This polity begins with the start of the Tudor dynasty, commencing with Henry VII’s reign, and runs until the end of the Glorious Revolution in 1689.
This period incorporates immense changes in technology, science, medicine, demographics as well as seeing the creation of the British Empire and its widespread colonisation of countries around the world.
[1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al: 2013) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
| none |
| British Empire I |
| Succeeding: British Empire I (gb_british_emp_1) [continuity] | |
| Preceding: Plantagenet England (gb_england_plantagenet) [None] |
| 60,000 people | 1520 CE |
| 200,000 people | 1600 CE |
| 209,331 km2 | 1601 CE |
| 2,260,000 people | 1525 CE |
| 3,270,000 people | 1571 CE |
| 4,100,000 people | 1601 CE |
| 901 |
| Year Range | Tudor and Early Stuart England (gb_england_tudor_and_early_stuart) was in: |
|---|
“Of England’s 2.2 million people in 1485, less than 10 percent lived in cities. Of these, London was by far the largest (see map 3). It was at once the capital, the legal center, and the primary seaport for trade with Europe.” [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 16) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
In general the peak of prosperity seems to have taken place between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries – that is with the final decades of Elizabeth I’s Tudor reign and the beginning of the Stuart dynasty under James VI (of Scotland) and I (of England). “Inflation, itself a function of demographic growth, meant that ‘for those with enough land to feed themselves and still have some left over for the market, the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries were a period of unprecedented prosperity’.” [1] “Between 1590 and 1640 in particular, the peak of litigation coincided with the application of ‘the finishing touches’ to the ‘new jurisprudence’ (i.e. judge-made law).134 Indeed, if there was an unusually large charge of intellectual electricity around the law at the turn of the sixteenth century, there was political electricty too.135 Although the emergence of political concern among the legal profession and the elevation of common law supremacy to the status of a constitutional doctrine is usually dated to the 1620s, the politicisation of the judiciary was underway in the late sixteenth century.” [1] “Perhaps this prosperity brought about increased fertility or perhaps there was a fall in the age of marriage. It does appear that by the 1480s a higher proportion of the population was marrying, which must have contributed to the rising birth-rate. Despite bad harvests in 1519-21, 1527-9, and 1544-5, fertility was high by 1550, when the evidence of parish registers is fully available. Demographers also calculate that expectation of life at birth was better after 1564 than before, though it varied from 41. 7 years in 1581 to 35. 5 years in 1591. In fact, between 1564 and 1586 mortality was less severe than it would be again before the end of the Napoleonic Wars: life expectancy at birth was roughly thirty-eight years. Although this should not obscure the fact that many children died in infancy while others lived to be fifty and a few to be ninety, the central portion of Elizabeth’s reign was spared a crisis: the annual deathrate was never higher than 2.68 per cent of the population.” [2]
[1]: (Hindle 2002: 14) Hindle, Steve. 2002. The State and Social Change in Early Modern England, 1550–1640 (London: Palgrave https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GVIZDIC9
[2]: (Guy 1988: 33) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
The beginning of the Tudor period with Henry VII’s ascension to the throne until the Glorious Revolution in 1689.
King James II of England was deposed and replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William, who invaded from the Netherlands, but most elites remained in place.
Inhabitants. London was by far the most densely populated city in England – indeed it was the largest in Europe. The population of the city was 50,000 in 1485 and grew to around 500,000 inhabitants by 1700. The next largest cities of Norwich, Bristol, Coventry and York had less than 10,000 inhabitants each. [1] “In 1520 London was already far and away the greatest city in England with perhaps 60,000 people. By 1600 it had grown to about 200,000 people and by the end of the seventeenth century it would reach over half a million.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 16, 29) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 194-195) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Inhabitants. London was by far the most densely populated city in England – indeed it was the largest in Europe. The population of the city was 50,000 in 1485 and grew to around 500,000 inhabitants by 1700. The next largest cities of Norwich, Bristol, Coventry and York had less than 10,000 inhabitants each. [1] “In 1520 London was already far and away the greatest city in England with perhaps 60,000 people. By 1600 it had grown to about 200,000 people and by the end of the seventeenth century it would reach over half a million.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 16, 29) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 194-195) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
in squared kilometers. Actual territory sizes still to be found as they have not been specified in any of the consulted sources. The Tudor dynasty held the Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Ireland, Principality of Wales and a small amount of land in Calais, France. However, “When England supported a Spanish invasion of France, Henry II of France sent Francis Duke of Guise against English-held Calais, defended by Lord Thomas Wentworth… When the city capitulated, England lost her last territory in France (1–8 January 1558).” [1] After Elizabeth I’s death and the ascension of James I of Scotland to the English throne, Scotland was also brought under the territory of the English crown. This is roughly equally to modern Britain’s territory: “Great Britain, which includes the constituent units of England, Wales, and Scotland, is the world’s ninth-largest island. It covers about 80,823 square miles (209,331 square kilometers) and extends about 600 miles (966 kilometers) from north to south and about 300 miles (483 kilometers) from east to west. Britain is the largest island of the British Isles, an archipelago—that is, a group of islands.” [2]
[1]: (Jaques 2007: 184) Jaques, Tony. 2007. Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A-E. Greenwood Publishing Group. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/79BVTXM3
[2]: (Burns 2010: ) Burns, William. 2010. A Brief History of Great Britain. New York: Facts on File. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NWTBBZB5
People. English population totals taken from John Guy, Tudor England. [1]
[1]: (Guy 1988: 32) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
People. English population totals taken from John Guy, Tudor England. [1]
[1]: (Guy 1988: 32) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
in kilometers. From London to the northernmost city of Inverness in Scotland is 901 kilometres. However, this is by modern roads so the route taken during this polity period is likely to have been much longer. Awaiting to see if further sources reveal the true distance. [1]
[1]: (https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/London/Inverness/@56.0545667,-8.0421939,6.56z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x47d8a00baf21de75:0x52963a5addd52a99!2m2!1d-0.1275862!2d51.5072178!1m5!1m1!1s0x488f715b2d17de2b:0x624309d12e3ec43d!2m2!1d-4.224721!2d57.477773!3e0
levels.Of England’s 2.2 million people in 1485, less than 10 percent lived in cities. Of these, London was by far the largest (see map 3). It was at once the capital, the legal center, and the primary seaport for trade with Europe... The next largest cities – Norwich in East Anglia, Bristol (a seaport off the huge Bristol Channel at the mouth of the Severn) to the west, Coventry in the south Midlands, and York in the North – had no more than 10,000 people each in 1485. Below them came major county towns like Dorchester or Stafford and cathedral cities like Lincoln or Salisbury with a few thousand inhabitants apiece… Below this level, the country was dotted by numerous market towns ranging in population from a few hundred to one thousand. (map 3)… Abingdon, then in Berkshire, and Richmond in Yorkshire are good examples. Such towns served relatively small rural areas, perhaps 6 to 12 miles in radius…These towns were not very urban: they consisted of only a few streets, a market square, and the surrounding land, which most townsmen farmed to supplement their income from trade. On market days and some holy days their populations would swell. Otherwise we would barely recognize them as towns. Most English men and women lived in the countryside – not in cities or even towns, but in settlements of, perhaps, 50 to 300 people.” [1] : 1. Capital city - London :: 2. Major Cities ::: 3. Market towns :::: 4. Villages ::::: 5. Hamlets
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 16-18) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
levels. [1] [2] The Roman Catholic Church had two hierarchies, one for secular clergy and the other for regulated clergy: Secular Clergy: : 1. Pope :: 2. Archbishops ::: 3. Bishops :::: 4. Priests Regulated Clergy: : 1. Pope :: 2. Masters of Orders ::: 3. Abbotts and Prioresses :::: 4. Monks, Nuns, Canons, Friars The Church of England, from its creation during Henry VIII’s reign had a different structure, with the King as the head of the church: : 1. The King :: 2. Archbishops ::: 3. Bishops :::: 4. Archdeacon :::: 5. Priest ::::: 6. Chaplain :::::: 7. Ecclesiastical officials
[1]: (Prestwich 2005: 69-72) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 30) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
levels.: 1. King :: 2. General [1] ::: 3. Commanders [1] :::: 4. Captains [2] :::::: 5. Knight Banneret [3] :::::: 6. Knights [4] :::::: 7. Knight Bachelor [5] ::::::: 8. Esquire [6] :::::::: 9. Cavalry [1] ::::::::: 10. Archers [2] :::::::::: 11. Infantry Soldiers [7]
[1]: (Ormrod 2000: 290. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Y46E5QCH
[2]: (Coss 2019: 41) Coss, Peter. 2018. ‘Andrew Ayton, the Military Community and the Evolution of the Gentry in Fourteenth-Century England’, in Military Communities in Late Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Andrew Ayton, ed. Craig L. Lambert, David Simpkin, and Gary P. Baker, vol. 44 (Boydell & Brewer, 2018), 31–50, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781787442221.007. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/WIE6TS8M
[3]: (Simpkin 2018: 50-53. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4V56P62M
[4]: (Coss 2019: 37) Coss, Peter. 2018. ‘Andrew Ayton, the Military Community and the Evolution of the Gentry in Fourteenth-Century England’, in Military Communities in Late Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Andrew Ayton, ed. Craig L. Lambert, David Simpkin, and Gary P. Baker, vol. 44 (Boydell & Brewer, 2018), 31–50, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781787442221.007. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/WIE6TS8M
[5]: (Simpkin 2018: 56. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4V56P62M
[6]: (Coss 2019: 37. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/WIE6TS8M.
