Editing Elizabethan era (section)

==Social history==
Historians since the 1960s have explored many facets of the social history, covering every class of the population.<ref>On the social and demographic history see D. M. Palliser (1992) ''The Age of Elizabeth: England Under the Later Tudors, 1547–1603'' (2nd ed.), pp 35–110</ref>

===Health===
Although home to only a small part of the population the Tudor [[municipalities]] were overcrowded and unhygienic. Most towns were unpaved with poor public sanitation.  There were no [[sanitary sewer|sewers]] or drains, and rubbish was simply abandoned in the street. Animals such as [[rat]]s thrived in these conditions. In larger towns and cities, such as London, common diseases arising from lack of sanitation included [[smallpox]], [[measles]], [[malaria]], [[typhus]], [[diphtheria]], [[scarlet fever]], and [[chickenpox]].<ref name="Life in Tudor Times">{{cite web|url=http://www.localhistories.org/tudor.html |title=Life in Tudor Times |publisher=Localhistories.org |access-date=2010-08-10}}</ref>

Outbreaks of the [[Black Death]] [[pandemic]] occurred in 1498, 1535, 1543, 1563, 1589 and 1603. The reason for the speedy spread of the disease was the increase of rats infected by fleas carrying the disease.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/voices/voices_salisbury.shtml |title=Spread of the Plague |publisher=BBC |date=2002-08-29 |access-date=2010-08-10}}</ref>

Child mortality was low in comparison with earlier and later periods, at about 150 or fewer deaths per 1000 babies.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bruce M. S. Campbell|title=Before the Black Death: Studies in the "Crisis" of the Early Fourteenth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8kS8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA51|year=1992|publisher=Manchester U.P.|page=51|isbn=9780719039270}}</ref> By age 15 a person could expect 40–50 more years of life.<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard Grassby|title=The Business Community of Seventeenth-Century England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KtiLDCLRyDgC&pg=PA94|year= 2002|publisher=Cambridge U.P.|page=94|isbn=9780521890861}}</ref>

===Homes and dwelling===
[[File:Ivy House, Witchampton - geograph.org.uk - 934182.jpg|thumb|Parts of the Ivy House in [[Witchampton]] date from {{Circa|1580}}]]
The great majority were tenant farmers who lived in small villages. Their homes were, as in earlier centuries, [[thatched]] huts with one or two rooms, although later on during this period, roofs were also tiled. Furniture was basic, with stools being commonplace rather than chairs.<ref name="Life in Tudor Times"/> The walls of Tudor houses were often made from timber and [[wattle and daub]], or brick; stone and [[tiles]] were more common in the wealthier homes. The daub was usually then painted with [[limewash]], making it white, and the wood was painted with black [[tar]] to prevent rotting, but not in Tudor times; the Victorians did this afterward. The bricks were handmade and thinner than modern bricks. The wooden beams were cut by hand, which makes telling the difference between Tudor houses and Tudor-style houses easy, as the original beams are not straight. The upper floors of Tudor houses were often larger than the ground floors, which would create an overhang (or [[jettying|jetty]]). This would create more floor surface above while also keeping maximum street width. During the Tudor period, the use of glass when building houses was first used, and became widespread. It was very expensive and difficult to make, so the panes were made small and held together with a lead lattice, in [[casement windows]]. People who could not afford glass often used polished horn, cloth or paper. Tudor chimneys were tall, thin, and often decorated with symmetrical patterns of molded or cut brick. Early Tudor houses, and the homes of poorer people, did not have chimneys. The smoke in these cases would be let out through a simple hole in the roof.

[[Mansions]] had many chimneys for the many fireplaces required to keep the vast rooms warm. These fires were also the only way of cooking food. Wealthy Tudor homes needed many rooms, where a large number of guests and [[servants]] could be accommodated, fed and entertained. Wealth was demonstrated by the extensive use of glass. Windows became the main feature of Tudor mansions, and were often a fashion statement. Mansions were often designed to a symmetrical plan; "E" and "H" shapes were popular.<ref name="Tudor Houses">{{cite web |url=http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/houses/tudor.htm |title=Tudor Houses |publisher=Woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk |access-date=2010-08-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510202040/http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/houses/tudor.htm |archive-date=10 May 2010 }}</ref>

===Cities===
The population of London increased from 100,000 to 200,000 between the death of Mary Tudor in 1558 and the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. Inflation was rapid and the [[wealth gap]] was wide. Poor men, women, and children begged in the cities, as the children only earned sixpence a week. With the growth of industry, many landlords decided to use their land for manufacturing purposes, displacing the farmers who lived and worked there. Despite the struggles of the lower class, the government tended to spend money on wars and exploration voyages instead of on welfare.

