Elizabethan English

Robert Lawton is a young English shipmaster who survived a disastrous privateering voyage to the New World only to be imprisoned in the Tower of London as a political scapegoat. After securing his freedom, he is stalked by powerful factions seeking his knowledge of a missing treasure ship. The Queen’s spymaster forces him to undertake a secret mission to Spain where he finds clues about the whereabouts of missing friends and lost treasure. Before he can exploit the newfound knowledge, he must partner with ruthless French pirates and fight a war with Spain. This is book two of the ...

"Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same." These were the heartbreaking words of a 17-year-old girl, Lady Jane Grey, as she stood on the scaffold awaiting death on a cold February morning in 1554. Minutes later, her head was struck from her body with a single stroke of a heavy ax. Her death for high treason sent shock waves through the Tudor world and served as a gruesome reminder to all who aspired to a crown that the ax could fall at any time.

For many Catholics, the Elizabethan "Golden Age" was an alien concept. Following the criminalization of their religion by Elizabeth I, nearly 200 Catholics were executed, and many more wasted away in prison during her reign. Torture was used more than at any other time in England's history. While some bowed to the pressure of the government and new church, publicly conforming to acts of Protestant worship, others did not - and quickly found themselves living in a state of siege.

At her execution Mary, Queen of Scots wore red. Widely known as the colour of strength and passion, it was in fact worn by Mary as the Catholic symbol of martyrdom. In 16th-century Europe, women's voices were suppressed and silenced. Even for a queen like Mary, her prime duty was to bear sons. In an age when textiles expressed power, Mary exploited them to emphasise her female agency.

On a Sunday afternoon in May 1592, Jane Mellor is raped on the village green by the comedian of a group of strolling players. Her husband is traumatised by the attack and Jane is forced to flee the village to escape being tried for witchcraft. She sets out disguised as a boy with her catatonic husband, in pursuit of the comic and intent on revenge. However Jane quickly finds that the dangers from marauding thieves and footpads, the savagery of the law and prisons are being compounded by more sinister activities.

The writing of sonnets was a craze among poets of the 1590s. The sonnet, an Italian form, was introduced into England by Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542), who modelled himself on Petrarch, and by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547). It was Surrey who invented what is now known as the Shakespearean sonnet - three differently rhyming quatrains and a clinching couplet. This collection of Elizabethan sonnets and lyrics were recorded by Anthony Quayle.

The original recounting of the events from Sir Francis Drake himself. Listen to Drake's piratical raid on the Spanish Main and the various battle and adventures therein.

Why did Henry VIII marry six times? Why did Anne Boleyn have to die? Why did Elizabeth I's courtiers hail her as a goddess come to earth? The dramas of courtly love have captivated centuries of readers and dreamers. Yet too often they're dismissed as something existing only in books and song—those old legends of King Arthur and chivalric fantasy. Not so. In this ground-breaking history, Sarah Gristwood reveals the way courtly love made and marred the Tudor dynasty.

Tudor adventurer, courtier, explorer and poet, Sir Walter Raleigh has been called the last true Elizabethan. He didn’t dance or joust, didn’t come from a noble family, or marry into one. So how did an impoverished law student become a favourite of the queen, and Captain of the Guard? The story which began with the Tudor trilogy follows Walter Raleigh from his first days at the Elizabethan Court to the end of the Tudor dynasty.

In the reign of Edward VI, Amy, a beautiful country girl of eighteen, has a chance meeting with Robert Dudley, the son of a wealthy nobleman, which leads to their marriage. When the boy king Edward dies, fame, fortune and a life at court are disastrously cut short by the involvement of Amy's new family in the plot to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne of England. Facing financial ruin Amy tries to support her imprisoned husband - only to be betrayed by him soon after his release. Gradually abandoned by Robert, Amy now begins to fear for her life as forces beyond her control seem determined ...

