Marlowe's World: Life in Eurpoe just before and during Marlowe's time, including commonly held ideas:

• The 16th Century was a time of unprecedented change.
• Life for many was prosperous early in the century.
• New systems of international finance were invented.
• Ocean fairing fleets - travel/discovery.
• Nature of warfare was rapidly changing - invention of gunpowder meant that Europe was dominated.
• Printing revolution - Bible to the masses led to a media revolution.
• Population increase and high prices led to waged being halved.
• The new world was discovered – jewels, gold and silver were found – helped the loss of wages.
• Peasants lost and the rich gained land.
• The slave trade was initiated as Britain shipped black natives from America.
• People craved the exotic – slaves = spectacles.
• Elizabethan times were considered a time of national pride and genius.
• 1590’s – difficult for commoners because of high debt, taxes, and the loss of life and resources from the war.
• Commoners questioned the right of the monarch.
• 3,000 people were hailed as witches during this time.
• 1534 reformation – Elizabeth felt she had to stand alone against a strongly Catholic Europe to protect her father’s realm.
• People thought about the relationship between themselves as an individual and the authority of the state.
• People began to question the traditional beliefs in rank and social order.
• England had become a proud and independent nation with a leading navy and a highly valued trading power – especially with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
• People could move around the country more easily and a competitive capitalist market arose.
• James I in 1603 was a Scot interested in witchcraft who was a supporter of the theatre, and he condoned the actions of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605.
• Religion = huge, bad time to be an atheist.
• There were divisions in the Protestant Church.