Judicial Procedure
Jurors shall be selected from those people who have at least 80s. annual income instead of 40s. because sheriffs have been taking bribes by the most able and sufficient freeholders to be spared at home and the poorer and simpler people, who are least able to discern the causes in question, and most unable to bear the charges of appearance and attendance in such cases have been the jurors. Also there had been inflation.
Defendants sued or informed against upon penal statutes may appear by attorney so that they may avoid the inconvenience of traveling a long distance to attend and put to bail.
No only sheriffs, but their employees who impanel juries or execute process in the courts shall take an oath of office.
A hundred shall answer for any robbery therein only if there has been negligence or fault in pursuit of the robber after a hue and cry is made because the past law has been too harsh and required payment for offenses from people unable to pay who have done everything reasonable to catch the robber.
The Star Chamber became the central criminal court after 1560, and punished perjury, corruption, malfeasance throughout the legal system such as jury corruption and judicial bribery, rioting, slander, and libel. Its procedure was inquisitory rather than accusative. It heard witnesses in camera [not in the presence of the suspected]. Trial was by systematic interrogation of the suspected on oath, with torture if necessary in treason cases. Silence could be taken for a confession of guilt. There was no jury. Queen Elizabeth chose not to sit on this court. Punishments were imprisonment, fines, the pillory, ear cropping or tacking, whipping, stigmata on the face, but not death or any dismemberment except for the ears. (The gentry was exempt from whipping.)
The Ecclesiastical High Commission [later called the Court of High Commission or High Court of Ecclesiastical Causes] took over criminal cases formerly heard by the church courts. It also heard matters of domestic morals. It was led by bishops and Privy Council members who in 1559 were authorized by a statute of Parliament to keep order within the church, discipline the clergy, and punish such lay offenses as were included in the ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Obstinate heresy is still a capital crime, but practically the bishops have little power of forcing heretics to stand trial. If anyone maintains papal authority, he forfeits his goods; on a third conviction, he is a traitor. The clergyman who adopts a prayer book other that the prescribed one commits a crime. Excommunication has imprisonment behind it. Elizabeth gave this court the power to fine and imprison, which the former church courts had not had. At first, the chief work was depriving papists of their benefices.
Suits on titles to land were restricted to the common law courts and no longer to be heard in the Star Chamber, Chancery Court, or in the Court of Requests (equity for poor people).
The Queen's Privy Council investigated sedition and treason, security of the regime, major economic offenses, international problems, civil commotion, officials abusing their positions, and persons perverting the course of justice. It frequently issued orders to Justices of the Peace, for instance to investigate riots and crimes, to enforce the statutes against vagrancy and illegal games, to regulate alehouses, to ensure that butchers, innkeepers, and victualers did not sell meat on fish days, and to gather information needed from the counties. The Justices of the Peace decided misdemeanors such as abduction of heiresses, illegal entry, petty thievery, damage to crops, fence-breaking, brawling, personal feuds, drunken pranks, swearing, profanation of the Sabbath, alehouse nuisances, drunkenness, perjury, and malfeasance by officials. They held petty and quarter sessions. The Justices of the Peace had administrative duties in control of vagrancy, upkeep of roads and bridges, and arbitration of lawsuits referred to them by courts. They listed the poor in each parish community, assessed rates for their maintenance, and appointed overseers to administer the welfare system, deploying surplus funds to provide houses of correction for vagrants. Raw materials such as wool, flax, hemp, and iron were bought upon which the able-bodied unemployed could be set to work at the parochial level. They determined wages in their districts, with no statutory ceiling on them, for all laborers, weavers, spinsters, workmen and workwomen working by the day, week, month, or year, or taking any work at any person's hand. There were about 50 Justices of the Peace per county. All were unpaid. They performed these duties for the next 200 years.
The Justices of Assize rode on circuit twice a year to enforce the criminal law and reported their assessment of the work of the Justices of the Peace back to the Privy Council.
The duty to hear and determine felonies was taken from Justices of the Peace by 1590. The Justices of Assize did this work. Accused people could wait for years in gaol before their case was heard. Felonies included breach of prison, hunting by night with painted faces, taking horses to Scotland, stealing of hawks' eggs, stealing cattle, highway robbery, robbing on the sea, robbing houses, letting out of ponds, cutting of purses, deer-stealing at night, conjuring and witchcraft, diminution of coin, counterfeiting of coins, and impenitent roguery and idleness. The penalty was death. Many people were hanged for the felony of theft over 12d. Some bold men accused of felony refused to plead so that they could not be tried and found guilty. They died of heavy weights being placed on their bodies. But then their property could go to their heirs.
The Court of Queen's Bench and Exchequer indirectly expanded their jurisdiction to include suits between citizens, formerly heard only the Court of Common Pleas or Chancery. Chancery interrogated defendants. Chancery often issued injunctions against suits in the common law courts. Trial by combat was very rare.
Benefit of clergy may not be had for stabbing a person who has no weapon drawn, if he dies within six months.
Pleadings had to be in writing and oral testimony was given by sworn witnesses. Case decisions are in books compiled by various reporters who sit in on court hearings rather than in year books.
In the common law, trespass has given rise to the offshoot branch of "ejectment", which becomes the common means of recovering possession of land, no matter what kind of title the claimant asserts. Trespass on the case has given rise to the offshoot branch of "trover" [finding another's goods and converting them to one's own use]. The use of the action of trover gradually supplants the action of detinue, which involves compurgation.
In the common law courts, the action of assumpsit for enforcing certain promises is used more than the action of debt in those cases where there is a debt based on an agreement. The essential nature of "consideration" in contract is evolving from the procedural requirements for the action of assumpsit. Consideration may consist in mutual promises, a precedent debt, or a detriment incurred by one who has simultaneously received a promise related to the detrimental action. Consideration must be something, an act, or forbearance of an act that is of value. For instance, forbearance to sue a worthless claim is not consideration.
The abstract concept of contract as an agreement between two parties which is supported by consideration is developing as the number of various agreements that are court enforceable expands. For instance the word "consideration" is used in Hayward's Case in 1595 in the Court of Wards on the construction of a deed. Sir Rowland Hayward was seised in fee of the Doddington manor and other lands and tenements, whereof part was in demesne, part in lease for years with rents reserved, and part in copyhold, by indenture, "in consideration of a certain sum of money" paid to him by Richard Warren and others, to whom he demised, granted, bargained and sold the said manor, lands and tenements, and the reversions and remainders of them, with all the rents reserved upon any demise, to have and to hold to them and their assigns, presently after the decease of Sir Rowland, for the term of 17 years. It was held that the grantees could elect to take by bargain and sale or by demise, each of which had different consequences.
In another case, A delivered 400s. to B to the use of C, a woman, to be delivered to her on the day of her marriage. Before this day, A countermanded it, and called home the money. It was held in the Chancery Court that C could not recover because "there is no consideration why she should have it".
In a case concerning a deed, A sold land to B for 400s., with confidence, that it would be to the use of A. This bargain "hath a consideration in itself ... and such a consideration is an indenture of bargain and sale". It was held that the transaction was not examinable except for fraud and that A was therefore estopped.
