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83-660: Coldbath Fields Prison , also formerly known as the Middlesex House of Correction and Clerkenwell Gaol and informally known as the Steel , was a prison in the Mount Pleasant area of Clerkenwell , London . Founded in the reign of James I (1603–1625) it was completely rebuilt in 1794 and extended in 1850. It housed prisoners on short sentences of up to two years. Blocks emerged to segregate felons, misdemeanants and vagrants. Coldbath Fields Prison (also known as

166-535: A justice of the peace , included examples in his account A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors , first published in 1566. He collected his information from vagabonds he interrogated at his home in Essex . He also called it "pedlars' French" or "pelting speech", and was told that it had been invented as a secret language some 30 years earlier. The earliest records of canting words are included in The Highway to

249-695: A Protestant, and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots , a Catholic. That would be a prelude to the religious recovery of England for Catholicism. In 1570, the Ridolfi plot was thwarted. In 1584, the Throckmorton Plot was discovered, after Francis Throckmorton confessed his involvement in a plot to overthrow the Queen and restore the Catholic Church in England. Another major conspiracy was

332-524: A dominant genius or a formal structure for research (the following century had both Sir Isaac Newton and the Royal Society ), the Elizabethan era nonetheless saw significant scientific progress. The astronomers Thomas Digges and Thomas Harriot made important contributions; William Gilbert published his seminal study of magnetism, De Magnete, in 1600. Substantial advancements were made in

415-496: A failure of the wheat crop, but did do so in France. England was exposed to new foods (such as the potato imported from South America), and developed new tastes during the era. The more prosperous enjoyed a wide variety of food and drink, including exotic new drinks such as tea, coffee, and chocolate. French and Italian chefs appeared in the country houses and palaces bringing new standards of food preparation and taste. For example,

498-502: A fashion statement. Mansions were often designed to a symmetrical plan; "E" and "H" shapes were popular. The population of London increased from 100,000 to 200,000 between the death of Mary Tudor in 1558 and the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. Inflation was rapid and the wealth gap was wide. Poor men, women, and children begged in the cities, as the children only earned sixpence a week. With the growth of industry, many landlords decided to use their land for manufacturing purposes, displacing

581-626: A few localities were funds available to provide support as well as the necessary education scholarship. Boys from wealthy families were taught at home by a private tutor. When Henry VIII shut the monasteries he closed their schools. He refounded many former monastic schools—they are known as "King's schools" and are found all over England. During the reign of Edward VI many free grammar schools were set up to take in non-fee paying students. There were two universities in Tudor England: Oxford and Cambridge . Some boys went to university at

664-450: A garden could trade with their neighbors to obtain vegetables and fruits at low cost. Fruits and vegetables were used in desserts such as pastries, tarts, cakes, crystallized fruit, and syrup. At the rich end of the scale the manor houses and palaces were awash with large, elaborately prepared meals, usually for many people and often accompanied by entertainment. The upper classes often celebrated religious festivals, weddings, alliances and

747-407: A great deal of bread and fish. Every class had a taste for beer and rum. The diet in England during the Elizabethan era depended largely on social class . Bread was a staple of the Elizabethan diet, and people of different statuses ate bread of different qualities. The upper classes ate fine white bread called manchet , while the poor ate coarse bread made of barley or rye . The poorer among

830-591: A number of years, Elizabeth refrained from persecuting Catholics because she was against Catholicism, not her Catholic subjects if they made no trouble. In 1570, Pope Pius V declared Elizabeth a heretic who was not the legitimate queen and that her subjects no longer owed her obedience. The pope sent Jesuits and seminarians to secretly evangelize and support Catholics. After several plots to overthrow her, Catholic clergy were mostly considered to be traitors, and were pursued aggressively in England. Often priests were tortured or executed after capture unless they cooperated with

913-436: A replacement for the litters and carts of an earlier transportation mode. Coaches quickly became as fashionable as sports cars in a later century; social critics, especially Puritan commentators, noted the "diverse great ladies" who rode "up and down the countryside" in their new coaches. Historians since the 1960s have explored many facets of the social history, covering every class of the population. Although home to only

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996-494: A separate group from the standard vagabonds, and cant was fully developed within 50 years of their first arrival in England. Comparison of Romany words in the Winchester Confessions taken in 1616 with modern Welsh Romani show high commonality. This record also distinguished between Romany and Cant words and again the attributions of the words to the different categories is consistent with later records. There

