Elizabethan

At Deptford, on April 4th, 1581, Francis Drake, who, during the previous autumn, had returned from his triumphant circumnavigation of the globe, knelt before Queen Elizabeth and received a knighthood

Cyrill Falls describes how a succession of rebellions challenged a sodden but sturdy English soldiery in late 16th century Ireland.

W. H. Chaloner considers how the Lombes “penetrated the secrets” of the closely guarded silk-throwing machines of Piedmont, and successfully introduced them into England

In an age of opportunity, G.E. Fussell describes how the Elizabethan farmer lived under pioneer conditions.

From Stubbes' angry Anatomie of Abuses, Sydney Carter unveils a revealing portrait of Elizabethan fashions and pastimes, from high-heeled shoes to football, and from ruffs to dicing and dancing.

The erudite courtier, and inventor of the flush water closet, died on November 20th, 1612.

Mathew Lyons finds stimulation in an allusive article on Sir Walter Ralegh, first published in History Today in 1998.

The first performance of The Tempest on record was at court on All Hallows’ Day, on 1 November 1611.

Lauren Kassell reveals how the casebooks, diaries and diagrams of the late-16th-century astrologer Simon Forman provide a unique perspective on a period when the study of the stars began to embrace modern science.

Stephen Alford admires a perceptive article on Lord Burghley, Elizabeth I’s ally and consummate political fixer, by the distinguished Tudor historian Joel Hurstfield, first published in the 1956 volume of History Today.