• History of Tudor Dynasty
• Protestant Reformation
• Military History
  
• Theater History

• At the beginning of the sixteenth century, how many people outside of England spoke English? Why?

399:

• Describe the royal court in the 16th century.

• What, according to the editors, did the Renaissance involve?

• Explain the theory of royal absolutism.

• Explain the significance of the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

• When were the Jews expelled from England? Why?
  

• Describe the status of blacks in Elizabethan England.

• Why, according to the editors, was a career as a professional writer virtually impossible at this time?
• What did literary patronage involve?

• What were the seven major literary modes in the sixteenth century?

• Who was Owen Tudor?
• What was the Battle of Bosworth Field?

• Who was Machiavelli?

• What was the "stigma of print" (400)? (cf. Sundiata)
  

• How, according to the editors, did the perceived purpose of education shift due to the rise of humanism?

• Why, according to the editors, do pagan gods and goddesses flourish in devoutly Christian texts of the period?

• What, according to the editors, were the common watchwords of the Reformation?

• Who was Thomas Cromwell?
• When was the Book of Common Prayer officially adapted?

• Why was Queen Mary nicknamed "Bloody Mary"?
• Why was there a lack of assurance regarding  Elizabeth's ascension to the throne?
• What did the Puritans seek?

• Explain the theory of the "king's two bodies" (407).

• When were the Jews able to return to England?

• Explain Cartwright's case (1569).
• Who was Francis Drake?

• Explain: "Elizabethans had a taste for elaborate, intricate but perfectly regular designs" (419).

• What is the argument of Sidney's "Defense of Poesy"?

• What irony, according to the editors, is associated with Sidney's critique of contemporary theater?

423:

• Why did Elizabethan theater companies need patrons?

• Which of Aristotle's rules for tragedy does Shakespeare violate?

• Why were London authorities hostile to plays?