Social Class in the Elizabethan Era

Main Use

How One Changes Their Class

Lower Class:

Upper Class:

Class was some combination of the type of work one does, the amount of money received for that work, and the amount of national wealth one has at one's command.

• Yeomanry - The yeoman rarely moved up classes because they lived comfortably with what they had. The small savings they built could be brought down by something like famine.
• Poor - Barely ever moved up classes because they could barely get by

• Monarch - One must be born or married into monarch
• Nobility - To become a nobility, one would have to be appointed by the monarch. To become less, one would have to commit a severe crime.
• Gentry - Through generations of marriage, people in the gentry could build their wealth and title.

Thesis

Levels of Class

Monarch

Nobility

Gentry

Yeomanry

Poor

Monarch

Monarchs were usually the ruler of the kingdom. In the Elizabethan era, Queen Elizabeth I was the monarch.

One's class is an expression of social status in their society. People in different classes usually acted differently.

Purpose

Yeomanry

The Poor

The yeomanry were the middle class. They lived better than the poor: "the yeoman were able to provide themselves with larger, lighter, and warmer houses" (Fox 15)

The poor were the people without money, food, or shelter. The poor had life the hardest: "the poor therefore crowded into the slums of both the eastern and western suburbs to fight a losing battle against disease" (Fox 13)

A person's class determined how they could dress, where they could live, and the kinds of jobs people and their children could get. The homes people lived in could give away someone's class.

Nobility

A nobility was rich and powerful, and during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and her predecessors, was rarely appointed because he was viewed as threats to the monarch's power.

Gentry

The gentry were the knights, squires, gentlemen and gentlewomen whose fortunes were great that they did not have to work for a living. Their numbers grew rapidly and became the most important class during the Elizabethan era and therefore most of the important people from this time were from this class.

Works Cited

Fox, Levi. "The Elizabethan Economy." The Shakespeare Handbook. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987. Print.

Jones, Melanie. "Overview of Elizabeth 1." Overview of Elizabeth 1. Ed. Simon Brown. The Historical Association, 30 June 2011. Web. 21 Oct 2014.

Kilde, Jeanne Halgren. "Gender, Social Class, Race, and Material Life." Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History. Ed. Mary Kupiec Cayton and Peter W. Williams. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. Student Resources in Context. Web. 20 Oct 2014.

Pfeil, Fred. "Class." Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History. Ed. Mary Kupiec Cayton and Peter W. Williams. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. Student Resources in Context. Web. 17 Oct 2014.

Social Class in the Elizabethan Era