[7]: (Coss 2019: 40-42) Coss, Peter. 2018. ‘Andrew Ayton, the Military Community and the Evolution of the Gentry in Fourteenth-Century England’, in Military Communities in Late Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Andrew Ayton, ed. Craig L. Lambert, David Simpkin, and Gary P. Baker, vol. 44 (Boydell & Brewer, 2018), 31–50, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781787442221.007. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/WIE6TS8M
levels.The governmental structure of the early modern period continued over from the preceding period of Plantagenet England. :1. King : The king was at the very top of all social and administrative hierarchies. However by this period he was more accountable to his council and the aristocracy, though ultimately, his decision on all state matters was final. [1] The kings council usually consisted of a mixture of trusted nobles, experienced officials (usually the chancellor and treasurer), ecclesiastical members, judges and sometimes a close and trusted member of his family. [1] Administrative duties were divided between the King’s Household, and the two central administrative departments: the exchequer and the chancery. The law courts were also an integral part of government. State and local departments were not truly separated, but they were hierarchical in the local officials reported into direct lines to the main state department. [2] ::2. The King’s Household The Kings Household was an administrative department that was responsible for a variety of duties and was a central hub of the government. It provided for the domestic and organisational needs of the court as well as [3] :: 2.1 The Wardrobe :: The wardrobe was the financial department of the king’s household and at times would out-rank the exchequer in terms of financial hierarchy. Orders issued under the privy seal to the exchequer and chancery came from the wardrobe. By the reign of Edward III the exchequer was recognised as the head department of financial administration, though when it suited the king, the wardrobe would be used to issue huge sums of money sum – without the consent of the exchequer – such as during the French War in the 1330’s and military campaigns. [4] ::: 2.2 Clerks of the Household ::: Responsible for the organisation of war, recruitment of soldiers and upper management, pay and board. [3] ::2. The Exchequer “The exchequer was divided into two sections, the lower, which dealt with money paid in and the issue if receipts in the form of wooden tallies, and the upper, which was the court where accounts were rendered and heard.” It assigned revenue. [5] :: 2.1 Treasurer [6] ::: 2.2 Chief Baron of the Exchequer [7] :::: 2.3 Chamberlains [8] ::::: 2.4 Sheriff [9] :::::: 2.5 Under-sheriffs [10] ::::::: 2.6 Clerks [10] :::::: 2.5 Baliffs [10] ::::::: 2.6 Sub-Baliffs [10] ::2. Chancery The chancery issued writs and in the early period was closely linked to the King’s Household. However after being divided between Gascony and England during Edward I’s campaign in the 1280’s, the chancery became increasingly separate from the royal household and no longer followed the king around as the Household did and by Edward III’s reign was based permanently at Westminster in London. [11] :: 2.1 Chancellor [1] ::: 2.2 Sergeants [11] :::: 2.3 Masters :::: Twelve ‘Masters’ (senior clerks) ran the department and managed the clerks, curistors, and assistant clerks and servants below them. [11] ::::: 2.4 Clerks ::::: By the fourteenth century around one hundred clerks were employed. Records from 1324 show that they were producing about eighty writs and day – 29,000 in that year. [11] :::::: 2.5 Curistors :::::: Those who wrote standardised writs. [11] ::::::: 2.6 Assistant Clerks [11] The law courts were divided between the King’s Bench and the Common Pleas. ::2. The King’s Bench :: The King’s Bench travelled with the king in order to action any necessary legal work immediately. It also dealt with appeals from the lower courts and criminal matters. [11] ::2. The Common Pleas :: The Common Pleas was the court based permanently at Westminster and dealt mainly with property matters. [11]
[1]: (Prestwich 2005: 57) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[2]: (Prestwich 2005: 58, 60, 66) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[3]: (Prestwich 2005: 58) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[4]: (Prestwich 2005: 58-60) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[5]: (Prestwich 2005: 58, 60) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[6]: (Prestwich 2005: 57, 59) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[7]: (Prestwich 2005: 59) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[8]: ( Prestwich 2005: 59) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[9]: (Prestwich 2005: 57, 66-67) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[10]: (Prestwich 2005: 66-67) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[11]: (Prestwich 2005: 60) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
“Therefore, the Roman Catholic Church reserved to itself the right and responsibility to interpret the Bible for the faithful. Holy Scripture was to be studied and expounded by religious professionals: the pope, bishops, and priests of the Church who were thought to have a special mandate from God to do so. In theory, priests studied Scripture and Church doctrine rigorously in Church-run schools and universities. At their ordination they became consecrated, even semi-sacred beings.” [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 94) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Bureaucrats were paid a salary, and those in the highest positions may be granted land or more lucrative appointments. [1] “And yet, while the war and the financial revolution reduced the personal power of the sovereign, they vastly increased that of the Crown, that is, His Majesty’s government. That government now had at its disposal enormous armies and navies and the expanding bureaucracy necessary to oversee and supply them. For example, William’s army numbered 76,000 men, almost twice that of James II. It has been estimated that the central administration comprised some 4,000 officials in 1688… The Treasury increasingly controlled this vast bureaucracy, and sought to run the government more efficiently and thriftily. In order to weed out old, corrupt practices, it initiated adequate salaries and pension schemes, drew up handbooks of conduct, and calculated statistics to make realistic appraisals of the tasks at hand. As this implies, the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw a growing sense of professionalism among government workers. Men like William Blathwayt at the War Office (ca. 1650–1717), Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) at the Navy Office, and William Lowndes (1652–1724) at the Treasury were career bureaucrats who remained in office despite shifts of faction and party.” [2]
[1]: (Prestwich 2005: 60-70) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 327) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Bureaucrats were paid a salary, and those in the highest positions may be granted land or more lucrative appointments. [1] “And yet, while the war and the financial revolution reduced the personal power of the sovereign, they vastly increased that of the Crown, that is, His Majesty’s government. That government now had at its disposal enormous armies and navies and the expanding bureaucracy necessary to oversee and supply them. For example, William’s army numbered 76,000 men, almost twice that of James II. It has been estimated that the central administration comprised some 4,000 officials in 1688… The Treasury increasingly controlled this vast bureaucracy, and sought to run the government more efficiently and thriftily. In order to weed out old, corrupt practices, it initiated adequate salaries and pension schemes, drew up handbooks of conduct, and calculated statistics to make realistic appraisals of the tasks at hand. As this implies, the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw a growing sense of professionalism among government workers. Men like William Blathwayt at the War Office (ca. 1650–1717), Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) at the Navy Office, and William Lowndes (1652–1724) at the Treasury were career bureaucrats who remained in office despite shifts of faction and party.” [2]
[1]: (Prestwich 2005: 60-70) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 327) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Bureaucrats were paid a salary, and those in the highest positions may be granted land or more lucrative appointments. [1] “And yet, while the war and the financial revolution reduced the personal power of the sovereign, they vastly increased that of the Crown, that is, His Majesty’s government. That government now had at its disposal enormous armies and navies and the expanding bureaucracy necessary to oversee and supply them. For example, William’s army numbered 76,000 men, almost twice that of James II. It has been estimated that the central administration comprised some 4,000 officials in 1688… The Treasury increasingly controlled this vast bureaucracy, and sought to run the government more efficiently and thriftily. In order to weed out old, corrupt practices, it initiated adequate salaries and pension schemes, drew up handbooks of conduct, and calculated statistics to make realistic appraisals of the tasks at hand. As this implies, the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw a growing sense of professionalism among government workers. Men like William Blathwayt at the War Office (ca. 1650–1717), Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) at the Navy Office, and William Lowndes (1652–1724) at the Treasury were career bureaucrats who remained in office despite shifts of faction and party.” [2]
[1]: (Prestwich 2005: 60-70) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 327) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
