Summary of Ian Mortimer's The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 Different societies see landscapes differently. For example, an Elizabethan traveler would describe his homeland in terms of cities, towns, ports, great houses, bridges and roads. A contemporary description will mention overcrowding and the problems of population expansion.
#2 The Elizabethan landscape is different from the landscape that you see today. It is vast and open, with small houses and fields, and it was not until the late 1590s that people started to use the term landscape to describe a view.
#3 Stratford-upon-Avon is located in the heart of England, about ninety-four miles north-west of London. The town was planned in the twelfth century, and most of the buildings are medieval. The most prestigious house in the town is New Place, built by Sir Hugh Clopton.
#4 The town of Stratford was planned in the Middle Ages, and has wide streets that allow plenty of light to enter the front parlours and workshops of the market traders.

Sujets

• modern
• 16th century

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 05 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669379133
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Ian Mortimer's The Time Travelers Guide to Elizabethan England
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Different societies see landscapes differently. For example, an Elizabethan traveler would describe his homeland in terms of cities, towns, ports, great houses, bridges and roads. A contemporary description will mention overcrowding and the problems of population expansion.

#2

The Elizabethan landscape is different from the landscape that you see today. It is vast and open, with small houses and fields, and it was not until the late 1590s that people started to use the term landscape to describe a view.

#3

Stratford-upon-Avon is located in the heart of England, about ninety-four miles north-west of London. The town was planned in the twelfth century, and most of the buildings are medieval. The most prestigious house in the town is New Place, built by Sir Hugh Clopton.

#4

The town of Stratford was planned in the Middle Ages, and has wide streets that allow plenty of light to enter the front parlours and workshops of the market traders.

#5

The town of Stratford, which was incorporated in 1553, has not changed much since then. The most significant changes are not physically apparent, but rather what is changing. The town is growing upwards rather than outwards.

#6

The town of Stratford was rebuilt in 1598, after two catastrophic fires in 1594 and 1595. The church, guild buildings, and school remained the same, but more than half the town was rebuilt.

#7

The changes being wrought in Stratford are not only aesthetic, but also economic. The well-off are living ostentatiously in handsome, glazed houses, while the poor have nowhere else to go.

#8

The table of populous towns shows that Stratford-upon-Avon is representative of the majority of towns in England and Wales. It also reveals a process of urbanisation, as more people live in the many small market towns than they did in previous centuries.

#9

The town of Stratford is just one example of how towns are not just for the benefit of the people who live in them. They are also crossroads where country life and urban professions, services, and administrations mix.

#10

The streets of a Shakespearean town are not paved, so in the springtime, they are covered in mud. In the summer, the mud dries and turns into cakes of earth. In the fall, the streets become less crowded as people head out into the countryside to gather in the harvest.

#11

England is not all tilled farmland. In fact, less than one-third is tilled at all. About 11,500,000 acres of England and Wales are under the plough, while almost as much – about ten million acres – consists of untilled heaths, moors, mountains, and marshland.

#12

The area of woodland is shrinking. The price of timber effectively doubles over the course of the reign. The government tries to take action, passing Acts of Parliament in 1558, 1581 and 1585 to prevent wood being used for unnecessary purposes, but demand still massively outstrips supply.

#13

The second-greatest cause of unrest during the Tudor period was the gradual loss of land to the working man and his family. This was a profound worry to the families who were evicted, as well as to the authorities in those towns where the homeless husbandmen went begging.

#14

The perimeter of the countryside is also changing. People are now building closer to the sea, and fishing villages have sprung up all around the coast.

#15

The village is much more than just a series of houses. There are the communal structures of the church and church house, as well as barns, byres, corn lofts, henhouses, stables, cart houses, and mills.

#16

London is a city of contrasts. You will be reminded of this when you get to the junction of Watling Street and the long road that is, in more recent times, Oxford Street. This point is known as Tyburn, and here stand the gallows for hanging thieves.

#17

The road along which you are traveling is bordered by fields on both sides until the crossroads with St Martin’s Lane and Tottenham Court Road. Beyond this junction, behind a large copse of trees, is the church of St Giles in the Fields.