1079-453: A separate vocabulary – Angloromani was used for day to day matters, while cant was used for criminal activities. A thief in 1839 claimed that the cant he had seen in print was nothing like the cant then used by Roma, thieves and beggars. He also said that each of these used distinct vocabularies, which overlapped; the Roma having a cant word for everything, and the beggars using a lower style than

1162-421: A simple hole in the roof. Mansions had many chimneys for the many fireplaces required to keep the vast rooms warm. These fires were also the only way of cooking food. Wealthy Tudor homes needed many rooms, where a large number of guests and servants could be accommodated, fed and entertained. Wealth was demonstrated by the extensive use of glass. Windows became the main feature of Tudor mansions, and were often

1245-540: A small part of the population the Tudor municipalities were overcrowded and unhygienic. Most towns were unpaved with poor public sanitation. There were no sewers or drains, and rubbish was simply abandoned in the street. Animals such as rats thrived in these conditions. In larger towns and cities, such as London, common diseases arising from lack of sanitation included smallpox , measles , malaria , typhus , diphtheria , scarlet fever , and chickenpox . Outbreaks of

1328-681: A somewhat higher social level families ate an enormous variety of meats, who could choose among venison , beef , mutton , veal , pork , lamb, fowl, salmon , eel , and shellfish . The holiday goose was a special treat. Rich spices were used by the wealthier people to offset the smells of old salt-preserved meat. Many rural folk and some townspeople tended a small garden which produced vegetables such as asparagus, cucumbers, spinach, lettuce, beans, cabbage, turnips, radishes, carrots, leeks, and peas, as well as medicinal and flavoring herbs. Some grew their own apricots, grapes, berries, apples, pears, plums, strawberries, currants, and cherries. Families without

1411-608: A voyage to find a northern route to the Spice Islands of Asia; this began the search for the North West Passage . Cabot sailed in 1497 and reached Newfoundland . He led another voyage to the Americas the following year, but nothing was heard of him or his ships again. In 1562 Elizabeth sent privateers Hawkins and Drake to seize booty from Spanish and Portuguese ships off the coast of West Africa . When

1494-553: Is a cant , cryptolect, or argot which was formerly used by thieves, beggars, and hustlers of various kinds in Great Britain and to a lesser extent in other English-speaking countries. It is now mostly obsolete and used in literature and fantasy role-playing , although individual terms continue to be used in the criminal subcultures of Britain and the United States. Cant is a common feature of rogue literature of

1577-457: Is doubt as to the extent to which the words in canting literature were taken from street usage, or were adopted by those wishing to show that they were part of a real or imagined criminal underworld. The transmission has almost certainly been in both directions. The Winchester Confessions indicate that Roma who were engaged in criminal activities, or those who were associated with them and had a good knowledge of their language, were using cant, but as

1660-690: The 1559 Book of Common Prayer which effectively reinstated the 1552 Book of Common Prayer with modifications which made clear that the Church of England believed in the (spiritual) Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Communion but without a definition how in favor of leaving this a mystery, and she had the Black Rubric removed from the Articles of Faith: this had allowed kneeling to receive communion without implying that by doing so it meant

1743-609: The Anglo-Spanish Wars intensified after 1585, Elizabeth approved further raids against Spanish ports in the Americas and against shipping returning to Europe with treasure. Meanwhile, the influential writers Richard Hakluyt and John Dee were beginning to press for the establishment of England's own overseas empire. Spain was well established in the Americas, while Portugal, in union with Spain from 1580, had an ambitious global empire in Africa, Asia and South America. France

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1826-531: The Babington Plot – the event which most directly led to Mary's execution, the discovery of which involved a double agent , Gilbert Gifford , acting under the direction of Francis Walsingham , the Queen's highly effective spy master. The Essex Rebellion of 1601 has a dramatic element, as just before the uprising, supporters of the Earl of Essex , among them Charles and Joscelyn Percy (younger brothers of

1909-653: The Black Death pandemic occurred in 1498, 1535, 1543, 1563, 1589 and 1603. The reason for the speedy spread of the disease was the increase of rats infected by fleas carrying the disease. Child mortality was low in comparison with earlier and later periods, at about 150 or fewer deaths per 1000 babies. By age 15 a person could expect 40–50 more years of life. The great majority were tenant farmers who lived in small villages. Their homes were, as in earlier centuries, thatched huts with one or two rooms, although later on during this period, roofs were also tiled. Furniture

1992-537: The Drake–Norris Expedition of 1589 . Three further Spanish Armadas also failed in 1596 , 1597 and 1602 . The war ended with the Treaty of London the year following Elizabeth's death. England during this period had a centralised, well-organised, and effective government, largely a result of the reforms of Henry VII and Henry VIII , as well as Elizabeth's harsh punishments for any dissenters. Economically,

2075-474: The Earl of Northumberland ), paid for a performance of Richard II at the Globe Theatre , apparently with the goal of stirring public ill will towards the monarchy. It was reported at the trial of Essex by Chamberlain's Men actor Augustine Phillips , that the conspirators paid the company forty shillings "above the ordinary" (i. e., above their usual rate) to stage the play, which the players felt

2158-590: The Elizabethan era in England , in both pamphlets and theatre . It was claimed by Samuel Rid to have been devised around 1530 by two vagabond leaders – Giles Hather, of the "Egyptians" , and Cock Lorell, of the "Quartern of Knaves" – at The Devil's Arse , a cave in Derbyshire , "to the end that their cozenings , knaveries and villainies might not so easily be perceived and known". Thomas Harman ,

2241-564: The Middlesex House of Correction) was originally a prison run by local magistrates and where most prisoners served short sentences. Coldbath Fields also served as a debtor's prison . It took its name from Cold Bath Spring, a medicinal spring discovered in 1697. The prison housed men, women and children until 1850, when the women and children moved to Tothill Fields Bridewell in Victoria (Westminster) leaving only male offenders over

2324-680: The Spanish Armada was repelled. It was also the end of the period when England was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland . The Elizabethan age contrasts sharply with the previous and following reigns. It was a brief period of internal peace between the Wars of the Roses in the previous century, the English Reformation , and the religious battles between Protestants and Catholics prior to Elizabeth's reign, and then

2407-694: The Tower of London until he agreed to be more tolerant towards Catholics. Most dramatic was the 1605 Gunpowder Plot to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament. It was discovered in time with eight conspirators executed, including Guy Fawkes , who became the iconic evil traitor in English lore. While Henry VIII had launched the Royal Navy , Edward and Mary had ignored it and it

2490-508: The drolls he published for performance at markets, fairs and camps. The influence of this work can be seen from the independent life taken on by the "Beggar King Clause", who appears as a real character in later literature. The ceremony for anointing the new king was taken from Thomas Harman and described as being used by Romani people in the nineteenth century. Bampfylde Moore Carew , who published his picaresque Life in 1745, claimed to have been chosen to succeed "Clause Patch" as King of

2573-533: The stanza As he went through Coldbath-fields, he saw A solitary cell ; And the devil was pleased, for it gave him a hint For improving his prisons in hell. In Samuel Butler 's semi-autobiographical novel ' The Way of All Flesh ' the hero, Ernest Pontifex is sentenced to six months hard labour in Coldbath Fields prison: chapters 64-70. Thieves%27 cant Thieves' cant (also known as thieves' argot , rogues' cant , or peddler's French )

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2656-694: The Beggars, and many editions of his work included a canting dictionary. Such dictionaries, often based on Harman's, remained popular, including The Canting Academy, or Devils Cabinet opened , by Richard Head (1673), and BE's Dictionary of the Canting Crew (1699). It was commonly believed that cant developed from Romany . Etymological research now suggests a substantial correlation between Romany words and cant, and equivalents, in many European languages. However, in England, Scotland, and Wales this does not apply. The Egyptians , as they were known, were

2739-576: The Crown enjoyed a surplus of £300,000. Economically, Sir Thomas Gresham 's founding of the Royal Exchange (1565), the first stock exchange in England and one of the earliest in Europe, proved to be a development of the first importance, for the economic development of England and soon for the world as a whole. With taxes lower than other European countries of the period, the economy expanded; though

2822-468: The East End of London. The Middlesex magistrates and police offices were a key part of this strategy. In 1798 the magistrates, including Joseph Merceron , the corrupt 'Boss of Bethnal Green', became embroiled in a scandal over the conditions at Coldbath Fields, where several radical (also known as reformist) party sympathisers, including Colonel Edward Despard , were being held without trial. The scandal

