*Source:
Everyday life in Elizabethan England

The distribution of wealth was grossly unfair: one good meal at court cost the equivalent of ten servants' wages for a year...

Despite this, the last two decades of the 16th century is regarded as England's Golden Age. During Elizabeth's reign, the English people [excluding the large but voiceless masses of the poor] were prospering. There was a lot of new wealth about. The standard of living for those with large estates, yeoman-farmers, merchants, craftsmen and professionals went up. In this environment great reserves of national vitality was released. The English embarked upon great maritime adventures, which took their ships, their merchants and eventually their soldiers to most parts of the world. But the empire lay in the future: the first American colony was not founded until 1607.

Elizabeth's virtues is said to be thoroughly English and practical. She was genuinely intellectual and well educated and liked to have gifted people around her. At her most wilful she never lost sight of realities. Even towards the end, when her face was almost expressionless for fear of cracking the thick cosmetic layers endeavoured to disguise the advance of time, she never became the neurotic tyrant her father had been in the last years.

The Queen was a constant traveller in summer so the court was frequently on the move. On her journeys she was in the public eye and could be approached by comparatively humble subjects without great difficulty.

People were highly concious of their social status and their place in the hierarchy. According to Thomas Nashe's account of London 1593 "The rich distain the poor. The courtier the citizen. The citizen the countryman. One occupation distaineth the craftsmen. The better sort of craftsman the baser. The shoemaker the cobbler. The cobbler the carman."

The family was one of the strongest sinews that bound the society together. In many respects, tha family was a microcosm of the state. It was run on rather similar lines, with the head of the family arranging marriage alliances.