifix Controversy - refused to display crucifixes in churches, which had been ordered by Elizabeth to please the Catholics. Elizabeth backed down
  • Vestment Controversy -refused to wear the vestments (special clothing worn by clergy). In 1566, 37 Puritan priests resigned after refusing to wear new vestments when ordered
• Catholic challenge abroad


  • The Catholic Church in Europe began a 'Counter Reformation' to undo the Protestant changes
  • The pope excommunicated Elizabeth in 1570, which could encourage attacks on England from Catholic countries
  • Elizabeth backed the Protestants in a religious war in France in 1562
• Catholic challenge at home


  • One third of the English nobility and gentry, particularly in the north and west of England, were recusants (refused to attend church) because they did not agree with the Settlement
  • This was encouraged by the pope
  • This was a major cause of the Revolt of the Northern Earls (1569-70)
• Mary, Queen of Scots


  • She was Elizabeth's second cousin so had a good claim to the throne of England
  • She was a Catholic so her claim to the throne was supported by many English Catholics
  • She was believed to have been involved in her husband's murder, which led to a rebellion in Scotland. Mary fled to England in 1568. This made her more of a threat to Elizabeth, so she was imprisoned
• The Revolt of the Northern Earls, 1569-70


  1. To make England Catholic again

  2. The Earls resented their loss of influence in Elizabeth's court when she appointed 'new men' such as William Cecil and Robert Dudley

  3. To marry Mary, Queen of Scots to the Duke of Norfolk, depose Elizabeth and make Mary queen

  4. Rebels, led by the Earls of Westmorland and Northumberland, marched to Durham and took control of the cathedral. They then continued south

  5. BUT support did not arrive from Spain

  6. Elizabeth moved Mary to Coventry, away from the rebellion

  7. Many northern landowners stayed loyal to Elizabeth
• Attack on the Spanish navy in Cadiz


  1. Carried out by Francis Drake in April 1587, under Elizabeth's orders

  2. 30 ships and the majority of their supplies were destroyed

  3. This attack became known as 'singeing the King of Spain's beard'

  4. It took Spain a year to rebuild the fleet
• Reasons for the failure of the Spanish Armada


  • English ships were better armed and equipped (e.g. cannons could be reloaded and fired more quickly)
  • Drake used fireships at the Battle of Gravelines, causing many Spanish ships to cut their anchors and drift in to the North Sea
  • English tactics were superior
  • Gale force winds destroyed many Spanish ships
  • Spanish ships lacked food and supplies
  • The Duke of Parma and the Duke of Medina Sidonia (commanding the Armada) were unable to communicate
• The victory of the English over the Spanish Armada enhanced Elizabeth's authority in England and abroad, and was seen by many as a victory for Protestantism. The defeat of the Spanish led to a gradual decline of the Spanish Empire
• Purpose of education in Elizabethan England


  To prepare people for their expected roles in life
• Types of schools in Elizabethan England


  • Parish schools (taught basic literacy to children of yeomen and craftsmen)
  • Grammar schools (for ages 10-14. Fee paying but scholarships available for boys from poorer families)
  • Petty Schools (up to the age of 10)
  • Universities (Oxford and Cambridge)
  • Private tutors (boys and girls, usually from richer families, taught at home)
• Sports and pastimes of the nobility


  • Hunting
  • Hawking
  • Fishing
  • Real tennis
  • Bowls
  • Fencing
  • Baiting
  • Cock fighting
  • Dancing
  • Music
• Sports and pastimes of farmers, craftsmen and lower orders


  • Football
  • Wrestling
  • Bull and bear baiting
  • Cock fighting
  • Dancing
  • Music
• Theatre was very popular during Elizabeth's reign and many new plays were written. New theatres such as the Globe and the Rose were purpose-built. Many wealthy patrons, including the queen, sponsored groups of professional actors (e.g. Leicester's Men were sponsored by the Earl of Leicester)
• Reasons for an increase in poverty in Elizabethan England


  • Population growth (1551 = 3 million, 1601 = 4.2 million) increased demand for food, housing and land
  • Bad harvests (1562, 1565, 1573 and 1586) reduced food supplies and drove up prices
  • Enclosure drove many people off their lands. They became vagrants/vagabonds
  • Economic recession cause by trade embargos (e.g. imposed by Spain) caused unemployment
• Attitudes and policies towards the poor in Elizabethan England


  • Many believed that poverty led to social disorder, while the poor became an increasingly visible presence in towns and cities
  • Elizabethans distinguished between the deserving poor (who couldn't help themselves) and the idle poor (who chose not to work)
  • Charity and Poor Rates were raised at a local level to help the deserving poor
  • The Statute of Artifices 1563 (punishing those who refused to pay poor rates), 1576 Poor Relief Act and the 1572 Vagabonds Act (punishing those guilty of vagrancy) were government attempts to deal with the problem of the poor
• Reasons for exploration during the Elizabethan age


  • Expanding trade routes (especially the Trade Triangle) and markets for products, especially the New World
  • Improvements in ship design (bigger sails, faster and more manoeuvrable), maps and new technology (development of quadrants and astrolabes made voyages faster and more direct)
  • Men such as Francis Drake sought adventure and to discover or explore new lands
  • Drake's circumnavigation of the globe, Dec 1577 – Sept 1580. Increased England's reputation as a great sea-faring nation, encouraged further exploration and increased trade. BUT contributed to declining relations with Spain
• Colonisation of Virginia


  1. Expedition of 1584-5 was organised by Sir Walter Raleigh (he raised the money but didn't travel with them)

  2. 107 colonists (mainly soldiers and sailors, but a few craftsmen and farmers too), led by Richard Grenville, set out for Roanoke, Virginia

  3. Went to Virginia because the native people were thought to be friendly; they wanted a base to attack Spanish settlements, they hoped to establish trade with native people and planned to ship resources back to Europe

  4. The colony failed because: Lack of food (arrived too late to plant crops, food damaged on the voyage); poor leadership (Grenville and Raleigh did not get on); lack of experience and skill (e.g. lack of stonemasons or enough men used to the physical work needed); attacks from Native Americans (angered by the diseases the colonists had brought with them and the demands for food) and war with Spain (few ships were available to resupply the colony)
• If you were 16 in 1558, when Elizabeth I became queen, you would have already lived longer than a fifth of those born in the same year as you, and you would be approaching the half-way point of your life. People were only expected to live to about 41 years old.
• Elizabeth I


  She was 25 when she took the throne
• Elizabeth's first task as queen


  1. Make sure her position as queen was not threatened by anyone

  2. Arranged for her coronation to happen quickly, in January 1559

  3. Drew up her plans for England's religion
• Elizabeth wanted to hold political and religious power in England
• Elizabeth had heard about, and even witnessed, the death of hundreds of people because of their religious beliefs when she was younger
• Having a religious belief different to the monarch was dangerous, as was plotting to get rid of a monarch
• A few years before taking the throne, Elizabeth had been imprisoned in the Tower of London because it was thought she had been part of a plot to kill her sister, Mary I
• Elizabethan England was often a violent and dangerous place
• Elizabethan society


  • There was no police force or permanent army, keeping order relied upon everyone knowing their place in society
  • Equality in society was not important to Elizabethans
• Hierarchy in Elizabethan countryside


  • King/Queen
  • Nobility
  • Gentry
  • Yeomen
  • Tenant farmers
  • Landless or labouring poor
  • Unemployed, homeless