ABSTRACT
The reign of Elizabeth is generally regarded as prosperous, and so upon the whole it was. But she had come to the throne with a legacy of debt from her father, 1 Henry VIII., and from her father’s counsellors, who guided her young brother, Edward VI. Nor had Mary helped to alleviate it. “The minority of Edward,” remarks Froude, 2 “had been a time of mere thriftless waste and plunder, while east, west, north, and south the nation had been shaken by civil commotions. The economy with which Mary had commenced had been sacrificed to superstition, and what the hail had left the locusts had eaten.” This unfortunate Queen, for whom no historian can fail to have a sentiment of the sincerest pity, believing that the spoliation of the monasteries by her father had caused the wrath of Heaven to descend upon her realm, stripped the Crown of half its revenues to re-establish the clergy and to force upon the country a form of religion which it had made up its mind to reject. But it is only fair to remark that the religious persecution in Queen Mary’s reign has been much exaggerated, for it would appear that not more than three hundred persons were actually burnt at the stake as Protestants, and, even including those who died in prison, the total seems not to have exceeded four hundred. 3 But the power of the Romish queen was less than her will, and she certainly lost both the confidence and affection of her people. Her treasury was exhausted, the nation financially ruined, and in the latter years of her reign famine and plague had added their miseries to other causes of suffering. 4 Elizabeth came to the throne not only with the national purse empty, but with heavy debts owing to the Antwerp Jews, 1 added to a terribly debased currency and a dangerous undercurrent of social discontent. It is to her credit as a sovereign that at her death danger from this last source had passed away. 2 This was partly due to the growth of wealth and industry throughout the kingdom, to the great gains of our foreign trade, and to the rapid expansion of our manufactures. But pauperism was now a permanent evil, and legal measures had to be taken for its relief. 3 One abiding cause of it was the persistent enclosures which still went on, together with the new developments in agriculture. Nevertheless, before the close of her reign the bulk of the people became contented and comfortable, owing to the prolonged peace which prevailed. The merchants and landed gentry, 4 or at least the new owners of the soil, were rich; the farmers and master-manufacturers were prosperous; even the artisans and labourers were not hopelessly poor, especially among the upper working classes. But there was a greater tendency towards the modern conditions of continuous poverty among those less fortunately situated.
