The Elizabethan Era, the epoch in English history during the reign of Queen

Elizabeth I from 1558 and 1603.Politically, it was a time of peace and economic
development at home, and expansion abroad. The English Navy’s power grew,
demonstrated in a great victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588, which ended the
Anglo-Spanish War. English ships were also sent to explore the New World and
started the colonisation of what is today the USA, the Caribbean and India. This
was the beginning of the great British Empire.
The Elizabethan Era is considered the golden age of English history.For example
Elizabethan society was based on a social hierarchy that had the monarch at the
top, the nobility as the second rank, the gentry as the third, merchants as fourth,
yeomanry as fifth and laborers as sixth. During the reign of Elizabeth I, the English
population rose from three to four million people. At that time it was common for a
family to have 12 to 15 children. Rich families had servants who cared for the
children.even their clothes was different or enducation.
Elizabethan clothing was also part of the social order. The well-off upper class
wore elegant and luxurious clothing that was made of expensive velvet, silk and
satin, while peasants wore simple materials such as cotton, wool and leather. The
brightest colours were only available to the upper class because dyes were costly.
Elizabethan Theatre Culturally, this was the era of the English Renaissance, which
had its most magnificent expression in a very popular medium at the time – the
theatre. The plays written by Elizabethan playwrights, such as William
Shakespeare, were in great demand. The most famous playhouse was the Globe
(1599), built by the company in which Shakespeare had a stake. The biggest
theatres could hold several thousand people. Women attended theatre
performances, though often a prosperous woman would wear a mask to disguise
her identity. Moreover, no women performed in the plays. Female roles were
generally performed by young boys.
Not many children went to school in Tudor times. Those that did go were mainly
the sons of the wealthy, or children from working families that could afford to pay
the attendance fee. There were two types of schools in Tudor times: the Petty
School, where young children were taught to read, and the Grammar School,
where boys were taught Latin. During the reign of Edward the sixth, many free
grammar schools were set up to take in non-feepaying students. Boys were
educated for work and girls for marriage and running a household. Boys began
school at the age of 4 and moved on to Grammar School when they were 7. The
wealthiest families hired a tutor to teach their boys at home. Girls were either kept
at home by their parents to help with housework or sent out to work and bring
money in for the family. At school, pupils often had to speak in Latin. They were
also taught Greek, religion and mathematics. The boys practised writing in ink by
copying the alphabet and the Lord’s Prayer. There were few books, so pupils read
from hornbooks instead. These wooden boards had the alphabet, prayers or other
texts pinned to them and were covered with a thin layer of transparent cow’s horn.
It was usual for children to attend lessons six days a week.The school day started at
7:00 a.m. in the winter and 6:00 a.m. in the summer. It finished at about 5:00 p.m.
Teachers were very strict, often beating their pupils with birches if they
misbehaved. Birches were a type of cane. Teachers used to give 50 strokes of the
birch. Pupils from wealthy families could afford to keep a special friend called a
‘whipping-boy’.When the rich child was naughty, it was he who received the
punishment. There were only two universities in Tudor England – Oxford and
Cambridge. Boys started university at the age of about fourteen.