Sara's presentation - england in the 16th century

The 16th century in Europe was a time of unprecedented change. Life was largely prosperous for the average person, the economy was growing. Geniuses were stepping all over each other on the street corners producing scientific innovation after innovation.

Gun powder and the cannon changed the nature of war fare. The printing press created a media revolution. Ideas and how to manuals were brought to the people but most importantly it brought the people the bible. A spirit of curiosity and the desire to return to the first principles was blowing through the church.

At the beginning of the century what most people thought was earth shattering, was the reformation. The main religion in England was broken never to be restored. This was a major religious and political problem. No one could ever imagine religious chance without political change because they were so intertwined.


There were other things that helped the furnace of change. The economy was prosperous at the beginning of the century. The average peasant was able to afford a little meat for their stew. People felt very optimistic about the future and so started to have larger families which grew the population.

The combination of population pressure and an increase in the volume of money saw the prices rise a wages cut in half. These changes saw peasants lose their land. Homelessness was on the rise and towns were in a crisis when dealing with the poor.

By the end of the century, a peasant almost never saw meat and many of them were in a state of despair for the future. Frustrations between the social orders were so high that they engaged in rebellions.




FUN FACTS!!


#1 Those with money had plates made of pewter. food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach on to the food. This happened most often with tomatoes. So they stoped eating tomatoes for...dun dun dun! 400 years!!!

#2 Bread was divided according to status. workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and the guests got the top.

#3 In most of Elizabeth the firsts portraits she is wearing ENORMOUS dressed with puffy sleeves. It wasn't the fashion but she wore them to make her look large so that people wouldn't take advantage of her being a woman.

#4 So many people wore wigs in that time that if a child was out after dark they would be in danger of having their hair cut to be made into wigs.

#5 Boys school in the Elizabethan era would have been for six days a week all year (holidays excepted) also school would be from 6am to 6pm.

#6 Elizabeth the first always had a young looking face in her portraits because she created a face pattern - when she found a picture of her that she liked she had all the other painters paint her face like the face pattern.

#7 So many people have used Shakespeare's works in their books or plays. that if he were alive today, he would earn 55 million dollars a year!!

#8 Since theaters didn't have lights the actors often said what what time of day it was

the end :)