The Elizabethan era: your guide to life during the 'Golden Age'

Below, we shine a spotlight on the experiences of ordinary Elizabethan men, women and children, and the sights and smells that would have dominated life in the Elizabethan era during the latter half of the 16th century, as Dr Nicola Tallis answers key questions about everyday life – from sport to personal hygiene – during England’s so-called ‘golden age’

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What did ordinary people think about having a female ruler?

For the most part, Elizabeth I was extremely well-loved, especially at the beginning of her reign; her accession was greeted with heartfelt enthusiasm by many of her subjects. People liked the fact that she was young, like her father had been when he became king, and Elizabeth definitely had the common touch. We can see this during the procession that took place prior to her coronation, when she took the time to engage in the pageants that were staged in her honour on the streets of London.

Elizabeth remained pretty popular throughout her time on the throne and was considered quite an accessible monarch; she went out most years on a summer progress that took her to various parts of her realm, which gave her subjects an opportunity to see and admire their queen. And Elizabeth’s popularity really soared after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Of course, she wasn’t liked by everyone, and there were plots at various points in her reign to unseat her, some involving her own subjects.

• Read more | What if the Babington Plot to assassinate Elizabeth I had succeeded?

It’s also important to note that some of the people within her court occasionally felt the sharp edge of her tongue. For example, Elizabeth was very close to her cousin, Katherine Knollys, who became one of the most important women in the royal bedchamber. However, according to the accounts of Katherine’s husband, Francis, Elizabeth sometimes made Katherine weep to the extent that he and his wife were prepared to leave court and live quietly in the country, although this never happened.

The idea of female rule was still relatively new to England at the time of Elizabeth’s accession. People only had the example of Elizabeth’s half-sister, Mary, to draw from, and there weren’t many happy memories of that. Life in 1558, when Elizabeth came to the throne, wasn’t easy for many of her subjects. So, although as queen people looked to Elizabeth to try and improve things, in reality, because she was a woman, they didn’t hold out much hope that she’d actually be successful at doing so.

How did people remember Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII?

Henry VIII had made a big impression, and he was remembered throughout the reigns of all of his children. We know that Elizabeth revered him and his memory; by the time she came to the throne, Henry was known as ‘Great Harry’, who had saved England from the folds of the Catholic Church in Rome.

• Read more | What was the Reformation?

This was really his legacy and his posterity; everything else that he’d done, including executing two of his wives and a number of his subjects, seemed to have been either completely forgotten or overlooked.

Elizabeth, at least in public, always identified with her father and was keen that she be remembered as Great Harry’s daughter.

What in the way of propaganda existed in the Elizabethan era?

Propaganda was rife in Elizabethan England, and much of it centred around the queen herself. I’ve already mentioned that Elizabeth went on regular summer progresses, which allowed her subjects to see their queen. But these occasions also provided an opportunity for Elizabeth to keep an eye on her nobles. What’s also interesting is that she would often order accounts of her progresses to be published, so that her subjects could find out what she’d been up to. These were hugely popular, and, as the queen controlled printing, it was a way of directing what her subjects read.

Elizabeth’s public image was also very carefully controlled. Her portraits always showed her as a beautiful, ageless queen, and this really added to the Gloriana myth that surrounded her. She really was the mistress of public relations. And this is something that’s clearly conveyed in many of her propaganda portraits, which often contain messages of purity and power. The famous Armada portrait is a really good example of this; it contains many allusions to Elizabeth’s power and her position as a defender of her realm and of the might of England.

How hygienic were the Elizabethans?

Elizabeth I’s first godson, Sir John Harrington, was actually responsible for inventing the first flushing water closet, or toilet, in 1596. But since there was no public sewage system, the wealthy would have used a closed stool, which was, essentially, a padded box with a hole in it, while the poor would have had to make do with a chamber pot. Rags were often used in lieu of toilet paper and it wasn’t uncommon to see men urinating in the streets, either.

In terms of other acts of personal hygiene, people might possibly have combed their hair. And we know there were some who attempted to clean their teeth with wooden toothpicks, or gold toothpicks if they could afford it. You might have also cleaned your teeth by rubbing them with ashes of burnt rosemary – Elizabeth herself is known to have owned tooth cloths with which she rubbed her teeth. And we also know that people chewed herbs to sweeten their breath.

• Read more | Hold your noses: the smells, sounds and sights of Elizabethan England

If you were a lower-class Elizabethan, bathing regularly really wasn’t an option; you might potentially bathe a few times a year if you had the opportunity to. But generally, clothes were relied upon to soak up the smells and sweat of daily life.

The nobility might bathe once every couple of weeks, and we know there was a definite interest in cleanliness at this time because there are recipes for soap in Elizabethan household instruction manuals. So people were obviously interested in keeping themselves clean. Elizabeth herself had baths in all of her palaces and famously once quipped that she bathed once a month, whether she needed to or not.

What did the Elizabethans do for entertainment?

Leisure was a hugely important part of Elizabethan life, for all classes. But there were differences between the types of entertainment available at different levels of society. Some people employed jesters or fools, whose job it was to entertain them. One in particular is mentioned by name in court accounts, and that is an Italian named Monarcho. He was employed by Elizabeth I and he is even mentioned in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.

Laughing, then, was a very important part of Elizabethan entertainment. Drinking, of course, was always a popular pastime, as was gambling. People might place bets on games of chess and cards or the outcome of a wrestling match. Archery, too, was popular, as was football, although the latter was a very different game to that of today because you could pick up the ball and run with it!

Bowling, juggling, music, dancing and attending fairs were also favourite pastimes. Most nobles were expected to play a musical instrument, while, among the lower classes, instruments such as fiddles and bagpipes featured heavily. In 1567, there was even an attempt to start a lottery scheme. Ticket holders were promised a monetary prize and also freedom from arrest for all crimes other than murder, piracy or treason. Unfortunately, it was something that never took off – more’s the pity.

Blood sports were popular with many, including the queen, and these included cockfighting and animal baiting, which often took place on London’s South Bank. Dogs against horses (sometimes with monkey riders for the dogs) featured heavily, and so did bears against the famous English mastiffs. Bears would sometimes have their teeth broken beforehand so that they couldn’t bite the dogs. The bears used in these baitings were occasionally given nicknames, and became akin to local celebrities.

How important was the theatre in Elizabethan society?

The Elizabethan era was the great age of theatre, and the first permanent playhouse in England was built by James Burbage, in 1576, in Shoreditch, and was simply named ‘The Theatre’. Soon, playhouses were springing up all over London. There was a real growth in education during Elizabeth’s reign, which meant that educated men who wrote plays had the opportunity to showcase their work in this medium – men like William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and Thomas Middleton, to name just a few.

• Read more | At the playhouse: watching Shakespeare’s plays in Elizabethan England

The great thing about the theatre was that it provided entertainment that could be enjoyed by all levels of society, even the poor. For them, tickets to attend a performance at the theatre would have cost a penny to stand and watch. Wealthier people, as you would expect, paid for a cushioned seat.

The theatre became a really clever way of spreading ideas because it appealed to so many people. We see this in 1601, when former royal favourite Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who was planning a rebellion against Elizabeth I, requested a performance of Richard II at The Globe, hoping that the play’s subject matter [the king’s deposing by Henry IV and his imprisonment and murder] would rouse people to rebel. Fortunately for Elizabeth, it didn’t work.

The Elizabethan era is often referred to as a ‘golden age’. Was that really the case?

The whole idea of the Elizabethan era as a ‘golden age’ came about after the queen’s death, when people started to realise how good they had had it during her reign; the cult of Elizabeth I was revered and revived continually in the centuries that followed. It’s a view that has been questioned recently, though, and I think there’s no clear-cut answer.

The Elizabethan age was undoubtedly a time of great change, with flourishing art, literature and architecture. And by the time of Elizabeth’s death in 1603, England had become one of the most powerful nations in Europe. So, a lot had changed in the years that Elizabeth was on the throne.

But was it all success? No, there were failures, too. In short, I think we have to be realistic and say that yes, Elizabeth provided strong and stable government for the most part of her reign, but it wasn’t all perfect, and so, in some ways, it doesn’t seem right to portray it as such.

Nicola Tallis was speaking to Rhiannon Davies on the HistoryExtra podcast. Listen to the full episode: The Elizabethans: everything you wanted to know