“At Westminster might be found a complex of buildings which formed the nation’s administrative heart (see plate 12). First, there was Westminster Abbey, where English monarchs were crowned and, prior to 1820, buried. Close by was Westminster Hall, originally a part of Westminster Palace but in 1603 the site of the courts of King’s Bench, Common Pleas, and Chancery. The law courts drew the elite to London, for the complications of land inheritance and purchase caused frequent litigation. Another such drawing card was Westminster Palace, located on the river, which was the home of the Houses of Parliament. This ancient structure was donated by Henry VIII to Parliament when he acquired Whitehall, just a few yards away, in 1529… But the most significant attraction to London for the upper classes was the court at Whitehall. This massive, disorganized series of riverside buildings, consisting of well over 1,000 rooms, had been built for Cardinal Wolsey as York Place. Henry VIII confiscated it, renamed it, expanded it, and made it the sovereign’s principal London residence in 1529. Henceforth, Whitehall was the place where the great offices of Tudor and early Stuart government, such as the Privy Council and Exchequer, met; indeed, to this day the word “Whitehall” is synonymous with government in Britain. Thus, this was where the monarch’s chief ministers and foreign ambassadors might be found and conversed with, privately if necessary.” [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 199) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
“Although the extent to which the royal writ ran directly varied considerably, England was unified under the aegis of royal justice. Furthermore, England was unique in the identity of intendancy and judiciary: in practice, local governors were not merely administrators, they were also law officers. This was no less true of vestrymen and overseers of the poor than it was of circuit judges and justices of the peace. The interdependence of the legal and administrative arms of the state explains both the centrality of judicial machinery to the execution of public policy and the importance of legal precedent to contemporary political rhetoric: in short, it implies the rule of law, ‘an article in the political creed and a part of the political instinct of all Englishmen’.” [1] “And yet, while the war and the financial revolution reduced the personal power of the sovereign, they vastly increased that of the Crown, that is, His Majesty’s government. That government now had at its disposal enormous armies and navies and the expanding bureaucracy necessary to oversee and supply them. For example, William’s army numbered 76,000 men, almost twice that of James II. It has been estimated that the central administration comprised some 4,000 officials in 1688… The Treasury increasingly controlled this vast bureaucracy, and sought to run the government more efficiently and thriftily. In order to weed out old, corrupt practices, it initiated adequate salaries and pension schemes, drew up handbooks of conduct, and calculated statistics to make realistic appraisals of the tasks at hand. As this implies, the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw a growing sense of professionalism among government workers. Men like William Blathwayt at the War Office (ca. 1650–1717), Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) at the Navy Office, and William Lowndes (1652–1724) at the Treasury were career bureaucrats who remained in office despite shifts of faction and party.” [2] The King’s Household, The Exchequer, The Chancery and the law courts employed hundreds of full-time staff. [3]
[1]: (Hindle 2002: 30) Hindle, Steve. 2002. The State and Social Change in Early Modern England, 1550–1640 (London: Palgrave https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GVIZDIC9
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 327) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[3]: (Prestwich 2005: 60-70) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI
“Among professionals, the lawyers and physicians did best. A successful barrister (criminal lawyer) might make £3,000–4,000 a year, an attorney £1,500. A prosperous country physician might bring in £500 a year. The average for both groups, however, was closer to £200 a year. In theory, legal professionals continued to be trained at the universities, followed, in the case of barristers, by instruction at the Inns of Court.” [1] “It should be obvious from this discussion why Catholicism, with its emphasis on hierarchy, ritual, and obedience, should have appealed to Henry VIII and much of the ruling elite. It should also be obvious why Protestantism, with its European origins and its emphasis on literacy, should have struck root in England among continental travelers, merchants, lawyers, and other literate professionals, usually based in port cities.” [2] “The wealthiest continued to dominate their local corporations as mayors and aldermen. Increasing numbers served as MPs: there were 55 merchants and a handful of lawyers in the Parliament of 1641; by 1754 there would be 60 merchants, but also 60 lawyers and 40 military or naval officers, albeit mostly younger sons of the gentry.” [3] “Although the Caroline attorneys-general lacked the political stature of their Elizabethan and Jacobean predecessors, they were none the less able lawyers: Sir Robert Heath (1625–31), Sir William Noye (1631–4) and Sir John Bankes (1634–41) all proved themselves men of integrity and ingenuity in prosecuting crown cases.37 As early as the 1580s, the crown lawyers determined on exemplary prosecutions in several great cases of state.” [4]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 379-380) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 96) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[3]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 382) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[4]: (Hindle 2002: 73) Hindle, Steve. 2002. The State and Social Change in Early Modern England, 1550–1640 (London: Palgrave https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GVIZDIC9
“Once passed, a law had to be administered and enforced. In the country at large, the king employed up to 40 administrators of Crown lands (who supervised an army of stewards, bailiffs, keepers, and wardens) and up to 90 Customs officials to collect his revenues. He also appointed traveling assize judges to provide royal justice in major felony cases, biannually, to the shire court of each county.” [1] “That is, the king could once again conduct foreign policy as he saw fit. According to the Militia Acts of 1661 and 1662, he, and only he, could call out that body – an issue that had been disputed on the eve of the Civil War. He could appoint what ministers he wanted and he could remove judges at will.” [2] “Proceedings for distraint, threats of imprisonment in the house of correction and arbitration by assize judges are all symptomatic of the birthpangs of a system of transfer payments. These were the parameters of tolerance within which social policy was implemented. This explains both the repetitive nature of judges’ orders and the moral outrage of grand juries.” [3]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 51) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 278) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[3]: (Hindle 2002: 157) Hindle, Steve. 2002. The State and Social Change in Early Modern England, 1550–1640 (London: Palgrave https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GVIZDIC9
“In addition to the courts of Chancery and Exchequer, there were in London common law courts of King’s Bench and Common Pleas, the former for cases, both civil and criminal, in which the Crown was involved, the latter for civil suits, especially those involving property, contract, or debt, between subjects. Common law was the body of law that had evolved out of judicial precedent and custom. It was uncodified, as opposed to statute law, which was created by acts passed by Parliament and approved by the king.” [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 49) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
“The third historiography of governance has remained largely separate from the first two and has been virtually ignored by those who profess an interest in early modern government per se: the late sixteenth-century growth in business in virtually all the law courts, both criminal and civil, hardly seems to have been regarded as a dimension of governance at all…That the business of the courts did in fact peak in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries is now well established among historians of criminal prosecution and of civil litigation.” [1] “The ubiquity of the law required an elaborate regime of courts and procedures to support it. The king’s courts included the Star Chamber, founded upon the royal prerogative and endowed with sweeping powers; Chancery, whose task it was to apply the rules of equity, modifying the rigour of the common law as it was administered in King’s (or Queen’s) Bench and the Court of Common Pleas. The Court of Exchequer dealt with matters involving the king’s revenue. Most of their business was civil, and revolved around the perennial bones of contention: land, inheritance, and contract. Criminal matters also came before the central courts, but most of the case-load involving serious crimes came before the justices when they rode circuit to the Assizes, held regularly throughout the provinces. The legal system was formidably complex. There were other courts beyond the king’s: some privileged individuals held special judicial powers from the Crown; the bishop of Durham, for example, enjoyed a virtually independent jurisdiction. In Scotland judicial authority was hereditary in many places. The church had its own system of courts, dealing primarily with theological, moral, and marital causes: cases of, for example, heresy, fornication, and separations. There were admiralty courts, dealing in matters concerning wrecks, prizes, and piracy. Operating under the Roman-inspired rules of the civil law, the church and admiralty courts were deeply unpopular with those who practised the common law. Common lawyers, indeed, resented any competing jurisdiction – including Star Chamber and Chancery. There was also an elaborate system of manorial courts, controlled by manor lords, performing many of the routine legal chores of daily life: regulating tenancies, confirming leases and inheritances, and enforcing local by-laws.” [2] “In addition to the courts of Chancery and Exchequer, there were in London common law courts of King’s Bench and Common Pleas, the former for cases, both civil and criminal, in which the Crown was involved, the latter for civil suits, especially those involving property, contract, or debt, between subjects. Common law was the body of law that had evolved out of judicial precedent and custom. It was uncodified, as opposed to statute law, which was created by acts passed by Parliament and approved by the king. As we have seen, Parliament consisted of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, both of which met at Westminster. Every male peer had the right to sit in the Lords, as did bishops and, before the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, abbots of great monasteries.” [3]
