They farmed the land: about one-third of the land solely for the lord a portion to support the local church and the rest for their own use. The peasant farmers performed almost all of the labor. (Peasants were farmers who worked in the fields owned by wealthy lords.) About 95 percent of the population of England lived in these rural districts. 1500), powerful lords owned and governed local districts, which were usually made up of peasant families and ranged from fifty to a few hundred people. Under the feudal system of the Middle Ages (the period in European history lasting from c. The working classes of England had always had a difficult life.

Historians agree, though, that daily life for the majority of Elizabethans had little to do with courtly life, and much to do with working hard to earn a meager living. They could not afford to have their portraits painted nor to preserve their humble homes for future generations. Members of the lower classes in England were mainly uneducated, so they did not usually keep journals or written records describing their own lives. Although the vast majority of the Elizabethan population was quite poor, few firsthand historical records of their daily lives have survived. (Nobles were the elite men and women who held social titles.) The nobles held great power and frequently lived colorful and extravagant lives, but they made up only about 3 percent of the population. Historians studying the Elizabethan Era, the period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) that is often considered to be a golden age in English history, have focused mainly on the lives of the era's wealthy nobles.

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