Elizabeth I: Early Economic, Social & Religious Developments (AQA A Level History: Component 1: Breadth study): Revision Note

Summary

• Elizabeth's government tackled the debasement problem directly, carrying out a full coinage revaluation between 1560 and 1561

• The Statute of Artificers (1563) regulated wages, apprenticeships and labour movement through a national framework

• The Poor Law (1563) strengthened parish poor relief by allowing compulsory contributions from those who refused to give voluntarily

  • This was a significant step towards a national welfare system

• Catholic practice persisted in many parishes despite the settlement

  • Only around half of Justices of the Peace (JPs) in 1564 could be actively relied upon to support it

• The Council of Trent (1563) hardened Catholic Europe's position and made compromise with Rome increasingly unlikely

• By 1563, England was more stable than in 1558

  • But the "mid-Tudor crisis debate" shows there is genuine disagreement about whether the period 1547 to 1563 should be called a crisis at all

Economic Conditions in England, 1558–1563

• The economic problems Elizabeth inherited were structural and long-term

  • They were not caused by Mary I's government alone

  • Population growth, inflation and the legacy of debasement had shaped the economy across the Tudor period

The coinage revaluation, 1560–1561

• The most important economic action of Elizabeth's early reign was the coinage revaluation

  • Debased coins had driven inflation and undermined confidence in English currency since the 1540s

  • Mary's government had planned a revaluation but did not carry it out

• Thomas Gresham, the Crown's financial agent in Antwerp, led the revaluation

  • Debased coins were recalled, melted down and reminted with proper silver content

  • This reflected what later became known as Gresham’s Law: bad money drives out good

  • The process was largely complete by 1561

• It did not solve inflation, which had deeper structural causes, but it restored confidence in English currency and removed one source of instability

The cloth trade

• The cloth trade had crashed in 1551 and remained unstable under Mary

  • Under Elizabeth, it began a partial recovery

• Philip II of Spain temporarily banned English cloth imports to the Netherlands in 1563

  • Officially it was to prevent plague spreading; in reality, it reflected trade tensions

  • Both sides backed down and trade carried on as normal in 1564

• This episode showed how vulnerable English exports remained to political decisions made in Madrid and Brussels

The Statute of Artificers, 1563

• The Statute of Artificers was a major piece of economic legislation passed in Parliament in 1563

• The Statute was a sign of active economic management

  • The government was responding to disruption caused by debasement, population growth and enclosure, not simply reacting to events

The Poor Law, 1563

• The Poor Law of 1563 built on earlier legislation (1552) to strengthen poor relief

• For the first time, contributions to poor relief became compulsory

  • Those who refused to contribute could be taken to court and imprisoned

• This legislation was a significant step

  • For the first time, the state compelled citizens to fund welfare

• The later Poor Laws of 1597 and 1601 developed this further

Social Change & Regional Issues in Elizabeth’s Early Reign

• The basic social structure of Tudor England was unchanged by the upheavals of 1547 to 1563

  • The Crown, Church, nobility, gentry, yeomanry and poor occupied the same positions as before

    • The gentry consolidated their position

• One significant social development across the mid-Tudor period was the growing strength of the gentry

  • The dissolution of the monasteries had put large quantities of former Church land onto the market

  • The gentry benefitted the most, buying or leasing former monastic estates

  • The number and influence of gentry families increased significantly across the Tudor period

• The rising gentry was not a destabilising force

  • They had a strong interest in social order and stable government

Population pressure and poverty

• Population growth was the underlying driver of social stress across the whole Tudor period

• The population had risen from around 1.5 million in 1470 to around 3 million by the 1550s

  • A surplus of labour meant wages could not keep pace with prices

  • Around 50% of the rural and urban poor lived at or below subsistence level

  • When harvests failed, suffering was acute

• Vagrancy was a persistent concern, addressed by successive Poor Law legislation

• Some historians argue the effects of enclosure have been exaggerated

  • Research suggests that, in good weather, there was sufficient farmland to support the population

Regional variation

• England in the early 1560s was not economically or socially uniform; regional differences mattered

Religious Tensions & Developments in Elizabeth’s Early Reign

The gap between legislation and reality

• The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity outlined what the Church of England was supposed to be

• In many parishes, priests simply continued Catholic practice and ignored the new Prayer Book

• A survey of Justices of the Peace in 1564 found that only around half could be actively relied upon to enforce the settlement

• Fines for non-attendance at church (recusancy) were small and rarely enforced in the early years

  • The government deliberately allowed time for change rather than forcing immediate compliance

Why the settlement was accepted in most parishes

• Most ordinary people were neither strongly Catholic nor strongly Protestant

  • They wanted familiar religious practice, not theological argument

  • The conservative visual appearance of the settlement helped: vestments, crosses and a familiar Prayer Book gave continuity

