3. How did the Central Authorities respond to poverty?

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we look at the responses of the Central Authorities to poverty, focusing in particular on: (i) how the law was used to punish the poor, including the Vagabonds Act (1531), the Vagrancy Act (1547), the Vagabonds Act (1572), and the Elizabethan Poor Laws (1598/1601); (ii) how the law was used to provide of the poor, including the Vagabonds Act (1531), the Poor Act (1552), the Act for the Relief of the Poor (1563), and the Elizabethan Poor Law (1598/1601); (iii) the emergence of the category of the pauper as a new legal concept; (iv) the use of royal proclamations, or books of orders, to demand the enforcement of poor laws and introduce special measures during times of crisis; and (v) the establishment of special commissions to deal with the poor, in particular the problem of enclosure.

Course

In this course, Dr Brodie Waddell (Birbeck University of London) looks at poverty during the Tudor period, 1485-1603. In the first module, we look at the reasons for why poverty was growing during this period. In the second module, we turn to consider perceptions of the poor and how these changed over the course of the period. In the third and fourth modules, we look at responses to poverty, in the former looking at the responses of the central authorities and in the latter looking at the responses of the general population. In the fifth and final module, we consider the legacies that the Tudor response to poverty left behind, and the extent to which it survived in the following centuries.

Lecturer

Dr Brodie Waddell is a Senior Lecturer in History at Birbeck University of London. His research focuses on English history from c.1550 to c.1750, specialising in social and economic life. His recent publications include, God, duty and community in English economic life, 1660-1720 (2012) and Landscape and society in the Vale of York, c.1500-1800 (2011).