2905-413: The English authorities. People who publicly supported Catholicism were excluded from the professions; sometimes fined or imprisoned. This was justified on the grounds that Catholics were not persecuted for their religion but punished for being traitors who supported the Queen's Spanish foe; in practice, however, Catholics perceived it as religious persecution and regarded those executed as martyrs. Lacking

2988-406: The English developed a taste for acidic foods—such as oranges for the upper class—and started to use vinegar heavily. The gentry paid increasing attention to their gardens, with new fruits, vegetables and herbs; pasta, pastries, and dried mustard balls first appeared on the table. The apricot was a special treat at fancy banquets. Roast beef remained a staple for those who could afford it. The rest ate

3071-463: The Spanish and Portuguese monopoly of far Eastern trade. It established trading posts, which in later centuries evolved into British India , on the coasts of what is now India and Bangladesh . Larger scale colonisation to North America began shortly after Elizabeth's death. England in this era had some positive aspects that set it apart from contemporaneous continental European societies. Torture

3154-636: The Spitalfields by Robert Copland c.  1536 . Copland and Harman were used as sources by later writers. A spate of rogue literature started in 1591 with Robert Greene 's series of five pamphlets on cozenage and coney-catching . These were continued by other writers, including Thomas Middleton , in The Black Book and Thomas Dekker , in The Bellman of London (1608), Lantern and Candlelight (1608), and O per se O (1612). Cant

3237-502: The age of 17. Despite its aspirations to be more humanitarian (its redesign was by John Howard ), it became notorious for its strict regime of silence and its use of the treadmill . Since 1793 Britain had been at war with France, and William Pitt ’s government became increasingly drawn into attempts to restrain the growth of radical republican societies, such as the London Corresponding Society , especially in

3320-451: The age of about 14. England's food supply was plentiful throughout most of the reign; there were no famines. Bad harvests caused distress, but they were usually localized. The most widespread came in 1555–57 and 1596–98. In the towns the price of staples was fixed by law; in hard times the size of the loaf of bread sold by the baker was smaller. Trade and industry flourished in the 16th century, making England more prosperous and improving

3403-474: The alphabet and the Lord's Prayer . There were few books, so pupils read from hornbooks instead. These wooden boards had the alphabet, prayers or other writings pinned to them and were covered with a thin layer of transparent cow's horn. There were two types of school in Tudor times: petty school was where young boys were taught to read and write; grammar school was where abler boys were taught English and Latin. It

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3486-548: The apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music and literature. The era is most famous for its theatre , as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of England's past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people, most certainly after

3569-516: The centuries-long Anglo-French Wars were largely suspended for most of Elizabeth's reign. The one great rival was Habsburg Spain , with whom England clashed both in Europe and the Americas in skirmishes that exploded into the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604 . An attempt by Philip II of Spain to invade England with the Spanish Armada in 1588 was famously defeated. In turn England launched an equally unsuccessful expedition to Spain with

3652-402: The country began to benefit greatly from the new era of trans-Atlantic trade and persistent theft of Spanish and Portuguese treasures, most notably as a result of Francis Drake's circumnavigation . The term Elizabethan era was already well-established in English and British historical consciousness, long before the accession of Queen Elizabeth II , and generally refers solely to the time of

3735-416: The country with a long period of general if not total peace and generally increased prosperity due in large part to stealing from Spanish treasure ships, raiding settlements with low defenses, and selling African slaves. Having inherited a virtually bankrupt state from previous reigns, her frugal policies restored fiscal responsibility. Her fiscal restraint cleared the regime of debt by 1574, and ten years later

3818-413: The difference between Tudor houses and Tudor-style houses easy, as the original beams are not straight. The upper floors of Tudor houses were often larger than the ground floors, which would create an overhang (or jetty ). This would create more floor-surface above while also keeping maximum street width. During the Tudor period, the use of glass when building houses was first used, and became widespread. It

3901-454: The earlier queen of this name. The Victorian era and the early 20th century idealised the Elizabethan era. The Encyclopædia Britannica maintains that "[T]he long reign of Elizabeth I, 1558–1603, was England's Golden Age... ' Merry England ', in love with life, expressed itself in music and literature, in architecture and in adventurous seafaring". This idealising tendency was shared by Britain and an Anglophilic America. In popular culture,