[1]: (Hindle 2002: 13) Hindle, Steve. 2002. The State and Social Change in Early Modern England, 1550–1640 (London: Palgrave https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GVIZDIC9
[2]: (Stater 2002: 40) Stater, Victor. 2002. The Political History of Tudor and Stuart England. London; New York: Routledge, 2002. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/WWPXBUHX
[3]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 49) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
“Wares could also be displayed and deals made at fairs and in the great market towns. But after 1660 fairs and markets grew less necessary as the transportation network improved and as craftsmen increasingly sold their goods in established shops with a ready stock. According to one estimate, the number of market towns fell from about 800 in 1690 to just under 600 by 1720. Finally, the more remote parts of the countryside also relied on less substantial traders – peddlers, hawkers, chapmen, and tinkers – to distribute books, metalware, ribbons, and other small manufactured goods. These individuals could not afford accommodation so grand as an inn, often taking shelter in a farmer’s barn or hayloft. [1] “High agricultural prices gave farmers the incentive to produce crops for sale in the dearest markets rather than for the satisfaction of rural subsistence. Rising population put intense strain on the markets themselves, especially urban ones: demand for food often outstripped supply. So most urban markets were forced to promulgate stringent regulations whereby local purchasers were given preference over non-residents and outside speculators.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 362-363) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Guy 1988: 37) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
There has been no discussion of irrigation systems in the sources consulted.
Settlements across the polity would have food storage particularly for grains – the main crop. [1] “By contrast, starvation was averted in London, the south-east, and East Anglia, which had local food supplies and convenient access to imported grain from the Baltic region, although London and the larger towns, the mixed farming lowlands, and other areas with well-developed communications were especially vulnerable to plague.” [2] “Also special commissioners were appointed to manage food supplies in times of scarcity; to prevent exports of grain; to fix prices of essential consumables; to punish speculators or racketeers in foodstuffs; to apprehend vagabonds; and generally to enforce law and order.” [3]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 375) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Guy 1988: 31) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
[3]: (Guy 1988: 171) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
“Guilds chiefly undertook, in the name of the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, or a saint, to provide members with solemn funerals and requiem masses for their souls, but they also repaired bridges and highways, provided fresh water facilities and conduits in towns such as Bristol, Norwich, and Ashburton, offered members business contacts or proto-banking facilities, paid midwives, looked after town clocks, and played a prominent part in civic ceremonial and the rituals of the communal year. At Henry VII’s formal entry into Bristol in 1487, for example, an elephant with a clockwork Resurrection scene on its back was provided.” [1] “By 1600 basement services were frequently found in town houses built on restricted sites. Lastly, provision of water supplies and improved sanitary arrangements reflected the Renaissance concern with private and public health. In the case of town houses, owners would go to considerable lengths to solve drainage problems, often paying a cash composition to the civic authorities, but sometimes performing some service for the town at Court or at Westminster in return for unlimited water or drainage.” [2] Major settlements had wells, except for the smallest hamlets which, at the beginning of the period, still relied on a local stream to collect their water. [3]
[1]: (Guy 1988: 22) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
[2]: (Guy 1988: 433-434) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
[3]: ( Bucholz et al 2013: 178) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Churches, inns, pubs, shops, universities, colleges; government buildings etc. “London Bridge (see plate 11) had linked the north and south banks of the Thames since the twelfth century. In fact, London mostly developed on its northern bank; to the south was the suburb of Southwark. Here, on the fringe of the city’s jurisdiction, flourished theaters such as the Rose and the Globe, bear-gardens (for bear- and bull-baiting), brothels, and taverns. In short, if you wanted an exciting – or a dangerous – time in London, you headed across the bridge.” [1] “’The City’ is modern shorthand for the financial district which still sits within the square mile once bounded by the old Roman city walls. Here, ca. 1603, might be found the Guildhall, London’s city hall, where its lord mayor and 25 aldermen met to govern the metropolis; numerous smaller halls which housed the livery companies associated with each trade; Cheapside, a broad street lined with shops; and the Royal Exchange, built by Sir Thomas Gresham (ca. 1518–79) in 1566–7, where merchants met to strike deals.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 196) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 198) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
“Although some counties had multiple institutions (there were four each in Devon and Norfolk by 1598, seven in Hertfordshire by the early 1620s, three in Warwickshire by 1635, and seven in Sussex by 1642; and in 1598, Essex had a scheme for 23), others (including Denbighshire until 1687) failed to provide one at all. It was only in the 1630s, almost 60 years after the statute, that they became virtually universal. 96 Even then, they were badly managed and underfunded. Envisaged as an ‘uneasy mixture of prison, workhouse and reformatory’, bridewells degenerated into ‘lock-ups’.” [1]
[1]: (Hindle 2002: 164) Hindle, Steve. 2002. The State and Social Change in Early Modern England, 1550–1640 (London: Palgrave https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GVIZDIC9
Churches; abbeys; cathedrals; shrines. “Lay piety was also expressed in a highly materialistic form before the Reformation. Almost two-thirds of English parish churches were built or rebuilt during the fifteenth century. Spectacular examples of the wealth poured into church building in this period which can still be seen include St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol, St Peter Mancroft in Norwich, and the East Anglian ’wool’ churches. There were innumerable gifts to monastic houses and nunneries; to furnish parish churches; to purchase rich vestments, plate, and jewels; and to adorn images and shrines.” [1]
[1]: (Guy 1988: 21-22) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
Universities; colleges; schools. Archives. A laboratory and The Royal Society were founded and maintained by Charles II (r. 1660-1685). [1] “All Tudor theorists concurred that reading was properly taught before writing; writing was a subordinate part of the elementary school curriculum. Since most children’s attendance at school fluctuated according to economic needs and the dictates of the agricultural seasons, many must have learned to read but not write.” [2] “Humanist-classical issues were rarely addressed outside the circles of Court and government, universities, and inns of court. Humanist authors seeking to attract a wider audience assimilated their material to the chivalric traditions of Chaucer, Malory, and the Raman de la rose. In schools and gentry households Erasmus’s New Testament, Paraphrases, Colloquies, and Adages remained favourite reading, supplemented by Sir Thomas North’s edition of Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Elyot’s The Boak Named the Governor, and Hoby’s translation of The Courtier. At a more popular level Caxton’s The Golden Legend, Baldwin’s Mirror Jar Magistrates, sensational stories and pamphlets, printed sermons, chronicles, travel books, almanacs, herbals, and medical works were devoured.” [3] “The number of endowed grammar schools by 1530 had reached 124, supplemented by hundreds of alphabet or parish schools where elementary reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught. Schools were often held in church porches or chantries until 1548, or in the master’s house.” [4] “His [Humphrey, duke of Gloucester ( 1391-144 7)] influence persuaded Oxford University to include the Nova rhetorica of Cicero, the Metamorphoses of Ovid, and the works of Virgil as alternative set books for the study of rhetoric, and between 1439 and 1444 he presented 280 volumes to the university for public use. These books served to stimulate the new and to revive much of the older learning.” [5] “It is obvious that the creation of new university registers resulted in increased numbers of students being recorded as present in the universities. Also the expansion of colleges and halls at both universities during the sixteenth century marked a change from earlier practice, when Oxford and Cambridge were not essentially collegiate universities. As the century progressed, town-dwelling and loosely attached students were resettled and registered at undergraduate colleges where teaching was increasingly concentrated.” [6]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 283) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Guy 1988: 417-418) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
