William Shakespeare is 12 years old in 1576 when the first London theatre, built by James Burbage just outside the City walls, opens to the public. By the end of the century, James's son Richard becomes Shakespeare's leading actor, and a number of theatres, including the Globe, the Rose and the Swan in Southwark, do a brisk trade. Although the Tudor public goes as often to bear-baiting as to more refined entertainment, the century is rich in the arts of literature, painting and drama.

Tudor painters

Henry VIII brings Flemings, Germans and Italians to London. The new spirit of humanism can be seen in the portraits of Henry VIII and his court painted by Hans Holbein the Younger, whose father was also a painter. Having grown up in cosmopolitan Augsberg, Germany, he is invited to London by Sir Thomas More. His painting of the More family is the first non-devotional secular group portrait in northern Europe. By 1537, Holbein is Henry's court painter, and the realism of his work enables us to peek into the hearts of his courtiers.

Elizabeth's day, paintings of the monarch become increasingly elaborate images of power and majesty – part of a propaganda war against England's enemies. In particular, the 'Armada portrait' by George Gower and the 'Ermine portrait' by William Segar glorify the queen. On a smaller scale, the exquisite miniature paintings of Nicholas Hilliard are precious jewels of craftsmanship.

Medieval romance

The spirit of the Middle Ages lingers into the Tudor period with Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, a lengthy romance cycle that tells the tales of King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, Guinevere and Merlin. Printed in 1485 by William Caxton, it inspires generations of nobles to think of themselves as chivalric heroes – for example, Henry VII names his first son Arthur. The exact identity of book's author, however, remains obscure – he may be a Warwickshire knight who was imprisoned during the Wars of the Roses for rape and violence. At the end of the Tudor era, in 1590, Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene – a long allegorical poem whose publication was helped by Sir Walter Ralegh – features another Prince Arthur seeking Gloriana (Queen Elizabeth) in the forests and deserts of fairyland.

Court poetry

In the hothouse atmosphere of the royal court, the centre of patronage and power, flourish the strange blooms of court poetry. Sir Thomas Wyatt, for example, is Henry VIII's ambassador to Italy, France and Spain, and his poems are imitations of the work of the Italian Petrarch, who he also translates. He survives being implicated in a love affair with Anne Boleyn, the king's second wife, because the affair had happened before the king married her, but is disgraced in 1540 when his patron Thomas Cromwell is executed. In Tudor times, being a poet is a dangerous business.

The court poets also include Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Surrey, who writes smooth, classical verses, and John Skelton, who is often seen as a crude medieval buffoon. Others are much more refined. One of Elizabeth's poets, the tender soldier Sir Philip Sidney, who writes Arcadia and the Defence of Poetry, is called the 'jewel of the court'. He dies while fighting the Spanish in the Netherlands in 1586.

Devotional literature

Most of the most popular books of the 16th century are religious. In 1563, John Foxe publishes his Book of Martyrs, which tells the story of some 300 men and women killed for their Christian faith throughout the ages, but particularly those burnt at the stake for being Protestants during the reign of Mary I. Highly graphic, this martyrology proved to be a bestseller in this century and the next.

Even such a secular work as Thomas Nashe's vivid and picaresque narrative, The Unfortunate Traveller (1594), is full of propaganda against Rome and the Italians. His hero Jack Wilton's travels to Italy lead to corrupt papal courts, dens of iniquity, unnatural sexual practices and perversions. Just what the English Protestants want to hear.

Humanist literature

One of the most influential books ever published is Utopia, written by Sir Thomas More in Latin and first published in 1516. A parody of the travel literature of the time, in which explorers return home and tell of weird and wonderful far-off lands, it describes Utopia – Greek for 'no place' – where there's communism, a national system of education for men and women and the freest toleration of religion. This satire becomes very popular and was translated into English in 1551.

The Renaissance of learning also leads to such scholarly works as The Survey of London. Written in 1598 by John Stow, who was once a tailor, it describes the history and archaeology of the capital parish by parish.

In 1577, Ralph Holinshed publishes his Chronicles, a history of England from 1066 to Elizabethan times. Partly Tudor propaganda, and partly reliable, it provides the basis of Shakespeare's history plays.

Popular theatre

William Shakespeare is well established on the theatre scene, and his plays are often performed: look out for comedies such as Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It and A Midsummer Night's Dream, history plays such as Richard II, Henry V and Richard III, and tragedies such as Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet.

Although Shakespeare starts off as an actor and becomes a writer, most of his rivals are university men: John Lyly, Robert Greene, Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe (see Plots and rebellions Jonson's highly intellectual plays – such as Volpone and The Alchemist – and Marlowe's passionate verse plays, such as Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine, can still be enjoyed. Also worth catching are Thomas Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, a blood-and- gore shocker.

Sweet music

England leads the way in music for keyboard instruments, and two outstanding musicians are Thomas Tallis and his pupil William Byrd, a Catholic. Much traditional church music is also written at this time.

Towards the end of Elizabeth I's reign, madrigals (love poems sung by several voices without musical accompaniment) are introduced to England. Thomas Morley edits a collection in honour of the queen called The Triumph of Oriana, but it is not published until after her death. Haunting tunes such as 'Greensleeves', said to have been composed by Henry VIII, are also popular.

Architecture and building

Tudor England witnesses a building boom as the monarch and his overmighty subjects try to impress people with their wealth and power. Hampton Court, given to Henry VIII by Cardinal Wolsey in 1526, is home to five of the King's wives. It is said to be haunted by Catherine Howard, his fifth.

Outside the south-east, examples of Tudor architecture can be seen at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, built in 1590-97 by Bess of Hardwick, and the Old Palace near Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, built by Cardinal Morton in 1480-90. Longleat in Wiltshire, built by Sir John Thynne in 1560-80, is up to date in design, based as it is on ideas from Italy.

In the towns, black-and-white half-timbered houses, such as those near Congleton, Cheshire, show how less majestic subjects live.

The first book of architectural design – John Shute's First and Chief Grounds of Architecture – is published in 1563.

Philosophy

Renaissance philosophy from continental Europe helps a more secular culture to develop. The ideas of Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian diplomat, are widely discussed. His book, The Prince, contains advice to rulers on how to succeed in the cut-throat world of court politics. By the end of the century, the idea of the manipulative 'Machiavel' represents all that is evil and devilish in public life.

From Rotterdam, the writings of Desiderius Erasmus, especially his Praise of Folly, articulate the anticlericalism that is such an important part of the Reformation. Like many scholars, Erasmus writes in Latin so that uneducated people are excluded from reading his work. However, many European classics, such as the Essays of the French nobleman Michel de Montaigne, are now available to Tudor readers in fresh translations.

In England, there is a new respect for learning. John Leland, the country's first antiquary (an early form of archaeologist), travels Henry VIII's kingdom for 10 years, gathering information about local buildings and customs. By the end of the century, Richard Hooker publishes the magisterial Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1593), which outlines the laws of nature and argues that society should obey the monarch.

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