3984-465: The eastern seaboard of North America occurred in this era—the abortive colony at Roanoke Island in 1587. While Elizabethan England is not thought of as an age of technological innovation, some progress did occur. In 1564 Guilliam Boonen came from the Netherlands to be Queen Elizabeth's first coach-builder —thus introducing the new European invention of the spring-suspension coach to England, as

4067-644: The end of the Italian Wars , which left the Italian Peninsula impoverished. The Kingdom of France was embroiled in the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598). They were (temporarily) settled in 1598 by a policy of tolerating Protestantism with the Edict of Nantes . In part because of this, but also because the English had been expelled from their last outposts on the continent by Spain's tercios ,

4150-466: The enemy vessel. When Spain finally decided to invade and conquer England it was a fiasco. Superior English ships and seamanship foiled the invasion and led to the destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588, marking the high point of Elizabeth's reign. Technically, the Armada failed because Spain's over-complex strategy required coordination between the invasion fleet and the Spanish army on shore. Moreover,

4233-524: The family. They were not sent to school. Boys were educated for work and the girls for marriage and running a household so when they married they could look after the house and children. Wealthy families hired a tutor to teach the boys at home. Many Tudor towns and villages had a parish school where the local vicar taught boys to read and write. Brothers could teach their sisters these skills. At school, pupils were taught English, Latin, Greek, catechism and arithmetic. The pupils practised writing in ink by copying

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4316-533: The farmers who lived and worked there. Despite the struggles of the lower class, the government tended to spend money on wars and exploration voyages instead of on welfare. About one-third of the population lived in poverty, with the wealthy expected to give alms to assist the impotent poor . Tudor law was harsh on the able-bodied poor , i.e., those unable to find work. Those who left their parishes in order to locate work were termed vagabonds and could be subjected to punishments, including whipping and putting at

4399-544: The fields of cartography and surveying. The eccentric but influential John Dee also merits mention. Much of this scientific and technological progress related to the practical skill of navigation. English achievements in exploration were noteworthy in the Elizabethan era. Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe between 1577 and 1581, and Martin Frobisher explored the Arctic . The first attempt at English settlement of

4482-586: The formation of the Via Media during the 17th century. She spent the rest of her reign ferociously fending off radical reformers and Roman Catholics who wanted to modify the Settlement of Church affairs: The Church of England was Protestant, "with its peculiar arrested development in Protestant terms, and the ghost which it harboured of an older world of Catholic traditions and devotional practice". For

4565-463: The full-rigged ship was one of the greatest technological advances of the century and permanently transformed naval warfare. In 1573 English shipwrights introduced designs, first demonstrated in the "Dreadnaught", that allowed the ships to sail faster and maneuver better and permitted heavier guns. Whereas before warships had tried to grapple with each other so that soldiers could board the enemy ship, now they stood off and fired broadsides that would sink

4648-413: The globe. Combined with his daring raids against the Spanish and his great victory over them at Cádiz in 1587 , he became a famous hero —his exploits are still celebrated—but England did not follow up on his claims. In 1583, Humphrey Gilbert sailed to Newfoundland, taking possession of the harbour of St. John's together with all land within two hundred leagues to the north and south of it. In 1584,

4731-448: The image of those adventurous Elizabethan seafarers was embodied in the films of Errol Flynn . In response and reaction to this hyperbole, modern historians and biographers have tended to take a more dispassionate view of the Tudor period. Elizabethan England was not particularly successful in a military sense during the period, but it avoided major defeats and built up a powerful navy. On balance, it can be said that Elizabeth provided

4814-482: The intense religious passions of the time. This was in significant contrast to previous and succeeding eras of marked religious violence. Elizabeth said "I have no desire to make windows into men's souls". Her desire to moderate the religious persecutions of previous Tudor reigns – the persecution of Catholics under Edward VI, and of Protestants under Mary I – appears to have had a moderating effect on English society. Elizabeth, Protestant, but undogmatic one, authorizing

4897-622: The later conflict of the English Civil War and the ongoing political battles between parliament and the monarchy that engulfed the remainder of the seventeenth century. The Protestant/Catholic divide was settled, for a time, by the Elizabethan Religious Settlement , and parliament was not yet strong enough to challenge royal absolutism. England was also well-off compared to the other nations of Europe. The Italian Renaissance had come to an end following

