Mary I: Economic & Social Change (AQA A Level History: Component 1: Breadth study): Revision Note

Summary

• Mary inherited serious economic problems from Henry VIII and Edward VI

  • Ongoing inflation, debasement (partially addressed under Northumberland) and population pressures served as the key structural pressures during her reign

  • The harvest failures of 1555 and 1556 caused malnutrition and starvation among the poor

• Plague outbreaks intensified from 1556 and continued intermittently into Elizabeth's reign, compounding the social distress

• The cloth trade remained unstable

  • The Book of Rates (1558) attempted to improve Crown revenues but provoked hostility from merchants

• Mary's government made genuine financial reforms, including planning the revaluation of the coinage

• Economic and religious experiences varied significantly by region

  • The north and west were generally more supportive of the restoration

  • London and the south-east showed more resistance

• Historians disagree on how serious the problems were

  • Heard argues the government was never in danger of collapse

  • Others point to genuine crisis conditions in 1556 and 1558

Economic Problems under Mary I: Trade, Harvests & Financial Reform

• Mary inherited a deeply unstable economy

  • Debasement (partially addressed by Northumberland), inflation and population pressures were ongoing problems from previous reigns

The harvest failures

• The most serious economic problems specific to Mary's reign were the harvest failures

• Poor harvests:

  • 1555: Food prices rose sharply

  • 1556: Among the worst of the mid-Tudor period

• Impact:

  • The combination of the two successive harvest failures caused severe malnutrition and episodes of famine among the poor

  • Grain prices reached extreme levels

    • This meant that bread, the staple food of the poor, became unaffordable for many

Plague and epidemic disease

• Severe outbreaks of plague began in 1556 and continued into Elizabeth's reign

• Sweating sickness (a fast-acting and poorly understood epidemic disease) struck in 1557 and 1558

• Impact:

  • These epidemics compounded the effect of the harvest failures

  • Population growth increased demand for food and land, pushing up prices and placing pressure on wages and resources

  • The combination of the famine and epidemic diseases in 1556 and 1558 was among the worst conditions experienced in decades

The cloth trade

• England's economy was heavily dependent on cloth exports to Antwerp

• The cloth trade had already slumped badly in 1551

  • Under Mary, it partially recovered but remained unstable

• The war with France from 1557 further disrupted trade routes

• The new Book of Rates (1558) significantly increased Crown customs income (roughly tripling it)

  • But it coincided with another collapse in cloth demand

    • The timing provoked serious hostility from the merchant community, who felt they were being taxed during a downturn

Currency revaluation plans

• Mary's government drew up plans to address the debasement problem that had driven inflation since the 1540s

  • They were not implemented until Elizabeth I's reign, but much of the groundwork was laid under Mary

    • This is one of several administrative achievements that are often credited to Elizabeth

Social Change & Regional Issues under Mary I

• Social conditions under Mary were shaped by two overlapping forces:

  • The harvest and plague crises of 1556–1558

  • The effects of religious change on parish life

The impact on ordinary people

• The harvest failures and plague hit the rural poor hardest

  • Rising food prices meant the basic necessities of life became unaffordable for many at the bottom of society

  • Cloth workers in East Anglia and the west faced unemployment from the trade slump

  • Urban workers were also affected as trade disruption reduced employment

Government responses to social problems

• The government took steps to address social distress

  • Extended Poor Law (1555)

    • Licensed beggars were given badges

    • Parishes were encouraged to organise charitable giving more formally

  • Enclosure conversion

    • Encouragement was given to converting pasture back to arable land

  • Urban employment

    • The movement of industries from towns to the countryside was discouraged to protect urban employment

• These were modest measures

  • The scale of the problems outpaced the government's response

The social impact of religious change

• The restoration of Catholicism was welcomed in many areas

  • Familiar practices returned to parishes

  • In some areas, people had continued Catholic practices during Edward VI’s reign

    • The restoration felt like a return to normality

• The removal of married clergy caused disruption

  • Priests with families were forced to choose between their parishes and their households

Regional variation

• England in the 1550s was not a religiously or economically uniform country

How Serious were the Economic & Social Problems under Mary I?

• Use the evidence below to build your own argument

• The question asks how serious the problems were, not whether the reign was a success or failure overall

Evidence that the problems were serious

• The harvest failures of 1555 and 1556 caused genuine malnutrition and starvation

  • This was one of the worst subsistence crises of the century

• Incidences of plague from 1556 compounded the effects from the harvests

  • The combination of famine and epidemic disease created conditions of acute social distress from 1556 to 1558

• The cloth trade remained unstable

  • Unemployment among textile workers in East Anglia and the west was a recurring problem

• The war with France from 1557 added to the financial burden at exactly the moment when the economy was already under severe strain

• Government responses were modest

  • The extended Poor Law and enclosure conversion encouragement were real but insufficient given the scale of the crises

• The debasement problem was not resolved during Mary's reign

  • The revaluation plans were drawn up but not implemented

Evidence that the problems were less serious than often suggested

• The harvest failures and plague were natural disasters

  • They were not caused by government policy and were outside any government control

• Financial administration was being strengthened

  • The currency plans show a government that was actively addressing structural problems

• Social order was maintained

  • There were no major rebellions under Mary comparable to 1549

  • The government managed social pressures without losing control

• Regional variation means the picture was uneven

  • Economic distress was concentrated in particular areas and periods

  • Not uniform across the country

• Many reforms credited to Elizabeth began under Mary's government

  • The administrative groundwork for financial recovery was laid during this reign

• For many people, life continued relatively normally for many people

  • The crises, though real, affected specific groups and regions rather than the whole population simultaneously

Key historian