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Early Elizabethan England, 1558–88

The ‘problem’ of the poor

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 2 booklet B

Overview

Population growth, enclosure, the price rise, the lost charity of the monasteries, failed harvests, deserving and idle poor, fear of vagabonds, the Acts of 1572 and 1576 and softening attitudes.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Why did the number of poor people rise so sharply during Elizabeth's reign?

Key term

How did a growing population drive more people into poverty?

Key term

What was enclosure, and how did it make people poor?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How did a growing population drive more people into poverty?

    Model answer

    More mouths competed for the same food and the same jobs, so prices climbed while wages did not.

  2. 2

    What was enclosure, and how did it make people poor?

    Model answer

    Landowners fenced off open fields for sheep, which needed far fewer workers, so tenants lost both land and employment.

  3. 3

    What did people mean by the price rise of these years?

    Model answer

    Steadily rising costs, above all of food, which left a labourer’s wages buying much less than before.

  4. 4

    How did the closing of the monasteries still affect the poor under Elizabeth?

    Model answer

    The shelter and charity the monasteries had given was never replaced, so the sick and destitute had nowhere to turn.

  5. 5

    Why did a failed harvest hit poor families so hard?

    Model answer

    Grain prices soared when the harvest failed, and families with no savings could not afford bread.

  6. 6

    What was the difference between the deserving and the idle poor?

    Model answer

    The deserving were those unable to work through age, sickness or misfortune; the idle were thought fit to work but unwilling.

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AThe huge loss of life left England short of workers.
BForeign craftsmen and labourers were wanted.
CCompetition for work also bred resentment.

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