The reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) marked a golden age in
English history. There was a musical and literary renaissance, most
famously and enduringly in the form of the plays of Shakespeare
(2016 marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death), and it
was a period of international expansion and naval triumph over the
Spanish. It was also a period of internal peace following the
violent upheaval of the Protestant reformation. Wilson skilfully
interweaves the personal histories of a representative selection of
twenty or so figures - including Nicholas Bacon, the Statesman;
Bess of Hardwick, the Landowner; Thomas Gresham, 'the Financier';
John Caius, 'the Doctor'; John Norreys, 'the Soldier'; and Nicholas
Jennings, 'the Professional Criminal' - with the major themes of
the period to create a vivid and compelling account of life in
England in the late sixteenth century. This is emphatically not yet
another book about what everyday life was like during the
Elizabethan Age. There are already plenty of studies about what the
Elizabethans wore, what they ate, what houses they lived in, and so
on. This is a book about Elizabethan society - people, rather than
things. How did the subjects of Queen Elizabeth I cope with the
world in which they had been placed? What did they believe? What
did they think? What did they feel? How did they react towards one
another? What, indeed, did they understand by the word 'society'?
What did they expect from it? What were they prepared to contribute
towards it? Some were intent on preserving it as it was; others
were eager to change it. For the majority, life was a daily
struggle for survival against poverty, hunger, disease and
injustice. Patronage was the glue that held a strictly hierarchical
society together. Parliament represented only the interests of the
landed class and the urban rich, which was why the government's
greatest fear was a popular rebellion. Laws were harsh, largely to
deter people getting together to discuss their grievances. Laws
kept people in one place, and enforced attendance in parish
churches. In getting to grips with this strange world -
simultaneously drab and colourful, static and expansive,
traditionalist and 'modern' - Wilson explores the lives of
individual men and women from all levels of sixteenth-century life
to give us a vivid feel for what Elizabethan society really was.
Praise for the author: Masterly. [Wilson] has a deep understanding
of characters reaching out across the centuries. Sunday Times
Scores highly in thoroughness, clarity and human sympathy. Sunday
Telegraph This masterly biography breaks new ground. Choice
Magazine His book is stimulating and authoritative. Sunday Times
Brilliant, endlessly readable ... vivid, immediate history,
accurate, complex and tinged with personality. Sunday Herald
General
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