Life Beyond the Court — How Ordinary People Lived

🏘️ Life Beyond the Court — How Ordinary People Lived

Charles II's glittering court at Whitehall was the world of a tiny elite. For the vast majority of England's population, life looked very different. AQA examiners expect depth-study students to know about ordinary life, not just politics — and questions like "describe two features of daily life in Restoration England" require this social knowledge.

Housing

Most ordinary people lived in timber-framed houses. In London, streets were narrow and buildings were built close together, with upper storeys overhanging into the street. There was no running water — people fetched water from wells or water carriers, and chamber pots were emptied into the street gutters. This overcrowding and poor sanitation directly explains why plague spread so rapidly in 1665 and why the Great Fire of 1666 consumed so much of the city so quickly. Outside London, most people lived in villages of thatched-roof cottages. Around 80% of England's population lived in rural areas.

Food and Diet

What people ate depended almost entirely on their wealth. The gentry and nobility ate meat, white bread, and imported luxuries — sugar, spices, and wine from France and Spain. Ordinary people ate brown bread, pottage (a thick vegetable and grain stew), cheese, and ale. Fresh fruit was eaten rarely and actually distrusted — many physicians believed it caused illness. A harvest failure could mean genuine famine for rural labourers.

Work and Women's Lives

Most people worked in agriculture, following the rhythms of the seasons. London's economy was built on trade, crafts, and service industries. Apprenticeships lasted seven years — a young man would work for a master craftsman in exchange for training and lodging. Women worked as servants, laundresses, seamstresses, and market sellers, but under coverture — the common law principle that a married woman had no separate legal identity from her husband. Her property belonged to him, she could not sign contracts independently, and divorce was virtually impossible. Widows had more legal rights than married women. The writer Aphra Behn — the first professional female author in England, whose plays appeared in Restoration theatres — was a remarkable exception who showed what determination could achieve despite these restrictions.

Crime and Punishment

The most common crimes were theft, vagrancy, and debt. There was no police force — order was kept by local constables and watchmen, often part-time and poorly paid. Punishments were public and intended to shame: whipping, the stocks, branding, and hanging. Newgate Prison was notorious for its brutal conditions. Debt could land a person in gaol until their creditors were satisfied — which, for the very poor, could mean years of imprisonment.

Why this matters for the exam: This social knowledge supports answers about the Great Plague (the poor could not flee and lived in the worst-overcrowded conditions), the Great Fire (overhanging timber buildings in narrow streets), and any question asking you to "describe two features of daily life in Restoration England."