Poverty, Protest and Rebellion in Wales and England c.1485-1603

What Poverty, Protest and Rebellion in Wales and England c.1485-1603 covers

Poverty, Protest and Rebellion in Wales and England c.1485-1603 is examined in Unit 3, the breadth study — one of ten options, of which a student takes one. It covers population, inflation and the growth of poverty, enclosure and the consolidation of estates, charity, the towns and local schemes for relief, the Church, the monasteries and the merchant classes, vagrancy, the sturdy beggar and punishment, government legislation from 1495 to the Poor Law of 1601, change and continuity in the treatment of poverty, Henry VII, Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, Wales, Rhys ap Gruffydd and the marcher lordships, the Henrician religious changes and the Pilgrimage of Grace, the Western Rebellion and Kett's rebellion, Lady Jane Grey and Wyatt's rebellion, Mary Queen of Scots, the northern earls and the plots against Elizabeth and the Essex rebellion and the changing pattern of rebellion.

The 14 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Population, inflation and the growth of povertyWhat happened to prices during the century, what is meant by the Great Debasement and significance of common land to the poor.Open →
• Enclosure and the consolidation of estatesWhy enclosure caused such anger even where it was lawful, difference between enclosure by agreement and enclosure that provoked protest and two Tudor statutes directed against depopulating enclosure.Open →
• Charity, the towns and local schemes for reliefWhat contemporaries meant by the impotent poor and describing Tudor poor relief as a mixed economy.Open →
• The Church, the monasteries and the merchant classesEffect of the dissolution on the relief of poverty and case that the dissolution mattered less than was once thought.Open →
• Vagrancy, the sturdy beggar and punishmentRecall questions on why masterless men frightened government, the punishments prescribed and how far they were carried out, the harshest statute and its repeal, and the houses of correction.Open →
• Government legislation from 1495 to the Poor Law of 1601Recall questions on the early statutes against begging, the introduction of a compulsory rate, the categories of poor the law recognised, and the settlement that lasted until 1834.Open →
• Change and continuity in the treatment of povertyRecall questions on what replaced monastic charity, how far attitudes to the poor hardened or softened, the shift from voluntary alms to a rate, and the parish as the unit of relief.Open →
• Henry VII, Lambert Simnel and Perkin WarbeckRecall questions on the two pretenders and whom each claimed to be, the foreign backing they attracted, the battle and the surrender that ended them, and what the King's treatment of each was meant to achieve.Open →
• Wales, Rhys ap Gruffydd and the marcher lordshipsRhys ap Thomas and explain his importance to Henry Tudor, rowland Lee and the way he governed and rhys ap Gruffydd.Open →
• The Henrician religious changes and the Pilgrimage of GraceRecall questions on the break with Rome and the supremacy, the valuation and dissolution of the monasteries, the northern rising and its grievances, and how the Crown ended it.Open →
• The Western Rebellion and Kett's rebellionCornish objection to the English service and main military action of the Western Rebellion.Open →
• Lady Jane Grey and Wyatt's rebellionCause of Wyatt's rebellion and consequences of Wyatt's rebellion.Open →
• Mary Queen of Scots, the northern earls and the plots against ElizabethMost striking act of the rebels, what Regnans in Excelsis was and what it did and ridolfi Plot.Open →
• The Essex rebellion and the changing pattern of rebellionEarl of Essex and describe his position at court, significance of the monopoly on sweet wines and essex's principal rivals at court and state what they controlled.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Poverty, Protest and Rebellion in Wales and England c.1485-1603 further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Enclosure vs Engrossing

  Enclosure: fencing off open field or common ground into separate holdings, ending the rights others had to graze it. Engrossing: The merging of two or more farms into one, so that a farmhouse fell empty and a family lost its living.

• Impotent poor vs Able-bodied poor

  Impotent poor: those who could not work through age, sickness, blindness, lameness or the care of small children, and who were held to deserve relief. Able-bodied poor: Those fit to work, who were expected to earn their keep and were whipped or set on work if they did not.

• Act of 1572 vs Act of 1576

  Act of 1572: the statute establishing the first compulsory national rate for relief, assessed by the justices, and requiring the appointment of overseers, while punishing vagrants savagely. Act of 1576: The statute requiring towns and counties to keep stocks of wool, hemp, flax and iron so that the willing could be set on work, and to build houses of correction.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What happened to the population of England and Wales across the sixteenth century?

   Model answer

   It grew strongly, from roughly two and a half million in the 1520s to more than four million by the end of Elizabeth's reign, having recovered from the losses of the plague years.

2. 2

   Why did a rising population create poverty rather than prosperity?

   Model answer

   More mouths pushed up the demand for food and for land while output and the number of holdings grew far more slowly, so prices rose, holdings were subdivided, and there were more workers competing for the same wages.

3. 3

   Describe what happened to prices during the century.

   Model answer

   Prices rose sharply, with grain and other foodstuffs rising several times over, an experience contemporaries had no precedent for and no explanation of.

4. 4

   Why did food prices rise faster than the prices of manufactured goods?

   Model answer

   Demand for food is inelastic, so when population outran the harvest people bid whatever they had for bread, while cloth and other goods could be produced in greater quantity.

5. 5

   What happened to the real wages of a labourer over the period?

   Model answer

   They fell heavily, because money wages rose slowly and were often held down by law, while the cost of bread rose steeply, so a day's work bought far less at the end of the century than at the beginning.

6. 6

   Explain what is meant by the Great Debasement.

   Model answer

   The deliberate reduction of the silver content of the coinage under Henry VIII and Edward VI to raise money for war, which drove up prices and destroyed confidence in the currency.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Poverty, Protest and Rebellion in Wales and England c.1485-1603 revision questions

What does Poverty, Protest and Rebellion in Wales and England c.1485-1603 cover in WJEC A-Level History?

14 subtopics: population, inflation and the growth of poverty, enclosure and the consolidation of estates, charity, the towns and local schemes for relief, the church, the monasteries and the merchant classes, vagrancy, the sturdy beggar and punishment, government legislation from 1495 to the poor law of 1601, change and continuity in the treatment of poverty, henry vii, lambert simnel and perkin warbeck, wales, rhys ap gruffydd and the marcher lordships, the henrician religious changes and the pilgrimage of grace, the western rebellion and kett's rebellion, lady jane grey and wyatt's rebellion, mary queen of scots, the northern earls and the plots against elizabeth and the essex rebellion and the changing pattern of rebellion. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Poverty, Protest and Rebellion in Wales and England c.1485-1603 organised?

By the WJEC 601-5817-7 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.