Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England

Dr. Ian Mortimer introduces you to the world of the Elizabethan rich and privileged. Money alone is not enough to allow you to blend in with the Royal Court. There is much to learn about how the wealthy dress, greet and behave. The high classes operate with their own secret codes of manners, dress, hygiene and dancing. Even something as simple as the size of your ruff may be enough to betray an out of date outfit and have you excluded from the upper levels of society. This is quite literally a cut-throat world; spies circle the great and good and one false word from you or your servants could cost you everything. Then there is the Queen herself, including the horrifying cost of hosting a Royal progress. These are dangerous days and those who have the most also have the most to lose.

Although most people have images of courtiers in fine clothes and lavish palaces, the reality is that most Elizabethans are poor. What is it like to live in a dank, smoke-filled hovel in the countryside? How will you cope in a world of darkness? What will you eat, how will you travel, what work will you get? How can you survive on as little as fourpence a day? Ian also looks at the religious controversies threatening to pull the country apart, as well as revealing an astoundingly cruel Elizabethan England, not just to animals but also to women and children. Plus, there are surprises along the way.