techniques used. A Ruffler went with a weapon to seek service,
saying that he was a servitor in the wars, but his chief "trade"
was to rob poor wayfaring men and market women. A Prigman went
with a stick in his hand like an idle person, but stole clothes
off hedges. A Whipjack begged like a mariner, but with a
counterfeit license (called a "gibe"); he mostly robbed booths in
fairs or pilfered ware from stalls, which was called "heaving of
the booth". A Frater had a counterfeit license to beg for some
hospital, but preyed upon poor women coming and going to market. A
Quire Bird was a person recently let out of prison, and was
commonly a horse stealer. An Upright Man carried a truncheon of a
staff and called others to account to him and give him a share or
"snap" of all that they had gained in one month, and he often beat
them. He took the chief place at any market walk and other
assemblies. Workers at inns often teamed up with robbers, telling
them of wares or money travelers were carrying so the robber could
profitably rob them after they left the inn.
Violence was still a part of the texture of everyday life. Private
armories and armed gangs were not uncommon. Agricultural laborers
kept sword and bow in a corner of their fields in the first part
of Elizabeth's reign. Non-political brutal crime and homicides
were commonplace. There were frequent local riots and
disturbances, in the country and in the towns. Occasionally there
were large-scale rebellions. But the rebellion of the Earl of
Essex in 1601 had no aftermath in violence. In 1590, the Queen
issued a proclamation enforcing curfew for London apprentices, who
had been misruly. The Queen issued proclamations to certain
counties to place vagrant soldiers or vagrants under martial law
because of numerous robberies. She ordered the deportation of
vagrant Irishmen in 1594.
After exhausting every other alternative, the Queen reluctantly
agreed with her Privy Council on the execution in 1572 of Mary,
Queen of Scots, who had been involved in a plot to assassinate her
and claim the throne of England. Her Council had persuaded her
that it was impossible for her to live in safety otherwise.
Francis Drake sailed around the world from 1577 to 1580. Walter
Ralegh made an expedition to North America in 1584 with the
Queen's authority to "discover barbarous countries, not actually
possessed of any Christian prince and inhabited by Christian
people, to occupy and enjoy". He found and named the land of
Virginia in honor of the Queen, who was a virgin, and started a
colony on Roanoke Island there. Drake and Ralegh plundered Spanish
ships for cargo such as American gold and silver, much of which
was used to pay for the war with Spain and much going to
investors. There experience fighting Spanish ships led to
improvements in ship design; building ships was no longer merely
by copying another ship or a small model. In 1588, the Spanish
Armada came to invade England, and was for the most part
destroyed. In that battle, Drake and other experienced sea-
fighters led two hundred English ships, of which about 20 were
built to sink other ships rather than to board and capture them.
These new English ships were longer and narrower and did away with
the towering superstructures at bow and stern. This made them more
maneuverable and easier to sail. Also, the English guns were
lighter, more numerous, and outranged the Spanish guns. So the
smaller English ships were able to get close enough to fire
broadside after broadside against the big Spanish troop-transport
galleons, without being fired upon. The direction of the wind
forced the Spanish galleons northward, where most of them were
destroyed by storms. The English seamen had been arbitrarily
pressed into this service.
A royal proclamation of 1601 offered a reward of 100 pounds for
information on libels against the Queen. There had been mounting
demonstrations against her monopolies, which mostly affected
household items. There had been abuses of monopolies, such as the
steel monopoly had been sold for 12 pounds 10s., but steel was
then sold at 5d. per pound instead of the former 2 1/2 d. per
pound. Further the steel was mixed and of a lesser quality. This
so damaged the knife and sword industry that about 2000 workers
lost their jobs from it and became beggars. Monopoly was a severe
burden to the middle and poorer classes. Also, the power of patent
holders to arrest and imprison persons charged with infringing
upon their rights was extended to any disliked person.
