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Abstract
The making of the Tudor poor laws is an important focus of study because it illuminates the significant change in English social policy that occurred during the sixteenth century when the government increasingly extended its functions in economic and social aspects. The prime purpose of this dissertation is to determine what functions ideological elements, socio-economic conditions and other practical concerns of the government served respectively in the development of the Tudor poor laws. In particular, this dissertation analyzes and compares the legislative environment of six parliamentary sessions.
This dissertation makes four primary arguments. Firstly, this dissertation found that new pieces of legislation were initiated in normal or relatively prosperous times as well as in crisis-like circumstances. Every new legislation of poor relief had its own environment; influential policy thoughts, socio-economic conditions as well as immediate agitations were not the same for all six legislations.
The second finding is that normal-time legislation almost invariably included innovative or positive provisions. The provisions made in 1536, 1572 and 1576 were certainly the case. On the other hand, difficult situations in 1550 and 1597-8 prompted the government to get less ambitious but more workable provisions. This suggest that economic output and social stability in normal or prosperous times gave the society the strength to initiate a serious social program.
Thirdly, this dissertation found that Parliament enacted relatively mild penalties against the incorrigible poor in crisis-like circumstances. It was rather normal-time legislation that usually came with harsher treatment. This finding thus refutes the close links between the severity of laws and the increase in social disorder.
Finally, this dissertation demonstrates that humanism affected significantly the development of Tudor poor laws at least in the initiating stage of the 1530s when essential principles and directions were laid. The making of the poor laws in later Elizabethan period was greatly helped by a small number of puritans in Parliament. However, failing to find that they shared a coherent line of policy toward the poor, this dissertation does not see any significant impact of protestantism upon ideological aspects of the Tudor poor laws.
