The Elizabethan era came to a close in 1603 when the good queen gave up the ghost after a long and consequential reign. The twilight of the Tudors marked the end of the most transformative epoch in English history. The seed of Henry VIII was finally exhausted and there was no immediate heir to the crown. England was forced to look abroad for a stable political future. Queen Elizabeth’s ongoing refusal to acknowledge a successor befuddled her court and caused great consternation within her council. It was only thanks to the skillful and covert diplomacy of her greatest administrator, the hunchbacked Robert Cecil, that a peaceful transfer of power was secured. The new king of England was to be a Scotsman, James VI, the only son of Mary Queen of Scots.
When Elizabeth breathed her last, a messenger, Sir Robert Carey, was dispatched from Elizabeth’s death bed at Richmond Palace…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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