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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!
Why Religion Was Such a Dangerous Mess in Elizabeth I’s England, and How the Fitzalan Chapel Still Shows Her Plan for Fixing It
A plain-English look at why religion nearly tore Elizabethan England apart—and how a hidden chapel in Arundel still shows Queen Elizabeth I’s attempt to heal the Catholic–Protestant divide.
Elizabethan Spy 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.
Catrin Glyndŵr, Lady Mortimer: When the Welsh Lady Speaks in Henry IV, Part 1
Who was the Welsh Lady in Henry IV, Part I? Discover the real Catrin Glyndŵr, Lady Mortimer, her role on Shakespeare’s stage, and the London church where her memory may have shaped the play.
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.
🦢 The Secret Lies with Swans
Why did Ben Jonson call Shakespeare the “Sweet Swan of Avon”? Discover how Elizabethan understood swans, royal power, Tudor spectacle, and the hidden meanings beneath one of literature’s most famous lines.
💌 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.
💌 Love in Lockdown: How Peregrine Bertie Wrote a Secret Love Letter to Mary de Vere
Discover how in Tudor England, Peregrine Bertie wrote a secret love letter to Mary Vere by mixing homemade ink and cutting his own goose-quill pens — even while locked up. The first of two posts on the art and craft of Elizabethan letter-writing and delivery.
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”.
The Three Cooke Sisters: Were They the Real “Witches” in Shakespeare’s Macbeth?
Those three hags on the Scottish heath known as Macbeth’s “witches” bear remarkable resemblances to the Cooke sisters, three politically influential Elizabethan women who were known for making prophesies, wreaking revenge and cooking up strange recipes in their kitchen cauldrons.
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.
How Shakespeare Encoded History, French Diplomacy and the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre into Love’s Labour’s Lost
Shakespeare's Love’s Labour’s Lost is based on historical events and real individuals. Years after the bloody St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France, Queen Elizabeth I’s court chuckled at the expense of those involved in its coverup because Shakespeare had cast them in the comic brilliance of Love’s Labour’s Lost. Moth, Don Adriano, The King of Navarre and The Princess of France all have historical counterparts.
The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: How an Intercepted Letter Exposed the Cover-up of the Slaughter and Reshaped Elizabeth I’s England
In August 1572, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre left over 10,000 Huguenots dead in Paris alone. France’s King Charles IX and its Queen Mother Catherine de Medici had turned their sister’s and daughter’s royal wedding into a death trap. The news shook Elizabeth I’s Protestant England to its core. One intercepted letter reshaped it.
Let’s Party Like It’s 1572: Elizabeth I’s Summer Progress and the Fireworks That Set Off the Dudley vs. De Vere Rivalry
Join Queen Elizabeth I and her court in the heart of Warwickshire for the summer of 1572’s hottest event! Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, hosts the Queen at Warwick Castle and Kenilworth Castle for his all-out charm offensive with an eye to launch a marriage proposal to become King Robert I of England.
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.
Unlocking What’s Behind Romeo and Juliet
Did you know that behind Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is an interlocking puzzle of literary riddles and Shakespearean sleights of hand? Start digging into the backstory of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers’ story and you tumble into a maze of shadowy authors, multiple sources and plot twists that rival the play itself.
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.
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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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