A court reporter at the King's Bench formulated two principles on consideration of the case of Wilkes against Leuson as: "The heir is estopped from falsifying the consideration acknowledged in the deed of feoffment of his ancestor. Where a tenant in capite made a feoffment without consideration, but falsely alleged one in the deed on an office finding his dying seised, the master of the wards cannot remove the feoffees on examining into the consideration, and retain the land until &c. and though the heir tended, still if he do not prosecute his livery, the Queen must admit the feoffees to their traverse, and to have the farm, &c." The court reporter summarized this case as follows: Wilkes, who was merchant of the staple, who died in February last past, made a feoffment in the August before his death to one Leuson, a knight, and his brother, and another, of the manor of Hodnel in the county of Warwick; and the deed, (seen) for seven thousand pounds [140,000s.] to him paid by the feoffees, of which sum he made acquittance in the same deed (although in fact and in truth not a half-penny was paid), gave, granted, and confirmed &c "habendum eir et hoeredibus suis in perpetuum, ad proprium opus et usum ipsorum A. B. et C. in perpetuum," and not "hoeredum suorum," together with a clause of warranty to them, their heirs and assigns, in forma proedicta: and notwithstanding this feoffment he occupied the land with sheep, and took other profits during his life; and afterwards his death was found on a diem clausit extremum by office, that he died seised of the said manor in fee, and one I. Wilkes his brother of full age found his next heir, and a tenure in capite found, and now within the three months the said feoffees sued in the court of wards to be admitted to their traverse, and also to have the manor in farm until &c. And although the said I. Wilkes the brother had tendered a livery, yet he had not hitherto prosecuted it, but for cause had discontinued. And whether now the master of the wards at his discretion could remove the feoffees by injunction out of possession upon examination of the said consideration of the said feoffment which was false, and none such in truth, and retain it in the hands of the Queen donec et quousque &c. was a great question. And by the opinion of the learned counsel of that court he cannot do it, but the Queen is bound in justice to give livery to him who is found heir by the office, or if he will not proceed with that, to grant to the tenderers the traverse, and to have the farm, &c. the request above mentioned. And this by the statutes ... And note, that no averment can be allowed to the heir, that the said consideration was false against the deed and acknowledgment of his ancestor, for that would be to admit an inconvenience. And note the limitation of the use above, for divers doubted whether the feoffees shall have a fee-simple in the sue, because the use is not expressed, except only "to themselves (by their names) for ever;" but if those words had been wanting, it would have been clear enough that the consideration of seven thousand pounds had been sufficient, &c. for the law intends a sufficient consideration by reason of the said sum; but when the use is expressed otherwise by the party himself, it is otherwise. And also the warranty in the deed was "to them, their heirs, and assigns, in form aforesaid," which is a declaration of the intent of Wilkes, that the feoffees shall not have the use in fee simple; and it may be that the use, during their three lives, is worth seven thousand pounds, and more &c. And suppose that the feoffment had been "to have to them and their heirs to the proper use and behoof of them the feoffees for the term of their lives for ever for seven thousand pounds," would they have any other estate than for the term of their lives in the use? I believe not; and so in the other case.
A last example of a case concerning consideration is that of Assaby and Others against Lady Anne Manners and Others. The court reporter characterized the principle of the case as: "A. in consideration of his daughter's marriage covenants to stand seised to his own use for life, and that at his death she and her husband shall have the land in tail, and that all persons should stand seised to those uses, and also for further assurance. After the marriage he bargains and sell with fine and recovery to one with full notice of the covenants and use; this is of no avail, but on the death of A. the daughter and her husband may enter." The court reporter summarized this case as follows: A. was seised of land in fee, and in consideration of a marriage to be had between his daughter and heir apparent, and B. son and heir apparent of C. he covenanted and agreed by indenture with C. that he himself would have, hold, and retain the land to himself, and the profits of during his life, and that after his decease the said son and daughter should have the land to them and to the heirs of their two bodies lawfully begotten, and that all persons then or afterwards seised of the land should stand and be seised immediately after the marriage solemnized to the use of the said A. for the term of his life, and after his death to the use of the said son and daughter in tail as above, and covenanted further to make an assurance of the land before a certain day accordingly &c. and then the marriage took effect; and afterwards A. bargained and sold the land for two hundred marks [2,667s.](of which not a penny is paid) to a stranger, who had notice of the first agreements, covenants, and use, and enfeoffed divers persons to this last use, against whom a common recovery was had to his last use; and also A. levied a fine to the recoverers before any execution had, and notwithstanding all these things A. continued possession in taking the profits during his life; and afterwards died; and the son and daughter entered, and made a feoffment to their first use. And all this matter was found in assize by Assaby and others against Lady Anne Manners and others. And judgment was given that the entry and feoffment were good and lawful, and the use changed by the first indenture and agreement. Yet error was alleged. The judgment in the assize is affirmed.
The famous Shelley's Case stands for the principle that where in any instrument an estate for life is given to the ancestor, and afterwards by the same instrument, the inheritance is limited whether mediately, or immediately, to his heirs, or heirs of his body, as a class to take in succession as heirs to him, the word "heirs" is a word of limitation, and the ancestor takes the whole estate. For example, where property goes to A for life and the remainder goes to A's heirs, A's life estate and the remainder merge into a fee in A. A can sell or devise this interest.
Edward Shelley was a tenant in tail general. He had two sons. The older son predeceased his father, leaving a daughter and his wife pregnant with a son. Edward had a common recovery (the premises being in lease for years) to the use of himself for term of his life, after his decease to the use of the male heirs of his body, and of the male heirs of the body of such heirs, remainder over. After judgment and the awarding of the writ of seisin, but before its execution, Edward died. After his death, and before the birth of his older son's son, the writ of seisin was executed. The younger son entered the land and leased it to a third party. Afterwards, the son of the older son was born. He entered the land and ejected the third party. It was held that the younger son had taken quasi by descent until the birth of the older son's son. The entry by the older son's son was lawful. The third party was lawfully ejected. (Shelley's Case, King's Bench, 1581, English Reports - Full Reprint, Vol. 76, Page 206.)
About 1567, London authorities punished Nicholas Jennings alias Blunt for using elaborate disguises to present himself as an epileptic to beg for handouts from the public. He was pilloried, whipped, and pulled behind a cart through the streets. He was kept at the Bridewell and was set to work at a mill.
Chapter 14
The Times: 1601-1625
Due in part to increasing population, the prices of foodstuffs had risen sixfold from the later 1400s, during which it had been stable. This inflation gradually impoverished those living on fixed wages. Landlords could insist on even shorter leases and higher rents. London quadrupled in population. Many lands that were in scattered strips, pasture lands, waste lands, and lands gained from drainage and disafforestation were enclosed for the introduction of convertible agriculture (e.g. market-oriented specialization) and only sometimes for sheep. The accompanying extinguishment of common rights was devastating to small tenants and cottagers. Gentry and yeomen benefited greatly. There was a gradual consolidation of the land into fewer hands and demise of the small family farm. In towns, the mass of poor, unskilled workers with irregular work grew. Prices finally flattened out in the 1620s.
Society became polarized with a wealthy few growing wealthier and a mass of poor growing poorer. This social stratification became a permanent fixture of English society. Poverty was no longer due to death of a spouse or parent, sickness or injury, or a phase in the life cycle such as youth or old age. Many full-time wage earners were in constant danger of destitution. More subdivided land holdings in the country made holdings of cottagers minuscule. But these were eligible for parish relief under the poor laws. Beside them were substantial numbers of rogues and vagabonds wandering the roads. These vagrants were usually young unmarried men. There were no more licensed liveries of lords.
During the time 1580 to 1680, there were distinct social classes in England which determined dress, convention in comportment which determined face-to-face contacts between superiors and inferiors, order of seating in church, place arrangement at tables, and rank order in public processions. It was influenced by power, wealth, life-style, educational level, and birth. These classes lived in separate worlds; their paths did not cross each other. People moved only within their own class. Each class had a separate existence as well as a different life style from the other classes. So each class developed a wariness of other classes. However, there was much social mobility between adjacent classes.
