The Crown and the Governing Classes

1. The Crown and the Governing Classes

2. Political stability… • A consistent priority of Elizabeth and Burghley • It depended on rural aristocrats to help • There had to be peace between the Crown and the governing classes

3. The Governing Class • Landed nobility and gentry, urban merchants and lawyers • 2-3,000 men who were politically aware and active and willing to serve in local government

4. Why did they serve?... • Loyalty, duty • JP was a status symbol of the elite

5. 3 ways to keep in touch… Privy council ‘the wheels that hold the chariot of England upright’. Its purpose was to: Advise – the Queen on policy Administer – day to day affairs Adjudicate – sit as judges in the prerogative court of the Star Chamber

6. The Privy Council… Sent orders to local government over a myriad of subjects: heresy, recusancy, poverty, vagabondage, public disorder, crime, trade, bread prices and food shortages, regulating wages, use of guns and armour, national lottery, ordering JPs to hunt down Jesuits, organise training of county militia

7. Elizabeth’s Council… • Mary had about 40-50 • Elizabeth had 18 to start with and 12 at the end

8. The Court was… • The Queens home • Place where people jostled for royal favour • A political arena for factions • Royal setting for monarchy = a point of contact

9. Elizabeth attracted able men to court and snared them with the prospect of advancement • It was a cultured centre of learning and education • Art, architecture, music were all to be seen and enjoyed at court • Rituals and propaganda all supported the image of the Queen

10. A Very Large Court… Every year the Court consumed: • half a million gallons of beer • 3,300 chickens • 21,000 lambs and sheep • 4,000,000 eggs Elizabeth had little success in being frugal

11. Royal Favour… • She had many women in attendance –four ladies of the bedchamber, eight gentlewomen, and four ‘chamberers’ • They were treated as personal and domestic not political

12. Making Progress… • every summer Elizabeth took her Court on a Royal Progress • to keep in touch with the people - to be ‘seen’ • to spread the costs • 15 were knighted during the progress of 1578

13. Parliament… • Summoned occasionally • Consisted of: judges, bishops, nobles, gentry, lawyers, merchants and other members of the governing class • It granted taxes and enacted laws • Members brought updates and grievances from their areas • They all brought their retinues with them

14. Parliamentary management… • Called to discuss: new Church concerns, more religious reform, marriage and succession, Catholic threats, and twice to discuss Mary Stuart • Elizabeth effectively forbade the discussion of certain topics – something Henry, Edward and Mary had never done

15. Money… • Only four of thirteen Parliaments were called for reasons other than money (religion and Mary Stuart)

16. Taxes… • Parliaments were most often called to raise taxes – income and fifteenths and tenths (tax on moveable property)

17. However… • Elizabeth trusted her nobles to declare their own income for tax purposes – the yield fell • Elizabeth put up with the losses in exchange for political stability and loyalty