Elizabethan society is arguably the most successful in English history. The adventurers and merchants (as well as the poets and playwrights) of that age are legendary. The subject of this classic study by A.L. Rowse is that society's 'expansion'. Elizabethan society expanded both physically (first into Cornwall, then Ireland, then across the oceans to first contact with Russian, the Canadian North and then the opening up of trade with India and the Far East) and in terms of ideas and influence on international affairs. Rowse argues that in the Elizabethan age we see the beginning of England's huge impact upon the world.

A.L. ROWSE was Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and Fellow of the British Academy. He wrote over 50 books including Tudor Cornwall, The Spirit of English History, Bosworth Field and the War of the Rose, Cornishman at Oxford and Homosexuals in History as well as a biography of Shakespeare. MICHAEL PORTILLO is Member of Parliament for Kensington and Chelsea and a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Employment and Secretary of State for Defence.

Foreword; Michael Portillo The Borderlands: The Scottish Borders and Cornwall The Borderlands: Wales Ireland: A Celtic Society in Decline Ireland: Colonisation and Conquest Oceanic Voyages American Colonisation The Sea-Struggle with Spain The Armada and After War on Land: Military Organisation Intervention in the Netherlands The Irish War