===Poverty===
{{Main|Poor Law}}
[[File:Vagrant being punished in the streets (Tudor England).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A woodcut of {{Circa|1536}} depicting a vagrant being punished in the streets in Tudor England]]
About one-third of the population lived in poverty, with the wealthy expected to give [[alms]] to assist the [[impotent poor]].<ref>John F. Pound, ''Poverty and vagrancy in Tudor England'' (Routledge, 2014).</ref> Tudor law was harsh on the [[able-bodied poor]], i.e., those unable to find work. Those who left their [[parishes]] in order to locate work were termed [[vagabond (person)|vagabonds]] and could be subjected to punishments, including whipping and putting at the stocks.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/TUDpoverty.htm |title=Poverty in Tudor Times |publisher=Spartacus-Educational.com |access-date=2019-02-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122075943/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDpoverty.htm |archive-date=22 November 2008 }}</ref><ref>Paul Slack, ''Poverty and policy in Tudor and Stuart England'' (1988).</ref>

The idea of the [[workhouse]] for the able-bodied poor was first suggested in 1576.<ref>[[Martin Pugh (author)|Martin Pugh]] (1999), ''Britain since 1789: A Concise History''. La Nuova Italia Scientifica, Roma.</ref>

===Education===
There was an unprecedented expansion of education in the Tudor period. Until then, few children went to school.<ref>{{cite book|author=Joan Simon|title=Education and Society in Tudor England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yymAz-8W77gC&pg=PAvii|year=1970|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521296793}}</ref> Those that did go were mainly the sons of wealthy or ambitious fathers who could afford to pay the attendance fee. Boys were allowed to go to school and began at the age of 4, they then moved to [[grammar school]] when they were 7 years old. Girls were either kept at home by their parents to help with housework or sent out to work to bring money in for the family. They were not sent to school. Boys were educated for work and the girls for marriage and running a household so when they married they could look after the house and children.<ref>{{cite book|author=Alison Sim|title=The Tudor Housewife|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s3qYAiZVJHoC&pg=PA29|year= 2001|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press|pages=29–43|isbn=9780773522336}}</ref> Wealthy families hired a tutor to teach the boys at home. Many Tudor towns and villages had a parish school where the local vicar taught boys to read and write. Brothers could teach their sisters these skills. At school, pupils were taught English, Latin, Greek, catechism and arithmetic. The pupils practised writing in ink by copying the alphabet and the [[Lord's Prayer]]. There were few books, so pupils read from [[hornbooks]] instead. These wooden boards had the alphabet, prayers or other writings pinned to them and were covered with a thin layer of transparent cow's horn. There were two types of school in Tudor times: petty school was where young boys were taught to read and write; grammar school was where abler boys were taught English and Latin.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 4173010|title = The Teaching of English in Tudor Grammar Schools|journal = Studies in Philology|volume = 49|issue = 2|pages = 119–143|last1 = Nelson|first1 = William|year = 1952}}</ref> It was usual for students to attend six days a week. The school day started at 7:00 am in winter and 6:00 am in summer and finished about 5:00 pm. Petty schools had shorter hours, mostly to allow poorer boys the opportunity to work as well. Schools were harsh and teachers were very strict, often beating pupils who misbehaved.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 368112|title = Educational Opportunity in Tudor and Stuart England|journal = History of Education Quarterly|volume = 16|issue = 3|pages = 301–320|last1 = Cressy|first1 = David|year = 1976|doi = 10.2307/368112| s2cid=144782147 }}</ref>

