Life in England in the 16th and 17th Century
by At the start of the 16th century England was benefiting from the stability provided by the Tudor dynasty. England at that time was similar to most of Western Europe, a catholic country whose wealth was mostly held by the nobility, the monarchy and the church. The economy was largely agricultural and mainly rural population; poor harvests could spell disaster especially for the poor.
London was the most important city and it expanded rapidly, its population almost doubled between 1600 and 1650 increasing from 200,000 to 375,000. Population growth in the capital depended on immigration from rural and smaller urban areas, as there were at least 7,000 more deaths than births in an average year. People were drawn to London for various reasons such as finding the best doctors or lawyers, to find employment, to study, to shop or even go to the theatre. Shops catering for the fashion conscious rich were developed along the Strand whilst prestigious housing was built in Covent Garden. Fashions were usually following the latest trends set in France especially after Charles I French marriage or under the influence of Charles II French mistresses. Added to the English immigrants to London were the large number of Dutch exiles that fled from the Spanish reconquest of their homeland from the 1560s. There was a smaller number of French Protestants or Huguenots that also fled to London in the 1680s. Whilst the rich and aspiring could live in Covent Garden the poor immigrants to London were housed in overcrowded slums in the suburbs where poverty, filthy conditions and ill health went hand in hand. It was no coincidence that the slums around London suffered the greatest fatalities in the plague outbreaks of 1603 and in 1665.
By 1665 the understanding of the causes of the plague was the as the 1340s. The remedies and medicines put forward as cures by doctors and quacks were just as ineffective as those used 300 years earlier. A desperate culling of dogs and cats did not stop the spread of the plague. The lower classes were prevented from leaving London to contain the outbreak; the rich and the powerful including the doctors had already left when they had the chance. Winter brought relief to the capital after up to a sixth of its population had died. Perversely it was the Great Fire of September 1666 that did more than anything else to improve public health by incinerating the rat-infested slums. A large rebuilding programme with many churches and buildings designed by Sir Christopher Wren emerged. From the ashes a greater, grander and richer London rose, but it did not take long to find poverty when leaving the shops and coffee houses favoured by the rich.
In educational terms these two centuries saw improvements in literacy and the numbers being educated despite the loss of some monastic schools. Those artisans and merchants that could had their children educated sometimes as lawyers in the Inns of Court, many of whom became MPs such as Oliver Cromwell. The Church of England was also able to attract a greater number of graduates into the clergy. In terms of literature the highlights were Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer, the King James Bible and the plays of William Shakespeare. It was Shakespeare and Marlowe whose plays made the theatre increasingly popular amongst the upper and middle classes. Protestantism also helped to increase literacy with its stress on bible reading although governments were not always happy about mass availability. Amongst the most notable works were Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress and Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained.
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