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The Elizabrthan Era Practice

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The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of

England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it
as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female
personification of Great Britain) was revived in 1572, and often thereafter, to mark
the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical
ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over Spain.

This "golden age"[1] represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the
flowering of poetry, music and literature. The era is most famous for its theatre,
as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of
England's past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad,
while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the
people, most certainly after the Spanish Armada was repelled. It was also the end of
the period when England was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland.

The Elizabethan age contrasts sharply with the previous and following reigns. It was
a brief period of internal peace between the Wars of the Roses in the previous
century, the English Reformation, and the religious battles between Protestants and
Catholics prior to Elizabeth's reign, and then the later conflict of the English Civil
War and the ongoing political battles between parliament and the monarchy that
engulfed the remainder of the seventeenth century. The Protestant/Catholic divide
was settled, for a time, by the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, and parliament was
not yet strong enough to challenge royal absolutism.

England was also well-off compared to the other nations of Europe. The Italian
Renaissance had come to an end following the end of the Italian Wars, which left
the Italian Peninsula impoverished. The Kingdom of France was embroiled in
the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598). They were (temporarily) settled in 1598 by
a policy of tolerating Protestantism with the Edict of Nantes. In part because of this,
but also because the English had been expelled from their last outposts on the
continent by Spain's tercios, the centuries-long Anglo-French Wars were largely
suspended for most of Elizabeth's reign.

The one great rival was Habsburg Spain, with whom England clashed both in Europe
and the Americas in skirmishes that exploded into the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–
1604. An attempt by Philip II of Spain to invade England with the Spanish Armada in
1588 was famously defeated. In turn England launched an equally unsuccessful
expedition to Spain with the Drake–Norris Expedition of 1589. Three further Spanish
Armadas also failed in 1596, 1597 and 1602. The war ended with the Treaty of
London the year following Elizabeth's death.

England during this period had a centralised, well-organised, and effective


government, largely a result of the reforms of Henry VII and Henry VIII, as well as
Elizabeth's harsh punishments for any dissenters. Economically, the country began
to benefit greatly from the new era of trans-Atlantic trade and persistent theft of
Spanish and Portuguese treasures, most notably as a result of Francis Drake's
circumnavigation.
The term Elizabethan era was already well-established in English and British
historical consciousness, long before the accession of Queen Elizabeth II, and
generally refers solely to the time of the earlier queen of this name.

The Victorian era and the early 20th century idealised the Elizabethan era.
The Encyclopædia Britannica maintains that "[T]he long reign of Elizabeth I, 1558–
1603, was England's Golden Age... 'Merry England', in love with life, expressed itself
in music and literature, in architecture and in adventurous seafaring".[2] This idealising
tendency was shared by Britain and an Anglophilic America. In popular culture, the
image of those adventurous Elizabethan seafarers was embodied in the films of Errol
Flynn.[3]

In response and reaction to this hyperbole, modern historians and biographers have
tended to take a more dispassionate view of the Tudor period.

Elizabethan era - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabethan_era

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