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Poverty was one of the major problems Elizabeth faced during her reign. During this period the number of unemployed people grew considerably for a range of reasons. Attitudes towards poverty were also different from today with many believing the unemployed were just too lazy to find work. There was also only a very limited system of welfare to help those in need.

Increase in poverty

A wide range of factors led to the increase in poverty during this period. Twenty years before Elizabeth’s reign, Henry VIII had dissolved the monasteries.

This did not help as not only were monks and nuns’ servants dismissed, but the poor had nowhere to go for occasional shelter. From the mid-1500s on the following factors contributed greatly to the problem of poverty.

Beggars

The increase in unemployment was accompanied by an increase in the number of beggars wandering the countryside and towns looking for work. The Elizabethan government was very worried about the problem of the poor, as were ordinary people.

• Disease – there were many outbreaks of plague and other infectious diseases in the 16th century. Many people believed that wandering groups of beggars spread diseases.
• Crime – beggars often turned to crime. There was no police force at this time and JPs thought that beggars were a serious threat to their authority.
• Rebellions – 16th century governments were always worried about the threat of rebellion. Discontented nobles might try to win the support of the poor for a rebellion against the Queen.
• Idleness – most people thought that beggars set a bad example because some refused to work. They thought idleness was a sin and that these people should be punished.
• The social order – it was believed that everyone had a fixed place in society and social superiors should be obeyed. Wandering beggars threatened this ‘natural order’ and were therefore a threat to society.

Deserving and undeserving poor

As Elizabeth’s reign continued, people recognised and described the many different sorts of poor people in the country. They were generally divided into:

• The deserving poor – these were poor through no fault of their own and were therefore deserving of help. For example, the genuine unemployed, the sick, old and orphans.
• The undeserving poor – these were the sturdy or able bodied beggars who could not be bothered to find work. The more common term was vagabond.

Vagabonds were the government’s biggest problem and even then there were many different types.

• Abraham-men/Tom O’Bedlam – beggars who pretended to be mad, trying to get money through charity.
• Clapperdudgeon – pretended to be ill by making artificial sores on their bodies, hoping for sympathy.
• Counterfeit cranks – pretended to be epileptic. They used soap to make themselves foam at the mouth.

Institutions for the poor

Larger towns did try to deal with the problem of their own poor by setting up various institutions to deal with different types of poor. Places such as London, Ipswich, Lincoln and Norwich made plans to set the poor to work.

Many places began taking a census to determine their population. London in particular had to deal with many poor people and hospitals such as St Bartholomew’s and St Thomas’ were used for the sick.