KS3 History: What was life like in Elizabethan society?

Ian Mortimer:
As your guide to the 16th century, I'd like to show you the very best that the Elizabethan period has to offer. Where better to start than at one of the Queen's magnificent royal palaces? Here it is all about what you wear and how you look.

Hampton Court is one of 20 royal residences inherited by Elizabeth I and was one of her father's favourites. She gives seven of them away and now spends an average of £4,000 per year looking after the remainder. £4,000 is a huge amount of money in the 16th century. The average worker earns just £5 a year.

Everybody has their place in Elizabethan society and to be accepted in this world it is important to know where you stand. Servants, visitors, royal courtiers - virtually every level of society is represented here. You won't have any difficulty telling them apart. Everyone's status in society is given away by their clothes.

Exactly what you wear will depend on when you are here. Get your dates wrong, even by as little as a year or two, and you risk ridicule or rejection. Courtiers travelling abroad carry the latest trends back from the continent either in person or by sending fashion dolls dressed in miniature outfits.

Fashions become steadily more lavish as the Queen's reign progresses, much to the disapproval of the Puritans. For a wealthy traveller like you, gorgeous clothing is an absolute must. One of the best examples of this is the ruff. At the beginning of the Elizabethan period, both men and women start showing the collar of their smocks or shirts over the tops of their tunics. As this becomes the fashion, it grows into a separate garment which is easier to wash. Starch allows it to grow even bigger until, by the 1580s, it uses a full six yards of linen and requires a circular board to support it.

If you really want to show off, vibrant colour is another very effective way to demonstrate wealth. It is the law that only the aristocracy and landed gentry are able to wear certain fabrics, such as cloth of gold and silver, red and blue velvet, embroidery and silk. To create a bright crimson colour, you need cochineal insects from South America. Obtaining a single ounce of purple dye requires around 30,000 Mediterranean whelks so dressing flamboyantly certainly doesn't come cheap.

But a word of caution - if you arrive in the early part of Elizabeth's reign, don't look too flamboyant. The Queen is still very modest in her attire. She often wears stark black and white for constancy and purity. Together, these symbolise eternal virginity, an image she is keen to project. So it might not be a good idea to turn up at court and risk upstaging the Queen in a cloak of bright red.

Once you have taken stock of the latest royal dress code, you'll be keen to find out if it makes the correct impression in the presence of the Queen. But as Hampton Court is not one of the Queen's favourite residences, most of the time you'll find that she's absent. Unless she is staying at one of her other palaces, there's a good chance you've arrived while she's away on one of her famous royal progresses. On two dozen occasions during her reign, the entire royal court packs up and takes to the road. Tapestries and paintings are removed from the walls and put into storage, along with silverware and other valuables, while servants keep the palace clean, aired and ready for her return. These outings are a major task requiring between 300 and 400 carts and wagons and up to 2,400 horses.

Progresses form a vital part of Elizabeth's queenship. They allow people to see her in the flesh and even to meet her. She, in turn, can become acquainted with her subjects. Some courtiers are quietly amused by her claiming to be personally familiar with thousands of the landed gentry, but she does know many because of these progresses. It's another example of Tudor visual propaganda in which the Queen herself becomes a living portrait.

During your travels, you'll need somewhere to stay. Just like the Queen on a royal progress, the house of a gentleman makes an ideal place for you to lay your head. In Elizabethan times, there's a rapidly increasing number. Hundreds of these handsome manor houses spring up during her reign as more and more people become rich enough to build their own.

VOIC OVER:
"Every man almost is a builder, and he that hath bought any small parcel of ground, be it never so little, will not be quiet till he has pulled down the old house (if any were there standing) and set up a new after his own devising."

Ian Mortimer:
The great houses built during Elizabeth I's reign are among the finest England will ever see and Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is one of the greatest of them all. Every detail of a great house is designed to demonstrate the wealth and sophistication of its owner. This need to show off can have both positive and negative consequences. The positive ones are obvious - national as well as local prestige, perhaps leading to a position at court. The negative ones are the sheer expense - the cost of building the house in the first place, equipping it and maintaining all the servants. Ultimately, success might lead to the financially ruinous privilege of entertaining the Queen herself.

When the Queen pays a visit to the Cambridgeshire home of Lord North in 1577, she arrives accompanied by about 2,000 people. The total cost of the two-day visit is £642 four shillings and tuppence and this doesn't include a present for the Queen of a jewel worth £120. Lord North's expenses include decorating the rooms, putting up a temporary banqueting house and building several temporary kitchens. There are candles and torches to buy and extra pewter ware must be hired from London. Just doing the dishes costs the equivalent of a worker's wages for three months.

To give you an idea of the scale of preparation required, look at the grocery list. 11 and a half cows, 17 and a half veal calves, 8 stags and 16 bucks for pasties, 1,200 chickens, over 2,500 pigeons, a cartload and two horse loads of oysters. And so the list goes on. When you consider that a single cow is the equivalent of an average worker's wages for 6 months, you can see that a royal visit is a mixed blessing for the host who has to foot the bill.

Life at Elizabeth I's court is full of luxury and privilege, but you'll have to work hard to stay in the Queen's favour. It is very important for a wealthy Elizabethan to give the right impression - your clothes and house are key symbols of your wealth and status. The greatest honour you can receive is a visit from the Queen herself, but this could also prove to be dangerously expensive.