At the top were the gentry, about 2% of the population. Their's was a landed wealth with large estate mansions. They employed many servants and could live a life of leisure. Their lady wives often managed the household with many servants and freely visited friends and went out shopping, riding, or walking. They conversed with neighbors and made merry with them at childbirths, christenings, churchings, and funerals. Gentlemen usually had positions of responsibility such as lords of manors and leaders in their parishes. These families often sent the oldest son to university to become a Justice of the Peace and then a member of Parliament. They also served as justices and as county officers such as High Constable of their hundred and grand jury member. Their social, economic, and family ties were at least countywide. They composed about 700 gentle families, including the peers, who had even more landed wealth, which was geographically dispersed. After the peers were: baronets (created in 1611), knights, esquires, and then ordinary gentlemen. These titles were acquired by being the son of such or purchase. Most gentry had a house in London, where they spent most of their time, as well as country mansions. About 4/5 of the land was in the hands of 7,000 of the nobility and landed gentry due in part to entails constructed by attorneys to favor hereditary interests. The gentry had also profited by commerce and possessions in the colonies. The country life of a country squire or gentleman dealt with all the daily affairs of a farm. He had men plough, sow, and reap. He takes part in the haying and getting cut grass under cover when a rain came. His sow farrows, his horse is gelded, a first lamb is born. He drags his pond and takes out great carps. His horses stray and he finds them in the pound. Boys are bound to him for service. He hires servants, and some work out their time and some run away. Knaves steal his sheep. His hog is stabbed. He and a neighbor argue about the setting up of a cottage. He borrows money for a daughter's dowry. He holds a leet court. He attends church on Sunday and reads the lesson when called upon. He visits the local tavern to hear from his neighbors. Country folk brawl. Wenches get pregnant. Men commit suicide, usually by hanging. Many gentlemen spent their fortunes and died poor. New gentlemen from the lower classes took their place.
The second class included the wealthier merchants and professional men of the towns. These men were prominent in town government. They usually had close family ties with the gentry, especially as sons. When wealthy enough, they often bought a country estate. The professional men included military officers, civil service officials, attorneys, some physicians, and a few clergymen. The instabilities of trade, high mortality rates in the towns, and high turnover rate among the leading urban families prevented any separate urban interest group arising that would be opposed to the landed gentry. Also included in this second group were the most prosperous yeomanry of the countryside.
The third class was the yeomanry at large, which included many more than the initial group who possessed land in freehold of at least 40s., partly due to inflation. Freehold was the superior form of holding land because one was free to sell, exchange, or devise the land and had a political right to vote in Parliamentary elections. Other yeomen were those who possessed enough land, as copyholder or leaseholder, to be protected from fluctuations in the amount of the annual harvest, that is, at least 50 acres. A copyholder rented land from a lord for a period of years or lives, usually three lives including that of the widow, and paid a substantial amount whenever the copyhold came up for renewal. The copyholder and leaseholder were distinguished from the mere tenant-at-will, whose only right was to gather his growing crop when his landlord decided to terminate his tenancy. The average yeoman had a one and a half story house, with a milkhouse, a malthouse, and other small buildings attached to the dwelling. The house would contain a main living room, a parlor, where there would be one or more beds, and several other rooms with beds. No longer was there a central great hall. Cooking was done in a kitchen or over the open fire in the fireplace of the main room. Furniture included large oak tables, stools, settes or forms, chests, cupboards, and a few hard-backed simple chairs. Dishware was wood or pewter. The yeomen were among those who governed the nation. They often became sureties for recognizances, witnesses to wills, parish managers, churchwardens, vestrymen, the chief civil officers of parishes and towns, overseers of the poor, surveyors of bridges and highways, jurymen and constables for the Justices of the Peace, and sheriffs' bailiffs. The families and servants of these yeomen ate meat, fish, wheaten bread, beer, cheese, milk, butter, and fruit. Their wives were responsible for the dairy, poultry, orchard, garden, and perhaps pigs. They smoked and cured hams and bacon, salted fish, dried herbs for the kitchen or of lavender and pot-pourri for sweetening the linen, and arranged apples and roots in lofts or long garrets under the roof to last the winter. They preserved fruits candied or in syrup. They preserved wines; made perfumes, washes for preserving the hair and complexion, rosemary to cleanse the hair, and elder-flower water for sunburn; distilled beverages; ordered wool hemp, and flax to spin for cloth (the weaving was usually done in the village); fashioned and sewed clothes and house linens; embroidered; dyed; malted oats; brewed; baked; and extracted oils. Many prepared herb medicines and treated injuries, such as dressing wounds, binding arteries, and setting broken bones. Wives also ploughed and sowed, weeded the crops, and sheared sheep. They sometimes cared for the poor and sold produce at the market. Some yeomen were also tanners, painters, carpenters, or blacksmiths; and as such they were frequently brought before the Justices of the Peace for exercising a craft without having served an apprenticeship. The third class also included the freemen of the towns, who could engage independently in trade and had political rights. These were about one-third of the male population of the town.
The fourth class included the ordinary farmer leasing by copyhold, for usually 21 years, five to fifty acres. From this class were drawn sidesmen [assistants to churchwardens] and constables. They had neither voice nor authority in government. Their daily diet was bacon, beer, bread, and cheese. Also in this class were the independent urban craftsmen who were not town freemen. Their only voice in government was at the parish level.
The fifth and lowest class included the laborers and cottagers, who were usually tenants at will. They were dependent on day labor. They started work at dawn, had breakfast for half an hour at six, worked until dinner, and then until supper at about six; in the summer they would then do chores around the barns until eight or nine. Some were hedgers, ditchers, ploughmen, reapers, shepherds, and herdsmen. The cottagers' typical earnings of about 1s. a day amounted to about 200 shillings a year, which was almost subsistence level. Accordingly they also farmed a little on their four acres of land with garden. Some also had a few animals. They lived in a one or two room cottage of clay and branches of trees or wood, sometimes with a brick fireplace and chimney, and few windows. They ate bread, cheese, lard, soup, and greens. If a laborer was unmarried, he lived with the farmer. Theirs was a constant battle for survival. They often moved because of deprivation to seek opportunity elsewhere. The town wage-earning laborers ranged from journeymen craftsmen to poor casual laborers. The mass of workers in London were not members of guilds, and the crime rate was high.
The last three classes also contained rural craftsmen and tradesmen, who also farmed. The variety of trades became very large, e.g. tinsmiths, chain smiths, pewterers, violin makers, and glass painters. The curriers, who prepared hides for shoemakers, coachmakers, saddlers, and bookbinders, were incorporated.
The fourth and fifth classes comprised about three fourths of the population.
Then there were the maritime groups: traders, ship owners, master and seamen, and the fishers.
Over one fourth of all households had servants. They were the social equals of day laborers, but materially better off with food and clothing plus an allowance of money of two pounds [40s.] a year. Those who sewed got additional pay for this work. There was no great chasm between the family and the servants. They did not segregate into a parlor class and a kitchen class. The top servants were as educated as their masters and ate at the same table. Great households had a chaplain and a steward to oversee the other servants. There was usually a cook. Lower servants ate together. Servants were disciplined by cuffs and slaps and by the rod by master or mistress. Maids wore short gowns, a large apron, and a gypsy hat tied down over a cap. Chamber maids helped to dress their mistresses. Servants might sleep on trundle beds stored under their master's or mistress's bed, in a separate room, or on the straw loft over the stables. A footman wore a blue tunic or skirted coat with corded loop fasteners, knee-britches, and white stockings. He walked or ran on foot by the side of his master or mistress when they rode out on horseback or in a carriage and ran errands for him, such as leading a lame horse home or running messages. A good footman is described in this letter: "Sir, - You wrote me lately for a footman, and I think this bearer will fit you: I know he can run well, for he has run away twice from me, but he knew the way back again: yet, though he has a running head as well as running heels (and who will expect a footman to be a stayed man) I would not part with him were I not to go post to the North. There be some things in him that answer for his waggeries: he will come when you call him, go when you bid him, and shut the door after him; he is faithful and stout, and a lover of his master. He is a great enemy to all dogs, if they bark at him in his running; for I have seen him confront a huge mastiff, and knock him down. When you go a country journey, or have him run with you a-hunting, you must spirit him with liquor; you must allow him also something extraordinary for socks, else you must not have him wait at your table; when his grease melts in running hard, it is subject to fall into his toes. I send him to you but for trial, if he be not for your turn, turn him over to me again when I come back..."