Education would begin at home, where children were taught the basic etiquette of proper manners and respecting others.<ref name =Pearson>{{cite book|author=Lee E. Pearson|title=Elizabethans at home|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/elizabethansatho0000pear|chapter-url-access=registration|year=1957|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-0494-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/elizabethansatho0000pear/page/140 140–41]|chapter=Education of children}}</ref> It was necessary for boys to attend [[Grammar school (United Kingdom)|grammar school]], but girls were rarely allowed in any place of education other than petty schools, and then only with a restricted curriculum.<ref name="Pearson" /> Petty schools were for all children aged from 5 to 7 years of age. Only the most wealthy people allowed their daughters to be taught, and only at home. During this time, endowed schooling became available. This meant that even boys of very poor families were able to attend school if they were not needed to work at home, but only in a few localities were funds available to provide support as well as the necessary education scholarship.<ref>{{cite book|author=Joan Simon|title=Education and Society in Tudor England|year=1966|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=London|isbn=978-0-521-22854-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/educationsociety0000simo/page/373 373]|url=https://archive.org/details/educationsociety0000simo/page/373}}</ref>

Boys from wealthy families were taught at home by a private tutor. When Henry VIII shut the monasteries he closed their schools. He refounded many former monastic schools—they are known as "King's schools" and are found all over England. During the reign of Edward VI many free grammar schools were set up to take in non-fee paying students. There were two universities in Tudor England: [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] and [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]]. Some boys went to university at the age of about 14.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/tudors/schools.htm |title=Tudor Schools |publisher=Woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk |date=2004-01-01 |access-date=2010-08-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618131251/http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/homework/tudors/schools.htm |archive-date=18 June 2010 }}</ref>

===Food===
====Availability====
England's food supply was plentiful throughout most of the reign; there were no famines. Bad harvests caused distress, but they were usually localized. The most widespread came in 1555–57 and 1596–98.<ref>John Guy (1988) ''Tudor England'', Oxford University Press, pp. 30–31 {{ISBN|0192852132}}</ref> In the towns the price of staples was fixed by law; in hard times the size of the loaf of bread sold by the baker was smaller.<ref>{{cite journal |author=R. H. Britnell |title=Price-setting in English borough markets, 1349–1500 |journal=Canadian Journal of History |year=1996 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.3138/cjh.31.1.1 |url=https://www.usask.ca/history/cjh/e/iss/text/96/brit_496.shtml |issn=0008-4107 |access-date=18 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100112095605/http://www.usask.ca/history/cjh/e/iss/text/96/brit_496.shtml |archive-date=12 January 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Trade and industry flourished in the 16th century, making England more prosperous and improving the standard of living of the upper and middle classes. However, the lower classes did not benefit much and did not always have enough food. As the English population was fed by its own agricultural produce, a series of bad harvests in the 1590s caused widespread starvation and poverty. The success of the wool trading industry decreased attention on agriculture, resulting in further starvation of the lower classes. Cumbria, the poorest and most isolated part of England, suffered a six-year famine beginning in 1594. Diseases and natural disasters also contributed to the scarce food supply.<ref>Andrew B. Appleby (1978) ''Famine in Tudor and Stuart England''. Stanford University Press.</ref>

In the 17th century, the food supply improved. England had no food crises from 1650 to 1725, a period when France was unusually vulnerable to famines. Historians point out that oat and barley prices in England did not always increase following a failure of the wheat crop, but did do so in France.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Andrew B. Appleby|title=Grain Prices and Subsistence Crises in England and France, 1590–1740|journal=The Journal of Economic History|volume=39|issue=4|pages=865–887|jstor=2120334|doi=10.1017/S002205070009865X|year=1979|s2cid=154494239 }}</ref>

England was exposed to new foods (such as the [[potato]] imported from South America), and developed new tastes during the era. The more prosperous enjoyed a wide variety of food and drink, including exotic new drinks such as tea, coffee, and chocolate. French and Italian chefs appeared in the country houses and palaces bringing new standards of food preparation and taste. For example, the English developed a taste for acidic foods—such as oranges for the upper class—and started to use vinegar heavily. The gentry paid increasing attention to their gardens, with new fruits, vegetables and herbs; pasta, pastries, and dried mustard balls first appeared on the table. The apricot was a special treat at fancy banquets. Roast beef remained a staple for those who could afford it. The rest ate a great deal of bread and fish. Every class had a taste for beer and rum.<ref>Joan Thirsk (2006) ''Food in Early Modern England: Phases, Fads, Fashions 1500–1760'', Continuum, {{ISBN|0826442331}}</ref>

====Diet====
The diet in England during the Elizabethan era depended largely on [[social class]]. [[Bread]] was a staple of the Elizabethan diet, and people of different statuses ate bread of different qualities. The upper classes ate fine white bread called [[manchet]], while the poor ate coarse bread made of [[barley]] or [[rye]].