[3]: (Guy 1988: 415-416) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
[4]: (Guy 1988: 420) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
[5]: (Guy 1988: 16) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
[6]: (Guy 1988: 423) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
Pubs; inns; taverns; theatres; fairs; ballrooms. “This explains why the earliest theaters were built outside of the city walls, beyond Guildhall jurisdiction. The first was the Red Lion, established north and east of the city in Whitechapel in 1567. In 1576 James Burbage (ca. 1531–97) founded a public playhouse called, appropriately enough, “the Theatre” in the London suburb of Shoreditch. In 1577 a large open-air public theater entitled “the Rose” was established in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames. This was followed in 1598 by the Globe. Here, all London could come together in the afternoon to see the latest play. But even here, hierarchy obtained: the wealthy sat in upper boxes, the middling orders sat below them, and relatively common people stood in the large open area on the ground level – hence their designation as “groundlings”.” [1] Coffee-houses opened in the seventeenth century. There were sporting events from the beginning of the polity period such as horse-racing and cock fighting. Gambling houses were especially popular among the elite. [2] “Alehouses were associated not only with drinking, but also with other, even more dubious activities such as music-making, dancing, gambling, and, in some cases, prostitution and the fencing of goods, not to mention the violence and disorder that always accompanied such pursuits.” [3] “Inns provided not only accommodation but food, drink, entertainment, postal services, stabling, and a place where businessmen, such as drovers who brought cattle to market or corn factors who transported grain, could make deals. Wares could also be displayed and deals made at fairs and in the great market towns.” [4] “By the Jacobean period there developed a London “season” from the late autumn to early spring, during which the landed aristocracy resided in the capital, attended plays, balls, and parties, and kept an eye on promising marriage prospects for their children.” [5]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 208) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: ( Bucholz et al 2013: 370-71) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[3]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 190) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[4]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 362) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[5]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 171) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
“When not aiding their husbands and fathers in the fields, women cooked, sewed, and fetched water. Older children helped by looking after the family’s smaller children and animals. As we have seen, milk and wool could be sold for a little extra income. Another way to make extra money was to turn one’s dwelling into a “public house,” or “pub,” by brewing ale (traditionally a woman’s role).” [1] “The first plays in the English language were medieval mystery and mummers’ plays and pageants, mounted on religious feast days in communities large and small all over England and Wales. These were suppressed at the Reformation, but successive Protestant regimes sponsored anti-Catholic plays of their own. These and other short, secular interludes were performed in private houses by strolling bands of players. By the time of Elizabeth’s accession, fullfledged five-act plays were being mounted by young men at the universities and Inns of Court, especially during the Christmas holidays.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 21) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 208) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
“Although some counties had multiple institutions (there were four each in Devon and Norfolk by 1598, seven in Hertfordshire by the early 1620s, three in Warwickshire by 1635, and seven in Sussex by 1642; and in 1598, Essex had a scheme for 23), others (including Denbighshire until 1687) failed to provide one at all. It was only in the 1630s, almost 60 years after the statute, that they became virtually universal. 96 Even then, they were badly managed and underfunded. Envisaged as an ‘uneasy mixture of prison, workhouse and reformatory’, bridewells degenerated into ‘lock-ups’.” [1]
[1]: (Hindle 2002: 164) Hindle, Steve. 2002. The State and Social Change in Early Modern England, 1550–1640 (London: Palgrave https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GVIZDIC9
“Though England had a system of roads emanating from London as first laid down by the Romans, water transportation (around the coast or, internally, via the river system) remained the cheapest and safest way to travel or to ship goods.” [1] “In fact, under the later Tudors, the parish became the crucial unit of local government, repairing roads, providing weapons for the militia, and above all assuming responsibility for the poor.” [2] “In the years following 1603 a true market economy developed and England’s transportation system was forced to keep up via the dredging of rivers and better roads, carriages, wagons, and carrying services.” [3]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 14) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 186) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[3]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 195) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
“Rivers, on the other hand, were very important. The most obvious example is the Thames, the great river in southeastern England which flows into the North Sea (map 1). The Thames served as the highway by which nearly every one of England’s migrant groups penetrated its interior. Usually, they settled along its banks – another reason why the southeast is the most populous part of England. Later, the Thames, along with other major rivers (the Severn to the west; the Mersey, the Great Ouse, Humber, Trent, Tyne, and Tees to the north: map 1), served as principal highways and trade routes. In the eighteenth century, they would be linked in a great national canal system. Though England had a system of roads emanating from London as first laid down by the Romans, water transportation (around the coast or, internally, via the river system) remained the cheapest and safest way to travel or to ship goods.” [1] “The port town of Southampton was typical of many corporate boroughs; its privileges were ancient, and were first guaranteed by a twelfth-century charter. By 1447 the city gained county status, an important right freeing it from the jurisdiction of the surrounding shire.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 13-14) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Stater 2002: 54) Stater, Victor. 2002. The Political History of Tudor and Stuart England. London; New York: Routledge, 2002. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/WWPXBUHX
Canals were not built in England until the eighteenth century. [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 14) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Bridges were vital form of routes around the polity. Cities especially, such as London, York and Newcastle would have multiple bridges across their rivers. [1] “This made London an intersection between traffic north–south and east–west. London Bridge (see plate 11) had linked the north and south banks of the Thames since the twelfth century. In fact, London mostly developed on its northern bank; to the south was the suburb of Southwark. Here, on the fringe of the city’s jurisdiction, flourished theaters such as the Rose and the Globe, bear-gardens (for bear- and bull-baiting), brothels, and taverns. In short, if you wanted an exciting – or a dangerous – time in London, you headed across the bridge.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 362) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 196) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Tin; coal; stone. “The same aristocrats who expanded or improved their holdings through enclosure and use of new fodder crops also exploited their mineral rights, becoming proprietors of mines and quarries.” [1] “Other areas saw regional industries pick up the slack: tin mining in Cornwall, lead in Derbyshire and Somerset, and coal around Newcastle and in Nottinghamshire and North Wales; ironmaking in Kent and Sussex; steelworking in and about Sheffield; pottery in Staffordshire; and shipbuilding along the Thames estuary. Coal shipments from the northeast to London alone rose from 50,000 tons in the 1580s to 300,000 tons in the 1640s.” [2] “Iron and the raw materials necessary to make it, such as tin and coal, also abounded in England in 1485. But they were too expensive to mine and too difficult to fashion at the start of our period to create more than isolated pockets of local economic significance.” [3]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 360) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 202) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[3]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 14) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Fairs and small markets would travel to areas without market towns. However this became much less common by the end of the period when infrastructure and transport was creating an increasingly connected and convenient trade system. [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 362-63) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Farmland; pens; city walls. “This process, called “enclosure” from the need to erect fences across otherwise open farmland in order to restrain sheep, was highly controversial precisely because it was less labor intensive.” [1] “’The City’ is modern shorthand for the financial district which still sits within the square mile once bounded by the old Roman city walls. Here, ca. 1603, might be found the Guildhall, London’s city hall, where its lord mayor and 25 aldermen met to govern the metropolis; numerous smaller halls which housed the livery companies associated with each trade; Cheapside, a broad street lined with shops; and the Royal Exchange, built by Sir Thomas Gresham (ca. 1518–79) in 1566–7, where merchants met to strike deals.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 58) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 198) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Cathedrals; churches; abbeys. “The city skyline was dominated by the spires of 96 parish churches and, towering over even them, old St. Paul’s Cathedral.” [1] “Whereas manor courts did not meet in parish churches (even though they were almost certainly the only buildings large enough for the purpose), vestries almost invariably tended to do so. The simple fact of this relocation rendered the presence of the state all the more tangible in the local community, for if Elizabethan vestries met in parish churches they did so in the presence of the royal arms, the ‘dragon and the dog’ having replaced Christ crucified as a, if not the, central symbol in parochial political culture in the mid-sixteenth century.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 198) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Hindle 2002: 229) Hindle, Steve. 2002. The State and Social Change in Early Modern England, 1550–1640 (London: Palgrave https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GVIZDIC9
