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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!
Was Queen Elizabeth I Vain? The Bizarre Blue Starch Fashion Law That Says She Was
Queen Elizabeth I once threatened her subjects with imprisonment for wearing blue-starched ruffs. Discover the bizarre history behind one of Tudor England’s weirdest fashion laws, and what it reveals about beauty, power, and control in her court.
What Would You Do If You Arrived in Venice Just Before the Great Plague of 1575?
How did Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, newly arrived in Venice, survive the Great Plague of 1575? Follow him as he navigated political danger and Burghley's spies in France and crossed the Alps on the way to Venice, only to find virulent plague in a city quarantined on its islands in one of history's most extraordinary journeys.
How Queen Elizabeth I Trained Young Noblemen as Diplomats, Soldiers and Spies
The Elizabethan Grand Tour is a myth. Queen Elizabeth sent young noblemen abroad, including Philip Sidney, Edward de Vere, Robert Devereux, Henry Wriothesley and Edward Manners to train as diplomats, soldiers and spies, not tourists.
What Actually Happened on Midsummer’s Night in Tudor England and Why Shakespeare Set His Play in the Woods
Most readers think A Midsummer Night’s Dream is about fairies, love potions and a man with a donkey’s head. But in Tudor England, Midsummer Night was something else entirely. It was the night was when people slipped into the woods, the rules loosened, and by morning . . . no one asked too many questions.
Queen Elizabeth I, Edward Coke and the “Queen Bee” Parliamentary Speech of 1593
In 1593, Edward Coke compared Queen Elizabeth I to a queen bee before Parliament. The biology was wrong. The politics were fascinating. The episode offers a wonderfully revealing glimpse into Elizabethan life, and the patience required of her while others droned on and 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.
Five of Queen Elizabeth I’s Most Powerful Courtiers’ Lavish Lives and Hidden Debts
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.
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 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.
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”.
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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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