#18

The Palace of Whitehall was the first royal residence built specifically for the English king. It was built in the form of a heap of houses, and it lacked all harmony or structural unity. The full scale of the 23½ acres of building that would one day come to be known as the largest and ugliest palace in Europe has not yet materialized.

#19

The Strand is the street that connects Westminster and Whitehall to the city of London. It is where many of the most magnificent houses in London are located. The Thames is a major asset for those who live in London.

#20

The London Bridge is a symbol of London and a statement of royal authority. It was built in the sixteenth century, and it is more than just a bridge: it is a symbol of London and a statement of royal authority.

#21

There are many other landmarks to visit in London. The Tower dominates the eastern side of the city, and the fifteenth-century Guildhall houses the administration of the city's twenty-six wards. The cathedral was completed in the fourteenth century, and it is still worth visiting for its medieval antiquities.

#22

London is a city of streets, not palaces or castles. The real soul of London is in the streets. You will pass through alleys so narrow and dark with overhanging houses that you will wonder how people can live there, but you will suddenly find yourself on a wide street with smart houses of four or five storeys.

#23

The roots of London’s wealth and exponential growth lie in trade. The city is expanding upwards as well as outwards, and the authorities cannot afford to widen the narrow alleys because the value of each house increases with each new inhabitant.

#24

The city of London is rich in history, and its main market place, Cheapside, is where the most beautiful houses in the city are located. It is also the location of the Great Conduit, a large stone fountain where housewives, servants, and water carriers queue up to fill their pails.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The population of England was around 4 million at the end of the Elizabethan age, an increase of 30 percent from the 3. 16 million at the beginning. The increase was due to the availability of food, which allowed people to marry and have children.

#2

The size of the population is rapidly increasing, but its structure is not. The median age is 22 years, so half the population is aged 20 or under. In the modern world, it is almost 40. Men look younger and behave more like reckless youths, with the greater energy, violence, and eagerness that you would expect.

#3

Many factors influence survival beyond sixty. Wealth is one of them, but it is not a guarantee of long life. In Norwich in 1570, there are five paupers in their nineties and two who claim to be over a hundred.

#4

The social order in England was not simple. Some knights were richer than lords, and a rich husbandman could be more respectable than a poor yeoman. The queen was at the top of the whole pile in terms of social respectability, wealth, authority, and divine grace.

#5

The English regard Elizabeth as both their queen and their God. She is barred from holding any religious office within the Church, but she is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

#6

Elizabeth I was the queen who claimed to love England. She had a portrait painted showing her standing on a map of England, and another depicting her with her victorious warships in the background after the defeat of the Armada.

#7

Elizabeth I, queen of England, was a strong and determined woman who took personal responsibility for political decisions. She was not secretive or manipulative, but she did have a stubbornness that made life difficult for her advisors and councillors.

#8

Elizabeth’s preferred method of governing was through her privy council. The body consisted of nineteen men and sat three or four times a week, conducting most routine business on Elizabeth’s behalf and directing extraordinary business in accordance with her instructions.

#9

Elizabeth I was very aware of the dangers of too much power being vested in a group of privy councillors, so she manipulated them in a number of ways. She did not let any one man monopolize her use of patronage or control access to her presence. She played one councillor off against another in order to gain power.

#10

Elizabeth’s rule was very difficult to make ends meet. She controlled the budgets of the entire country so well that the national debt was only 300,000 pounds when she died. She was no great fan of parliament, and she could dismiss them at any time.

#11

Elizabeth I’s reign was free of any over-mighty lords waiting in the wings. She had few marquesses or viscounts to create, and no bishops or dukes to speak of. Those considering revolt against Elizabeth had no one to turn to for leadership.

#12

There are only 57 peers in all of England during Elizabeth’s reign. The highest rank is that of marquess, followed by earls, and then viscounts and barons.

#13

The gentry are the ruling class in England. They are the 500 or so knights with country estates, and approximately 15,000 other gentlemen with an income from land sufficient to guarantee they do not have to work for a living.

#14

The gentry have a large say in running the country through parliament. They take a major role in electing the seventy-four knights of the shire who form approximately one-t