Cemeteries all across the polity territory. Tombs; mausoleums. “Increasingly after 1650, the elite buried their dead privately, at night. Expensive tombs and monuments in parish churches continued to emphasize the status and honor of the lineage well into the seventeenth century, but they too were eventually replaced by simple wall plaques.” [1] “The ‘social map of community’ was not, however, only carved in box pews: it was also chiselled in funeral monuments. The vestry’s introduction of fines for the unauthorised reopening of vaults in the chancel of Boxford parish church in 1608 reflects the regulation of symbolic space at a time when honour, status and reputation found expression not only on this side of the grave. At Cranbrook, it seems, burial within the church was itself a symbol of vestry status.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 178) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Hindle 2002: 220) Hindle, Steve. 2002. The State and Social Change in Early Modern England, 1550–1640 (London: Palgrave https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GVIZDIC9
Books; essays; manuscripts; court records; legal texts; poetry; pamphlets; newspapers; almanacs etc. [1] “Ultimately, the language of Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline England may be its most powerful and lasting cultural achievement, for it was during this period that English became eloquent, expressive, and comprehensible in a wide variety of forms of writing. Historians have offered a number of reasons for this development. First, the public controversies over the divorce and the Reformation encouraged publication generally, and directness and refinement of the language in particular. Thomas Cromwell and his successors patronized a torrent of closely argued pamphlets and treatises in support of the royal position. Related to this was the temporary relaxation of censorship under Edward VI and, with it, the increasing use of the printing press. Protestantism was also associated with the growth in schooling and rise in literacy noted above, which fueled a hunger for the books so printed. Where 800 books had been published in the decade 1520–9, that number rose to 3,000 in 1590–1600. Many of these books went to the great libraries of the nobility, gentry, or scholarly community: the mathematician and astrologer John Dee (1527–1609) had a personal library of 4,000 books. But an even greater number seem to have trickled down to the lower levels of society: in the city of Canterbury in the 1560s only 8 percent of household inventories (usually compiled when someone died) listed books. By the 1620s that percentage had risen to 45.” [2] “Humanist-classical issues were rarely addressed outside the circles of Court and government, universities, and inns of court. Humanist authors seeking to attract a wider audience assimilated their material to the chivalric traditions of Chaucer, Malory, and the Raman de la rose. In schools and gentry households Erasmus’s New Testament, Paraphrases, Colloquies, and Adages remained favourite reading, supplemented by Sir Thomas North’s edition of Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Elyot’s The Boak Named the Governor, and Hoby’s translation of The Courtier. At a more popular level Caxton’s The Golden Legend, Baldwin’s Mirror Jar Magistrates, sensational stories and pamphlets, printed sermons, chronicles, travel books, almanacs, herbals, and medical works were devoured.” [3]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 171, 283, 372-73) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 209) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[3]: (Guy 1988: 415-416) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
Official seals and stamps. “Henry VII had ensured that his signature on a document took precedence over the seals of established constitutional practice, while under Wolsey and Cromwell efficiency and speed had taken priority over the letter of the law.” [1] “This Cardinal [Wolsey] was not a very learned person, but he was much thought of by the King. He was of very low birth, his father being a butcher, but the King gave him the Chancellor’s seals, and all that he ordered in the kingdom was done, even the Lords obeying him.” [2]
[1]: (Guy 1988: 314) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
[2]: (Stater 2002: 97-98) Stater, Victor. 2002. The Political History of Tudor and Stuart England. London; New York: Routledge, 2002. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/WWPXBUHX
Science was increasingly popular from the Stuart period, most notably with Charles II being a patron of the sciences. Laboratories and The Royal Society published many scientific papers and books. Sir Francis Bacon wrote Advancement of Learning (1605) which laid the groundwork for scientific method among many other scientific volumes. In 1687 Newton alongside the Royal Society published Principa Mathematica: or the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. [1] “In order to measure and predict these forces, Newton developed (in parallel with the German scholar Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz [1646–1716]) a whole branch of mathematics – calculus. The result was a series of mathematical formulae, supported by observation and experiment, which explained and could be used to predict the movements both of objects on earth, and of the sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies. In 1687, with the assistance of the Royal Society, Newton published his findings in Principia Mathematica: or the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 171, 283, 373, 375) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 375) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
The Bible. “For Catholics, God’s will was to be found, first, in the Bible. But the Bible is a complicated document, written in ancient languages obscure to English men and women, such as Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, obscure to some readers even in translation, and seemingly contradictory in places. In any case, for most of the Middle Ages, few Europeans could read. Books of any kind, including Bibles, were rare and expensive because, prior to the invention of the printing press in the mid-fifteenth century, they had to be copied out by hand. Therefore, the Roman Catholic Church reserved to itself the right and responsibility to interpret the Bible for the faithful.” [1] “When Welsh parliamentary lobbying managed to obtain an act for a Welsh translation of the Bible and Prayer Book in 1563, a proviso ordered that the English version should be placed in churches alongside the Welsh so that people comparing the two would learn English.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 93) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Guy 2002: 353) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
Religious guidance and sermons were often published throughout the period. Most notably Sacheverell’s The Perils of False Brethren (1709). Issac Newton also wrote commentaries on the bible in the seventeenth century. [1] The Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, founded in 1698, circulated religious literature to the colonies and for at-home learning. [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 375) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 385) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Newspapers; advice books; essays; almanacs; travel books. “More occasional work – newspapers, essays, almanacs, political broadsides, advice books, travel books, true crime narratives – was churned out by an army of hack writers who congregated in the area around Moorfields, London, known as “Grub Street.” In particular, the late Stuart period saw the rise of the regular newspaper. There had been newspapers from before the Civil Wars, but most had ceased publication after a few issues, and the Cromwellian regime shut down all but pro-government newspapers in the 1650s. The Restoration regime continued this policy of censorship with the Licensing Act of 1662 (see chapter 9). In 1665 it established the Gazette as its official mouthpiece still published today. Licensing lapsed briefly during the Exclusion Crisis and several partisan newspapers flourished.” [1] “Ordinary people sang carols in church – indeed, the Reformation encouraged lay participation – and folk songs and printed ballads in taverns and out-of-doors. The ability of ordinary people to read and sing from ballad sheets reminds us that literacy was rising in late Tudor and early Stuart England. With the increasing number of endowed parish schools, and the printing press, much popular culture was transmitted through cheap, easy-to-read chapbooks and almanacs.” [2] “Early in the seventeenth century James I even issued the Book of Sports, noting which recreations and revels could be performed on the Sabbath.” [3]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 372) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 207) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[3]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 208) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Philosophy was increasingly popular among the upper class and educated during this period. [1] “[Queen] Elizabeth was also, like her father, something of a scholar: she once translated Boethius’s On the Consolations of Philosophy into English for her own amusement.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 171) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 117) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Division lists were kept by parliament as to how people voted. [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 334) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
