Social Order: A Chain of Status
Para1The social order in early modern England went, likek today, from rich to poor, with
power and wealth strongly correlated. Early modern England subscribed to a belief
in something called the great chain of being, which originated in ancient Greece and Rome and helped define a hierarchy for all
creation. This explanation starts from the top of the chain, i.e., the link (social
class) with the most power and wealth, working its way towards the bottom of the chain
to those with the least power and wealth.
The Monarch
Para2At the very top is the monarch, who was believed to be anointed by God to lead the
people and rule the nation. Like other English monarchs before and after her long
rule from 1558 to 1603, Elizabeth I, as the Queen of England, had the most power in
the country, which came with the most wealth. The monarchy owned vast tracts of land,
dozens of palaces and properties, and held significant monetary wealth, too.
The Court
Para3Below the monarch were members of the court, the noble individuals in society. These
were people with hereditary titles such as duke or duchess, earl or countess, marquis
or marchioness, and baron or baroness. After the Queen, they held the most wealth
due to extensive land holdings and the most power due to their close proximity to
the Queen. Their connection to the Queen, if she favored them, yielded power, but
the opposite was also true—the monarch’s disfavor yielded disgrace. Nobles often owned
significant estates outside of London and much of their wealth was derived from the
agricultural and other products of and rents from lands and houses they owned, although
they also incurred significant costs to maintain and staff these estates, as well
as entertain the monarch and court upon demand.
The Gentry
Para4After the nobility that comprised the court was the gentry. This class was composed
of individuals who held enough wealth that they did not need to work in any sort of
trade or perform any labor, and they owned their own land. This class was comprised
of knights, gentlewomen/gentlemen, and squires. Most of them held the customary coat
of arms, which enabled bearers to style themselves gentlemen. The gentry became more
favored during the Elizabethan era and began to amass greater wealth and power.
Merchants, Artisans, and Yeomanry
Para5Below these ruling classes were the merchants, artisans, and yeomanry. These several
groups would be considered middle class. This was a diverse group without much hereditary
wealth and a slimmer chance at greater power, due to their distance from the monarch
and court. Despite this, increasing numbers of urban merchants in this group gained
great wealth due to trade, particularly in international trade as London grew in the
latter half of the 16th century. Some rose into positions of civic power, with the
Mayor of London sometimes pushing back against the Queen’s decisions, such as closure
of the playhouses during plague.
Para6Skilled artisans such as carpenters, goldsmiths, tailors, ironworkers, and vinters
(winemakers and wine merchants) also occupied a middle position in the power dynamics
of early modern England. Craftsmen were often organized into guilds or livery companies,
which originated in the medieval period to regulate prices and quality of goods. Young
men were apprenticed in these skilled trades, working for seven years without pay
to learn the craft.
Para7The yeomanry were small land holders from rural areas who, although not wealthy, still
had the right to help elect members of the House of Commons. They owned and farmed
their own land, typically with the help of tenants who rented fields and homes from
them.
Laborers
Para8Next to last on the chain were labourers. These were non-landowners who did physical
labor for a living, often renting homes or fields to farm. These were the peasants
who worked the land and did other menial jobs, including the large number of servants
in wealthier households.
The Poor
Para9At the bottom of the chain, often scorned or invisible, were the poor. These were
people who either could not work or not find regular work. English historian Liza
Picard notes they were given licenses to beg in certain areas, but also that several
Parliamentary acts in the Tudor period attempted to sort those unable to work from
those who were unwilling.
Para10This group of people unwilling to work were often termed masterless men and were the cause of significant anxiety in the early modern period. These vagrants
were often criminals that participated in petty theft and scams. Significant punishments
were levied against vagrants, with public shaming like the stocks or the pillory for
a first offense and increasingly severe punishments such as the removal or an ear
or even hanging for further offenses. The vagrants were hated and feared in early
modern society, though the accounts of their numbers appear to be over-exaggerated
(Beier 6).