Dress was not as elaborate as in Elizabethan times. For instance, fewer jewels were worn. Ladies typically wore a brooch, earrings, and pearl necklaces. Men also wore earrings. Watches with elaborate cases were common. Women's dresses were of satin, taffeta, and velvet, and were made by dressmakers. Pockets were carried in the hand, fastened to the waist by a ribbon, or sewn in petticoats and accessible by a placket opening. The corset was greatly reduced. Women's hair was in little natural-looking curls, a few small tendrils on the forehead with soft ringlets behind the ears, and the back coiled into a simple knot. Men also wore their hair in ringlets. They had pockets in their trousers, first as a cloth pouch inserted into an opening in the side seam, and later sewn into the side seam. The bereaved wore black, and widows wore a black veil over their head until they remarried or died. Rouge was worn by lower class women. The law dictating what classes could wear what clothes was difficult to enforce and the last one was in 1597.
Merchants who had become rich by pirating could now afford to extend their trading ventures well beyond the Atlantic sea. Cotton chintzes, calicoes, taffetas, muslins, and ginghams from India now became fashionable as dress fabrics. Simple cotton replaced linen as the norm for napkins, tablecloths, bed sheets, and underwear. Then it became the fashion to use calicoes for curtains, cushions, chairs, and beds. Its inexpensiveness made these items affordable for many. There was a cotton-weaving industry in England from about 1621, established by cotton workmen who fled to England in 1585 from Antwerp, which had been captured. By 1616, there were automatic weaving looms in London which could be operated by a novice. Toothbrushes, made with horsehair, were a new and costly luxury.
Even large houses now tended to do without a courtyard and became compacted into one soaring and stately whole. A typical country house had deep-set windows of glass looking into a walled green court with a sundial in it and fringed around with small trees. The gables roofs are steep and full of crooks and angles, and covered with rough slate if there was a source for such nearby. There was an extensive use of red tile, either rectangular or other shapes and with design such as fishscales. The rooms are broad and spacious and include hall, great parlor, little parlor, matted chamber, and study. In the hall was still the great, heavy table. Dining tables were covered with cloth, carpet, or printed leather. Meals were increasingly eaten in a parlor. Noble men now preferred to be waited upon by pages and grooms instead of by their social equals as before. After dinner, they deserted the parlor to retire into drawing rooms for conversation and desserts of sweet wine and spiced delicacies supplemented by fruit. Afterward, there might be dancing and then supper. In smaller parlors, there was increasing use of oval oak tables with folding leaves. Chests of drawers richly carved or inlaid and with brass handles were coming into increased use. Walls were wainscotted and had pictures or were hung with tapestry. Carpets, rugs, and curtains kept people warm. There were many stools to sit on, and some arm chairs. Wide and handsome open staircases separated the floors, instead of the former circular stone closed stairwells. Upstairs, the sitting and bedrooms open into each other with broad, heavy doors. Bedrooms had four-post beds and wardrobes with shelves and pegs. Under the roof are garrets, apple-lofts, and root-chambers. Underneath is a cellar. Outside is a farmyard with outbuildings such as bake house, dairy, cheese-press house, brewery, stilling house, malt house, fowl house, dove cot, pig stye, slaughter-house, wood house, barns, stable, and sometimes a mill. There were stew-ponds for fish and a park with a decoy for wild fowl. There was also a laundry, carpenter's bench, blacksmith's forge, and pots and equipment of a house painter.
In the 1600s, towns were fortified by walled ditch instead of relying on castles, which couldn't contain enough men to protect the townspeople. Also in towns, water was supplied by local pumps and wells. In 1613, a thirty-eight-mile aqueduct brought spring water into London. In the country, floors were of polished wood or stone and strewn with rushes. A ladies' attendant might sleep the same bedroom on a bed which slid under the ladies' bed. Apprentices and shop boys had to sleep under the counter. Country laborers slept in a loft on straw. Bread was made in each household. There were bedroom chairs with enclosed chamber pots.
Wood fires were the usual type. Coal was coming in to use in the towns and near coal mines. Charcoal was also used. Food was roasted on a spit over a fire, baked, or broiled. People still licked their fingers at meals. The well-to-do had wax candles. Tallow dips were used by the poor and for the kitchen. People drank cordials and homemade wines made with grapes, currants, oranges, or ginger. Some mead was also drunk.
Tobacco, potatoes, tea, asparagus, kidney beans, scarlet runners, cardoons (similar to artichokes), horseradish, sugarcane, and turkeys for Christmas, were introduced from the New World, China, and India. Tea was a rare and expensive luxury. Coffee was a new drink. With the cane sugar was made sweetened puddings, pies, and drinks. The potato caused the advent of distillation of concentrated alcohol from fermented potato mashes. There was a distiller's company by 1638. Distilleries' drinks had higher alcoholic content than wine or beer.
The Merchant Adventurers sold in town stores silks, satins, diamonds, pearls, silver, and gold. There were women peddlers selling hats and hosiery from door to door and women shopkeepers, booksellers, alehouse keepers, linen drapers, brewers, and ale- wives. London had polluted air and water, industrial noise, and traffic congestion.
Work on farms was still year-round. In January and February, fields were plowed and harrowed and the manure spread. Also, trees and hedges were set, fruit trees pruned, and timber lopped. In March and April, the fields were stirred again and the wheat and rye sown. In May gardens were planted, hop vines trained to poles, ditches scoured, lambs weaned, and sheep watched for "rot". In June sheep were washed and sheared, and fields were spread with lime and clay, and manured. In July hay was cut, dried, and stacked. In August crops were harvested, which called for extra help from neighbors and townsmen who took holidays at harvesting. Then there was threshing, and the sowing of winter wheat and rye. In the autumn, cider from apples and perry from pears may be made. By November the fall planting was finished and the time had come for the killing of cattle and hanging up their salted carcasses for winter meat. Straw would be laid down with dung, to be spread next spring on the fields. Stock that could not live outdoors in winter were brought into barns.
Government regulated the economy. In times of dearth, it ordered Justices of the Peace to buy grain and sell it below cost. It forbade employers to lay off workers whose products they could not sell. It used the Star Chamber Court to enforce economic regulations.
There were food riots usually during years of harvest failure, in which organized groups seized foodstuffs being transported or in markets, and enclosure riots, in which organized groups destroyed hedges and fences erected in agrarian reorganization to restrict access to or to subdivide former common pasture land. These self- help riots were last resorts to appeals. They were relatively orderly and did not expand into random violence. The rioters were seldom punished more than a fining or whipping of the leaders and action was taken to satisfy their legitimate grievances.
The poor came to resent the rich and there was a rise in crime among the poor. Penal laws were frequently updated in an effort to bring more order.
Enclosures of land were made to carry on improved methods of tillage, which yielded more grain and more sheep fleece. Drainage of extensive marsh land created more land for agriculture. Waste land was used to breed game and "fowling" contributed to farmers' and laborers' livelihoods. Killing game was not the exclusive right of landowners, but was a common privilege. The agricultural laborer, who worked for wages and composed most of the wage- earning population, found it hard to make ends meet.
