Rich and Poor in The 1500’s By Maria Hatfield P5a

Mary Queen of Scots Mary Queen of Scots was a very rich woman who became Queen at just six days old. She was too young to become Queen so her mother (Mary of Guise) was her regent until Mary was old enough to rule Scotland. A regent is the person who rules for you until you are old enough to do it for yourself. At the time of Mary’s birth, although it was meant to be joyful it was a rather sad time. Her father was killed while out hunting and all the commoners were so traumatized about James II (Mary’s father) death.

The Kings Death A lot of people were not the least bit impressed about having a Queen when James II suddenly died. It was a hard time for the villagers, they felt they needed a King to lead them to war.

Mary being Queen Debate Many people from villagers to Kings and Rulers all had very, very, very strong opinions about having a new Queen! Some thought it was rather magnificent and extraordinary having a Queen, and some thought it was ridiculous and stupid even just imagining the thought of having a Queen.

Illnesses and Bugs It was very different back then the cures for sore backs and bugs. People caught infections and bugs quite literally. This is why. If you weren’t feeling well and you went to the doctor, They would sometimes put live leaches on you ( a type of worm) and they believed that it would suck all the bad blood out of you and make you feel better, it didn’t!! Also if you had a sore back some doctors would give you donkey skin to wear and they also believed that, that helped you!!!

What’s The Difference Between Rich and Poor? So you probably want to know the difference between rich and poor back then. Were the rich people just in different clothes than the poor or did it go deeper than that? The answer is yes it did go deeper than having silk clothes or ripped rags, it actually went a lot deeper. Well you see the poor people would live in small houses with shabby clothes but the rich on the other hand would live in massive beautiful palaces with glass windows. Back in the 1500s people would only be able to afford glass if they were very rich and all of there windows would be made out of it!!! As I said poor commoners would wear shabby rags but see the rich people (often snobby) would be wearing puffy dresses which were made of silk and embroidered suits that now money couldn’t buy! The other differences are people would treat you like nothing. If you were poor you wouldn’t really be considered as a person. Sad isn’t it?

More Information 0n The Topic of Rich and poor Back in the 1500s, some people only liked you depending on if you were rich or poor. If you were rich you would wear fancy clothes and have big feasts, you would even drink red wine! On the other hand, if you were poor you would be looked down upon with people treating you like you were a tiny speck of dust. People would lift their heads high as they strolled past you acting as if they were V.I.P’s and treat you with no respect what so ever! The worst thing is, if you were poor you would most definitely be freezing cold because you would no doubt be wearing rags which were torn, ripped and dirty!

Greedy Gobblers! Oh what were the rich people like back then? Mean, Snobby, Spoilt and very, very GREEDY !! As a ‘feast’ they would have peacocks, pies, boar meat, (which is a type of meat) geese, swans, deer and also little innocent bunny rabbits!! They would have drank RED WINE out of glasses shipped over from ITALY just so they could be the richest, most posh family around!!

Starving Soles Some poor soles would of loved to have a big feast every night but just couldn’t afford it! Instead they just eat anything they could find. It could be from ducks to pigeons to rabbits and also blackbirds. You’re probably thinking the food situation is terrible and yes it is, however there was also little differences that shows how big show-offs the rich could be. For a start, people who didn’t have a lot of money, food, clothes stuff like that wouldn’t have fancy cups either. They would have wooden goblets not expensive glasses all the way from Italy. Poor people would have shared their plates in pairs and usually use their fingers to eat however some people would use a knife. The rich on the other hand would have their own cups, plates and cutlery.

Terrible Toilets This is disgusting and horrible. It is to do with the terrible toilet situation. When people did the toilet they would produce their waste in benches or cots and it would go into a royal court and when the smell got too smelly, you won’t believe this, they would go on holiday, to their friends house just to do the loo while other people scooped and cleaned out their toilet waste. How I would hate to have been that person mucking out the royal courts.

Education This is quite upsetting. People could only afford to get a good education, go to school and be clever enough to get a good job if they were rich. It seemed you needed to be rich to afford ANYTHING back then if I am honest. Things weren’t really that fair at all. Sadly as you have probably guessed poor people couldn’t afford to go to school. Also for some strange reason that I have no idea about, it was mainly always boys who got to go to school, luckily things are a lot different now and everyone be a boy or girl gets to go to school!

Thank you for watching my slides about Rich and Poor people in the 1500’s. It has come to an end and I hoped you learned a lot and enjoyed watching and learning about the past and even a little about Mary Queen of Scots! Thank you again for watching my slide, I am Maria Hatfield and this is what I have learned.