When the House of Commons protested against monopolies in 1601,
Elizabeth reduced them. She addressed her Council and the Commons
saying that "Mr. Speaker, you give me thanks, but I doubt me that
I have more cause to thank you all than you me; and I charge you
to thank them of the Lower House from me. For had I not received a
knowledge from you, I might have fallen into the lapse of an error
only for lack of true information. Since I was queen yet did I
never put my pen to any grant but that upon pretext and semblance
made unto me, it was both good and beneficial to the subject in
general, though a private profit to some of my ancient servants
who had deserved well. But the contrary being found by experience,
I am exceedingly beholding to such subjects as would move the same
at the first. And I am not so simple to suppose but that there be
some of the Lower House whom these grievances never touched; and
for them I think they speak out of zeal to their countries and not
out of spleen or malevolent affection, as being parties grieved.
And I take it exceedingly gratefully from them, because it gives
us to know that no respects or interests had moved them other than
the minds they bear to suffer no diminution of our honor and our
subjects' love unto us, the zeal of which affection tending to
ease my people and knit their hearts unto me, I embrace with a
princely care. For above all earthly treasures I esteem my
people's love, more than which I desire not to merit. That my
grants should be grievous unto my people and oppressions to be
privileged under color of our patents, our kingly dignity shall
not suffer it. Yea, when I heard it I could give no rest unto my
thoughts until I had reformed it. Shall they (think you) escape
unpunished that have thus oppressed you, and I have been
respectless of their duty and regardless of our honor? No, no, Mr.
Speaker, I assure you, were it not more for conscience' sake than
for any glory or increase of love that I desire, these errors,
troubles, vexations, and oppressions done by these varlets and low
persons (not worthy the name of subjects) should not escape
without condign punishment. But I perceive they dealt with me like
physicians who, ministering a drug, make it more acceptable by
giving it a good aromatical savor; or when they give pills, do
gild them all over. I have ever used to set the Last Judgment day
before my eyes and so to rule as I shall be judged, to answer
before a higher judge. To whose judgment seat I do appeal that
never thought was cherished in my heart that tended not unto my
people's good. And now if my kingly bounties have been abused and
my grants turned to the hurts of my people, contrary to my will
and meaning, or if any in authority under me have neglected or
perverted what I have commited to them, I hope Good will not lay
their culps [sins] and offenses to my charge. Who, though there
were danger in repealing our grants, yet what danger would I not
rather incur for your good than I would suffer them still to
continue? I know the title of a king is a glorious title, but
assure yourself that the shining glory of princely authority hath
not so dazzled the eyes of our understanding but that we well know
and remember that we also are to yield an account of our actions
before the great Judge. To be a king and wear a crown is a thing
more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that
bear it. For myself, I was never so much enticed with the glorious
name of a king or royal authority of a queen as delighted that God
hath made me His instrument to maintain His truth and glory, and
to defend this kingdom from peril, dishonor, tyranny, and
oppression. There will never queen sit in my seat with more zeal
to my country, care to my subjects, and that will sooner with
willingness venture her life for your good and safety, than
myself. For it is not my desire to live or reign longer than my
life and reign shall be for your good. And though you have had and
may have many princes more mighty and wise sitting in this seat,
yet you never had or shall have any that will be more careful and
loving."
About 1584, Richard Hakluyt, a Bristol clergyman, wrote "A
Particular Discourse concerning Western Discoveries". This was to
become the classic statement of the case for English colonization.
It held out hope that the English would find needed timber for
masts, pitch, tar, and ashes for soap.
In Rome in 1600, Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk and priest, was
burned alive at the stake by a court of the inquisition for not
recanting, although tortured, his heretical and blasphemous
philosophy. He had opined that Christianity was irrational and had
no scientific basis, that Christ was only a skillful magician,
that the Bible could not be taken literally, that God and nature
were not separate as taught by Genesis, that the Catholic church
encouraged ignorance from the instinct of self-preservation, and
that the earth and planets revolved around the sun, as did other
planets around other suns.
The Jesuits, a new Catholic order brimming with zeal, sent
missionaries to England to secretly convert people to Catholicism.
The practice of Catholicism had gone underground in England, and
some Catholic house-holders maintained Catholic priests in hidden
places in their homes.
- The Law -
Although estate tails (estates descendible only to the heirs of
the body of the original feofee) by law could not be sold or given
away, this was circumvented by use of a straw man. In
collaboration with the possessor of the property, this straw man
sued the possessor asserting that the property had been wrongfully
taken from the straw man. The possessor pleaded that the crier of
the court who had warranted it should be called to defend the
action. He failed to appear until after judgment had been given to
the straw man. Then the straw man conveyed it to the possessor or
his nominee in fee simple.