In 1610, weekly wages for a mason were 8s. or 5s., for a laborer were 6s. or 4s., for a carpenter 8s. or 6s. An unskilled laborer received 1s. a day.
There were conventions of paternalism and deference between neighbors of unequal social status. A social superior often protected his lessers from impoverishment For instance, the landlord lessened rents in times of harvest failure. A social superior would help find employment for a lesser person or his children, stand surety for a recognizance, intervene in a court case, or have his wife tend a sick member of his lesser's family. A social obligation was felt by most of the rich, the landlords, the yeomen farmers, and the clergy. This system of paternalism and social deference was expressed and reinforced at commonly attended village sports and games, dances, wakes and "ales" (the proceeds of which went to the relief of a certain person in distress), "rush-bearings", parish feasts, weddings, christenings, "churchings" to give thanks for births, and funerals. Even the poor were buried in coffins. Also there was social interaction at the local alehouse, where neighbors drank, talked, sang, and played at bowls or "shove goat" together.
Quarrelling was commonplace. For instance, borough authorities would squabble over the choice of a schoolmaster; the parson would carry on a long fight with parishioners over tithe hens and pigs; two country gentlemen would continue a vendetta started by their great-grandfathers over a ditch or hunting rights; the parishioners would wrangle with the churchwardens over the allocation of pews. The position of one's pew reflected social position. Men tried to keep the pews of their ancestors and the newly prosperous wanted the recognition in the better pews, for which they had to pay a higher amount. But, on the other hand, farmers were full of good will toward their neighbors. They lent farm and kitchen equipment, helped raise timbers for a neighbor's new barn, sent food and cooked dishes to those providing a funeral feast and to the sick and incurable.
Village standards of behavior required that a person not to drink to excess, quarrel, argue, profane, gossip, cause a nuisance, abuse wife or children, or harbor suspicious strangers, and to pay scot and bear lot as he was asked. Neighbors generally got along well and frequently borrowed and loaned small sums of money to each other without interest for needs that suddenly arose. Bad behavior was addressed by mediation and, if this failed, by exclusion from holy communion. There was also whipping and the stocks.
Marital sex was thought to be good for the health and happiness of the husband and enjoyable by wives. The possibility of female orgasm was encouraged. Both women and men were thought to have "seed" and drank certain potions to cause pregnancy or to prevent birth. Some argued that orgasm of both partners was necessary for the "seed" of the male and female to mix to produce pregnancy. Most women were in a virtual state of perpetual pregnancy. Both Catholics and Protestants thought that God wanted them to multiply and cover the earth. Catholics thought that the only goal of sex was procreation. Men were considered ready for marriage only when they could support a family, which was usually at about age 30. Brides were normally virgins, but there was bridal pregnancy of about 20%. Women usually married at about age 25. Marriages were usually within one's own class and religion. The aristocracy often initiated matches of their children for the sake of continuity in the family estates and tried to obtain the consent of their children for the match in mind. The age of consent to marry was 14 for boys and 12 for girls. Girls in arranged marriages often married at 13, and boys before they went to university. But the girls usually stayed with their parents for a couple of years before living with their husbands. If married before puberty, consummation of the marriage waited for such time. In other classes, the initiative was usually taken by the child. Dowries and marriage portions usually were given by the parents of the bride. Wet-nurses frequently were used, even by Puritans. There were no baby bottles. Many babies died, causing their parents much grief. About 1/4 of women's deaths occurred during childbirth. A child was deemed to be the husband's if he was within the four seas, i.e. not in foreign lands, for an agreed length of time. Illegitimacy was infrequent, and punished by church-mandated public penance by the mother and lesser penance and maintenance by the father. The church court punished adultery and defamation for improper sexual conduct.
The established church still taught that the husband was to be the authority in marriage and had the duty to provide for, protect, and maintain his wife. Wives were to obey their husbands, but could also admonish and advise their husbands without reproach. In literature, women were portrayed as inferior to men intellectually and morally as well as physically. In reality wives did not fit the image of women portrayed by the church and literature. Quarrels were not uncommon and were not stopped by a husband's assertion of authority. Wives were very active in the harvesting and did casual labor of washing, weeding, and stone-picking. Farmers' and tradesmen's wives kept accounts, looked after the garden, orchard, pigs, and poultry; brewed beer; spun wool and flax; and acted as agents in business affairs. Wives of craftsmen and tradesmen participated actively in their husbands' shops. Wives of weavers spun for their husband's employers. Wives of the gentry ran their households with their husbands. The lady of a large mansion superintended the household, ordering and looking after the servants, and seeing to the education of her children. Mothers handed down their recipes to their daughters. Women still did much needlework and embroidering for clothing and house, such as cushions, screens, bed curtains, window curtains, hangings, footstools, book covers, and small chests of drawers for valuables. Liking simplicity, Puritan women did less of this work.
Naming one's wife as executor of one's will was the norm. Jointures were negotiated at the betrothal of ladies. Widows of manorial tenants were guaranteed by law one-third of family real property, despite creditors. But most testators went beyond this and gave a life interest in the farm or family house. So it was customary for a widow to remain in occupation of the land until her death or remarriage. Few widows or widowers lived with one of their children. Widows usually had their husband's guild rights and privileges conferred upon them, e.g. to receive apprentices. In London, custom gave 1/3 of a deceased husband's estate to his wife on his death, but 2/3 if there were no children. The other part went according to his will. If a widows did not remarry in memory of her husband, she was esteemed. But remarriage was common because the life expectancy after birth was about 35 years.
Sons of the well-to-do went into law, the Church, the army, or the navy. If not fit for such, they usually went into a trade, apprenticing, for instance, with a draper, silk merchant, or goldsmith. Sometimes a son was sent to the house of a great man as a page or esquire to learn the ways of courtiers and perhaps become a diplomat.
The guild with its master and their employees was being replaced by a company of masters.
About 5% of the population was Catholic, although it was against the law to practice this religion. Indeed it long been the practice to sequester their lands, punish them for going to mass, fine them for not attending the established church, banish their priests, and imprison those who aided priests. There was a Catholic plot in 1605 to blow up Parliament and the king with gunpowder and to restore Catholicism as the state religion with a Catholic king. It was discovered and the conspirators were executed. Then there was a crackdown on Catholics, with houses being searched for hiding places for priests. Also, legislation was passed barring Catholics from many offices.
James I ruled over both England and Scotland. He had come from Scotland, so was unfamiliar with English love of their rights, passion for liberty and justice, and extensive discussing of religion and quoting scripture. When he came to the throne, he had a conference with a group of Puritans who asked for certain reforms: ceremonies such as the cross in baptism and the ring in marriage should not be used, only educated men competent to preach should be made ministers, bishops should not be allowed to hold benefices that they did not administer, and minor officials should not excommunicate for trifles and twelve-penny matters. He not only denied their requests, but had the English Bible revised into the King James version, which was published in 1611. This was to replace the popular Geneva Bible written by English Protestant refugees from Catholic Queen Mary's reign, which he did not like because some of its commentary was not highly favorable to kings. James didn't believe a king had to live by the law; he hadn't as king of Scotland. He tried to imbue into England the idea of a divine right of kings to rule that he had held in Scotland. The established church quickly endorsed and preached this idea.
The selection of the clergy of the parish churches was now often in the hands of the parishioners, having been sold to them by the patron lord of the manor. Some patrons sold the right of selection to a tradesman or yeoman who wished to put in his son or a relative. Some rights of selection were in the hands of bishops, the colleges, and the Crown. The parish clergyman was appointed for life and removed only for grave cause. Most parishioners wanted a sermon created by their minister instead of repetitious homilies and constant prayer. They thought that the object of worship in church was to rouse men to think and act about the problems of the world.