: '''Diet of the lower class'''
The poorer among the population consumed a diet largely of bread, cheese, milk, and beer, with small portions of meat, fish and vegetables, and occasionally some fruit. Potatoes were just arriving at the end of the period, and became increasingly important. The typical poor farmer sold his best products on the market, keeping the cheap food for the family. Stale bread could be used to make bread puddings, and bread crumbs served to thicken soups, stews, and sauces.<ref>[[F. G. Emmison|Emmison, F. G.]] (1976) ''Elizabethan Life: Home, Work and Land'', Essex Record Office, v. 3, pp. 29–31 {{ISBN|090036047X}}</ref>

: '''Diet of the middle class'''
At a somewhat higher social level families ate an enormous variety of meats, who could choose among [[venison]], [[beef]], [[mutton]], [[veal]], [[pork]], lamb, fowl, [[salmon]], [[eel]], and [[shellfish]]. The holiday goose was a special treat. Rich spices were used by the wealthier people to offset the smells of old salt-preserved meat. Many rural folk and some townspeople tended a small garden which produced vegetables such as asparagus, cucumbers, spinach, lettuce, beans, cabbage, turnips, radishes, carrots, leeks, and peas, as well as medicinal and flavoring herbs. Some grew their own apricots, grapes, berries, apples, pears, plums, strawberries, currants, and cherries. Families without a garden could trade with their neighbors to obtain vegetables and fruits at low cost. Fruits and vegetables were used in desserts such as pastries, tarts, cakes, crystallized fruit, and syrup.<ref>Jeffrey L. Singman (1995) ''Daily Life in Elizabethan England'', Greenwood Publishing Group, pp. 133–36 {{ISBN|031329335X}}</ref><ref>Stephen Mennell (1996) ''All manners of food: eating and taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the present''. University of Illinois Press.</ref>

: '''Diet of the upper class'''
At the rich end of the scale the manor houses and palaces were awash with large, elaborately prepared meals, usually for many people and often accompanied by entertainment. The upper classes often celebrated religious festivals, weddings, alliances and the whims of the king or queen. Feasts were commonly used to commemorate the "procession" of the crowned heads of state in the summer months, when the king or queen would travel through a circuit of other nobles' lands both to avoid the plague season of London, and alleviate the royal coffers, often drained through the winter to provide for the needs of the royal family and court. This would include a few days or even a week of feasting in each noble's home, who depending on his or her production and display of fashion, generosity and entertainment, could have his way made in court and elevate his or her status for months or even years.

Among the rich private hospitality was an important item in the budget. Entertaining a royal party for a few weeks could be ruinous to a nobleman.  [[Inn]]s existed for travellers, but [[restaurant]]s were not known.

Special courses after a feast or dinner which often involved a special room or outdoor gazebo (sometimes known as a folly) with a central table set with dainties of "medicinal" value to help with digestion. These would include wafers, comfits of sugar-spun anise or other spices, jellies and marmalades (a firmer variety than we are used to, these would be more similar to our gelatin jigglers), candied fruits, spiced nuts and other such niceties. These would be eaten while standing and drinking warm, spiced wines (known as [[hypocras]]) or other drinks known to aid in digestion. Sugar in the Middle Ages or Early Modern Period was often considered medicinal, and used heavily in such things. This was not a course of pleasure, though it could be as everything was a treat, but one of healthful eating and abetting the digestive capabilities of the body. It also, of course, allowed those standing to show off their gorgeous new clothes and the holders of the dinner and banquet to show off the wealth of their estate, what with having a special room just for banqueting.

===Gender===
[[File:Elizabeth I, Procession Portrait..jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''The Procession Picture'', c. 1600, showing Elizabeth I borne along by her courtiers]]
While the Tudor era presents an abundance of material on the women of the nobility—especially royal wives and queens—historians have recovered scant documentation about the lives of average women. There has, however, been extensive statistical analysis of demographic and population data which includes women, especially in their childbearing roles.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Minna F. Weinstein|title=Reconstructing Our Past: Reflections on Tudor Women|journal=International Journal of Women's Studies|year= 1978|volume=1 |issue =2|pages=133–158}}</ref> The role of women in society was, for that historical era, relatively unconstrained; Spanish and Italian visitors to England commented regularly, and sometimes caustically, on the freedom that women enjoyed in England, in contrast to their home cultures. England had more well-educated upper-class women than was common anywhere in Europe.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Susan C. Shapiro |title=Feminists in Elizabethan England |journal=History Today |year=1977 |volume=27 |issue=11 |pages=703–711 }}</ref><ref>Joyce A. Youings (1984) ''Sixteenth-century England'', Penguin Books, {{ISBN|0140222316}}</ref>

