What was life like for poor people in Tudor times?
Objectives Children should learn: • about the lives of the poor in Tudor times • about the attitudes of wealthier people towards the poor • about the types of evidence and gaps in evidence about the poor in this period Activities Outcomes Children: Give the children sources depicting poor people in Tudor times, eg scenes of beggars being punished, contemporary pictures of various types of beggar, pictures of almshouses, an extract from a law against beggars, a contemporary description. Ask the children to consider what the sources tell them about the lives of poor people at this time and how other people in Tudor times regarded the poor. Ask the children to describe more than one source. What does this source show about the lives of the poor? What does this source show about how the rich treated the poor? Why might the rich people fear the poor? Ask them to complete a grid about the poor, with the headings ‘What I have found out’, ‘What I would like to know’. Discuss with the children
