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The Secret Lives of Elizabethans
The reign of Elizabeth I was a time of divisive political intrigues, foreign perils and power struggles among strong willed and contentious individuals. Those involved, like all of us today, sometimes made decisions and took actions for highly personal reasons that most history books never discuss.
It is these highly personal relationships and the secrets behind them that I focus on in this blog. Without the darker and personal truths - the intrigues, spies, affairs, bastards, treacheries, betrayals, murders, and the daily violence - Elizabethans become one dimensional paragons of boring virtue.
Not to mention that the best parts of the story would be missing. Read on!
Which of Queen Elizabeth I’s Favorites Died With the Most Debt? The Answer to a Tudor Puzzle
Which Elizabethan Court Favorite Died With the Most Debt? Leicester, Hatton, Sidney and Warwick died burdened by enormous debt. Discover how Edward de Vere and Elizabeth Trentham used a remarkable legal strategy to protect their family.
Which Elizabethan Court Favorite Died in the Most Debt? (A Tudor Puzzle)
How wealthy were Queen Elizabeth I’s courtiers, really? Rank Robert Dudley, Ambrose Dudley, Philip Sidney, Christopher Hatton, and Edward de Vere in a Tudor puzzle of debt, status, and survival at court.
Did Shakespeare Steal This Scene? Mary de Vere and the Real Paulina in The Winter’s Tale
Did Shakespeare draw on a real Tudor scandal for The Winter’s Tale? A 1577 letter from the Duchess of Suffolk reveals how Mary de Vere used court politics, family tensions, and a carefully deployed baby in a drama that closely mirrors Paulina and Perdita.
How Mary de Vere Risked Everything to Marry Peregrine Bertie – and Outmaneuvered Everyone
Mary de Vere faced fierce resistance to marry Peregrine Bertie. She turned the Duchess of Suffolk from enemy to ally by revealing a dangerous Elizabethan secret that changed everything.
Compare How Mary de Vere Defied Her Brother, a Duchess, and Queen Elizabeth I to Choose Her Own Husband
She was told whom she would marry. She refused. In Elizabethan England, that decision could cost a woman everything. Mary de Vere stood up to her brother, a duchess, and even Queen Elizabeth I to choose her own future. Did her story leave its mark on Shakespeare’s Imogen in Cymbeline?
Shakespeare Was a Feminist👑. Really.
Was Shakespeare really conflicted about women? Hardly. Explore how Tudor law, Elizabethan court life, and powerful real women shaped Shakespeare’s greatest heroines, from queens and princesses to noble daughters and fearless wives we still love today because they feel so much like us.
Elizabethan Spies and Plots: How Francis Walsingham Caught Ambassadors Plotting to Overthrow Queen Elizabeth I
In 1583, Francis Walsingham uncovered a covert plot involving the Spanish and French ambassadors, and England’s own envoy to France, to replace Queen Elizabeth I with Mary, Queen of Scots.
Did Queen Elizabeth I Have a Secret Violent Streak?
Did Queen Elizabeth I Get Violent? Did she really break fingers and stab tapestries? And was she Shakespeare’s Real-Life Source? Discover how Shakespeare used real Tudor court scandals to create iconic scenes in Hamlet and his other plays.
💌 How the Tudors Kept Their Love Letters Secret
Tudor letterlocking, wax seals, silk threads, codes and post-haste courier delivery. How Peregrine Bertie’s forbidden love letter reached Mary Vere.
Did Queen Elizabeth I Use Swear Words?
An Elizabethan Secret the courtiers of Queen Elizabeth I repeated only in whispers: the Virgin Queen of England had a fiery temper and when she lost it, she swore — spectacularly. Her favorite oath? Not the gentlewomanly “fie,” not the earnest “forsooth,” but the very words that made Puritans faint and Anglican bishops clutch their sleeves: a thunderous “God’s death!”
Abortion and the Secret Language of Elizabethan Women’s Medicine
Elizabethan women kept many secrets, but none more forbidden than how to end an unwanted pregnancy. Elizabethans were masters of saying one thing and meaning another — especially about women’s bodies. Herbal abortion remedies, what we today would call “abortifacients” (a 19th century term), hid under euphemisms. In winter 1574, eighteen-year-old Anne Cecil, has a problem. She is throwing up - and late. Yes, that kind of “late”.
Canterbury Cathedral, Tudor Heroines, and My Writing Life
On my third research trip to Canterbury Cathedral’s cloister, I finally figured out why I was there – not from Chaucer’s pilgrims, but when two of my Tudor heroines stepped out of the shadows beneath its heraldic galaxy. Travel, writing life and the secrets the cloister keeps.
John Knox’s Trumpet Blast Against the “Regimens” of Mary Queen of Scots, Mary I and Elizabeth I
John Knox, exiled Scottish Protestant preacher, published his long, loud polemic, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regimen of Women, in 1558. His targets? Mary I of England, Mary Guise, Regent of Scotland, Mary Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I of England.
The Secrets Shakespeare Didn’t Tell Us About Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare has been keeping secrets about the origin story of Romeo and Juliet. We investigate the shadowy backstories of the play’s first English translator, “Ar. Br.”, identified later (maybe) as “Arthur Brooke”, a second poet named George Turberville, and other Elizabethan phantom poets.
A Royal Proclamation On Elizabethan Ruffs, Cloaks and Concealed Weapons
What happened when Queen Elizabeth—and her ever-watchful Privy Council—thought Tudor men’s fashions had gone too far? The year was 1580, and what began as a style trend had spiraled into something more dangerous: a cloak-and-dagger culture, with real cloaks . . . and real daggers. It was clearly time for a royal crackdown on ruffs, cloaks and concealed weapons.
💘 5 Swoon-Worthy Pieces of Elizabethan Men’s Fashion We Wish We Could Revive
5 Pieces of Elizabethan Men’s Court Fashion We’re Secretly Sorry We Left Behind.
🎀 5 Pieces of Elizabethan Ladies’ Court Fashion We’re Secretly Glad to Leave Behind!
Elizabethan court fashion? Stunning. Iconic. Gloriously dramatic. Prescribed by the period’s Sumptuary Laws which dictated the fabric, furs and colors you could wear based on your rank. While the final result dazzled, some of those fashion choices? Absolutely bonkers. Here, in ascending order, are 5 Elizabethan court fashion nightmares we're very glad to leave in the wardrobe in history’s attic.
Jane Guildford Dudley: The Mystery Master Negotiator Who Saved Robert Dudley’s Neck
Jane Guildford Dudley, Tudor strategist extraordinaire, was no ordinary noblewoman. She aided her husband’s meteoric rise to power, suffered his catastrophic fall, and came up with a brilliant plan to save her remaining family.
The Dudley Dynasty: Family Bonds Forged in Fire
Before Robert Dudley became Queen Elizabeth I’s favorite or the mighty Earl of Leicester, he was the grandson of one attainted traitor, the son of another, and the brother of a third. The Dudley name rose high and fell hard again and again. Robert learned early that wealth, position and power could vanish with a monarch’s whim.
The Untold Backstory of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: Queen Elizabeth I’s Favorite
What was the backstory of Queen Elizabeth I’s main man, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester?
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“Merry old England” contained mysteries and secrets more complex, dangerous and beautiful than we’ve been led to believe.
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