The Pursuit of Stability: Social Relations in Elizabethan LondonThis work engages in the historical debate about the reasons for London's freedom from serious unrest in the later sixteenth century, when the city's rulers faced mounting problems caused by rapid population growth, spiralling prices, impoverishment and crime. One key to the city's stability was that Londoners were locked into a matrix of overlapping communities, the livery companies, wards and parishes, all of which created claims on their loyalties and gave them a framework within which redress of grievances could be pursued. The highly developed structures of government in the capital also enjoyed considerable success in mobilising resources for poor relief, while the authorities so impotent against it, as the traditional accounts would suggest. This is the first effort at a holistic approach to interpreting early modern London society, based on the full range of London sources. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION THE PROBLEM OF ORDER | 1 |
The crisis of the 1590s | 9 |
Explanations for stability | 14 |
THE FRAMEWORK OF SOCIAL RELATIONS THE CITY ELITE | 18 |
The development of the City constitution | 28 |
The City and the Crown | 32 |
The homogeneity of the elite | 39 |
Elites and people | 49 |
Ordinances and their enforcement | 124 |
Strangers and foreigners | 131 |
conflict and community | 140 |
SOCIAL POLICY | 149 |
The dimensions of poverty | 150 |
official relief | 154 |
Private charity | 163 |
Needs and resources | 182 |
THE FRAMEWORK OF SOCIAL RELATIONS LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEIGHBOURHOOD AND COMMUNITY | 58 |
Local government | 63 |
Neighbourhood values | 74 |
The parish and identity | 82 |
Social change and the local community | 92 |
THE FRAMEWORK OF SOCIAL RELATIONS THE LIVERY COMPANIES | 100 |
Company government | 102 |
Aspects of identity | 111 |
Other editions - View all
The Pursuit of Stability: Social Relations in Elizabethan London Ian W. Archer No preview available - 1991 |
Common terms and phrases
Accounts accts aldermen aliens apprentices artisans assessments Bartholomew Exchange bequest Book Bridewell Cambridge cent Christ's church Churchwardens City City's Clothworkers common council constables Cornhill Court Minutes court of aldermen craft crime Crown Early Modern election elite Elizabethan London emphasised endowments England extramural parishes foreigners freemen governors grievances Haberdashers Hatfield House hospital householders Ibid increasing indictments Jour Lansdowne later sixteenth century livery companies lord mayor Merchant Tailors Middlesex Minutes of Saint non-free offenders ordinances organisation parishioners pensions poor rate poor relief popular population poverty private charity privy council PROB problems prostitution puritan quarterage Rappaport records Reformation Register regulation Remembrancia response riots role rulers Saint Bartholomew social Society Southwark St Andrew Holborn St Botolph Aldersgate St Botolph Aldgate St Giles Cripplegate St Margaret St Michael Cornhill St Olave's stability strangers testators trade vagrants Vestry Minutes vestrymen wards Westminster Worlds Within Worlds yeomanry yeomanry wardens