“The Tudor and Jacobean periods saw both upper-class men and women, many educated in the humanist tradition, devote themselves to philosophy, history, poetry, and art. The English gentleman excelled particularly at the literary arts: Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia (1516) and a History of Richard III (first English edition 1543); Sir Thomas Wyatt (ca. 1503–42, father of the rebel of the same name) developed the English sonnet; Sir Philip Sidney (1554–86) wrote Arcadia (1593); Sir Walter Ralegh, a history of the world (1614); and Sir Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Alban (1561–1626), laid important ground for the development of the scientific method in his Advancement of Learning (1605) and New Atlantis (1626), and for letters in his Essays (1597 and 1625). These men combined private learning with public duty: More and Bacon were lord chancellors and Wyatt, Sidney, and Ralegh were courtier-soldiers.” [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 171) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Poetry; folksongs; utopian novels; plays. ““Ordinary people sang carols in church – indeed, the Reformation encouraged lay participation – and folk songs and printed ballads in taverns and out-of-doors. The ability of ordinary people to read and sing from ballad sheets reminds us that literacy was rising in late Tudor and early Stuart England. With the increasing number of endowed parish schools, and the printing press, much popular culture was transmitted through cheap, easy-to-read chapbooks and almanacs.” [1] “In poetry, the English language made possible the works of Sidney noted above, Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1609), Spenser’s Faerie Queene (1590), the epic poems of Michael Drayton (1563–1631), and, later, the metaphysical poetry of John Donne (1572–1632) and George Herbert (1593–1633), and the cavalier lyrics of Sir John Suckling (1608/9–41?) and Abraham Cowley (1618–67).” [2] “The art form for which the Elizabethan and Jacobean age is best known is, arguably, the theater. The first plays in the English language were medieval mystery and mummers’ plays and pageants, mounted on religious feast days in communities large and small all over England and Wales. These were suppressed at the Reformation, but successive Protestant regimes sponsored anti-Catholic plays of their own. These and other short, secular interludes were performed in private houses by strolling bands of players. By the time of Elizabeth’s accession, fullfledged five-act plays were being mounted by young men at the universities and Inns of Court, especially during the Christmas holidays. The greatest of these university wits was Christopher Marlowe (1563/4–93), who wrote Dr. Faustus, Tamburlaine, and the History of Edward II.” [3]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 207) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 209) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[3]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 208) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
“Throughout the early modern period the English were still using the Julian calendar, which was 10–11 days behind the more accurate Gregorian calendar in use on the continent from 1582. The British would not adopt the Gregorian calendar until the middle of the eighteenth century. Further, the year began on March 25. We give dates according to the Julian calendar, but assume the year to begin on January 1.” [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: xvi) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Gold; silver. “As their parliamentary influence implies, the Merchant Adventurers were fabulously wealthy and powerful, the greatest of them rivaling important nobles in these respects. No government could afford to offend or ignore them, for their loans, their ships, and their ability to move goods might come in very handy in time of war. They dominated the corporation and city government of big port cities: between 1550 and 1580 nearly every lord mayor of London was a Merchant Adventurer. These men lived in great multi-story, multi-chimneyed houses, their rooms decorated with molded plaster ceilings, expensive tapestries, and ornate carved furniture, their presses brimming with gold and silver plate, their closets bulging with expensive gowns lined with velvet and fur.” [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 201) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Bonds and bills of exchange were issued on paper but it was not currency. [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 328) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
“Tudor coinage was marked by three features—fluctuations in the value of the currency; the introduction of a great number of new coins; and the appearance of lifelike representations of the monarchs. Despite the political upheavals of the previous decades, Henry VII inherited a stable currency and bequeathed a strong position to his successor. But Henry VIII’s systematic debasement of the currency from 1526 onwards drove up prices. Elizabeth brought the situation under control with some difficulty, admitting that her recoinage of 1560 was ‘bitter medicine’. The new coins included a magnificent golden sovereign by Henry VII in 1489 and a halfsovereign; a gold Crown of the Rose at 5 shillings by Henry VIII and a half-crown which settled down later as a silver coin and ran until the 20th cent.; and a George noble in 1526 on which the patron saint made his first appearance. Edward VI introduced a treble sovereign, sixpence, and threepence; Mary a half-groat; and Elizabeth a rather strange silver 1½d. and ¾d. to facilitate change. Henry VII’s silver shilling carried a good likeness of the king, known as the testoon (from French tête). Henceforth the national coinage carried some remarkable portraits—Henry VIII aged on a Bristol groat (1544–7); Edward VI’s silver shilling (1550–3); Philip and Mary’s sixpence (1554–8); an imperious Elizabeth gold pound (1561–82); a stylish Charles I shilling (1638–9), and a saturnine Charles II crown (1663). James I celebrated the union of his two kingdoms in 1604 with a gold crown called ‘unite’ or ‘unit’, bearing the title ‘King of Great Britain’ and the legend ‘I will make them one people’. But a more important development of his reign was the introduction of copper coinage. Lord Harington in 1613 was given a patent to produce copper farthings, known colloquially as Haringtons, with an intermediate status between coins and tokens. Charles I had a keen interest in art and before 1642 his coinage was of a high standard. The Civil War produced some desperate expedients, particularly ‘siege-money’, made out of any metal to hand and cut into strange shapes. The Commonwealth issued its own coinage, with inscriptions in English: one legend ‘God with us’ prompted cavaliers to the obvious retort that ‘the Commonwealth was on one side and God on the other’. Good likenesses of Cromwell were produced but never issued. As soon as he returned from his travels in 1660, Charles II tackled the question of the currency. The following year he ordered all coins to be mechanically produced and called in the Commonwealth issues. An innovation was the use of Guinea gold from Africa, which settled at 21 shillings and was called a guinea. The need for small change remained a problem and thousands of tradesmen’s tokens circulated. To meet this, Charles introduced copper halfpennies and farthings in 1672: on the new coins, *Britannia made her appearance for the first time. But one further step, in 1684, to bring in tin coins proved disastrous, since the metal oxidized rapidly.” [1]
[1]: (Cannon and Crowcroft 2015: 1016-1017) Cannon, John and Crowcroft, Robert. 2015. The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2PEE2ZJ5
“Charles was also king of Scotland and of Ireland. The Scottish coinage dated from David I’s reign in the early 12th cent. But the number of coins struck was small, there were mints only at Edinburgh, Berwick, and Roxburgh, and what circulation there was came from England. The Scottish coinage had much in common with the English, partly through direct imitation, partly because each copied continental, and especially French, designs. But Scottish coins had their own peculiarities. Their international standing was undermined in the 15th and 16th cents. by persistent debasement. In 1423 the English government forbade the circulation of Scottish coins and at the union of the crowns in 1603 the Scottish pound was fixed at only one-twelfth that of the English. The falling value of the Scottish currency derived in part from the practice of mixing silver with alloy to produce the base metal billon. One result was that Scotland had less trouble about small change than England. James I introduced a billon penny and halfpenny: James III followed with a billon plack (from French plaque) valued at first at threepence and later at sixpence, a half-plack, and a copper farthing (1466); in James V’s reign the bawbee (1½d.) and half-bawbee were issued, and in Mary’s the hardhead was issued to help ‘the common people’ buy bread, drink, flesh, and fish. The billon coinage was discontinued after 1603, but twopence pieces in copper called hardheads, bodles, or turners continued to be issued until the Act of Union.” [1]
[1]: (Cannon and Crowcroft 2015: 1017) Cannon, John and Crowcroft, Robert. 2015. The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2PEE2ZJ5
There is no mention in the sources that articles were used as a form of currency, and by this period the English currency system was well established.
