By 1603, It was clear that the English people had benefited little in social and economic terms from the rule of Elizabeth I. Assess the validity of this view.
18/25 marks
factors: Gentries, Nobilities
challenge: 3rd factor should be commoners
By 1603, It was clear that the English people had benefited little in social and economic
terms from the rule of Elizabeth I. Assess the validity of this view.
To some extent there was only a certain social class that had benefited more than others.
The gentries would benefit more as they were given more opportunities to change their
social status and social circles, as this would open doors for the commoners and social
mobility. The merchants were more dependent on trade and the economy rather than the
nobility who would be dependent on Elizabeth. Therefore Elizabeth’s actions towards the
nobility in limiting their influence and stopping social and economic benefit from the nobles
may have been deliberate.
It was clear that at the start of her reign Elizabeth wanted to limit the nobles powers. This
started by Elizabeths reducing her councillors from 50 to 11 as she wanted a stronger grip
on her ruling as well as stopping potential threats. IN 1547-1572 the highest title was Duke
and there were only 4 holders, Somerset,Northumberland, Suffolk and Norfolk but died a
traitor's death . As a result Elizabeth was careful not to create anymore Dukes, as she
wanted to control social groups gains and benefits of her reign, and it clearly wasn’t going to
be the nobility. This can be highlighted by Elizabeth’s reliance on a selected few rather than
on a council like her previous predecessors. An example of this is William Cecil who became
Elizabeth I's most trusted Ministers , and served her for 40 years till his death, due to his
skills and loyalty. Elizabeth had also allowed people to become part of the greater gentry and
rival the old nobles families, such as sir Christopher hatton, son of a country gentleman, and
was able to dominate court in the 1570s due to his loyalty to Elizabeth. Therefore, as the
amount of gentries came into court it is significant that Elizabeth valued their loyalty above
the old noble families and this led to the increase in the gentries at Elizabeth’s disposal and
the easy removal of nobility threats as she began limiting their influence socially and
politically.
Furthermore, it was oversimplified to say that the English people had little benefits in social
and economic terms, when the gentries were given more benefits as they embraced a wider
social group such as knights through to modest landowners. This demonstrates that the
properties of the very wealthy would have also increased. By 1603, 9% of the land was
owned by Knights and just below 10% owned by the traditional nobility. However, the proper
laws in 1563 had the idle poor whipped and returned to their Parishy of origin, and were
fined if they begged without a licence therefore little progression since 1576. The Justice of
the Peace required us to buy the raw materials for those who were genuinely unemployed.
As the grentries grew there were more JPs and they were overseeing the poor laws and by
1603, there were 50 per county, therefore they gained more responsibilities for social and
economic problems especially when the population grew to be 4.1 million by 1600. The
gentries, although had more responsibilities, only gave wealth during Elizabeth's society and
was more significant as the poor laws took place.
Although the gap between rich and poor widened, there could still be changing of social
status and it was the beginning of social integration as marriages between old landed Elite
and farmer townsmen. There were rises of Urban elite as merchants and artisans began to
build on trade and gaining more power which can be seen when they controlled
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