ELIZABETHAN AGE



Elizabeth I (1533-1603) , queen of England and Ireland (1558-1603) is the daughter of Henry VIII , King of England and of his second wife , Anne Boleyn .She was the last of the Tudor rules of England , and she gave her name to an era , Elizabethan England . Later , it was regarded as a golden age of national triumph and cultural brilliance , with a victorious struggle against the Spanish Empire typified by the defeat of the Spanish Armada , and the flowering of the English Renaissance .

Education
English Protestants believed that it was important for lay believers to read the Bible , and endowing schools with money considered a moral duty . Many schools were founded between the reign of Elizabeth I’s brother , Edward VI at the end of the 16th century . These were mainly grammar schools , and there were two types : public grammar schools , which were given money by a wealthy or even noble patron to teach both rich and poor boys (not girls) ;and private grammar schools which charget the boys’ parents a fee for education . All grammar schools taught Latin and sometimes Greek .
Although education was more widely available by Elizabeth’s reign , it was still limited to boys and men ; nonetheless , only two out of every ten men were to sign their names in the 1550s . It is quite common to find documents from the 16th century where individuals have made their “mark” , a sign or symbol written instead of a signature . Education usually depended upon a person’s social group . Labourers were illiterate , but merchants were generally better educated . Gentlemen were usually literate , and often had the opportunity of attending one of England’s two universities , Oxford and Cambridge , where they could study classical liter