18-‘The Wisest Fool in Christendom'

Elizabeth’s long reign finally withered to its weary end in 1603. By then,
the queen’s popularity had evaporated and the nation had drifted down into
apathy, the masses having become fed-up with the Tudor policy of
absolute monarchy. The government’s attitude had led to the State being
ruled by a system rife with corruption, where bribery was commonplace
among the ruling classes. Meanwhile, the ordinary folk were forced to eke
out their miserable existence, locked into a cruel under-world far below the
‘refined society’ of the privileged. The everyday folk were consumed by a
constant and losing struggle against the stark consequences of ignorance,
pestilence and price-inflation. They woke every morning to face all over
again the realities of hunger, relentless poverty and death. They longed for
a change. They had endured more than enough of the Tudor queen.