AQA GCSE History Revision

Paper 2: Elizabethan England, c.1568-1603

Unit 2: Life in Elizabethan Times

KEY POINT: Elizabethan England was influenced by new Renaissance ideas from Europe.
 Humanist scholars stressed the power of the human mind.
 Science flourished. Scholars observed the planets and the workings of the human body. More
rational explanations were put forward.
 The printing presses meant such ideas could spread more quickly.
 New schools were set up offering a broader education. English people quickly became better
educated.

KEY POINT: The gentry were becoming richer and more powerful.
 In previous centuries the nobility (large landowners) had been the most powerful people in
England.
 The gentry were a step below them. They owned land but did not have titles (Lord or Earl).
They held the monarch keep control in their local area but did not usually have national
influence.
 The Tudors deliberately overlooks old nobility. They feared they were too powerful. Instead,
they promoted talented members of the gentry.
 Under Elizabeth, the influence of the gentry grew further. Many also grew richer from trade,
exploration, rising population and rising prices.

KEY POINT: The ‘Great Rebuilding’ saw magnificent new houses like Hardwick Hall built by the
gentry.
 The wealthy gentry wanted to show off their wealth and status.
 They built grand and impressive new houses (like Hardwick Hall) or renovated their existing
ones (like Little Moreton Hall).
 Renaissance ideas influenced design.
 They had fashionable features such as intricate chimneys, oak panelling, plasterwork ceilings
and lots of glass which was very expensive.
 Some houses were built on old monastery land bought by the gentry.

KEY POINT: Fashion was an important status symbol.

 The gentry helped drive the development of new fashions and
fashion was an important status symbol.
 Elizabeth introduced Sumptuary Laws in 1574, which controlled what
clothes people could wear based on their rank.
 Women would often pair fine clothes with whitened faces, to show
they did not have to work outside.
 Both men and women would wear a ruff around their neck.

KEY POINT: Elizabeth’s advisers used culture as propaganda.

 Portraits of Elizabeth were used for propaganda. They showed a young
and commanding Queen. They were full of symbols. For example, in the
Rainbow Portrait when Elizabeth was old:
o She is shown as a much younger woman.
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o Her dress has angel’s wings and she is holding a rainbow in her hand symbolising her
god-like status.
 The government licensed printing presses to control what was published. The best seller was
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. It supported the idea that Elizabeth has rescued England from Catholic
threats.

KEY POINT: Theatre was transformed, partly thanks to the greatest English playwright,
Shakespeare.
 Travelling performers had been popular in England since medieval times. Wandering bands of
actors performed in market squares of inns.
 The government feared these wandering actors were a threat to law and order, so from 1572
actors had to be licenced. This led to actors
forming companies to perform in purpose-built
theatres.
 The first, simply call ‘The Theatre’, opened in
1576. Others followed including ‘The Globe’ in
1599 where Shakespear made his name.
 Christopher Marlow also became a famous
playwright, and was a major influence on
Shakespear.
 Theatre became very popular. Prices varied so
everyone could afford to go. The rich sat in tiered
galleries, which had roofs. In the centre was an
unroofed pit where the poor (called groundlings) stood.
 Themes reflected Elizabethan interest, for example, romance, magic and history.
 The Queen never went to a theatre. Actors performed at her Court.

KEY POINT: London theatres faced local opposition authorities and from Puritans.
 Opposition from the London authorities:
o London’s theatres were outside the city walls – particularly on the Bankside area of the
Thames which was an area well-known for bearbaiting, drinking and prostitution.
o There was concern that theatres encouraged crime and the spread of plague and that
plays took apprentices away from their work.
o As a result, the authorities wrote to the Privy Council asking for the closure of theatres.
 Opposition from Puritans:
o Puritans were extreme Protestants. Puritanism was strong in London.
o The associated theatres with paganism [non-Christian religion].
o Theatres also reminded Puritans of Catholic miracle plays.
o Puritans thought that theatre and plays encouraged sinful behaviour, particularly sex
outside of marriage.

KEY POINT: Poor people face major problems in Elizabethan England – particularly in the 1590s.
 Half the people in Elizabethan England were labouring poor. They did not own land or have a
trade or business.
 The labouring poor worked for wages. They did not grow their own food so spent 80% of their
income on food and drink.
 If they were unemployed or faced disease or disability, they could not earn money to buy food.
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 During Elizabeth’s reign, these people faced real problems for a range of connected reasons.
These included:
o Population growth – the population of England rose by 43% from 1550-1600. There
were fewer jobs to go round and increased demand for food and therefore food was
more expensive.
o Inflation – food prices rose more than wages due to rising population and bad harvests.
Inflation was made even worse by monopolies and rack-renting.
o War – injured soldiers could not work. War also
disrupted trade, which added to inflation.
o Bad harvests – these led to food shortages. This
pushed up prices, especially in the 1590s.
o Enclosure – good farming land had been fenced off
for sheep grazing (to provide wool for the cloth
industry, which was England’s main trade). Sheep
farming employed few people than crop growing,
so some people lost their jobs and lost common
land on which they used to graze animals or grow
crops to feed their families.
o Rent – landowners increased rents paid by the poor. This was known as rack-renting.
o Closure of monasteries – monasteries had previously helped the poor when they hit
hard times, but they had all been closed by Henry VIII.
 Northwest England became the poorest part of the country, but poverty affect all areas and
eventually became a national crisis.

