The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer

'Over the 45 years of Elizabeth's reign,' 'London's not just the most crowded place, it's also the centre of Government, international trade, the law and, of course, culture.' It's also a place of wonder and horror, of great wealth, and abject poverty.

It also has impressive gates, and fortifications designed to protect the city.' In 1599, the Swiss tourist, Thomas Platter, remarks that, 'London is not in England, but England is in London.' An observation about crowding inĮchoed by almost every foreign visitor to the city. 'from wealthy merchant's houses to shops, and even public toilets. It's 800ft long, 60ft high, and 28ft wide. It's a magnificent ancient structure of 20 arches. It's what every visitor to the city talks about. If you want to do the full Tower experience in Elizabeth's reign, it will cost you the equivalent of 12 week's wages for the average labourer.īut the one thing you simply have to see is London Bridge. You'll see Henry VIII's armour, the Royal Mint, a collection of exotic animals, and the dungeons, where Catholics and others are tortured.' But tourism doesn't come cheap. All streaming in and out of the city.' There are numerous must-see attractions on any wealthy tourist's itinerary. Royal messengers, sheep drovers, physicians hurrying to bedsides, and foreign travellers in new-fangled carriages. 'As you near the city, you'll pass a bizarre collection of people. It has a much bigger population, covers a larger area, and is much richer.' It outlines the enormous cultural changes that took place - from literacy to living standards, inequality and even the developing sense of self - thereby correcting misconceptions and presenting the period as a revolutionary age of fundamental importance in the development of the Western world.'Elizabethan London is unlike any other city or town in England. Just as The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England revealed what it was like to live in the fourteenth century, Medieval Horizons provides the perfect primer to the era as a whole. Life was utterly transformed between 10, marking the transition from a warrior-led society to that of Shakespeare. As Ian Mortimer shows in this fascinating book, people's horizons - their knowledge, experience and understanding of the world - expanded dramatically. By contrast we believe progress arose from science and technological innovation, and that inventions of recent centuries created the modern world. We tend to think of the Middle Ages as a dark, backward and unchanging time characterised by violence, ignorance and superstition. The essential introduction to the Middle Ages by the bestselling author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer