Year 8 - History
Tudor attitudes to poverty and the Elizabethan Poor Law (1601)
Life in Tudor England: was there a 'Golden Age' for the poor?
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Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils assess the extent to which Elizabethan England represented a 'Golden Age' for the poor. They examine the causes of poverty in this period and learn about contemporary responses to this growing problem before evaluating whether things improved for this group.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to explain how far attitudes to the poor changed during the Tudor period.
Key Notes
- Monasteries supported the poor in the early Tudor period.
- After the dissolution of the monasteries, many people were forced to become vagrants and beggars.
- Tudor monarchs and the elite were unsympathetic towards vagrants and beggars.
- The 1601 Poor Law, issued by Elizabeth I, was the most far-reaching Act to support those living in poverty.
Vocabulary To Learn
- parish: a parish is a small administrative district that has its own church and priest
- vagabond: a vagabond is someone who wanders from place to place without a home or a job
- Act: an Act is a law passed by Parliament
- impotent: impotent means helpless or powerless or unable to take effective action
- idle: idle means avoiding work or being lazy
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Governments and societies have generally been sympathetic to people in extreme poverty who may have been reduced to begging.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Summarise this historical learning in two key ideas.
Monasteries supported the poor in the early Tudor period. After the dissolution of the monasteries, many people were forced to become vagrants and beggars.
2. Define this history term and explain why it matters in this topic. 'parish'
a parish is a small administrative district that has its own church and priest.
3. Correct this common history misconception using evidence language.
Mistake: Governments and societies have generally been sympathetic to people in extreme poverty who may have been reduced to begging. Correction: Throughout much of history, there has been little sympathy for people in extreme poverty from the majority of governments and societies, even when the circumstances that drove people into poverty are clearly out of their own control.
More Lessons In This Unit
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