4980-442: The lower classes. Cumbria, the poorest and most isolated part of England, suffered a six-year famine beginning in 1594. Diseases and natural disasters also contributed to the scarce food supply. In the 17th century, the food supply improved. England had no food crises from 1650 to 1725, a period when France was unusually vulnerable to famines. Historians point out that oat and barley prices in England did not always increase following

5063-526: The other hand, were thin and outdated; England had too few soldiers and they were at best only partially trained. Spain had chosen England's weakest link and probably could have captured London in a week. Parker adds that a Catholic uprising in the north and in Ireland could have brought total defeat. The discoveries of Christopher Columbus electrified all of western Europe, especially maritime powers like England. King Henry VII commissioned John Cabot to lead

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5146-428: The poor design of the Spanish cannons meant they were much slower in reloading in a close-range battle. Spain and France still had stronger fleets, but England was catching up. Parker has speculated on the dire consequences if the Spanish had landed their invasion army in 1588. He argues that the Spanish army was larger, more experienced, better-equipped, more confident, and had better financing. The English defenses, on

5229-458: The population consumed a diet largely of bread, cheese, milk, and beer, with small portions of meat, fish and vegetables, and occasionally some fruit. Potatoes were just arriving at the end of the period, and became increasingly important. The typical poor farmer sold his best products on the market, keeping the cheap food for the family. Stale bread could be used to make bread puddings, and bread crumbs served to thicken soups, stews, and sauces. At

5312-537: The queen granted Walter Raleigh a charter for the colonisation of Virginia ; it was named in her honour. Raleigh and Elizabeth sought both immediate riches and a base for privateers to raid the Spanish treasure fleets. Raleigh sent others to found the Roanoke Colony ; it remains a mystery why the settlers all disappeared. In 1600, the queen chartered the East India Company in an attempt to break

5395-543: The real and essential presence of Christ in the bread and wine: she believed it so. She was not able to get an unmarried clergy or the Protestant Holy Communion celebrated to look like a Mass. The Apostolic Succession was maintained, the institution of the church continued without a break (with 98% of the clergy remaining at their posts) and the attempt to ban music in church was defeated. The Injunctions of 1571 forbade any doctrines that did not conform to

5478-399: The standard of living of the upper and middle classes. However, the lower classes did not benefit much and did not always have enough food. As the English population was fed by its own agricultural produce, a series of bad harvests in the 1590s caused widespread starvation and poverty. The success of the wool trading industry decreased attention on agriculture, resulting in further starvation of

5561-566: The stocks. The idea of the workhouse for the able-bodied poor was first suggested in 1576. There was an unprecedented expansion of education in the Tudor period. Until then, few children went to school. Those that did go were mainly the sons of wealthy or ambitious fathers who could afford to pay the attendance fee. Boys were allowed to go to school and began at the age of 4, they then moved to grammar school when they were 7 years old. Girls were either kept at home by their parents to help with housework or sent out to work to bring money in for

5644-740: The teaching of the Church Fathers and the Catholic Bishops. The Queen's hostility to strict Calvinistic doctrines blocked the Radicals. Almost no original theological thought came out of the English Reformation; instead, the Church relied on the Catholic Consensus of the first Four Ecumenical Councils. The preservation of many Catholic doctrines and practices was the cuckoos nest that eventually resulted in

5727-606: The thieves. Elizabethan era The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female personification of Great Britain) was revived in 1572, and often thereafter, to mark the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over Spain. This "golden age" represented

5810-659: The treadmill house; no prisoners were hurt but two firemen were injured. The prison closed in 1885. The site was transferred to the Post Office in 1889 and its buildings were gradually replaced. The last sections were demolished in 1929 for an extension of the Letter Office. Today, the site is occupied by the Mount Pleasant sorting office . The Devil's Thoughts (1799), a poem attributed to Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey (and others), contains

5893-625: The use of cant words in Jacobean theatre. Middleton and Dekker included it in The Roaring Girl, or Moll Cut-Purse (1611). It was used extensively in The Beggars' Bush , a play by Francis Beaumont , John Fletcher and Philip Massinger , first performed in 1622, but possibly written c. 1614. The play remained popular for two centuries, and the canting section was extracted as The Beggars Commonwealth by Francis Kirkman as one of

