Activity: See if your table agrees with the divisions made below:

OPINIONS ABOUT POVERTY:

•All beggars are criminals and they commit most of the murders and thefts.

•Beggars should be sent back to where they came from.

•Vagabonds should be punished severely.

•Beggars are to lazy to get a job.

REAL CAUSES OF POVERTY

•Sheep farming had replaced the growing of crops and this required less farm workers.

•Henry VIII shut down all the monasteries.

•Unemployment increased because of the population doubling in size.

•People had to travel to look for work at different times of the year.

•There were no welfare payments for the old, sick, disabled or unemployed.

•Food became very expensive due to bad harvests.

GOVERNMENT ACTION TO DETER VAGABONDS/ BEGGING

•Vagabonds could have a large hole bored in their ear (1572 Act).

•Beadles should be appointed to expel vagabonds from parishes.

•Vagabonds could be branded with a “V” (1547 Act).

•Vagabonds could be whipped all the way back to the parish they came from (1531 Act).

•Healthy poor found begging 3 times could be executed.

GOVERNMENT ACTION TO HELP BEGGARS

•Parishes must look after their own poor and set up workhouses for the able-bodied poor to work in.work in (1601 Act).

You will notice that this last box is far smaller than the previous one. What does this say about the Tudor government’s attitude to beggars and the poor?