1. Elizabethan society in the Age of exploration 1558-88
Focus 2. The problem of the poor.
The reasons for the increase in poverty and vagabondage during these years.
The changing attitudes and policies towards the poor.

2. Reasons for increase in poverty and vagabondage
Title
Harvests and changes in farming
Everyone depended on food grown by farmers, but farmers were at the mercy of the weather. You can see that the worst harvest of the century was in 1566, just before Elizabeth became queen. During her reign, there were two really bad sequences of harvests, in the early 1570s and the mid-1590s. however , even one bad harvest caused food shortages and this meant that the price of bread and other foods went up. At these times, the poor suffered most because they struggled to afford higher bread prices. Many farmers began to look for profitable ways to earn their living, by switching to different methods of agriculture. One method was to enclose land with hedges and put sheep on it instead of growing crops. This saved the farmers money because they did not have to employ labourers to work the land. The village labourers who worked on this land lost their jobs and homes, and many moved to towns hoping to find work. Some landlords also increased the rent on the lands they rented out to farmers. This was called rack-renting. Many farmers could not afford to pay these higher rents, so they too moved to towns in search of work.

3. Reasons for increase in poverty and vagabondage
Unemployment in industries
The only important industry in the sixteenth century was the cloth trade, where English woollen cloth was exported to Europe. This had provided work for many spinners and weavers. When the cloth trade collapsed in the 1550s, tens of thousands of people lost their jobs.
Population Growth
The country’s population had fallen by nearly half at the time of the black death in It remained low until the sixteenth century, when it began to increase. The rise in population became steeper in Elizabeth’s reign. This rise in population meant that more jobs were needed, but as you read above, there were fewer jobs in farming and the cloth industry. More and more people could not find work, so could not earn money.

4. Reasons for increase in poverty and vagabondage
Inflation - rising prices
Another problem causing poverty was inflation - prices were going up all across Europe. The wages began to rise in the 1550s and continued to rise until about After that they increased very slowly. However prices, especially the price of food, rose much more steeply, especially after The result was that people, especially those on lower wages, struggled to afford even basic food. Prices might be going up, but their wages were not. Although historians do not all agree about the causes of inflation, most think that it was caused by an increase in demand for goods such as food, probably due to the growing population, and an inability to produce enough to meet this demand.
Henry VIII’s debasement of the coinage in the 1540s, when he ordered all the coins to be melted down, also played a part in the rise in prices from the middle of the sixteenth century. These coins had contained precious metal like gold or silver, but when new coins were minted, they contained far less gold and silver. Henry made himself nearly a million pounds, but he had ‘debased’ the coinage. After this, people no longer trusted its value, so merchants and shopkeepers put up prices, so they felt they were getting the same value for what they sold.
The closure of the monasteries
Until the 1530s, the monasteries provided food and shelter for the homeless and unemployed. However, they were closed down by Henry VIII in the late 1530s. This dissolution of the monasteries meant there was less help for the poor, and many of them were left to wander the roads or drift to the towns in search of work.

5. Attitudes towards the poor. Elizabethans were worried!
1 People should work hard.
Most people believed that everyone should work hard to look after themselves and their families. They believed that beggars set a bad example. The puritans felt very strongly about the importance of hard work. They believed that idleness was a sin because it displeased God, and that it was the Devil who made people idle, and so anyone who refused to work should be severely punished. Some of Elizabeth’s Privy councillors, Members of Parliament and JPs were Puritans.
2 Concerns over vagabonds and the threat to social order
Sixteenth- century governments were always worried about the danger of rebellions. They did not have a permanent army to deal with them. Rising numbers of poor people made the threat of rebellion even greater. Powerful people who opposed Elizabeth, such as discontented nobles or Mary, Queen of Scots, might try to win the support of the poor for a rebellion against Elizabeth’s government.

6. Attitudes towards the poor. Elizabethans were worried!
3 The cost of the poor to the rich.
Rich and powerful people were not only expected to control the lower classes; they also had a duty to help local people who had fallen on hard times. Many landowners took this seriously. They gave gifts of money and food to the poor. This was called Poor relief. The monasteries helped them to care for the poor until Henry VIII closed them down. By Elizabeth’s reign, many landowners could not cope with the growing numbers of poor people. They simply could not afford to help them at all.
4 The poor might spread disease.
There were many outbreaks of plague and other infectious diseases in the sixteenth century. Many people died at an early age, but no one understood why. Most people believed that wandering groups of vagabonds spread deadly diseases.

7. Attitudes towards the poor. Elizabethans were worried!
5 Beggars turned to crime
Beggars often turned to crime. Some of them robbed people in the streets and broke into their houses. There was no police force to catch criminals. The Justices of the Peace (JPs) were responsible for enforcing law and order in local areas. They wanted to do a good job for the Queen. They thought the beggars were a serious threat to their authority.
6 Vagabonds
Many people thought that there were huge numbers of vagabonds travelling around the country. Exaggerated writings by people like Thomas Harman helped to stir up a lot of unnecessary panic. Historians today think that there were nowhere near as many beggars as people at the time thought.

8. New laws for the poor. Help and punishment.
A flexible policy
Elizabeth’s government dealt differently with the deserving poor and the idle poor. Two acts were passed by Parliament telling towns how to deal with or help the poor. The main provisions of these acts are set out below and extracts A-C provide evidence of how individuals were treated.
Vagabonds Act 1572
Anyone found guilty of being a vagabond, over the age of 14, was to be whipped and burned through the right ear. For a second offence, vagabonds were to be sent to prison. Persistent offenders were to be executed. Children of convicted beggars were to be placed in domestic service. Local Justices of the peace were ordered to keep a register of the poor in their parish, and to raise a poor rate to pay for food and shelter for the sick and elderly.
Act for the relief of the Poor 1576
Towns were required to find work for the able-bodied poor. Those refusing an offer of work were to be sent to a house of correction (prison).

9. New laws for the poor. Help and punishment.
Evidence from Norwich census of the Poor and city records.
Peter Browne, a cobbler; 50 years old and hath little work. Agnes, his wife, of the age 52 years, that worketh not having been sick since Christmas. She spins wool. There are three daughters, one of 18 years, one of 13 years and the other of 14 years. They all spin when they can get work but now they are without work A count shall be made of all the poor people who live in the city. Their need for alarms shall be reviewed weekly There shall be a workplace for men to grind malt and women to spin. The prisoners shall work for their meat and drink for at least 21 days: 15 hours a day in summer and 14 hours in winter. Those that refuse shall be whipped. No person shall beg or they shall be whipped six times. No person shall feed or help any beggars at the their door. One officer shall go daily about the city, with a staff in his hand, and arrest any vagabonds. There shall also be appointed select women to receive idle women or the poorest children into their houses to work or learn their letters.