5976-541: The wealth was distributed with wild unevenness, there was clearly more wealth to go around at the end of Elizabeth's reign than at the beginning. This general peace and prosperity allowed the attractive developments that "Golden Age" advocates have stressed. The Elizabethan Age was also an age of plots and conspiracies, frequently political in nature, and often involving the highest levels of Elizabethan society. High officials in Madrid, Paris and Rome sought to kill Elizabeth,

6059-402: The whims of the king or queen. Feasts were commonly used to commemorate the "procession" of the crowned heads of state in the summer months, when the king or queen would travel through a circuit of other nobles' lands both to avoid the plague season of London, and alleviate the royal coffers, often drained through the winter to provide for the needs of the royal family and court. This would include

6142-568: Was basic, with stools being commonplace rather than chairs. The walls of Tudor houses were often made from timber and wattle and daub , or brick; stone and tiles were more common in the wealthier homes. The daub was usually then painted with limewash , making it white, and the wood was painted with black tar to prevent rotting, but not in Tudor times; the Victorians did this afterwards. The bricks were handmade and thinner than modern bricks. The wooden beams were cut by hand, which makes telling

6225-781: Was exploring North America. England was stimulated to create its own colonies, with an emphasis on the West Indies rather than in North America. Martin Frobisher landed at Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island in August 1576; He returned in 1577, claiming it in Queen Elizabeth's name, and in a third voyage tried but failed to found a settlement in Frobisher Bay. From 1577 to 1580, Francis Drake circumnavigated

6308-547: Was exposed in Parliament by the young radical MP Sir Francis Burdett , who used it as the basis of his campaign against the chair of the magistrates William Mainwaring and his son George in the 1802 and 1804 Middlesex parliamentary elections. During the early 19th century, the prison temporarily housed members of the Cato Street Conspiracy . In March 1877 a fire, which started in the bakehouse, destroyed

6391-414: Was included together with descriptions of the social structure of beggars, the techniques of thieves including coney-catching, gull-groping , and gaming tricks, and the descriptions of low-lifes of the kind which have always been popular in literature. Harman included a canting dictionary which was copied by Thomas Dekker and other writers. That such words were known to a wide audience is evidenced by

6474-459: Was little more than a system of coastal defense. Elizabeth made naval strength a high priority. She risked war with Spain by supporting the " Sea Dogs ", such as John Hawkins and Francis Drake , who preyed on the Spanish merchant ships carrying gold and silver from the New World. The Navy yards were leaders in technical innovation, and the captains devised new tactics. Parker (1996) argues that

6557-511: Was necessary for boys to attend grammar school , but girls were rarely allowed in any place of education other than petty schools, and then only with a restricted curriculum. Petty schools were for all children aged from 5 to 7 years of age. Only the most wealthy people allowed their daughters to be taught, and only at home. During this time, endowed schooling became available. This meant that even boys of very poor families were able to attend school if they were not needed to work at home, but only in

6640-618: Was rare, since the English legal system reserved torture only for capital crimes like treason —though forms of corporal punishment, some of them extreme, were practised. The persecution of witches began in 1563, and hundreds were executed, although there was nothing like the frenzy on the Continent. Mary had tried her hand at an aggressive anti-Protestant Inquisition and was hated for it; it was not to be repeated. Nevertheless, more Catholics were persecuted, exiled, and burned alive than under Queen Mary. Elizabeth managed to moderate and quell

6723-467: Was too old and "out of use" to attract a large audience. In the last decades of the reign, Elizabeth gave James VI of Scotland an annual annuity or subsidy which contributed to an "amity" or peace between England and Scotland. It became clear that he would be her successor . Plots continued in the new reign. In the Bye Plot of 1603, two Catholic priests planned to kidnap King James and hold him in

6806-450: Was usual for students to attend six days a week. The school day started at 7:00 am in winter and 6:00 am in summer and finished about 5:00 pm. Petty schools had shorter hours, mostly to allow poorer boys the opportunity to work as well. Schools were harsh and teachers were very strict, often beating pupils who misbehaved. Education would begin at home, where children were taught the basic etiquette of proper manners and respecting others. It

6889-435: Was very expensive and difficult to make, so the panes were made small and held together with a lead lattice, in casement windows . People who could not afford glass often used polished horn, cloth or paper. Tudor chimneys were tall, thin, and often decorated with symmetrical patterns of molded or cut brick. Early Tudor houses, and the homes of poorer people, did not have chimneys. The smoke in these cases would be let out through

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