Elizabethan age
Tudor England's zenith
The Elizabethan age is the period of English history during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603), marked by flourishing literature, drama, and exploration.
Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Spenser defined the era's literary output.
The term evokes cultural confidence, theatrical innovation, and England's emergence as a naval power: Elizabethan age theater conventions, the golden age of English drama.
- sonnetsFourteen-line rhymed poems
- blank verseUnrhymed iambic pentameter
- RenaissanceEuropean cultural reawakening
- Shakespearean dramaPlay by the Bard
- Tudor dynastyEnglish royal house
William Shakespeare · Virgin Queen · Golden Age · Christopher Marlowe · Globe Theatre · madrigals · Protestant Reformation · succession crisis · witchcraft trials · plague years · Spanish Armada · portraiture · 16th century · naval expeditions · sea dogs · Tower of London · gender roles · patronage system
- literary periodsRenaissance, medieval, Victorian, modern, contemporary
- historical figureshistorical figures, leaders, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Joan of Arc
Elizabethan ageDark Ages
Post-Roman European decline
medieval period · Middle Ages · Victorian era · modern era · Industrial Revolution