Elizabethan England / 1563-1576
Elizabethan England: Poor Laws
Elizabethan governments tried to deal with poverty using a mix of local relief and harsh punishment.
What To Remember
- The Statute of Artificers, Vagabonds Act, and Poor Relief Act changed how poverty was managed.
- Justices of the Peace and other local officials collected and shared Poor Relief.
- The laws punished vagabonds while also trying to support the deserving poor.
Early poor laws
In 1563, the Statute of Artificers said people who refused to pay the poor rates could be imprisoned.
In 1572, the Vagabonds Act allowed harsh punishments such as whipping, ear-boring, and even the death penalty for repeated begging.
In 1576, the Poor Relief Act said the idle poor could be given materials to sell, like wool, or sent to a house of correction.
How they worked
Local officials, such as Justices of the Peace, collected poor relief and shared it among the deserving poor.
The 1572 law also set up a national poor rate, showing that poverty was becoming a wider national issue rather than just a local one.
The system mixed charity with control, because helping the poor was always tied to punishing those seen as idle.
Why the laws mattered
The laws show that Elizabethan governments took poverty more seriously than before.
Even when records suggest that many vagabonds were not whipped, the laws still made it clear that the upper classes had a responsibility to deal with unemployment.
Poverty remained a major problem, but the response became more organised and more forceful.
Revision Prompt
How did the Elizabethan Poor Laws try to manage poverty?