Dangerous Days in Elizabethan England: Thieves, Tricksters, Bards and Bawds

The reign of Elizabeth I - a Golden Age? Try asking her subjects...

Elizabethans did all they could to survive in an age of sin and bling, of beddings and beheadings, galleons and guns. Explorers set sail for new worlds, risking everything to bring back slaves, gold and the priceless potato. Elizabeth lined her coffers while her subjects lived in squalor with hunger, violence and misery as bedfellows. Shakespeare shone and yet the beggars, doxies and thieves scraped and cheated to survive in...