Elizabethan Food Riots

Wednesdays fridays and saturdays were fish days so was the whole of lent and various other days almost a third of the year.

Elizabethan food riots. But fish included veal game and poultry and if you really couldn t do without beef you could buy a flesh eater s licence or get round the rules in. Analysing some of the oldest surviving archival evidence of public response to famine sharp reveals that food riots in england occurred as early as 1347 almost two centuries earlier than was previously thought. They certainly loved their food and there were some new inventions and sugar was more frequently used during this era. An elizabethan s diet was ruled by the calendar.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse mobs that raided grocery stores in south african cities including cape town johannesburg and port elizabeth during the coronavirus lockdown. Food riots break out in some south african cities amid strict coronavirus lockdown. The elizabethan did not eat much differently than many societies do today. They were ritualistic acts used by the commoners to compel the authorities to meet the standards of.

Rioters forced the redistribution of available of food stocks. The country saw at least 40 food riots between 1586 and 1631 as historian buchanan sharp records in his classic work in contempt of all authority. Disobeying the law could mean up to three months in jail. Class hatred was manifest he wrote with the poor saying that the rich men have gotten all into their hands and will starve the poor.

Food riots in the elizabethan jacobean period were an explosive expression of discontent over the threat of food scarcity and starvation. Scarcity of food led to riots across the country in which women led or were conspicuous by their involvement. So it was not uncommon on special occasions much like today to see fresh baked pies at many of the festivals held throughout england each year. In june 1595 around 1 000 apprentices took part in a riot on tower hill in london.

The elizabethans also ate fruit and vegetables. The rioters were mostly very poor and they were protesting about the appalling social conditions of 1590s london. Turnips parsnips carrots lettuce cucumbers cabbage onions leeks spinach radishes garlic and skirret a popular root vegetable of the time. He also complained that there had been food riots with rioters declaring that they must not starve they will not starve.