AQA GCSE History 8145
America, 1840–1895: Expansion and ConsolidationPeriod study
America, 1920–1973: Opportunity and InequalityPeriod study
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Conflict and Tension in Asia, 1950–1975Wider world depth
Conflict and Tension in the Gulf and Afghanistan, 1990–2009Wider world depth
Conflict and Tension: The First World War, 1894–1918Wider world depth
Conflict and Tension: The Inter-War Years, 1918–1939Wider world depth
Elizabethan England, c1568–1603British depth
Germany, 1890–1945: Democracy and DictatorshipPeriod study
Health and the People in Britain, c1000 to the Present DayThematic study
Medieval England: The Reign of Edward I, 1272–1307British depth
Migration, Empires and the People in Britain, c790 to the Present DayThematic study
Norman England, c1066–c1100British depth
Power and the People in Britain, c1170 to the Present DayThematic study
Restoration England, 1660–1685British depth
Russia, 1894–1945: Tsardom and CommunismPeriod study
Elizabethan England, c1568–1603
Poverty and the treatment of the poor
- 3 things to know
- Paper 2 section B
Overview
Population growth, enclosure and rack-renting, the harvests of the 1590s and the lost monasteries, the deserving and idle poor, the Vagabonds Act, the Act of 1576, the Poor Law of 1601, and the towns' schemes.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
How did population change affect poverty in Elizabethan England?
How did enclosure add to poverty?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
How did population change affect poverty in Elizabethan England?
Model answer
The population grew quickly, so more people competed for the same work, food and housing, driving prices and rents up faster than wages.
- 2
How did enclosure add to poverty?
Model answer
Landlords fenced common land for sheep, which needed far fewer workers and left villagers with nowhere to graze animals or gather fuel.
- 3
What was rack-renting?
Model answer
Landlords raising rents steeply, which forced tenants who could not pay off the land they farmed.
- 4
Why did the harvests of the 1590s make poverty far worse?
Model answer
Repeated failures between 1594 and 1597 sent grain prices soaring, so wages bought much less food and many families were reduced to begging.
- 5
How had the closure of the monasteries earlier in the century affected the poor?
Model answer
It swept away the food, shelter and alms the monasteries had given, leaving many places with no organised relief at all.
- 6
Who were the deserving poor?
Model answer
The old, the sick, the disabled and orphaned children, who could not work and were thought to deserve help.
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