Every person has a right and responsibility to be a citizen of their own country, living at the best as they can be. People have the responsibilities to become leaders, like Queen Elizabeth I, to rule Great Britain. Some people under the queen are struggling to live; people like the poor or the paupers in the 17th century. Queen Elizabeth attained recognition as an absolute monarch and a responsible Tudor queen at that time. She achieved numerous goals that helped herself and her people prosper. There was one achievement that affected many people, especially the poor, which was the Elizabethan Poor Law. It organized the poor and affected future poor laws after that.
Queen Elizabeth I notices the growing number of paupers in Great Britain. She and the Parliament had responsibility over these people and tried to figure out what to do. Parliament tried to avoid starvation and are struggling to have the authority over the public. Unfortunately, Great Britain suffered through economic situations. There were inflation of food prices. Prices in grain rose about 70% in the 17th percent. There was famine throughout the land. The workers’, especially the farmers, wages declined about 60%. Unfortunately, there was no source of relief because of the disintegrating feudal system (Boyer). The rest of the population mostly moved to provinces and towns. Only a few of the paupers had the ability to earn their own wages. Parliament sought help from numeral parishes. Although, there were misunderstandings within the paupers wandering place to place with no occupation. An act was issued later for this problem to punish the vagabonds and offer some poor relief. They were usually hanged (Bliss).
The paupers struggled in English society. There were d...
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• Boyer, George. “English Poor Laws”. EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. May 7, 2002.
< http://eh.net/encyclopedia/english-poor-laws/>
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• "Poor Relief 1601-1834." Lincolnshire Archives. N.p.. Web. 11 Feb 2014. .
• "Poor Law Records." Discovering English Ancestors. N.p., 2012. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. .
• "A Brief Explanation of the Poor Law in respect of Rural Communities 1601 - 1834." Rossbret Workhouse. N.p.. Web. 27 Feb 2014. .
The layout of the book devotes each chapter to a key figure in Anne’s case. The story begins, fittingly, with Anne Orthwood, the young indentured servant, who had a brief affair with the young nephew of Colonel William Kendall who was of high social standing in the community. Pagan does a masterful job of describing the human aspect of the people surrounding each case. He ties the human element with the decisions made by the justices of the peace. These ties offer a clear understanding of the malleability of the laws and the legal modifications that were made by empowered justices. For example, indentured contracts became extremely pliable to local interests. Anne’s indenture was sold three times in two years, each was without her consent as would have been needed in England. The second sale of Anne’s indenture provoked the case of Waters v. Bishopp, in which Waters had discovered Anne’s pregnancy and sued Bishopp for breach of contract and selling a “faulty product”. The English followed the caveat emptor rule, in which a...
The word felon comes from the Saxon, or Old-English, language. The word is a compound of the words fell as in wrong-doing and one. So, when the world felon is broken apart, it can be translated to mean the evil or wicked one (Chapter XVII: Of Sundry Kinds of Punishment Appointed For Offenders). Felons are a common problem now and always have been. However, the way said criminals were treated was very different at the time of the Elizabethan Era, from 1558-1603. As Linda Alchin stated, Elizabethan England and Elizabethan Crime and Punishment- not a happy subject. Violent times,” (Alchin). During the Elizabethan Era, criminals were severely and brutally punished for even minor crimes such as theft and even as little as begging. During the time of Queen Elizabeth I rule, crimes and punishments were taken to a whole new level.
Elizabethan based their people upon the divine order, known as the Great Chain of being, which accommodated everything in the whole universe.
In February, 1587, Queen Elizabeth had ordered her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scotts, to her execution to eliminate all possibilities of any threats to her throne. This event would reflect the relentless violence and unforgiving punishments of the judicial system in Elizabethan Era. Criminals during Queen Elizabeth’s reign in England, known as the Elizabethan Era, were subject to harsh, violent punishments for their crimes. England was separated into two social classes, which were the nobility, and the commoners. Within each class, the punishments were defined by the class and type of crime that had been committed. Under the Tudor rule, the punishments dating back to the middle ages were revived. Such gruesome punishments were carried out to strike fear into the hearts of the English citizens and lower crime rate. There were a wide range of crimes that a person could be prosecuted for, and even included the act of witchcraft and alchemy. Of course, today the American court system would find prosecutions of witchcraft and alchemy ridiculous. However, in the Elizabethan Era, people accused of even the most petty of crimes would be immediately placed in prison to await their sentences, often resulting in death. Public executions were a common practice, and were often a form of entertainment for a crowd of spectators. Often considered as the “Golden Age” in English history, England’s court systems became an essential part of society because cruel punishments were severe enough to strike fear into English citizens as well as demonstrating the influence and power of Queen Elizabeth’s rule.
Today some people can get away with just about any small crime with no punishments, but in the Elizabethan era you'd think twice before committing a crime. For stealing fruit in the Elizabethan era you can lose your hand. Today you would get community service or some other small punishment. The punishment you were given had to do with the crime, your wealth, and who you were connected to.
Ros, Maggi. “Food and Your Lifestyle.” Life in Elizabethan England. 2008. 30 Sept. 2016. .
To begin, there were many various crimes that the commoners committed in the Elizabethan Era. A few of the common crimes were theft,
' (Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil 1845, book 2, chapter 5). Bibliography. Digby, A. (1982) The Poor Law in 19th Century Englandand Wales. London: Chameleon Press ltd.
The Elizabeth Poor Law, Act of 1601: were very important in the development of social welfare in North America because, of the migration of American settlers from England and Europe in the early part of the 17th century. They came with semi-feudal ideas and, created communal, hierarchical and regulated enclaves that conformed to older traditions. As North America gained strong popularity, and the increase in population, it was important to have a foundation or a guide that would help addressed the needs of the poor. The Elizabeth Poor Laws served as the guide f...
The Elizabethans had a very static and structured social caste system. From rocks to angels and God the Elizabethans in England had a place for them. As seen in the illustration the stairs represent different social classes. At the very top are the spiritual beings of course, because the English in this time period valued religion over all else. In the article the author saw that Shakespearean people had a very organized way to put all objects. First they put spiritual beings with God at the top and human souls at the bottom. After that was living organisms such as humans and plants which is where most attention was payed. From the reading passage it can be seen that as your rank in society increases you start to develop certain characteristics so a king may have some characteristics a peasant doesn’t and therefore is placed on a
Kulikoff, A. (2000). From British peasants to colonial American farmers. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
However, this system of laws changed much throughout the century. The Chancery became merely a joke for there you could not present evidence during trials and Parliament came to view it as necessary for matters of will and divorce to be referred to new civil courts instead of the church. In 1873 the 3 common law courts and the Chancery were combined to make the Supreme Court
In the Middle Ages houses of the poor and wealthy were often alike, except for the wealthy because they could occupy all their floors of the house. Their business would be on the first floor, living quarters on the second, and servant’s quarters on the third. If they family were poor they might have several families living under one roof, which makes the house very crowded (Gies, 243).
"Elizabethan Era." Elizabethan Era | The Lost Colony. The Lost Colony, 2013. Web. 20 Mar.
middle of paper ... ... Sommerville, J.P. Economy and Society in Early Modern England. "Health, mortality and popu- lation. "