No one shall make false linen by stretching it and adding little
pieces of wood, which is so weak that it comes apart after five
washings.
Timber shall not be felled to make logs for fires for the making
of iron.
No one may take small fish to feed to dogs and pigs. Only nets
with mesh leaving three inches spaces may be used to catch fish.
No attainder shall result in the forfeiture of dower by the
offender's wife nor disinheritance of his heirs.
The following statute of artificers regulated labor for the next
two centuries: No master or mistress may employ a servant for a
term less than one year in the crafts of clothiers, woolen cloth
weavers, tuckers, fullers, clothworkers, shearmen, dyers, hosiers,
tailors, shoemakers, tanners pewterers, bakers, brewers, glove-
makers, cutlers, smith, farriers, curriers, saddlers, spurriers,
turners, cappers, hatmakers, feltmakers, bow-makers, arrow-makers,
arrow-head-makers, butchers, cooks, or millers, so that
agriculture will be advanced and idleness diminished. Also, every
craftsman unmarried or under age 30 who is not working must accept
employment by any person needing the craft work. Also, any common
person between 12 and 60 who is not working must accept employment
in agriculture. And, unmarried women between 12 and 40 may be
required by town officials to work by the year, the week, or day
for wages they determine.
All artificers and laborers hired by the day or week shall work
from 5 am to 7 PM. All artificers must labor at agriculture at
haytime and harvest to avoid the loss of grain or hay. Every
householder who raises crops may receive as an apprentice a child
between 10 and 18 to serve in agriculture until he is age 21. A
householder in a town may receive a child as an apprentice for 7
years, but merchants may only take as apprentices children of
parents with 40s. freehold. (This was designed to inhibit
migration to the towns. It excluded three fourths of the rural
population.)
No one may be a craftsman until he has served seven years as an
apprentice. These artificers may have children as apprentices:
smith, wheelmaker, ploughmaker, millmaker, miller, carpenter,
rough mason, plasterer, a timber sawer, an ore burner, a lime
burner, brickmaker, bricklayer, tilemaker, tiler, layer of slate
roofs, layer of wood shingle roofs, layer of straw roofs, cooper,
earthen potter, linen weaver, housewife who weaves wool for sale
or for household use.
Fish, but no meat, may be eaten on Wednesdays so that there will
be more fishermen and mariners and repair of ports. (This was done
because fishing had declined since the dissolution of the
monasteries. Eating fish instead of meat in Lent in the springtime
remained a tradition.)
For repairing of highways, the supervisors may take the rubbish or
smallest stones of any quarry along the road in their precinct.
Embezzlement or theft by a servant of his master's goods of 40s.
or more is a felony.
No one shall forge a deed of land, charter, sealed writing, court
roll or will.
No one shall libel or slander so as to cause a rebellion.
Cut-purses and pick-purses shall not have benefit of clergy.
A debtor may not engage in a fraudulent collusion to sell his land
and goods in order to avoid his creditors.
A person robbing a house of 5s. by day when no one is there shall
not have benefit of clergy, because too many poor persons who
cannot hire a servant to look after their house when they go to
work have been robbed.
When the hue and cry is raised for a robbery in a hundred, and
other hundreds have been negligent, faulty, or defective in
pursuit of the robber, then they must pay half the damages to the
person robbed, while the hundred in which the robbery occurred
pays the other half. Robbers shall be pursued by horse and by
foot.
The price of barrels shall be set by mayors of the towns where
they are sold.
No man under the degree of knight may wear a hat or cap of velvet.
Caps may not be made of felt, but only knit wool. Only hats may be
made of felt. This is to assist the craft of making wool caps.
Every person over 6 years of age shall wear on Sundays a wool
knitted cap made by the cappers, except for maidens, ladies,
gentlewomen, noble persons, and every lord, knight, and gentlemen
with 2,667s. of land, since the practice of not wearing caps has
damaged the capping industry. This employed cappers and poor
people they had employed and the decrepit and lame as carders,
spinners, knitters, parters, forsers, thickers, dressers, dyers,
battelers, shearers, pressers, edgers, liners, and bandmakers.
