Elizabethan - Getty Images

Elizabethan

Illustration of pirate John Ward

Pirate John Ward: the real Captain Jack Sparrow

The daughter and great-niece of Henry VIII respectively, Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots didn't feel strong family ties when it came to their relationship. (Photo by Getty Images)

Queens at war: Elizabeth I vs Mary, Queen of Scots. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The portrait of Queen Elizabeth I known as the Ditchley portrait

What did Queen Elizabeth I really look like at 60?

Henri III: Elizabeth I’s unlikely ally. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 16th-century portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Mary, Queen of Scots: the real history behind the film

Taxing the rich to feed the poor in the 17th century: the world's first welfare state. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Sir Walter Ralegh

Q&ADid Sir Walter Ralegh really lay down his cloak for Elizabeth I?

A 16th-century woodcut by Albrecht Dürer entitled 'The true and false apostles of Christ'. As the Reformation recast Europe's spiritual landscape, many believers fretted that their religion no longer felt true to them. (Photo by Alamy)

The fury that fuelled the rise of atheism. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Perkin Warbeck, an imposter and pretender to the English throne, being humiliated in the stocks before his execution in 1499. Warbeck was used by Henry VII’s Yorkist enemies in an unsuccessful plot to threaten the new Tudor dynasty. (Getty Images)

Imposters in history: 16 famous con-artists and pretenders. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Pocket-sized paintings: Elizabethans in miniature. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The downfall of Mary, Queen of Scots. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 19th-century portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

Elizabeth I’s love life: was she really a ‘Virgin Queen’?

Mary Queen of Scots, after Nicholas Hilliard, 16th century, National Portrait Gallery, London. (Photo by SuperStock)

Mary, Queen of Scots’ tragic life. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, England. (Photo by Getty Images)

The house that Bess built: the secrets of Hardwick Hall. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How did Henry VIII and Elizabeth I celebrate Yuletide? (Illustration by Becca Thorne for BBC History Magazine)

Tales from a Tudor Christmas. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots

Deadly rivals: Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sir Walter Raleigh, 1552–1618 (Photo by Getty Images)

Walter Ralegh: enemy of the state. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Droeshout Portrait. This engraving appeared as the First Folio frontispiece. (© Getty Images)

8 places that shaped the life of William Shakespeare. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Spanish Armada defeated in the English Channel in July 1588, by Hendrick Cornelis Vroom, c1600. (Picture by DEA PICTURE LIBRARY/Getty Images)

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Spanish Armada

Sir Walter Ralegh (c1554–1618, shown here in a painting attributed to William Segar) is often remembered as a favourite of Elizabeth I and an adventurer, yet he was also one of the most influential political philosophers of his era. (Photo by Alamy)

Walter Ralegh: the traitor who inspired Cromwell. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Henry VIII with Prince Edward, his son by his third wife, Jane Seymour. If the future Henry IX had survived, there may have been no cause for Henry to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn in 1533, says Amy Licence. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

6 royal births that changed the world (or could have). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Diana, Princess Of Wales, Prince William And Prince Harry visit Thorpe Park amusement park. (Photo by Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images)

How to raise a royal... with Tracy Borman. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elizabeth I podcast

Inside the mind of Elizabeth I. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Catholics in Elizabethan England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elizabeth I, shown in a portrait commemorating victory over the Armada

My history hero: Elizabeth I (1533-1603). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

First built in 1576, the Globe theatre burnt to the ground in 1613. During a performance of the play now known as 'Henry VIII', a set of stage cannons were fired and a piece of flaming material from one of the cannons landed on the theatre’s thatched roof, causing the fire. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

5 facts about Shakespeare’s Globe theatre

Portrait of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. (Photo by Ken Welsh/Design Pics/Corbis via Getty Images)

Princely pleasures at Kenilworth: Robert Dudley's three-week marriage proposal to Elizabeth I. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

8 of Britain’s best historical houses and gardens

Shakespeare’s greatest actor. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Shakespeare’s best (or worst) villains. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.