The reign of Queen Elizabeth I spanned from 1558 to 1603,it was the period of the Renaissance. The
renaissance was the time for new ideas in literature and science, along with loads of other aspects of Elizabethan daily life. The beginning of the renaissance within theatre began with the opening of 'The Red Lion' in 1567, this was followed by the opening of many more permanent theatres around London, eventually resulting the Globe Theatre being built in 1599. These theatres were gradually replacing the inn-yard venues, as it became a more and more popular source of entertainment. Theatre was a huge culture in the Elizabethan era with people from all classes gathering in the afternoon in playhouses to watch a play. The theatres built were open-air, making use of the natural light so the performances were able to take place, however this meant plays couldn't take place as night or in extremely bad weather. The theatres were built out of wood, taking about 6 months to make, and they were styled off the roman amphitheatres. The material's used to build with were also quite cheap, meaning that the profits of most theatres went up too 5 times as high. The Elizabethan amphitheatres were either octagonal or circular, normally having between 8 to 24 sides. Women were not able to act in any theatre so all the female parts were played by men.
The role of the family was extremely important in this era. It was thought that families were the role models for the community, having a huge importance and belief upon the classic, standardised hierarchy. The way children were raised was also very important, with there even being a customary ruling for their behaviour that was taken from the bible. The way family life was was very different depending on whether they were rich or poor. A typical Elizabethan family day often revolved around the sun as electric light had not yet been invented, most families would be early to rise and early to bed following the pattern on sunrise and sunset. There was no running water, heat was obtained via fires and light via candles, this however was a lot harder for someone of a working class. All cooking would also happen over over an open flame, either in cauldrons, pots & pans, kettles or skillets.
In Elizabethan times the role of women was extremely different. Women were supposed to be reliant on the males in their life, with things like arranged marriages being the norm so they were able to have someone to support them. There was no such thing as a school that allowed women, if they were going to be educated it had to be a home tutor, they couldn't enter a university let alone take part. Women weren't able to be a heir to their fathers title or have any say in politics or even cast vote.
The Queen was protestant and therefore the official religion of the country was protestant, however there was still a large catholic population. Despite Queen Elizabeth stating she had no reservations against the catholic community there were a large number of catholic plots against her, their end aim was to establish Mary Queen of Scots as Queen. This however only resulted in her execution later on. One of the differences between Catholics and Protestants was that Catholics decorated their churches with a low of shrines and statues to celebrate God where as Protestants kept their churches very plain so they could focus on praying.
There were a lot of superstitions in the Elizabethan era as well, with a huge belief in witches which ultimately resulted in a large number of women and some men being persecuted for belief that they were a witch. Most unexplained events were pinned on witchcraft, things like the plague, crop failures, illness or death of both people and animals and wild fires. What is now the stereotypical idea of a witch was then the markings of a witch, they were seen as old hags that would often live alone in desolate places with the power to fly (later the idea of flying on a broomstick came about) and living with some sort of animal to endorse the 'witches familiar'. There was a common belief that the seventh son of the seventh son would possess extreme magical powers as well as many other superstitions that still exist today, such as not walking under ladders, spilling salt or pepper is bad luck, touching work to protect against bad luck and it being unlucky for a black cat to cross your path.
At the beginning of the era the population was around 2.8 million, this however rose significantly to 4.1 million during Queen Elizabeth's reign. There were a large variety of jobs available for all classes, the most common being a nobleman, a merchant, a parson, a labourer or work in entertainment such as an acrobat or an actor. The lower class generally only traded in pennies as a pound would have been far too much money for they to get a hold of, with the Elizabethan pound being worth around 400 us dollars (£322.61) today. And around 240 pennies were equal to a Elizabethan pound.
Medicine wasn't very advanced in the Elizabethan era with the bubonic plague killing around one-third of the population. Disease was very common due to the lack of sanitation and hygiene in the era. There were open sewers in the street that were very rarely emptied, becoming a heaven for things like rats, lice and fleas. Some of the beliefs within medicine came from astrology and certain bodily fluids, these were paid close attention too. However the services of a physician were only available to the rich as they had a high price of 10 shillings (one gold coin). The poor often had a 'local wise women' too go to if they ever had a health problem. It was also very common for lower class families to have different herbs and homemade potions that would be used to treat any sickness or illness's. Amputations was a common practise in upper class physicians to prevent any sort of disease from spreading.
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