Rugs shall weigh 44 pounds at least and be 35 yards at least in
length and at most 3/4 yard wide.
The incorporated company of ship masters may erect beacons and
marks on the seashores and hills above, because certain steeples
and other marks used for navigation have fallen down and ships
therefore have been lost in the sea.
There shall be one sheriff per county, because now there are
enough able men to supply one per county.
Trials of noblemen for treason shall be by their peers.
A native or denizen merchant in wholesale or retail goods who
leaves the nation to defraud his creditors shall be declared a
bankrupt. The Chancellor may conduct an investigation to ascertain
his land, house, and goods, no matter who may hold them. They
shall be appraised and sold to satisfy his debts.
Loan contracts for money lent may not be for more than 200s. for
each 2000s. yearly. All loans of money or forbearing of money in
sales of goods for less than this shall be punishable by forfeit
of the interest only.
No cattle may be put in any enclosed woods that have been growing
less than five years. At the end of five years growth, calves may
be put in. At the end of six years growth, cattle may be put in.
The mother and reputed father of any bastard who has been left to
be kept at the parish where born must pay weekly for the upkeep
and relief of such child, so that the true aged and disabled of
the parish get their relief and to punish the lewd life.
No master at a university may lease any land unless 1/3 of it is
retained for raising crops to supply the colleges and halls for
food for their scholars.
Persons with 100s. in goods or 40s. in lands shall find two able
men in their parish community to repair the highways yearly.
Landowners of Oxford shall be taxed for the repair of the highway
and bridge there.
Woods around London shall not be felled to be converted to coals
for iron-works because London needs the wood to make buildings and
for fireplaces.
Every melter and maker of wax from honeycombs shall put his mark
on every piece of his wax to be sold. Wrought wax such as in
lights, staff-torches, red wax or sealing wax, book candles, or
searing candles shall bear its maker's mark. All barrels of honey
shall bear the mark of the honeymaker.
Wool cloth, cotton cloth, flannel cloth, hose-yarn, hats, and caps
shall be dyed black only with dye from the woad plant and not with
any false black dye.
No one shall take or kill any pheasants with nets or devices at
nighttime because such have become scarce.
Lands, tenements, goods and chattels of accountants teller, or
receiver who are in debt may be obtained by court order to satisfy
the debt by garnishing the heir of the debtor after the heir has
reached 21 and for the 8 years next ensuing.
Fraudulent and secret conveyances made to retain the use of one's
land when one sells the land to a bona fide purchaser for value in
fee simple, fee tail, for life, for lives, or for years are void.
No new iron mills or furnaces for making or working of any iron or
iron metal shall be established in the country around London and
the owners of carriages of coals, mines and iron which have
impaired or destroyed the highways shall also carry coal ashes,
gravel, or stone to repair these highways or else make a payment
of 2s.6d. for each cart load not carried.
No one shall bribe an elector to vote for a certain person for
fellow, scholar, or officer of a college, school, or hall or
hospital so that the fittest persons will be elected, though
lacking in money or friends, and learning will therefore be
advanced.
Cottage and dwelling houses for workmen or laborers in mineral
works, coal mines, or quarries of stone or slate for the making of
brick, tile, lime, or coals shall be built only within a mile from
such works. Dwelling houses beyond this must be supported by four
acres of land to be continually occupied and manured as long as
the dwelling house is inhabited or forfeit 40s. per month to the
Queen. Cottages and dwelling houses for sailors or laborers
working on ships for the sea shall be built only within a mile of
the sea. A cottage may be built in a forest or park for a game
keeper of the deer. A cottage may be built for a herd-man or
shepherd for the keeping of cattle or sheep of the town. A cottage
may be built for a poor, lame, sick, aged, or disabled person on
waste or common land. More families than one may not be placed in
one cottage or dwelling house.
A vagabond or mighty strong beggar [able to work] shall be
whipped.
Any person with land in fee-simple may establish a hospital,
abiding place, or house of correction to have continuance forever
as a corporation for the sustenance and relief of the maimed,
poor, or disabled people as to set the poor to work. The net
income shall not exceed 40,000s. yearly.
Troops of vagabonds with weapons in the highways who pretend to be
soldiers or mariners have committed robberies and murders. So all
vagabonds shall settle down in some service or labor or trade.
