The Elizabethan Era

1558-1603

• Time associated with Queen Elizabeth I reign (1558–1603)

• Often considered to be the Golden Age in English history

• It was the height of the English Renaissance– poetry, music, literature, theater

• It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad

• the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people

Living Conditions

• Most people were very poor

• Raw sewage in the Thames River

• Many diseases (Typhoid, Bubonic plague, smallpox, syphilis, scurvy, malaria)

• People only bathed two or three times a year

• Thought diseases spread through odor, not germs.

Person infected with smallpox

Fashion

• Statutes of Apparel• Clothes for the wealthy

– Satin, lace, silk, felt, cotton, furs, taffeta– Crimson, silver, gold, purple, dark blue, black and

white – Big collars– Very pale skin, high foreheads

• Clothes for the poor– Cotton, flax, wool, linen– Brown, yellow, orange, green, gray, russet, pale blue,

pink– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N0dbsRmHTA

Education

• Only boys went to school – Grammar School

• Girls from wealthy families were allowed to be taught at home

Entertainment

• Feasts - A large, elaborately prepared meal, usually for many persons and often accompanied by court entertainment. Often celebrated religious festivals

• Banquets - A ceremonial dinner honoring a particular guest

• Fairs - The Annual Summer Fair was often a bawdy affair

• Plays - Starting as plays enacted in town squares followed by the actors using the courtyards of taverns or inns ( referred to as Inn-yards ) followed by the first theatres ( great open air amphitheatres built in the same style as the Roman Coliseum ) and then the introduction of indoor theatres called Playhouses

• Mystery Plays - Re-enacting stories from the Bible• Festivals - Celebrating Church festivals• Dancing - Elizabethan dances enjoyed by the Upper

Classes, Royalty and Nobility Jousts / Tournaments - A series of tilting matches between knights

• Games and Sports - archery, bowling, cards, dice, hammer-throwing, and wrestling

• Animal Sports - Including Bear and Bull baiting. Dog and Cock fighting

• Hunting - Sport followed by the nobility often using dogs

• Hawking - Sport followed by the nobility with hawks

Romance

Courtly Love!!!