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Social classes were status in society. A social class meant your position in society. Just like in our days, you are treated differently if you were in one class or the other, but in Elizabethan Times, it made a huge difference.
It was not common that an Elizabethan would change classes, but it was possible. Here are the different ways someone could change classes:
1) Marriage - a peasant's daughter could marry a gentleman. She would move up to the Gentry class but marriage between people in different classes was very unlikely.
2) Wealth - a peasant, a merchant, or a yeoman could move up to the Gentry class if they became wealthy landowners.
3) Monarch's appointment - a gentleman could be titled a nobleman by the Monarch.
4) Crime - a noble could lose his title commiting a great crime like treason.
5) Illness - a yeoman could become ill, stop working and plunge into the Laborers class.
6) Disown - a nobleman could be disowned by their family for any reason.
Bibliography
The high classes always saw the classes below them as the peasants’ class.
1) A gentleman's son would have a different education than a laborer's son.
2) A noble, a gentleman, and a peasant would all wear different clothes and if they were in a play, they had to wear costumes that represented their class.
3) A laborer could commit a small crime and get a big punishment and if a noble committed a small crime, he would not receive a punishment.
Members of the Yeomanry class included men holding and cultivating a small landed estate, a freeholder, a farmer, a tradesman, a craft's worker, or a servant in a royal or noble household, ranking between a sergeant and a groom or a squire and a page. This class was often called the middling class. A Yeoman's wealth could overpass a gentleman's wealth but the Yeoman would live simply and try to improve and expand his land instead of building large houses. Bad luck or an illness could cause a Yeoman to plunge into poverty. They could read and write and took their religion very seriously.
During the Elizabethan Era, there were 6 main social classes: the Monarch, the Nobility, the Gentry, the Merchants, the Yeomanry, and the Laborers.
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The Nobility class contained noblemen. They were
rich and powerful. There were few nobles because the
Monarch saw this class as a threat to their power. At the
head of each noble house, there was a baron, a duke, or an
earl. This class contained lords and ladies. The noblemen
usually held great households. A person could become a
nobleman by birth or by a grant from the queen or king.
Noble titles were hereditary: they were passed down from
father to eldest son. It took a great crime like treason for a
nobleman to lose the title. Being a member of the Nobility
class usually brought dept rather than profit.
Thank you for listening attentively to our presentation on Social Classes in the Elizabethan Era. We hope you all enjoyed this presentation and we wish you all a great day!
The Monarch was the ruler of the lands. During the
Elizabethan Era, Queen Elizabeth I, the sixth and last Tudor was the Monarch. She was considered the greatest Monarch in English history. During her reign, England was at her peak. It was the time of development of English poetry and literature.
This class included knights, squires, rich servants,
gentlemen, and gentlewomen. The number of Gentry
members grew during the Elizabethan Era and some
were popular like William Shakespeare and Sir Francis Drake. Most of the people in this class were born from non-noble birth and became wealthy landowners.
The Merchants members were salesmen and, of course, merchants. They sold wool, cloth, and other items and materials. When they had a good amount of buyers, they would raise the price of their products. They said the higher prices benefited the country but really it just benefits the merchants' pockets. During the Elizabethan Era, the merchants would ship products - in particular, cloth - to other countries around Europe and the "New World" (America).
This is the last class. Members of this class were retailers, laborers, poor husbandmen, artisans, shoemakers, carpenters, brick masons, serving-men, and beggars. During Queen Elizabeth's reign, the gouvernment created the Poor Laws, now called the Elizabethan Poor Laws. The government were assisting the Laborers class and is now one of the world's first government sponsored welfare programs. Members of this class would be sentenced to death for not working if they were healthy. Crime and punishment were different on this class than on any other class.