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Early Modern England Encyclopedia
By Cassidy Stoker, inspired by
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In 2024, London had estimated population of 9.75 million people, but while it had long been Englands capitol city, it did not become one of Europe’s largest cities until about 1600. Its population began increasingly rapidly in the 1500s, rising from about 100,000 in 1550 to about 200,000 in 1600. During the 1600s, London’s narrow streets were crowded with pedestrians, merchants, horses, and carts, and carriages. Traveling on foot or horseback through the streets was difficult, with shops on the ground floor of merchants’ or artisans’ homes, itinerant sellers of goods, puppet shows, beggars, and curiosities brought from across the seas lining the way.
London lacked a reliable sewer system, so human waste and food waste flowed down gutters in the center of the cobbled streets. Rats were attracted to this waste and carried fleas which brought forth outbreaks of the bubonic plague, including significant ones in 1518 and a larger one in 1592–1593. In the latter outbreak, almost 15,000 people died, and all trading was put to a stop. Smallpox and sweating sickness (likely malaria, but possibly also influenza or even hantavirus) also regularly appeared, as the lack of hygiene and crowds helped spread disease.
One of London’s most famous streets was called Fleet Street, a very busy street often referred to as a double street
because of its width and congestion. Close to Fleet Street flowed the Fleet River, a once-navigable river that flowed into the Thames. The river became heavily polluted starting in the Middle Ages and went from river, to sewer, to empty canal. As historian Pat Rogers notes, periodic attempts were made to clean the waterway, but these were quickly undone by the presence along the banks of wharves, mills and commercial premises, notably those of butchers who threw offal into its stream, not to mention the waste left by pig-keepers and oyster sellers plying their trade there. From time to time, the authorities found it necessary to remove
.
Starting in the 1400’s, London became one of the more important trading centers in Europe, attracting all types of people from aristocrats to artists to merchants to criminals who preyed on its growing population and prosperity. Like any big city, London’s large population allowed for anonymity and easy targets. According to Paul Griffiths, thieves, pick pockets, and extortionists were common around London, along with more occasional instances of other serious crimes such as murder, rape, and kidnappings.
The prisons in London, known at the time as
When Henry VIII left the Church of Rome in 1533 and began to purge or close the monasteries that once provided charity, London’s streets experienced more extensive poverty. Some former religious buildings were turned into lodging for the poor and sick, but these buildings were soon destroyed or taken by Henry VIII’s government. Overpopulation and immigrants contributed to financial strain in the burgeoning city.
Queen Elizabeth I did little to help alleviate overpopulation and the poverty that came along with it. On her accession to the throne, Elizabeth I issued a proclamation prohibiting any unlicensed building within three miles of London. The lack of space meant that the poor had nowhere to go, a problem which would continue under James I. Numerous poor laws were passed between 1562 and 1601. Documentary historian Alexandra Brisoe notes that it was decided that the poor
. Able-bodied beggars were regularly arrested and whipped.
When it came to work, wages were depressed and many people lacked work, particularly in the country as agricultural practices changed; land once used in common was enclosed for use only by the landowners. These displaced farm laborers migrated to the city in hopes of finding work. In addition, an influx of Protestant French Huguenot and Flemish refugees eroded the power of the guilds by establishing new industries in cloth trades outside the city’s jurisdiction. Dismissed soldiers and sailors also added to the already substantial number of unemployed.
On top of the many unemployed, hunger was exacerbated by increases in food prices during the Elizabethan period due to several poor harvests in the 1590s. Due to the crowded living conditions and the lack of resources for the poor, living in London was challenging for English people newly arrived from the country, laborers without much skill, or immigrants without wealth.