Catholic recusancy in practice

• Around 400 clergy refused the settlement and lost their livings

  • Almost all Marian bishops were dismissed

    • This gave Elizabeth the opportunity to appoint an enthusiastic Protestant episcopal leadership

• Catholic practice persisted longest in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Durham

  • This is where traditional Catholic loyalties were strongest and Protestant reform had made the least impact

• For most recusants in this period, it was a quiet non-compliance rather than active resistance

• The deeper Catholic challenge (seminary priests, Jesuit missions and Papal excommunication) came after 1563

Early Puritan pressures

• Puritan dissatisfaction was present from the start but manageable in the early years

  • The 39 Articles (1563) nearly fell to Puritan pressure, but passed very narrowly in Convocation

• Puritan pressures become much deeper in 1566 with the Vestiarian Controversy and parliamentary clashes

The Council of Trent, 1563

• The Council of Trent had been meeting since 1545; it concluded in 1563

• It produced hardline decrees that ended any possibility of compromise between Catholicism and Protestantism

  • It reflected a broader reinvigoration of Catholicism across Europe against both Protestants and the Ottoman Turks

• Some Catholics wanted Elizabeth excommunicated immediately after the Council of Trent, but Philip II resisted, hoping she might still be brought back into the Catholic fold for political reasons

• The Council of Trent's conclusions had long-term significance

  • England was now definitively Protestant, and the gap with Catholic Europe was hardening

• The papal excommunication of Elizabeth eventually came in 1570

How Stable Was England by 1563?

• This is a synoptic question spanning government, economy, society, religion and foreign policy across the whole period 1558 to 1563

To What Extent was there a Mid-Tudor Crisis?

• This is the major synoptic debate question for this section of the course

  • It spans the period from Henry VIII's last years (approximately 1540) through to 1563

• Make sure you are drawing upon evidence from the reigns of Edward VI, Mary I and early Elizabeth simultaneously

What does "crisis" mean?

• The word crisis is key in this question, you need to have a clear meaning to approach it properly

• A simple definition is "a time of intense danger or difficulty"

  • Below is how it may be approached with regards to the factors we have explored

• The strongest answers show that evidence is different for each dimension

  • What looks like a crisis in one area may look like manageable difficulty in another

• Below is some evidence for each side, the list is not exhaustive

  • Make sure you use evidence from the whole ''Instability and Consolidation: 'The Mid-Tudor Crisis', 1547–1563" section

Evidence that supports the "crisis" view

• Government weakness

  • Somerset and Northumberland both fell from power violently

  • The Lady Jane Grey episode showed how close to breakdown the succession could come

  • The existence of Mary, Queen of Scots as a rival claimant created ongoing dynastic uncertainty

• Religious upheaval

  • England experienced four religious changes in 11 years

  • Parishes were pulled in different directions repeatedly

• Rebellions

  • The Western Rising and Kett's Rebellion (1549) showed how close to the edge the government came

• Economy

  • Debasement, successive harvest failures, the cloth trade crash and plague created genuine misery for the poor

    • Especially in 1549 and 1556–1558

• Foreign policy

  • Loss of Calais, French power in Scotland, dependency on Spain and the humiliation at Le Havre all pointed to England's weaknesses

• Mary's reign specifically

  • The marriage to Philip II, the loss of Calais, the Marian persecutions and the harvest failures of 1555–1556 are all evidence that can be used here

Key historian

Evidence that challenges the "crisis" view

• Government never actually collapsed

  • Northumberland stabilised government after 1549

  • Mary suppressed Wyatt's rebellion

  • Elizabeth inherited working institutions

• No rebellion succeeded

  • The Western Rising and Kett's Rebellion were serious, but were suppressed

  • No challenger came close to toppling the Crown

• The social hierarchy was never genuinely threatened

  • The gentry emerged from the period stronger, not weaker

• Economic problems were structural and long-term

  • Population growth and inflation predated the "mid-Tudor crisis" and continued after it

  • Blaming specific governments is misleading

• England avoided civil war

  • France and Germany descended into devastating religious conflict, England did not

• Many reforms credited to Elizabeth were begun earlier

  • The coinage revaluation was planned under Mary

  • The Book of Rates, Exchequer reform and Privy Council professionalisation were all mid-Tudor achievements

Key historian

• There are different ways to approach the question:

  • Different historians focus on different aspects

    • A historian studying government competence may reach a different verdict from one studying the experience of the poor

  • Perspective matters

    • Looking backward from Elizabeth's achievements makes the mid-Tudor period look weak. Looking forward from Henry VIII's reign makes it look more continuous

  • Personal viewpoints affect judgements

    • Historians sympathetic to Protestant martyrs under Mary may be more inclined to call the period a crisis than those focused on administrative history