In 1622, the king mandated that clergymen quote scripture only in context of the Book of Articles of Religion of 1562 or the two Books of Homilies and not preach any sermon on Sunday afternoon except on some part of the Catechism or some text out of the Creed, Ten Commandments, or the Lord's Prayer.
The Puritan movement grew. About 5% of the Protestants were Puritans. These included country gentlemen and wealthier traders. They dressed simply in gray or other drab colors and wore their hair short to protest the fashion of long curls. They lived simply and disapproved of dancing because it induced lasciviousness and of theater because of its lewdness. Theaters and brothels still shared the same neighborhoods, the same customers, and sometimes the same employees. Prostitutes went to plays to find customers; men shouldered and shoved each other in competing to sit next to attractive women to get to know them. The Puritans also disapproved of cock fights because they led to gambling and disorder, and Maypole celebrations because of their paganism. There was less humor. Many became stoics. The Puritan church ceremonies were plain, with no ornamentation. Puritans prayed several times a day and read the Bible to each other in family groups to look for guidance in their conduct and life. They asked for God to intervene in personal matters and looked for signs of his pleasure or displeasure in happenings such as a tree falling close but not touching him, or his horse throwing him without injury to him. When there was an illness in the family or misfortune, they examined their past life for sins and tried to correct shortcomings. They circulated records of puritan lives including spiritual diaries. They believed in the equality of men and that a good man was better than a bad peer, bishop, or king. Puritan influence made families closer and not merely dependent on the will of the husband or father. There was a sense of spiritual fellowship among family members as individuals. They emphasized the real need of a lasting love relationship between husband and wife, so a mutual liking that could develop into love between a young couple in an arranged match was essential.
Most Puritans felt that the bishops were as tyrannical as the pope had been and that more reform was needed. They favored the Presbyterian form of church government developed by John Calvin in Switzerland. The presbyter was the position below bishop. Parishes were governed by boards consisting of a minister and lay elders elected by the parishioners. These boards sent elected representatives to councils. All lay elders and ministers had equal rank with each other. The Calvinist God preordained salvation only for the elect and damnation and everlasting punishment for the rest of humanity, but the Puritans had an optimism about avoiding this damnation. They believed that at his conversion a person received grace, which was a sign that he was predestined for salvation. They rejected all ecclesiastical institutions except as established by each parish over its own elected pastor and members. They rejected the established church's control from the top by bishops. They believed in negotiating directly with God for the welfare of the soul without the priest or church organization.
The fear of witchcraft grew with Puritanism. Poor decrepit old defenseless women, often deformed and feeble-minded, were thought to be witches. Their warts and tumors were thought to be teats for the devil to suck or the devil's mark. Cursing or ill-tempers (probably from old age pains) or having cats were further indications of witchery.
When the king learned in 1618 that the English Puritans had prevented certain recreations after the Sunday service, he proclaimed that the people should not be restrained from lawful recreations and exercise such as dancing, May-games, Whitsunales, Morris-dances, May-pole sports, archery for men, leaping, and vaulting. Also women could carry rushes to decorate the church as they had done in the past. (Still unlawful on Sunday were bear and bull baitings and bowlings.) His stated purpose was to prevent people such as Catholics from being deterred from conversion, to promote physical fitness for war, and to keep people from drinking and making discontented speeches in their ale houses.
Besides the Puritans, there were other Independent sects, such as the Congregationalists, whose churches gathered together by the inspiration of Jesus. This sect was started by English merchants residing in Holland who set up congregations of Englishmen under their patronage there; they kept minister and elders well under their control. The Baptists emerged out of the Independents. They believed that only adults, who were capable of full belief, and not children, could be baptized. They also believed that it was the right of any man to seek God's truth for himself in the scriptures and that obedience to the state should not extend beyond personal conscience.
One fourth of all children born did not live to the age of ten, most dying in their first year. Babies had close caps over their head, a rattle, and slept in a sturdy wood cradle that rocked on the floor, usually near the hearth. Babies of wealthier families had nurses. The babies of ladies were suckled by wet nurses. Parents raised children with affection and tried to prepare them to become independent self-sustaining adults. There was less severity than in Tudor times, although the maxim "spare the rod and spoil the child" was generally believed, especially by Puritans, and applied to even very young children. In disciplining a child, an admonition was first used, and the rod as a last resort, with an explanation of the reasons for its use. There were nursery rhymes and stories such as "Little Bo-Peep", "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Tom Thumb", "Chicken Little", and Robin Hood and King Arthur tales, and probably also "Puss in Boots", "Red Ridinghood", "Cinderella", "Beauty and the Beast", "Bluebeard" and Aesop's Fables. "Little Jack Horner" who sat in a corner was a satire on the Puritan aversion to Christmas pudding and sense of conscious virtue. Toys included dolls, balls, drums, and hobby horses. Children played "hide and seek", "here we go around the Mulberry bush", and other group games. School children were taught by "horn books". This was a piece of paper with the alphabet and perhaps a religious verse, such as the Paternoster prayer, that was mounted on wood and covered with thin horn to prevent tearing. Little girls cross-stitched the alphabet and numerals on samplers. Block alphabets were coming into use. Most market towns had a grammar school which would qualify a student for university. They were attended by sons of noblemen, country squires [poor gentlemen], merchants, and substantial yeomen, and in some free schools, the poor. School hours were from 6:00 a.m. to noon or later. Multiplication was taught. If affordable, families had their children involved in education after they were small until they left home at about fifteen for apprenticeship or service. Otherwise, children worked with their families from the age of seven, e.g. carding and spinning wool, until leaving home at about fifteen.
There were boarding schools such as Winchester, Eton, Westminster, St. Paul's, and Merchant Taylors'. There, senior boys selected for conduct and ability supervised younger boys. They thereby got experience for a future in public life. The system was also a check on bullying of the weak by the strong. The curriculum included Lilly's "Grammar", Aesop, Terence's Roman comic plays, Virgil's "Aeneid" (the national epic of Rome), Cicero's "Letters" reflecting Roman life, Sallust's histories showing people and their motives, Caesar's "Commentaries" on the Gallic and civil wars, Horace's "Epistles" about life and poetry, poet Ovid's "Metamorphoses" on adventures and love affairs of deities and heroes, or "Fasti" on Roman religious festivals and customs, Donatus' grammar book, and other ancient Latin authors. Football, with hog bladders, and tennis were played. These schools were self-supporting and did their own farming.
Private schools for girls were founded in and around London. They were attended by daughters of the well-to-do merchant class, nobility, and gentry. They were taught singing, playing of instruments, dancing, French, fine sewing, embroidery, and sometimes arithmetic. Fewer served in the house of some noble lady as before. Most commonly, the sons and daughters of gentlemen and nobles were taught by private tutors. A tutor in the house educated the girls to the same extent as the boys. There were not many girls' boarding schools. Frequently, the mother educated her daughters. A considerable number of girls of other backgrounds such as the yeomanry and the town citizenry somehow learned to read and write.