KEY POINT: The problem of ‘sturdy beggars’ particularly scared the authorities.
 The Elizabethans classified the poor into two groups.
 The ‘impotent’ or ‘deserving’ poor were those who were too young, old, ill or disabled to
work. Elizabethans thought they should be helped.
 The ‘idle’ or ‘undeserving’ poor were also referred to as ‘sturdy beggars’ or vagrants. They
were considered dishonest. They could help themselves if they wanted to and therefore
should be punished.
 Many of the poor headed for nearby towns to look for work or beg. Large groups of unemployed
people roaming the country scared the authorities.
 To start with they were more worried about keeping law and order then they were about
helping the poor. Many did not think it was the government’s job to sort out such problems.
 Vagrants were seen as a threat to social order and were also blamed for spreading plague.

KEY POINT: The problem became a national crisis leading to important legislation, the
Elizabethan Poor Law.
 To start with, Elizabeth was reluctant to accept that poverty was a national problem for her
government.
 Local measures were taken in Norwich where money was collected (known as alms) and
numbers of poor people were recording in a census. Work was provided for the unemployed
in a workhouse.
 Gradually, the government became more and more involved, passing laws to reduce the
problem.
 In 1601, these were brought together as the Elizabethan Poor Law:
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o Justices of the Peace had to appoint four Overseers of the Poor in each parish.
o Almshouses were provided for the old or sick to work in.
o Beggars had to be returned to their place of birth or put into the House of Correction.
This was a prison for those who refused to work.
o A poor rate was charged to pay for these measures.

KEY POINT: Elizabethan privateers and traders challenged Spanish power in the New World
 Before Elizabeth’s reign, Spain and Portugal dominated European exploration. This made
thenrtich and gave them large empires in North, South and Central America (called the ‘New
World’).
 Elizabeth and her government wanted England to join in this exploration and expand English
trade.
 Catholic Spain was very hostile to England and would not grant English sailors a license to trade
with its colonies.
 The English response was privateering. Privateers were licensed by the government to attack
Spanish ships which were carrying precious cargos back to Europe.
 Privateers were really pirates but they were funded by rich Elizabethans including Elizabeth
herself who took a share of the profits.

KEY POINT: Drake became the most celebrated English explorer and the first to sail round the
world.
 In the 1560s, John Hawkins made three voyages to the Caribbean, trading slaves that he
captured in West Africa. On his last trip he was attacked by the
Spanish.
 Francis Drake was John Hawkin’s cousin. He accompanied Hawkins on
his final voyage. He was driven by patriotism and an anti-Catholic
desire to seek revenge for the attack on Hawkins.
 Drake attacked Spanish treasure ships travelling from Mexico and
Peru. He also attacked the Spanish port of Nombre del Dios in Panama.
 Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate (sail right
around) the globe in 1577-1580.
 He attacked Spanish ships on his way and returned with treasure
worth £200 million in today’s money. He was knighted by the Queen
on the deck of his flagship, The Golden Hind.
 Drake became vice-admiral of the navy and later played a key role in
the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
 John Hawkins designed improved ships for the navy based on his experience of fighting the
Spanish.

KEY POINT: Raleigh failed in his attempts to set up the first English colonies in America.
 Spain and Portugal had successful colonies in the New World. Elizabethans wanted something
similar.
 It was hoped that an American colony would provide wine, oil, sugar,
and flax. It was also thought that poor people from England could go and
live there and so help reduce poverty problems in England.
 Sir Walter Raliegh was one of Elizabeth’s favourite courtiers. She
granted him a patent (a licence) to set up a colony in America.
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 He claimed an area of north America and named it Virginia to honour Elizabeth, the ‘Virgin
Queen’. He never visited North American himself.
 Both his attempts to found a colony failed. In 1585, the first settlers faced so many problems
they left after a year; the second group disappeared without a trace.
 In 1595, Raleigh led another unsuccessful expedition to search for a supposed ‘city of gold’
named El Dorado in South America. He hoped to achieve fame and fortune. He failed again. ☹
 People learned from Raleigh’s mistakes. Just four years after Elizabeth died the first successful
English colony was established at Jamestown.

KEY POINT: English traders set up important new trading links with the Far East.
 It was not all about America. English explorers also joined in the search for new routes to China
and the Far East.
 England’s trade was over-reliant on the cloth industry and on Antwerp. This was disrupted by
war with Spain and Elizabeth’s government wanted to find new trading partners and markets.
 New companies were set up such as the East India Company in 1601 brining silk, spices, cotton
and tea from the Far East.