Tudor

Whether as ‘Gloriana’ or ‘Good Queen Bess’ Elizabeth I is one of England’s most iconic monarchs, but did her gender shape her reign?

‘What’s past is prologue’ Shakespeare wrote – but so little is known of his own. There are plenty of theories, each as implausible as the next.

In Language and Social Relations in Early Modern England Hillary Taylor listens in the archives for the voices of ordinary people.

A male heir might have saved Queen Mary’s reign, and changed the shape of global Catholicism for good.

A new book for the new year is an old British custom, but an old book can be even better.

William Strickland died on 8 December 1598. He was said to have introduced the turkey to England, but the truth followed him to his grave.

As rude rhymes and rumours threatened reputations, the Elizabethan government attempted to regulate barbed language.

All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil and Spycraft: Tricks and Tools of the Dangerous Trade from Elizabeth I to the Restoration bring Tudor and Stuart espionage in from the cold.

Was Sir Thomas More born on Milk Street – and does it matter?

Could a text thought to be by Shakespeare’s father actually be his sister’s writing?