The Wars of the Roses could not prevent the economic development of the country, where ever-growing trade and the loosening of feudal ties were rapidly bringing about the end of the feudal mode of production and the extension of the marketable goods. We have already seen that by the end of the 14th century the […]

The culture, science and philosophy of the ancient world, and especially of Greece, was known to the feudal society of Western Europe in a very distorted form. The great model of Western European literature of the Middle Ages was Virgil, whose works were considered to be sacred, and even to have foretold the coming of […]

King  Henry  the  Eighth  was  just  eighteen  years  of  age  when  he  came  to  the  throne.  People  said  he  was  a  handsome  boy,  but  in  later  life  he  did  not  seem  hand­some  at  all.  He  was  a  big,  burly,  noisy,  small-eyed,  large-faced,  double-chinned  fellow,  as  we  know  from  the  portraits  of  him,  painted  by  the  […]

You  may  have  read  “The  Prince  and  the  Pauper”,  a  famous  book  by  an  American  writer  Mark  Twain.  The  Prince  it  tells  about  was  born  in  1537  and  became  the  King  of  England  in  1547. Henry  VIII  died  when  his  son  Edward  was  but  a  boy.  Before  his  death  he  made  a  will,  appointing  a  […]

The  Duke  of  Northumberland  was  very  anxious  to  keep  the  young  King’s  death  a  secret,  in  order  that  he  might  get  the  two  Princesses  into  his  power.  But,  the  Princess  Mary,  being  informed  of  that  event  as  she  was  on  her  way  to  London  to  see  her  sick  brother,  turned  her  horse’s  head,  and  rode  […]

Weary  of  the  barbarities  of  Mary’s  reign,  the  people  looked  with  hope  and  gladness  to  the  new  Sovereign. The  nation  seemed  to  wake  from  a  horrible  dream. Queen  Elizabeth  was  twenty-five  years  of  age  when  she  rode  through  the  streets  of London,  from  the  Tower  to  Westminster  Abbey,  to  be  crowned.  Her  hair  was  red,  […]

In 1558, Elizabeth, the new Queen, inherited an England which, in the dozen years since her father’s death, had be­come a third class power. Disgraced in peace and war, governed by fools and adventurers, foreigners and fanatics it lacked financial credit, arms, men and leaders. Bankrupt and degraded though the country was, it had, nevertheless, […]

When we speak of the “Elizabethan” period, we usually mean to include much of the reign of James I as well; for the manners, dress, and general characteristics of the time are the same. One of the most remarkable things about the Elizabethan period is the number of people who wrote books. Books and pamphlets […]