Elizabethan - Getty Images

Elizabethan

History quiz - Queens of England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration from the first edition of John Foxe The Book of Martyrs. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The LibraryElizabeth I’s war with England’s Catholics

Shakespeare: 7 burning questions about his life. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Picture of the charge of the 4th Hussars at the battle of Friedland

Q&AWhat were hussar regiments?

The other Elizabethan England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

‘Earliest portrait of guinea pig’ revealed in unseen painting

Elizabeth I: the monarch behind the mask. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Spanish Armada: Tudor spin portrayed the events of August 1588 as a glorious English victory but, argues Robert Hutchinson, bad weather and bad tactics had more to do with the Spanish fleet's failure than Elizabethan derring-do. (Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

The Spanish Armada: England's lucky escape. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Winston Churchill, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, gives his 'victory' sign while making a polling day tour of his constituency during an election. (Getty Images)

Are these the most overrated people in history?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Executed queen

Procession portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

How Elizabeth I used parties as a weapon against the Catholic threat to her throne. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Laurence Olivier plays Richard III in the 1955 film adaptation of Shakespeare's play. In it, the controversial monarch is damned as everything from a "bottled spider" and "lump of foul deformity" to a "poisonous bunch-backed toad". (Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Why did Shakespeare revile Richard III?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A view towards the Carew estuary between a dry stone wall and the ruins of Carew Castle, Pembrokeshire, UK. (Dreamstime)

Where history happened: Tudor courtiers with Suzannah Lipscomb. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I’s ‘spymaster’. (Photo by Photo 12/UIG via Getty Images)

Sir Francis Walsingham: spy-master extraordinaire and Elizabeth I’s security chief. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The spies of Queen Elizabeth I. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

In 1830 a keeper at the Tower of London menagerie accidentally removed the barrier between a lion and two tigers. The animals were eventually prised apart, by which point the lion had been fatally wounded. (Photo by Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Life with the lions: the Tower of London menagerie. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A woodcut showing the Globe Theatre, one of London's most famous landmarks and the venue most closely associated with Shakespeare's plays. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Where history happened: Elizabethan drama. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The LibraryThe Elizabethan big society. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mystery and drama with the Romans and the Elizabethans. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elizabethan adventurer, courtier, navigator and historian Sir Walter Ralegh – "a gorgeous, larger than life figure". Unfortunately, many of his peers weren't impressed by his good looks, and saw instead an arrogant man, blind to his own weaknesses. (Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

The LibraryWalter Ralegh: the heroic traitor. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The plague, Sir Walter Ralegh and Jerusalem. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Rebellion and terrorism. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elizabeth I: Fortune’s Bastard?

Inside Pompeii and a date with Elizabeth I. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Robert Burns and Francis Bacon. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of William I of Orange. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Death from the shadows: the murder of William the Silent. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.