Boys began at university usually from age 14 to 18, but sometimes as young as 12. The universities provided a broad-based education in the classics, logic and rhetoric, history, theology, and modern languages for gentlemen and gave a homogenous national culture to the ruling class. There was a humanist ideal of a gentleman scholar. The method of study based largely on lectures and disputations. Each fellow had about five students to tutor. In many cases, he took charge of the finances of his students, paying his bills to tradesmen and the college. His reimbursement by the students' fathers put them into friendly contact with the family. The students slept in trundle beds around his bed and had an adjacent room for study. Scholasticism was only starting to give way to modern studies. Aristotle, whose authority was paramount, remained the lynch pin of university studies, especially for logic and dialectic. The study of rhetoric was based on Quintilian, the Latin writer, and the Greek treatise of Hermogenes of Tarsus. Also studied was Cicero's orations as models of style. Examination for degrees was by disputation over a thesis of the student. The B.A. degree was given after four years of study, and the M.A. after three more. There were advanced degrees in civil law (after seven more years of study), medicine (after seven years), divinity (required more than seven years), and music. Many of the men who continued for advanced degrees became fellows and took part in the teaching. Most fellowships were restricted to clerics. Oxford and Cambridge Universities operated under a tutorial system. Access to grammar schools and universities was closed to girls of whatever class. Oxford University now had the Bodleian Library. In the universities, there were three types of students: poor scholars, who received scholarships and also performed various kinds of service such as kitchen work and did errands for fellows such as carrying water and waiting on tables; commoners, who paid low fees and were often the sons of economical gentlemen or businessmen; and the Fellow Commoners (a privileged and well-to-do minority, usually sons of noblemen or great country gentlemen). The Fellow Commoners paid high fees, had large rooms, sometimes had a personal tutor or servant, and had the right to eat with the Fellows at High Table. Here, gentlemen made friends with their social equals from all over the country. Students wore new- fashioned gowns of any colors and colored stockings. They put on stage plays in Latin and English. The students played at running, jumping, and pitching the bar, and at the forbidden swimming and football. They were not to have irreligious books or dogs. Cards and dice could be played only at Christmas time. Students still drank, swore, and rioted, but they were disallowed from going into town without special permission. Those below a B.A. had to be accompanied by a tutor or an M.A. They were forbidden from taverns, boxing matches, dances, cock fights, and loitering in the street or market. Sometimes a disputation between two colleges turned into a street brawl. Punishment was by flogging. Each university had a chancellor, usually a great nobleman or statesman, who represented the university in dealings with the government and initiated policies. The vice-chancellor was appointed for a year from the group of heads of college. He looked out for the government of halls, enforced the rules of the university, kept its courts, licensed wine shops, and shared control of the town with the mayor.
Tutors were common. They resided at the boy's house or took boys to board with them at their houses in England or on the continent. The tutor sometimes accompanied his student to grammar school or university. Puritans frequently sent their sons to board in the house of some Frenchman or Swiss Protestant to learn the Calvinist doctrines or on tour with a tutor. Certain halls in the universities were predominately Puritan. Catholics were required to have their children taught in a home of a Protestant, a relative if possible.
The Inns of Court were known as "the third university". It served the profession of law, and was a training ground for the sons of nobility and the gentry and for those entering the service of the commonwealth. The Inns were self-governing and ruled by custom. Students were to live within the Inn, two to a room, but often there were not enough rooms, so some students lived outside the quadrangles. Every student was supposed to partake of Commons or meals for a certain fraction of the year - from eight weeks to three months and there to argue issues in cases brought up by their seniors. In hall the students were not allowed to wear hats, though caps were permitted, nor were they to appear booted or spurred or carrying swords. For the first two years, they would read and talk much of the law, and were called Clerks Commoners. After two years they became Mootmen or Inner Barristers. In five or six years they might be selected to be called to the bar as Utter Barristers, whose number was fixed. There was no formal examination. The Utter Barrister spent at least three more years performing exercises and assisting in directing the studies of the younger men. After this time, he could plead in the general courts at Westminster, but usually carried on law work in the offices of other men and prepared cases for them. Participating in moots (practice courts) was an important part of their education. Lectures on statutes and their histories were given by Readers.
Physicians were licensed by universities, by the local bishop, or in London, by the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Most were university graduates, and because of the expense of the education, from well-to-do families. For the B.A., they emphasized Greek. For the M.A., they studied the works of Greek physicians Galen and Hippocrates, Roman physician Claudius, and perhaps some medieval authorities. After the M.A., they listened to lectures by the Regius Professor of Medicine and saw a few dissections. Three years of study gave them a M.B., and four more years beyond this the M.D. degree. A physician's examination of a patient cost 10s. The physician asked about his symptoms and feelings of pain, looked at his eyes, looked at his body for spots indicative of certain diseases, guessed whether he had a fever, felt his pulse, and examined his urine and stool. There were no laboratory tests. Smallpox was quickly recognized. Wrapping red cloth around the person and covering the windows with red cloth being promoted healing without scarring. Gout was frequent. Syphilis was common in London and other large centers, especially in Court circles. It was ameliorated by mercury. An imbalance of the four humors: blood, phlegm, choler, bile was redressed by bloodletting, searing, draining, and/or purging. Heart trouble was not easily diagnosed and cancer was not recognized as a life-threatening disease. Childbirth was attended by physicians if the patient was well-to-do or the case was serious. Otherwise women were attended only by midwives. They often died in childbirth, many in their twenties.
The theory of nutrition was still based on the four humors and deficiency diseases were not understood as such. Physician William Harvey, son of a yeoman, discovered the circulation of the blood from heart to lungs to heart to body about 1617. He had studied anatomy at Padua on the continent and received an M.D. there and later at Cambridge. Then he accepted a position at the hospital of St. Bartholomew to treat the poor who came there at least once a week for a year. He agreed to give the poor full benefit of his knowledge, to prescribe only such medicines as should do the poor good without regard to the pecuniary interest of the apothecary accompanying him, to take no reward from patients, and to render account for any negligence on his part. He also dissected animals. Then he ascertained that the heart was a pump and that the valves in the veins prevented backflow and he followed the course of the circulation. The language of medicine became that of physics and mechanics, e.g. wheels and pulleys, wedges, levers, screws, cords, canals, cisterns, sieves and strainers. This diminished the religious concept that the heart was the seat of the soul and that blood had a spiritual significance and was sacred.
A visit by a physician cost 13s.4d. Melancholia, which made one always fearful and full of dread, and mania, which made one think he could do supernatural things, were considered to be types of madness different from infirmities of the body. Despite a belief held by some that anatomical investigation of the human body was a sin against the holy ghost, physicians were allowed to dissect corpses. So there were anatomy textbooks and anatomy was related to surgery. Barber-surgeons extracted teeth and performed surgery. The white and red striped barber pole initially indicated a place of surgery; The red represented blood and the white bandages.
The physicians turned surgery over to the surgeons, who received a charter in 1605 by which barbers were excluded from all surgical work except bloodletting and the drawing of teeth. Surgeons dealt with skin disease, ulcers, hernia, bladder stones, and broken bones, which they had some skill in setting. They performed amputations, which were without antiseptics or anesthesia. Internal operations usually resulted in death. Caesarian section was attempted, but did not save the life of the mother. Apprenticeship was the route to becoming a surgeon. A College of Surgeons was founded. Students learned anatomy, for which they received the corpses of four executed felons a year.
The apothecaries and grocers received a charter in 1607, but in 1618, the apothecaries were given the sole right to purchase and sell potions, and to search the shops of grocers and stop the sale by them of any potions. In London, the apothecaries were looked over by the College of Physicians to see that they were not selling evil potions or poisons. In 1618 was the first pharmacy book.
There were three hospitals in London, two for the poor, and Bedlam [Bethlehem] Hospital for the insane. Others were treated at home or in the physician's home.
Theaters were shut down in times of plague to prevent spread of disease there. Towndwellers who could afford it left to live in the country.
Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in this period. Most popular reading was still Bibles, prayer books, psalm books, and devotional works. Also popular were almanacs, which started with a single sheet of paper. An almanac usually had a calendar; information on fairs, roads, and posts; farming hints; popularized scientific knowledge; historical information; sensational news; astrological predictions; and later, social, political, and religious comment. Many households had an almanac. Books tried to reconcile religion and science and religion and passion or sensuality. Walter Ralegh's "History of the World", written while he was in prison, was popular. Ben Johnson wrote poetry and satiric comedies. Gentlemen read books of manners such as James Cleland's "Institution of a Young Noble Man" (1607). In 1622, the first regular weekly newspaper was started.
