elizabeth unit three

• Attitude towards education in Elizabethan England

  No national system, aim was to get children ready for their expected role in society
• Children of the Nobility


  • Trained to lead
• Children of Tenant Farmers

  • Taught to farm
• Humanists


  Believed that learning was important in its own right, studied ancient philosophers and mathematicians to develop a better understanding of the world
• Protestants


  Believed that all Bibles should be in English, meant that the idea of everyone getting some education was beginning to be accepted
• Education of Nobility


  1. Learned Latin, Greek, History, Philosophy, Government and Theology

  2. Later sent to another Noble household to finish their education
• Grammar schools


  • Developed during Elizabeth's reign, designed for boys who were intelligent and came from well-off families, focus on reading, writing, maths, Latin and philosophy, also studied archery, chess and wrestling, harsh punishments including whipping
• Petty schools


  • For children up to 10 years old, set up and run in a teacher's house, children would learn to read and write
• Schools for girls


  • Girls didn't often go to school, if they did they would attend a Dame school, learned household skills like preserving food, baking, brewing, sewing and treating simple injuries
• Labourers and poor children

  • Rarely went to school, family preferred them to help with work or farming, exceptionally bright boys from poor families sometimes accepted to grammar schools
• Universities


  • Children would attend from age 14, specialise in one subject e.g. Law, Medicine, Divinity (religion) or Astronomy
• Around 30% of men and 10% of women could read and write at the end of Elizabeth's reign, compared to 20% men and 10% women at the beginning, suggesting that boys' education improved, whereas girls' did not
• Leisure activities for the Nobility

  • Hunting on horseback
  • Hawking (hunting with birds of prey)
  • Fishing
  • Fencing
  • Real tennis (a game that was played indoors and was a cross between modern tennis and squash)
• Leisure activities for craftsmen, farmers and the lower class

  • Football (a very violent version of Rugby, with broken bones and deaths)
  • Bear Baiting (dogs attacking a bear)
  • Cock-fighting (cockerels attacking each other with sharp metal attached to their beaks)
  • Literature (new things written and performed at the new theatres)
  • Music (musical performances using a lute or harp, musicians touring the country)
• Those who could not find work, or were unable to work lived in poverty, the most likely people to be in poverty were the ill, widows, the elderly and orphans, the poor also included those people on low wages and the unemployed, the number of people in poverty was rising in Elizabethan society
• Another connected problem was the rise in the number of vagabonds, these were homeless people who moved from area to area looking for work, some were involved in crime and tricked people into giving them money, however most were genuinely looking for work
• Reasons for the increase in poverty and vagabondage

  • Population growth
  • Bad harvests
  • Sheep farming (more land used for sheep, less for crops, leading to unemployment and higher food prices)
  • Enclosures (landowners fencing off common land, forcing the poor off)
  • Closure of the monasteries (loss of support for the poor)
• Vagabonds


  Homeless people who roamed the countryside begging for money and lived outside of the law, seen as a threat to society, called the 'idle poor' meaning they were too lazy to work
• Changing attitudes and policies towards the poor


  • Elizabethans were generally sympathetic to the 'deserving poor' (those in poverty through no fault of their own)
  • Elizabethans had no sympathy for the 'idle poor' (vagabonds)
  • Three important laws passed: Statute of Artificers (1563, to ensure poor relief money was collected), Vagabonds Act (1572, harsh punishments for vagabonds), Poor Relief Act (1576, to distinguish between 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor and provide tools/materials to help the 'deserving' work)
• Reasons for the better treatment of the 'deserving poor'

  • Religious beliefs (duty as Protestants to help the poor)
  • Government action (Poor Relief Act 1576 to provide tools/materials to help the poor work)
• Reasons for the worse treatment of the 'idle poor'

  • Suspicion of vagabonds (believed to be thieves, conmen, and spreaders of disease)
  • Exaggerated stories about vagabonds in popular books
• Poor relief


  Measures introduced to help raise more money for the 'deserving poor'
• Elizabeth's government's action


  1. Aware of the growing level of poverty

  2. Wanted to help the 'deserving poor' find work

  3. The Poor Relief Act of 1576 aimed to provide people with the things they needed to work so they could help themselves and help the country to be successful
• Reasons for the worse treatment of the 'idle poor'