David Attenborough. Marcus Rashford. Diana Dors. Winston Churchill. Elizabeth David. Bob Geldof. Zaha Hadid. Frank Crichlow. Quentin Crisp. Dusty Springfield. Captain Tom. Who made modern Britain the country it is today? How do we sum up the kind of people we are? What does it mean to be the new Elizabethans? In this wonderfully told history, spanning back to when Queen Elizabeth became queen in 1953, Andrew Marr traces the people who have made Britain the country it is today.

Lady Penelope Rich is one of the most beautiful and sought-after women in Elizabethan England. The daughter of the Earl of Essex, she is married to the wealthy Baron Robert Rich. Penelope's life is full of love and scandal. The inspiration for Sir Philip Sidney’s sonnet "Astrophel and Stella", she is involved in the Essex Rebellion. A complex and fascinating woman, her life is a story of love, betrayal, and tragedy.

1564: Devon sailor Francis Drake sets out on a journey of adventure. Drake learns of routes used to transport Spanish silver and gold, and risks his life in an audacious plan to steal a fortune.

Retired investigator Richard Palmer lives in the Charterhouse, a charity case engaged in regular altercations with the Preacher who is trying to make him conform. Nearly everyone has died, among them Chief Minister Cecil his old client and William Shakespeare his bête noir, the one who got away. A letter from his goddaughter Miracle in Oxford brings him up short. Her foster parents have died, she is in trouble; and she is in love with an impecunious student who harbours a dream to go to London, the Court and make his name as a writer. Worse, William Davenant fancies himself to be ...

Jack and Annie are whisked back to Elizabethan England where they meet the Bard of Avon himself, William Shakespeare, and luckily for them, he is desperate for two small actors for his latest play! An exciting adventure and a wonderful introduction to Shakespeare.

The newly-wed Anne Hastings faced her husband's wrath when her affair with William Compton was made public. Mary Tudor married to satisfy her brother's political need to ally with France, but when her decrepit royal husband died, she married the dashing Charles Brandon for love. William Parr, humiliated by his wife's extramarital affair, sought a divorce to marry the woman he loved.

London, winter of 1589. The city is alive with intrigue, and anticipation. The players of Lord Strange’s Men are rehearsing a daring new play, penned by one of their promising young actors, William Shakespeare. But excitement turns to disaster when the authorities shutter the theatre over a trivial offense, plunging Will into uncertainty and despair. Determined to press on, he begins crafting a grisly revenge tragedy—Titus Andronicus—hoping to sell it to another troupe. But before he can do so, his entire collection of playscripts is stolen. His reputation, his career—everything is ...

Hans Holbein the Younger is chiefly celebrated for his beautiful and precisely realized portraiture, which includes representations of Henry VIII, his advisors Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell, his wives Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves, and an array of the Tudor lords and ladies encountered during the course of two sojourns in England. But beyond these familiar images, which have come to define our perception of the age, Holbein was a multifaceted genius: a humanist, satirist, and political propagandist, and a deft man whose work was rich in layers of symbolism and allusion.

When Shakespeare’s intensely personal sonnets are published, only one thing is clear: none in the triangle of author, male muse or dark lady is best pleased – and each has a score to settle. Richard Palmer is working as a censor, making sure that playhouse scripts do not offend political sensitivities. He works for the irascible, old-school Master of the Revels, Edmund Tilney and his designated successor, the altogether smoother Sir George Buc. Buc has heard that William Shakespeare is working on a new play in collaboration with a novice writer. Who is George Wilkins, Buc wants to know?...

In "The Gilded Cage," set in the vibrant city of Bath in 1598, we follow the journey of Yvonne Fletcher, the cherished daughter of an affluent merchant. Amidst the grandeur of lavish banquets and suitors vying for her affection, Yvonne feels trapped within the shimmering confines of her privileged existence. Despite her opulent surroundings, a restless spirit yearns for adventure and freedom beyond the suffocating societal expectations that dictate her every move. As she navigates the expectations of aristocratic life, Yvonne's heart ignites with the desire for independence and self-...