Includes bibliographical references (pages 765-785) and index.

William Cecil Lord Burghley and the Management of Elizabeth's England / Norman Jones -- The Earl of Essex / Paul E.J. Hammer -- Robert Cecil and the Transition from Elizabeth to James I / Pauline Croft -- James I and the Consolidation of British Monarchy? / R. Malcolm Smuts -- War, Soldiers and High Politics under Elizabeth I / D.J.B. Trim -- Shakespeare, the Irish and Military Culture / Rory Rapple -- Catholicism and Tyranny in Shakespeare's Warwickshire / Glyn Parry -- Ancient Liberties, Royal Honour and the Politics of Commonweal in English Forests, 1558-1625 / Dan Beaver -- Poets, Patronage and the Prince's Court / Timothy Wilks -- The Theatre and the 'Post-Reformation Public Sphere' / Peter Lake -- Rhetorical Training and the Elizabethan Grammar School / Peter Mack -- English Vernacular Historical Writing and Holinshed's Chronicles / Daniel Woolf and Jane Wong Yeang Chui -- European Historiography in English Political Culture / Nicholas Popper -- Roman History, Essex and Late Elizabethan Political Culture / Paulina Kewes -- Other Republicanisms / Debora Shuger -- The Gordian Knot of Policy: Statecraft and the Prudent Prince / Alexandra Gajda -- Seneca and English Political Culture / Curtis Perry -- David Hume, Richard Verstegan and the Battle for Britain / Arthur Williamson -- The Politics of Race in England, Scotland and Ireland / Brendan Kane and R. Malcolm Smuts -- English Catholics and the Continent / Katy Gibbons -- The Bible in English Culture: The Age of Shakespeare / Naomi Tadmor -- Religious Nonconformity and the Quality of Mercy: The Merchant of Venice in Reformation Context / Ethan H. Shagan -- Protestantism and the Devil / Tom Webster -- The Affective Life in Shakespearean England / Linda Pollock -- Chivalry and the English Gentleman / Richard Cust -- Elizabethan Verse Libel / Alan Bryson -- Gender, Writing Technologies and Early Modern Epistolary Communications / James Daybell -- The Shamings of Falstaff / Brian Weiser -- Cuckold's Haven: Gender Inversion in Popular Culture / Susan D. Amussen -- Murder's Crimson Badge': Homicide in the Age of Shakespeare / K.J. Kesselring -- Thinking with Poison / Alastair Bellany -- Criminal London: Fear and Danger in Shakespeare's City / Paul Griffiths -- Families and Households in Early Modern London / Vanessa Harding -- Theatre, Church and Neighbourhood in Early Modern Blackfriars / Christopher Highley -- The Cultural Geography of St Paul's Precinct / Roze Hentschell -- Art and Architecture in Provincial England / Robert Tittler -- Garden Design and Experience in Shakespeare's England / Luke Morgan -- Art Collecting and Patronage in Shakespeare's England / Elizabeth Goldring -- Graphic Satire and the Printed Image in Shakespeare's England / Helen Pierce -- Music and the Stage in the Time of Shakespeare / Ross W. Duffin.