The Queen's [[Elizabeth I of England#Marriage question|marital status]] was a major political and diplomatic topic. It also entered into the popular culture. Elizabeth's unmarried status inspired a cult of virginity. In poetry and portraiture, she was depicted as a virgin or a goddess or both, not as a normal woman.<ref>{{cite journal |author=John N. King |s2cid=164188105 |title=Queen Elizabeth I: Representations of the Virgin Queen |journal=[[Renaissance Quarterly]] |volume=43 |issue=1 |year=1990 |pages=30–74 |jstor=2861792 |doi=10.2307/2861792 }}</ref> Elizabeth made a virtue of her virginity: in 1559, she told the Commons, "And, in the end, this shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin".<ref>Christopher Haigh (2000) ''Elizabeth I'' (2nd ed.), Longman, p. 23 {{ISBN|0582472784}}.</ref> Public tributes to the Virgin by 1578 acted as a coded assertion of opposition to the queen's marriage negotiations with the Duc d'Alençon.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Susan Doran|s2cid=55555610|title=Juno Versus Diana: The Treatment of Elizabeth I's Marriage in Plays and Entertainments, 1561–1581|journal=Historical Journal|volume=38 |issue=2|year=1995|pages=257–274|jstor=2639984|doi=10.1017/S0018246X00019427}}</ref>

In contrast to her father's emphasis on masculinity and physical prowess, Elizabeth emphasized the maternalism theme, saying often that she was married to her kingdom and subjects. She explained "I keep the good will of all my husbands – my good people – for if they did not rest assured of some special love towards them, they would not readily yield me such good obedience",<ref>Agnes Strickland, ''The life of Queen Elizabeth'' (1910) [https://archive.org/details/lifequeenelizab00strigoog/page/n444 p. 424]</ref> and promised in 1563 they would never have a more natural mother than she.<ref>Carole Levin and Patricia Ann Sullivan (1995) ''Political rhetoric, power, and Renaissance women'', State Univ of New York p. 90 {{ISBN|0791425452}}</ref> Coch (1996) argues that her figurative motherhood played a central role in her complex self-representation, shaping and legitimating the personal rule of a divinely appointed female prince.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Christine Coch|title='Mother of my Contreye': Elizabeth I and Tudor construction of Motherhood|journal=English Literary Renaissance|year=1996|doi=10.1111/j.1475-6757.1996.tb01506.x|volume=26 |issue =3|pages=423–60|s2cid=144685288}}</ref>

===Marriage===
Over ninety per cent of English women (and adults, in general) entered [[marriage]] at the end of the 1500s and beginning of the 1600s, at an average age of about [[Western European marriage pattern|25–26 years for the bride]] and 27–28 years for the groom, with the most common ages being 25–26 for grooms (who would have finished their [[Statute of Artificers 1562|apprenticeships]] around this age) and 23 for brides.<ref>David Cressy. Birth, Marriage, and Death : Ritual, Religion, and the Life-Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England. Oxford University Press, 29 May 1997. Pg 285</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00483.x/full | doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00483.x | title=Girl power: The European marriage pattern and labour markets in the North Sea region in the late medieval and early modern period1 | year=2010 | last1=De Moor | first1=Tine | last2=Van Zanden | first2=JAN Luiten | journal=The Economic History Review | volume=63 | pages=1–33 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://elizabethan.org/compendium/9.html| title = Life in Elizabethan England: Weddings and Betrothals}}</ref> Among the [[nobility]] and [[gentry]], the average was around 19–21 for brides and 24–26 for grooms.<ref>Young, Bruce W. 2008. Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p 41</ref> Many city and townswomen married for the first time in their thirties and forties<ref>Coontz, Stephanie. 2005. Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage. New York, New York: Viking Press, Penguin Group Inc.</ref> and it was not unusual for orphaned young women to delay marriage until the late twenties or early thirties to help support their younger siblings,<ref>Greer, Germaine Shakespeare's Wife, Bloomsbury 2007.</ref> and roughly a quarter of all English brides were pregnant at their weddings.<ref>Cressy. 1997. Pg 74</ref>