Elizabethan

The portrait of Queen Elizabeth I known as the Ditchley portrait

What did Queen Elizabeth I really look like at 60?

Elizabeth I shown in the Darnley portrait of c1575 and (right) the French king Henri III. (Images by Alamy/Getty Images)

Henri III: Elizabeth I’s unlikely ally

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

Dire straits: Beggars are depicted in a woodcut. In the 16th century, waves of crop failures persuaded the government to place poor relief on the statute book. (Image by Bridgeman)

Taxing the rich to feed the poor in the 17th century: the world’s first welfare state

A portrait of Sir Walter Ralegh

Q&A Did 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

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

Unknown Woman Wearing a Hat by Isaac Oliver, c.1590-5. Features in Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver, at the National Portrait Gallery from 21 February 2019 to 19 May 2019. (Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II 2019)

Pocket-sized paintings: Elizabethans in miniature

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The downfall of Mary, Queen of Scots

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’?

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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.

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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

Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots

Deadly rivals: Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots

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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.