Elizabethan England

I

Introduction

Elizabethan England, celebrated epoch of English history corresponding to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I between 1558 and 1603, which witnessed the rise of England from the status of a small kingdom on the edge of Europe into a world power with international trade connections. It also saw a growing sense of national identity and self-confidence, fostered by the new Protestantism of the national Church of England, and heightened by war with Spain and the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The Reformation and the Renaissance reached England more or less together, and Elizabeth's reign witnessed a great cultural flowering. Scotland was a separate country, but England and Wales had been united by Henry VIII; Ireland was claimed by the Tudor monarchs, but they found it extremely difficult to rule it peacefully. The population of England at the beginning of the reign was around 3 million people.

II

Elizabethan Religion and Beliefs

Elizabeth I's half-sister and predecessor Mary I was a Roman Catholic, and during her reign England accepted the pope in Rome as its spiritual leader. Elizabeth was different: as a Protestant, and one determined to protect her power as queen, she declared that she was the Governor of the Church of England. In doing this in 1559, soon after her accession, she was helped by many who had been opposed to Mary, and who had spent the previous few years abroad to escape Catholic government, under Reformation leaders such as John Calvin in Geneva. One of the best statements of Elizabethan Protestantism is a chronicle of the persecutions carried out by Mary I in the 1550s, published by John Foxe in 1563 as Acts and Monuments (sometimes called The Book of Martyrs). Every church in England had a copy, which furnished a very effective way of defending the religious policies of Elizabeth.

Many of Elizabeth's subjects seem to have been confused by the religious changes in England. Confirmed Protestants (influenced by the Reformation in Europe) believed in preaching, reading the Bible in English, and worship in unadorned churches; Catholics, on the other hand, enjoyed the ceremonies of Christianity, and decorated their churches with pictures and statues. Because it was important for Elizabeth to have the support of her subjects, the Church of England tried to steer between these two faiths, and it was criticized by both fervent Catholics and Protestants. (One of the great masterpieces of Elizabethan prose, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity by Richard Hooker, attempted to chart this middle course.) Most of England went to neither extreme: in the 1560s, the government was worried that many subjects were “neutrals” (people who did not care either for Protestantism or Roman Catholicism) and even “pagans” (not Christian at all). People were generally happy following the traditions and rituals their own families had followed for generations, and these were particularly important in the small village communities. Because many parts of England were very isolated, and the government relied on the local gentry to keep order in the counties, it was often very difficult to enforce the religious laws that had established the Church of England.

III

Education

English Protestants believed that it was important for lay believers to read the Bible, and endowing schools with money was considered a moral duty. Many schools were founded between the reign of Elizabeth I's brother, Edward VI, and the end of the 16th century. These were mainly grammar schools (the sort of school attended by Shakespeare), and there were two types: public grammar schools, which were given money by a wealthy or even noble patron to teach both rich and poor boys (not girls); and private grammar schools, which charged the boys' parents a fee for education. All grammar schools taught Latin and sometimes Greek.

Although education was more widely available by Elizabeth's reign, it was still limited to boys and men; nonetheless, only two out of every ten men were able to sign their names in the 1550s (the figure was less for women). It is quite common to find documents from the 16th century where individuals have made their “mark”, a sign or symbol written instead of a signature. Education usually depended upon a person's social group. Labourers were basically illiterate, but merchants were generally better educated. Gentlemen were usually literate, and often had the opportunity of attending one (or perhaps both) of England's two universities, Oxford and Cambridge, where they could study classical literature (in Latin and Greek), theology, philosophy, medicine, and law. Out of the whole of England's population, perhaps 4,000 men were studying at Oxford and Cambridge at the end of Elizabeth's reign. The sons of gentlemen could also study law at one of the Inns of Court in London, where the training could prepare them to be a lawyer in one of the law courts or, like William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, for a career in royal service.

Elizabethan England did not have as many printing presses as some of the European countries, but the printing industry was a growing business. “Chapmen”, or wandering pedlars, sold “chapbooks” of popular stories and ballads to poorer social groups. Gentlemen could afford more expensive books, often the works of classical authors such as Livy, Tacitus, and Aristotle. Religious books were also popular, and allowed English Protestants to read works by Martin Luther and John Calvin.

IV

Elizabethan Daily Life

Elizabethans had a very strong sense of social order: they believed that their queen was God's representative on Earth, and that God had created and blessed the ranks of society, from the monarch down through the nobility, gentry, merchants, and labourers. The English Parliament even passed laws on the clothes people could wear: it would have been unthinkable for, for example, a merchant to imitate wealthier individuals, and against the social order. Elizabethans considered families to be a model for the rest of their society: ordered, standardized, and with a strict sense of hierarchy. The accepted norms for children's behaviour, for example, were based on passages in the Bible. John Lyster, who wrote A Rule How to Bring Up Children in 1588, listed passages from the Old Testament which explained the duty of parents to raise their children properly and the duty of their sons and daughters to obey. It was not unusual for parents to physically chastise children, and even for husbands to “correct” their wives in the same way.

A law of 1529 stated that when a person died, all of his or her possessions had to be listed in an inventory; these have been a great source of information on the daily lives of Elizabeth's subjects. It is clear that during the reign of Elizabeth, people of all social groups began to own more household goods. Houses, too, were changing. Medieval buildings based on the pattern of a barn began to be remodelled for comfort and privacy, with separate rooms or “chambers”. This period saw the development of the parlour, which became an important room for entertainment. Elizabeth's courtiers and counsellors often had town dwellings in London and large country estates in counties near the capital, which provide good examples of the Elizabethan style in the architecture of the period.

Although Elizabeth's subjects were becoming more aware of comfort at home, life was still very hard for most, by modern standards. Average life expectancy was nearly 42 years of age, but the wealthy generally lived longer. Elizabeth's reign saw a steady growth in population, but famine and influenza had killed many people in the 1550s, and bad harvests caused the same problems in the 1590s. Plague carried from France hit London in 1563, and the royal court had to move to Windsor; visitors from the capital were not allowed near. These problems were often made worse in towns due to poor sanitation. Medical treatment was limited and unsystematic, and those who could afford doctors often had to tolerate painful treatments and ineffective or harmful drugs. Poorer groups relied more on traditional remedies and methods of healing based on superstition.