1. Chapter 2
The Regions of Great Britain and English
Society
The Island….

2. Quick Geography
• England, Scotland, and
Wales occupy one island
(Great Britain).
• Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland occupy
the second island.
• GB covers 244,000 sq. km.
• 965 km in length, 508 km
wide.
• Britain can be divided into
Lowland Britain and
Highland Britain

3. Lowland Britain
• Located in South East
Britain (Blue).
• Consists of low-lying
and fertile land suited
for agriculture.
• The climate is warmer
than in the north.
• More heavily populated
than the north.

4. Highland Britain
• North West (Scotland)
• Consists of hilly or
mountainous countryside.
• Thin soils, with pockets of
fertile lowland.

5. English Society in the 17th Century
• England became a colonizing nation because they
were wealthy and powerful, and by defeating the
Spanish Armada in 1588 they had the freedom to
travel the high seas.
• England built colonies in India, South Africa,North
America, and other parts of the world.
• Trade with the colonies enriched England even
more.

7. English Society
• English population grew rapidly
• English entrepeneurs
(merchants, manufactures, and landholders)
found unprecedented opportunities to become
wealthy.
• To the upper class the future looked promising
and the country was ready to become a world
power.

8. English Society Pyramid
• Make a pyramid with the following 3 slides:

9. Upper Class
•
•
•
•
•
Kings
Owners of factories & workhouses
King’s advisors
Nobility
Church officials

10. Middle Class
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Soldiers
Merchants
Landowners
Manufacturers
Military officers
Professionals
Teachers

11. Lower CLass
•
•
•
•
Cottagers
Workers
Peasants
Unemployed

12. Guilds
• Guilds: organizations to protect skilled
workers such as carpenters, blacksmiths, stone
masons, dress makers, etc.
– Agriculture & ordinary workers worked long hours
with little pay (10 pennies/day) and lived in
terrible conditions

13. Diet
• Food:
– Poor: mostly bread & beer, occasionally meat &
cheese
– Wealthy: mostly meat (strongly flavoured to hide
un-freshness)
– Fruits & vegetables unpopular
– Forks just coming into fashion
– New imported foods:
pineapples, maize, potatoes, coffee, tea, chocolate
– Coffee houses became popular

14. Crime and Punishment
• Crimes of treason and offenses against the state were
treated with the same severity that murder and rape
are today.
• Offenses such as manslaughter, robbery, rape, piracy,
and capital crimes entitled one to hanging, usually in
the town square.
• A woman found guilty of poisoning her husband was
burned alive.
• A cook who poisoned his customers was boiled to
death in a cauldron of water or lead.
• Public ridicule to criminals!

15. Family
• Boys can marry at 14, girls at 12. Usually didn’t
happen until age at 21.
• Wives are the property of their husbands and
depend on their husband for life.
• A little boy is dressed in skirts, pretty much like his
sisters, until the age of six or seven, when he gets
his first pair of breeches or breech hose.
• Breeching is a rite of passage for a boy, and a big
deal for a boy. A father would now take on a bigger
role to raise his boy.

16. Breeching

17. Health
• Average age was 35 in the early 1600’s.
• New medicine finally emerging. Some still
believe the body consisted of blood, black
bile, phlegm, yellow bile.
• Often left to superstition and myth.

18. Fun
• Tennis and shuttlecock. Board games like
chess, backgammon.
• Theatre was very popular.
• In the early 17th century the stage jutted out into
the audience. Boys played women's parts!
• ‘Sports' like cock fighting and bull and bear baiting
were popular. (A bear or bull was chained to a post
and dogs were trained to attack it).
• The first English newspaper was printed in 1621.

20. English Monarchy Activity