The Elizabethan Era was a time of English emergence as a major world power. No longer bound by their problems of the Middle Ages, the English aspired to be one of the most culturally astounding countries in the Western Hemisphere. The growth of English theatre was one of the ways the English expanded their society.

The principle reason the Elizabethan theatre was able to flourish was the lack of internal struggles that characterized England throughout the 15th Century. Elizabeth I belonged to the Tudor Dynasty. The ruling family immediately before the Tudors had been the Plantaganets, who themselves were divided into two separate houses, Lancaster and York. The Lancastrians ruled until 1461, when the Yorkists usurped the throne. Throughout this century, the two houses continued to war for control of England, in a succession of wars known as the Wars of the Roses. The last Plantaganet king, Richard III...