Key Print Sources
Cannon, John and Robert Crowcroft.
Guilds.A Dictionary of British History. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2015.
Cannon, John and Robert Crowcroft.
Vagrancy Acts.A Dictionary of British History. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2015.
Cressy, David.
Describing the Social Order of Elizabethan England.Literature and History vol. 3, 1976, p. 29.
Key Online Sources
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia.
Great Chain of Being.Encyclopedia Britannica. 10 Dec. 2021. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Chain-of-Being.
Beier, A. L.
Vagrants and the Social Order in Elizabethan England.Past & Present vol. 64, 1974, pp. 3–29. Oxford University Press, The Past and Present Society, https://www.jstor.org/stable/650315.
Suzuki, Mihoko.
Gender, Class, and the Social Order in Late Elizabethan Drama.Theatre Journal vol. 44, no. 1, Mar. 1992, pp. 31–45. JSTOR. DOI doi.org/10.2307/3208514.
Image Sources
Brewer, John Sherren, and Godfrey Goodman.
The Court of King James the First ... To Which Are Added Letters Illustrative of the Personal History of the Most Distinguished Characters in the Court of That Monarch and His Predecessors. Now First Published from the Original Manuscripts by J. S. Brewer.British Library. https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11017021146/.
Smith, J.F., and William Howitt.
John Cassell’s Illustrated History of England. The Text, to the Reign of Edward I, by J. F. Smith; and from That Period by W. Howitt.MS. British Library. https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11048764365/.
Prosopography
Haley Zilian
Haley Zilian was a student at the University of Fraser Valley.
Kate McPherson
Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley
University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,
2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity
in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities
Institute,
Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom,at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.
Leah Hamby
Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed
several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from
Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her
other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.
Mahayla Galliford
Project manager, 2025-present; research assistant, 2021-present. Mahayla Galliford
(she/her) graduated with a BA (Hons with distinction) from the University of Victoria
in 2024. Mahayla’s undergraduate research explored early modern stage directions and
civic water pageantry. Mahayla continues her studies through UVic’s English MA program
and her SSHRC-funded thesis project focuses on editing and encoding girls’ manuscripts,
specifically Lady Rachel Fane’s dramatic entertainments, in collaboration with LEMDO.
Melissa Walter
Melissa Walter is Associate Professor of English at the University of the Fraser Valley.
Her research focuses on early modern English drama and English and European prose
fiction. She is the author of The Italian Novella and Shakespeare’s Comic Heroines (U of Toronto, 2019), and co-editor, with Dennis Britton, of Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Authors, Audiences, Digital Technologies (Routledge, 2018). Her work on English theatre and the European novella has appeared
in several edited collections, including Transnational Exchange in Early Modern Theater (Ashgate, 2008), and Transnational Mobility in Early Modern Theater (Ashgate, 2012). She has also written about
Translation and Identity in the Dialogues in English and Malaiane Languages(Indographies, ed. Jonathan Gil Harris. Palgrave 2012). At the University of the Fraser Valley, she is a lead coordinator of UFV’s Shakespeare and Reconciliation Garden.
Michael Best
Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the
Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the
ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery,
a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on
Electronic Shakespeares,and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.
Orgography
LEMDO Team (LEMD1)
The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project
director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators,
encoders, and remediating editors.
University of Victoria (UVIC1)
https://www.uvic.ca/Metadata
| Authority title | Social Order: A Chain of Status |
| Type of text | Critical |
| Publisher | University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform |
| Series | Early Modern England Encyclopedia |
| Source |
By Haley Zilian, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions
|
| Editorial declaration | This document uses Canadian English spelling |
| Edition | Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a |
| Sponsor(s) |
Early Modern England EncyclopediaAnthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.
|
| Encoding description | Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines |
| Document status | published, peer-reviewed |
| Funder(s) |
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Mitacs Globablink Research Internship |
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