This section of the site is currently in construction. Biographies will be offered of several of Elizabeth's most notable contemporaries, including Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester; William Cecil, first Baron Burghley; Sir Walter Ralegh; Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; Mary, Queen of Scots, Sir Francis Drake; and another man whom the Queen briefly employed, William Shakespeare. Those currently available may be accessed by links.

SOURCES: Illustration is a detail from Claus Jan Visscher's engraving of London, 1616. For more views of Jacobean London, see here.