Goldsmith lenders and banks were well established in the seventeenth century. “Later, the Crown also offered lenders self-liquidating annuities for a number of lives or for 99 years, and sold tickets to public lotteries. They also charged corporate bodies like the East India Company and, in the next reign, the South Sea Company vast sums in return for the privilege of being allowed to exist. The greatest example of this fund-raising strategy, and Montagu’s crowning inspiration, as the charter for the Bank of England, established in 1694. In return for an immediate loan of £1.2 million, the Bank was allowed to sell stock in itself, receive deposits, make loans, and even print notes against the security of its loan to the government. In future years, the Bank of England would be the Crown’s greatest jewel: its largest single lender, its principal banker, and the manager of this funded national debt which Montagu initiated.” [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 326) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
The monarch could raise money through parliament and his supporters though they were almost constantly in debt in some form or another. By 1700 a credit facility for bonds and bills of exchange had been established. [1] Goldsmith lenders and banks were well established in the seventeenth century. “Later, the Crown also offered lenders self-liquidating annuities for a number of lives or for 99 years, and sold tickets to public lotteries. They also charged corporate bodies like the East India Company and, in the next reign, the South Sea Company vast sums in return for the privilege of being allowed to exist. The greatest example of this fund-raising strategy, and Montagu’s crowning inspiration, as the charter for the Bank of England, established in 1694. In return for an immediate loan of £1.2 million, the Bank was allowed to sell stock in itself, receive deposits, make loans, and even print notes against the security of its loan to the government. In future years, the Bank of England would be the Crown’s greatest jewel: its largest single lender, its principal banker, and the manager of this funded national debt which Montagu initiated.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 195) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 326) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Postal stations could be found at inns from the late seventeenth century. [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 362) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
“In 1680 a London penny post was started and soon taken over by the government; penny posts were established in large provincial towns in the later 18th cent.” [1] “For those who could not make it to the metropolis, from at least the mid-seventeenth century on an increasingly efficient postal service enabled them to receive news and stay connected via correspondence with those who were there.” [2] “By the mid-1650s there were regular stage services between London and Exeter to the west, Chester to the north-west, and York and Newcastle to the north. Important routes would begin, and, and cross other routes at large inns. These provided not only accommodation but food, drink, entertainment, postal services, stabling, and a place where businessmen, such as drovers who brought cattle to market or corn factors who transported grain, could make deals.” [3]
[1]: (Cannon and Crowcroft 2015: 2643) Cannon, John and Crowcroft, Robert. 2015. The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2PEE2ZJ5
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 171) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[3]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 362) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
“Before the 17th cent., royal ministers had their own king’s messengers, but private persons sent letters through servants or friends. Henry VIII, had a master of the posts in 1512 but he served only the government. The first attempt at a public system was in 1635 when a service was established to important towns, carrying letters at 2 pence per sheet per 80 miles. Under the Commonwealth, *Thurloe was appointed postmaster-general in 1657 and thearrangement was continued at the Restoration.” [1] Monarchs used couriers to govern their kingdoms: “That is, the king governed each country from his court in London through their respective administrations and according to their respective constitutional arrangements and law. Obviously, his Celtic kingdoms were therefore governed at a distance (via courier to the administrations in Edinburgh and Dublin) – and a disadvantage.” [2]
[1]: (Cannon and Crowcroft 2015: 2642-2643) Cannon, John and Crowcroft, Robert. 2015. The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2PEE2ZJ5
[2]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 242) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
There is no direct mention of the fastest communication in the sources consulted, however it would have been by ship along the internal waterways or along the coast, or via horse relay.
“About AD 1300, London merchants adopted a system of weights known as ‘avoirdupois’ from the Old French aver de peis (goods of weight).” [1] England had a complex system of weights for different items such as wool (Load, sack, wey) and straw (Load, truss, pound). [2]
[1]: (Cardarelli 2003: 34) Cardarelli, François. 2003. Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins. London; New York: Springer. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UWS9ZN34
[2]: (Cardarelli 2003: 49) Cardarelli, François. 2003. Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins. London; New York: Springer. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UWS9ZN34
Liquid (notably alcohol) volume was measured in pints, quarts, butts, whereas dry measures could be in sacks, bushels, pecks, or also in gallons, pints and quarts. [1]
[1]: (Cardarelli 2003: 35-36) Cardarelli, François. 2003. Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins. London; New York: Springer. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UWS9ZN34
“French Huguenots and other Protestants driven from the continent by Louis XIV spurred the English porcelain, clock, silk, and paper industries.” [1] “Guilds chiefly undertook, in the name of the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, or a saint, to provide members with solemn funerals and requiem masses for their souls, but they also repaired bridges and highways, provided fresh water facilities and conduits in towns such as Bristol, Norwich, and Ashburton, offered members business contacts or proto-banking facilities, paid midwives, looked after town clocks, and played a prominent part in civic ceremonial and the rituals of the communal year. At Henry VII’s formal entry into Bristol in 1487, for example, an elephant with a clockwork Resurrection scene on its back was provided.” [2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 362) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
[2]: (Guy 1988: 22) Guy, John. 1988. Tudor England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IIFAUUNA
Area was measured in hands, yards, feet or miles, but the exact measurements of these differentiated between regions and time periods. [1]
[1]: (Cardarelli 2003: 29-30) Cardarelli, François. 2003. Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins. London; New York: Springer. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UWS9ZN34
From the seventeenth century gardens were increasingly laid out in geometric and symmetrical designs. In the early eighteenth century symmetrical buildings, houses and gardens were the most fashionable. [1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 374, 376) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U
Area was measured in squared yards, feet or miles, but the exact measurements of these differentiated between regions and time periods. [1]
[1]: (Cardarelli 2003: 35-36) Cardarelli, François. 2003. Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins. London; New York: Springer. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UWS9ZN34