Although there was a large advance in the quality of boys' education and in literacy, the great majority of the people were unable to read fluently. Since writing was taught after one could read fluently, literacy was indicated by the ability to sign one's name. Almost all gentlemen and professional men were literate. About half the yeomen and tradesmen and craftsmen were. Only about 15% of husbandmen, laborers, servants, and women were literate.
The royal postal system carried private as well as royal letters, to increase income to the Crown. Postmasters got regular pay for handling without charge the mail of letters that came from or went to the letter office in London. The postmaster kept horses which he let, with horn and guide, to persons riding "in post" at 3d. per mile. The post was to travel 7 mph in summer and 5 mph in winter and sound his horn four times in every mile or whenever he met travelers.
Wool and animals for butchering were sold in London with the sellers' agent in London taking the proceeds and paying out to their order, the origin of check writing.
Scriveners drew up legal documents, arranged mortgages, handled property transactions, and put borrowers in touch with lenders. They and the goldsmiths and merchants developed promissory notes, checks, and private paper money.
The influx of silver from the New World was a major factor in the second great inflation in England and in the devaluation of money to about one third of what it had been. Also contributing to the inflation was an outracing of demand over supply, and a debasement of the coinage. This inflation benefited tenants to the detriment of their lords because their rents could not be adjusted upward.
There was an increase in bankruptcies. Houses of Correction were built.
The Elizabethan love of madrigal playing gradually gave way to a taste for instrumental music, including organs and flutes. The violin was introduced and popular with all classes. Ballads were sung, such as "Barbary Allen", about a young man who died for love of her, after which she died of sorrow. When they were buried next to each other, a rose from his grave grew around a briar from her grave. The ballad "Geordie" relates a story of a man hanged for stealing and selling sixteen of the king's royal deer. The ballad "Matty Groves" is about a great Lord's fair young bride seducing a lad, who was then killed by the Lord. In the ballad "Henry Martin", the youngest man of three brothers is chosen by lot to turn pirate to support his brothers. When his pirate ship tries to take a merchant ship, there is sea fight in which the merchant ship sinks and her men drown. The ballad "The Trees They Do Grow High" tells of an arranged marriage between a 24 year old woman and the 14 year old son of a great lord. She tied blue ribbons on his head when he went to college to let the maidens know that he was married. But he died at age 16, after having sired a son.
May Day was a holiday with dancing around a Maypole and people dressed up as characters such as Queen of the May, Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marion, the fool, and the piper. New Year's Day was changed to January 1st.
Golf was played in Scotland, and James introduced it into England. James I was the last monarch to engage in falconry.
Francis Bacon wrote the "Advancement of Learning" and "Novum Organum" (New Learning) in which he encouraged the use of the inductive method to find out scientific truths and also truths in general, that is reasoning from a sample to the whole. According to him, the only way to arrive at the truth was to observe and determine the correlations of facts. He advocated a process of elimination of hypothesized ideas. First, experiments were made, then general conclusions were drawn from them, and then these generalizations were tested in further experiments. His "New Learning" showed the way out of the scholastic method and reverence for dogma into the experimental method. He wrote "Natural and Experimental History". He studied the effect of cold in preventing animal putrefaction.
By this time, what was known about mathematics included fractional exponents, trigonometry in terms of arcs of angles, long division, square root symbol, decimal fractions, methods for solving cubic equations, trigonometry in terms of ratios of sides of a right triangle, equal sign, plus and minus signs, and a consistent theory imaginary numbers.
Galileo Galilei was a professor of mathematics at the University of Padua in Italy and was later a protege of the powerful Medici family. He conducted experiments, e.g. throwing objects off the tower of Pisa in 1590 to show that all, whether light or heavy, fall at the same rate. This disproved the widely held belief that heavier objects fall faster than light objects. He reasoned by induction from experiments that the force of gravity has the same effect on all objects regardless of their size or weight. His law stated that the speed of their descent increases uniformly with the time of the fall, i.e. speed [velocity] = gravity's acceleration multiplied by time. This was a pioneering mathematization of a physical phenomenon.
Galileo determined that a pendulum, such as a hanging lamp, swings back and forth in equal intervals of time. He measured time with water running through a tube; the weight of the water was proportional to the time elapsed. Also, the rate of oscillation [swinging] of the pendulum varies inversely in proportion to the square of its cord length, regardless of the substance, weight, or shape of the material at its end, or of the amplitude of the oscillation. This led to the mechanical clock, which would replace water clocks, which had a problem of water freezing, and sand clocks, which could measure only small time intervals. From his observation that an object sliding along a plane travels increasingly farther and slows down at a decreasing rate as the surfaces become smoother and more lubricated, he opined that the natural state of a body in motion is to stay in motion, and that it is slowed down by a resistant force, called friction. He conceived of the air giving a frictional force to an object in motion. From his experiments showing that a rolling ball rolls up a plane farther the lesser the slope of the plane, he intuited that if the plane were horizontal, the ball would never stop rolling except for friction. He opined that bodies that are at rest stay at rest and bodies that are in motion stay in uniform motion, unless and until acted upon by some force. This was a radical departure from Aristotle's theory that any horizontal motion requires a prime mover. Galileo drew a graph of distance versus time for the rolling ball, which indicated that the distance traveled was proportional to the square of the time elapsed. He expanded this experiment to include projectiles: bodies falling vertically and also traveling such a horizontal distance. He realized that the movement of a projectile involved a horizontal and a vertical component and guessed that the effects of falling vertically were independent of the horizontal motion. He demonstrated that a projectile follows the path of a parabola, instead of a straight line, and that it too descends a horizontal distance which is proportional to the square of the time taken to fall. That is, a thrown object will strike the ground in the same amount of time as an object simply dropped from the same height. This suggested that the vertical component, gravity, was a constant force.
The telescope was invented in 1608. The next year, Galileo built a greatly improved telescope to observe bodies in the skies. He observed that the spots on the moon had shifting illumination and that the moon's perimeter had a jagged outline. From this he deduced that the surface of the moon had mountains, valleys, and craters much like the earth, and was illuminated by reflected light. He noticed that the planet Jupiter had moons orbiting it in a manner similar to the orbit of the Earth's moon. He observed that when the planet Venus was very small it had a round shape and when it was very large (and therefore nearer the earth), it had a crescent shape. Also, Venus progressed through periodic phases of increasingly wide crescent shapes in a manner similar to the phases of crescent shapes of the Earth's moon. He realized that these features of Venus could be explained only if Venus revolved around the sun, rather than around the earth. This finding added credence to the Copernican theory that the earth and all planets revolve around the sun. But church doctrine that the sun revolved around the earth was supported by the Biblical story of God making the sun stand still to give additional sunlight on a certain day so a certain task could be completed that day. Galileo argued against a literal interpretation of the Bible, so he was denounced by the church. His finding of sunspots on the sun conflicted with church doctrine that the celestial bodies such as the sun were perfect and unblemished. His observation that certain sun spots were on certain locations of the sun, but changed location over time, suggested that the sun might be rotating. He observed that when air was withdrawn by a suction pump from the top of a long glass tube whose lower open end was submerged in a pan of water, the water rose to a height of 34 feet and no higher. This result indicated that the evacuated space above the water was a vacuum: an empty space. The notion of a vacuum, a space where there is nothing or void, was difficult for philosophers to accept. They believed that nature abhored a vacuum and would prevent it. About 1600, Galileo invented the first thermometer by heating air at the top of a tube whose open end was in a bowl of water; as the top end cooled, the air contracted and water rose part way up the tube; the column of water rose or fell with every change of temperature. Galileo invented the compound refracting microscope, which used more than one lens, about 1612.