1. THE NATURE OF EARLY MODERN ENGLISH SOCIETY

2. “The past is another country. They do things differently there.”

3. If we wanted to describe modern New Zealand society, what words would we use?  Democratic?  Egalitarian?  Urban?  Educated?  Multicultural?  Technologically advanced?

4. Early modern England was...  Hierarchical (divided into different classes)  Patriarchal (males were thought to be more important than females)  Overwhelmingly rural  Mostly illiterate  Highly religious

5. A CONTEMPORARY VIEW OF ENGLISH SOCIETY “We in England divide our people commonly into four sorts, as gentlemen, citizens or burgesses, yeomen, and artificers or labourers. Of gentlemen the first and chief (next the King) be the prince, dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts and barons, and these are called gentlemen of the greater sort, or (as our common usage of speech is) lords and noblemen; and next unto them be knights, esquires, and last of all, they that are simply called gentlemen...... Citizens and burgesses have next place to gentlemen, who be those that are free within the cities, and are of some likely substance to bear office in the same” William Harrison’s Description of England, first published in the 1570s

6. ... Yeomen are those which by our law are called legales homines, freemen born English, and may dispend of their own free land in yearly revenue the sum of 40s. sterling, or £6 as money goeth in our times...... The fourth and last sort of people in England are day labourers, poor husbandmen, and some retailers (which have no free land), copyholders, and all artificers, as tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, brickmakers, masons, etc. As for slaves we have none; nay, such is the privilege of our country by the especial grace of God and the bounty of our princes that if any come hither from other realms, so soon as they set foot on land they become so free of condition as their masters...” Ibid

7. A TYPICAL RURAL VILLAGE Left: A plan of a typical village in early modern England Above : An artist’s impression of a village

8. A VIEW OF 16 th CENTURY LONDON