Pontage [toll for upkeep and repair of bridges] shall be taken at
certain bridges: carts 2d., horse and pack 1d., a flock of sheep
2d.
Crown officials such as treasurers, receivers, accountants, and
revenue collectors shall not embezzle Crown funds and shall be
personally liable for arrears.
Persons forcibly taking others across county lines to hold them
for ransom and those taking or giving blackmail money and those
who burn barns or stacks of grain shall be declared felons and
shall suffer death, without any benefit of clergy or sanctuary.
No bishop may lease land for more than twenty-one years or three
lives.
No bishop may alienate any possession of their sees to the crown.
Such are void.
Stewards of leet and baron courts may no longer receive, in their
own names, profits of the court over 12d. since they have vexed
subjects with grievous fines and amercements so that profits of
justice have grown much.
Incorrigible and dangerous rogues shall be branded with an "R"
mark on the left shoulder and be put to labor, because banishment
did not work as they came back undetected. If one is caught again
begging, he shall be deemed a felon.
Any innkeeper, victualler, or alehouse keeper who allows drinking
by persons other than those invited by a traveler who accompanies
him during his necessary abode there and other than laborers and
handicraftsmen in towns upon the usual working days for one hour
at dinner time to take their diet in an alehouse and other than
laborers and workmen following their work to any given town to
sojourn, lodge, or victual in any inn, alehouse or victualling
house shall forfeit 10s. for each offense. This is because the use
of inns, alehouses, and victualling houses was intended for relief
and lodgings of travelling people and people not able to provide
their own victuals, but not for entertainment and harboring of
lewd and idle people who become drunk.
If a person marries a second time while the first spouse is still
living, it shall be a felony and thus punishable by death.
Watermen transporting people on the Thames River shall have served
as apprentice to a waterman for five years or have been the son of
a waterman. This is to prevent the loss of lives and goods by
inexperienced watermen.
No one may make any hat unless he has served as apprentice for at
least seven years. This is to prevent false and deceitful hat-
making by unskillful persons.
Spices and potions, including pepper, cloves, mace, nutmeg,
cinnamon, ginger, almonds, and dates, which have usually been
garbled shall be garbled, cleaned, sorted, and sealed by the
Garbler before sale. This is to prevent mingled, corrupt, and
unclean spices and potions from being sold.
Plasterers shall cease painting because it has intruded upon the
livelihoods of painters who have been apprenticed as such.
Pawn brokers accepting stolen goods shall forfeit twice their
value to the owner from whom stolen.
No butcher may cut any hide or any ox, bull, steer, or cow so that
it is impaired or may kill any calf under five weeks old. No
butcher may be a tanner. No one may be a tanner unless apprenticed
as such for seven years or the son or wife of a tanner who has
tanned for four years or a son or daughter of a tanner who
inherits his tanhouse. Tanners may not be shoemakers, curriers,
butchers, or leatherworkers. Only tanners may buy raw hides. Only
leatherworkers may buy leather. Only sufficiently strong and
substantial leather may be used for sole-leather. Curriers may not
be tanners. Curriers may not refuse to curry leather. London
searchers shall inspect leather, seal and mark that which is
sufficient, and seize any that is insufficiently tanned, curried,
wrought, or used.
Fishermen and their guides may continue to use the coastland for
their fishing activities despite the trespass to landowners.
Since sails for ships in recent years have been made in the realm
instead of imported, none shall make such cloth unless he has been
apprenticed in such or brought up in the trade for seven years.
This is to stop the badness of such cloth.
Any person killing any pheasant, partridge, dove, pigeon, duck or
the like with any gun, crossbow, stonebow, or longbow, or with
dogs and nets or snares, or taking the eggs of such from their
nests, or tracing or taking hares in the snow shall be imprisoned
for three months unless he pays 20s. per head or, after one
month's imprisonment, have two sureties bound for 400s. This is
because the past penalty of payment hasn't deterred offenders, who
frequently cannot pay.
Persons affected by the plague may not leave their houses or be
deemed felons and suffer death. This is to avoid further
infection. The towns may tax their inhabitants for the relief of
infected persons.
Tonnage [tax per ton] and poundage [tax per pound] on goods
exported and imported shall be taken to provide safeguard of the
seas for such goods.