No one knows how or when she first heard that her father, Henry VIII, had ordered the death of her mother, Anne Boleyn
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Queen Elizabeth 1st >
The slight, hunchbacked second son of Lord Burghley, he inherited his father’s statesmanship and devious intelligence.
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Sir Robert Cecil >
The most unlikely of Elizabeth’s favourites (she was thirty-four years his senior), Robert Devereux – pronounced Dever-ucks – was a moody man who was given to great enthusiasms and deep depressions.
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The Earl of Essex >
Like his great rival Essex, Ralegh faced the headsman’s axe and underwent his execution in style. He shook hands with the noblemen watching the scene and spoke at length, insisting on his integrity.
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Sir Walter Ralegh >
Beautiful and regal, she was originally a good friend of her cousin Elizabeth, but they fell out irrevocably after she secretly married the Queen’s favourite, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester.
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Lettice Knollys >
The most celebrated young woman of the late Elizabethan period, she was elder sister to the Earl Essex.
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Penelope Rich >
He is famous for his decisive action against the Spanish armada in 1588 and for circumnavigating the globe in the Golden Hind (1577-80).
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Sir Francis Drake >
Heiress to a rich west country family, she became Sir Francis Drake’s second wife in 1585 (he was 45, she was 23).
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Elizabeth Sydenham >
He was a controversial figure. Accusations against him included: murdering his first wife Amy Robsart to leave him free to marry the Queen, which she refused to do;
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Earl of Leicester >
When he heard news from France of the 1572 St Bartholomew’s massacre of protestant Huguenots (up to 70,000 men, women and children were slaughtered) he danced for joy in his bedroom.
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Philip II >
Walsingham spent years plotting the death of Mary Queen of Scots, whom he described as a “bosom serpent”.
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Sir Francis Walsingham >
Born plain William Cecil, he rose to greatness under Elizabeth, serving her for forty years as Secretary of State, then Lord Treasurer.
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Lord Burghley >
Among his best friends were his neighbours Hamnet and Judith Sadler, who lived in High Street, Stratford.
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William Shakespeare >
Martyred for his faith, this remarkable Jesuit priest was as well known for his poetry as for his religion.
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Father Robert Southwell, SJ >
Happily admitting his inexperience in naval warfare, he surrounded himself with the best fighters of the age – Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher.
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Lord Howard of Effingham >
The world has always been divided on whether she was a saint or a sinner. Did she conspire to have her cousin Queen Elizabeth murdered?
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Mary, Queen of Scots >
A merchant and sea captain, he was famous for modernising Elizabeth’s navy with the design of the so-called “race-built” galleon
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Sir John Hawkins >