  • Suspicion of vagabonds
  • Belief that vagabonds spread the Black Death
• A writer called Thomas Harman wrote many books about beggars during the sixteenth century that told exaggerated stories about how all vagabonds were thieves and conmen</b>
• The Vagabonds Act of 1572 punished vagabonds harshly
• Reasons why Elizabethan sailors undertook dangerous voyages of exploration

  • Unemployment and poverty in England
  • Expanding trade
  • Adventure
  • New technology
  • Improvements in ship designs
  • The Slave Trade
  • Spreading Protestantism
• Drake's circumnavigation of the globe

  1. Sailed from Plymouth in his ship the Golden Hind and headed towards the West Coast of Africa

  2. Sailed to Brazil and then around the south tip of South America

  3. Raided the Spanish treasure ship the Cacafuego

  4. Sailed across the Pacific

  5. Made an agreement with the King of the Island of Ternate

  6. Discovered the Island of Java

  7. Sailed back to England around the Southern tip of Africa
• Importance of Drake's voyage


  • He was the first Englishman to sail around the World
  • He arrived back with £120,000 of Spanish treasure
  • It encouraged other English sailors like Walter Raleigh to explore North America and set up English colonies there
  • He discovered Java and a safer way to sail around the Southern tip of South America
  • His raids on Spanish ships and the countries that they controlled in South America worsened relations between England and Spain
  • The fact that Elizabeth knighted Francis Drake was a major insult to the Spanish, who saw him as a pirate
• Walter Raleigh


  Member of Elizabeth's court, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, given a grant in 1584 to explore and settle the lands in North America with English settlers
• Reasons why England wanted colonies in Virginia

  • Trade - the colonists could produce tobacco and sugar, and trade with the natives for valuable resources
  • Attacking Spanish Colonies in South America - having a base in North America would allow English ships to attack Spanish ships and colonies to gain treasure
  • A base to colonise the rest of America - developing an English base in Virginia might allow England to take over the rest of North America
• Why the Virginia colonies failed - The First Colony (1585 Roanoke)

  1. 5 ships full of settlers sailed from Plymouth in April 1584

  2. When they arrived in Virginia a storm destroyed their supplies

  3. They arrived too late to plant crops, so they had to rely on the local native tribes to provide them with food

  4. At first the leader of the settlers, Richard Grenville, managed to build good relations with the natives, but this broke down after an incident where a native stole a silver cup

  5. Grenville had the village burnt down and also set fire to the corn fields farmed by the villagers

  6. News of the attack spread quickly and many tribes turned against the English

  7. The suspicions of the natives grew worse as many of their people began to die from disease

  8. Grenville sailed back to England to get supplies and left Ralph Lane in charge of the colony

  9. Lane was a weak leader and could not manage the settlers' arguments as food grew scarce

  10. Settlers began stealing food from the natives and this worsened relations

  11. To get revenge Ralph Lane massacred Chief Wingina and his tribe

  12. In June 1586 Sir Francis Drake arrived in Virginia by chance and the colonists quickly decided to head back to England with him, dropping valuable maps, notes and seeds into the sea
• Why the Virginia colonies failed - The Second Colony (1587)

  1. The expedition originally aimed to settle further north, away from the hostile tribes of Roanoke, but following an argument between two of the expedition's leaders – John White and Simon Fernando – the settlers were dumped in the same area as the first Roanoke colony

  2. The natives were immediately hostile to this new group of settlers

  3. The settlers managed to build a good relationship with the Croatoan tribe, but this was ruined when some settlers killed a group of Croatoans believing them to be a different tribe

  4. The settlers had again arrived too late to plant crops

  5. In early 1588 White sailed back to England to get more supplies, but could not return because his ship was needed to fight the Armada invasion

  6. When White did finally manage to return in 1590 all of the settlers were dead, most likely killed by the native tribes
• Reasons for the failure of the Virginia colonies

  • Food - the settlers arrived too late to plant crops, and the food packed on their ships was damaged by storms
  • Native Americans - trust between the Native Americans and the settlers was quickly destroyed, and the natives became unwilling to provide the settlers with food
  • The colonists - Ralph Lane was a weak leader, and the colonists did not bring enough farmers or builders to make the colony successful
  • Bad luck - the second colony could not be resupplied because all English ships were needed to fight against the Armada invasion
• Statute of Artificers 1563


  ensured poor relief money was collected
• Vagabonds Act 1572


  made harsh punishments for vagabonds
• Poor Relief Act 1576


  distinguished between 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor and provided tools/materials to help the 'deserving' work