Local responses to the poor in late medieval and Tudor England

In: Continuity and change: a journal of social structure, law and demography in past societies, Volume 3, Issue 2, p. 209-245

Abstract

The leaders of English villages and towns between 1388 and 1598 accepted that deserving poor people, those unable to work to support themselves, warranted private and, if necessary, public assistance. Poverty was objectively mild in the century after the 1349 plague. Economic and demographic developments betweenc. 1465 and 1530 increased the number of poor people. Religious and political changes of the mid-sixteenth century forced individuals and parishes to assume virtually the entire burden of poor relief. Parliamentary legislation empowered local authorities to raise compulsory taxes for support of the poor. In Elizabeth's reign the problems of poverty intensified, forcing nearly all parishes to use taxation at least in bad years.