The Poor Flashcards
All 20 cards in this deck
How did population growth increase poverty in Elizabethan England?
The population rose by about a million, so there were not enough jobs and food prices rose faster than wages.
How did the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s contribute to Elizabethan poverty?
There was less help for the poor, who could no longer claim alms or find work in religious houses.
What was the legal distinction between the 'deserving' (impotent) poor and the 'idle' poor?
The deserving poor, such as the aged, sick and orphans, could not work and deserved relief; the idle poor could work but chose not to, and were punished.
What did the Act for the Relief of the Poor (1576) do?
It required Justices of the Peace to help the able-bodied poor find paid work, providing them with raw materials such as wool.
How did the Vagabonds Act (1572) punish vagrants?
A first offence meant a whipping and a hole burned through the ear. Persistent vagrants faced harsher punishment, and a third offence could bring the death penalty.
What change to poor relief did the Vagabonds Act (1572) introduce?
A compulsory national poor rate, a local tax to support the deserving poor, with Justices of the Peace keeping a register of the poor.
How did enclosure increase poverty in Elizabethan England?
Landowners fenced off common land for profitable farming, often sheep for wool, so poorer families lost land they relied on and many had to leave to look for work.
Give two economic causes of the increase in poverty in Elizabethan England.
Rising unemployment and high food prices (inflation), made worse by bad harvests and famine in the later 1590s.
What was a vagabond (vagrant) in Elizabethan England?
A poor person with no job or fixed home who roamed from place to place begging, seen by the authorities as a threat.
What did Thomas Harman's book (1566) do?
It publicised the growing numbers of the poor and vagabonds, making Elizabethans more aware of the problem.
Give one reason the government acted on poverty besides sympathy for the poor.
Fear of public disorder from bands of poor people roaming the countryside, committing crimes and threatening authority.
How did Privy Councillors learn about the problem of the poor?
From the reports of Justices of the Peace, which showed them both the poor's problems and the threat they posed.
What was a House of Correction?
A place where the idle poor, seen as lazy, were sent after a whipping to be forced to work.
What was 'outdoor relief'?
Money or food given to the poor in their own homes, paid for by the poor rate, rather than in an institution.
What did Norwich do about the poor in 1570?
It carried out a census of its poor, separating the idle, who were set to work or punished, from the deserving poor, who were given relief.
What did the Great Poor Law of 1601 establish?
A national system in which each parish took responsibility for its poor, funded by a compulsory poor rate, helping the deserving poor and punishing the idle.
Why did Protestants think helping the poor mattered?
Good works were a sign of piety suggesting God would save them on Judgement Day — and they believed it better to do good while alive, unlike Catholics who left money in wills.
True or false? Elizabethans believed private charity on its own could cope with the numbers of poor.
False. They thought private charity would not cope, which is why the state stepped in from 1572 and took responsibility for the poor.
What were Overseers of the Poor?
Unpaid parish officials, made compulsory by the poor laws of 1598 and 1601, who collected the poor rate and used it to relieve the helpless, find work for the able-bodied and apprentice poor children.
What did Ipswich do about the poor in 1569?
It gave licences to beggars judged genuine and had poor children taught a trade. Ipswich, Norwich and York tried schemes like this, which the government later followed nationally.