Travels in England During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth; with Fragmenta Regalia: Or, Observations on Queen Elizabeth, Her Times and Favourites

A German lawyer's eye lands on Elizabethan England in this vivid travel memoir from the turn of the 17th century. Paul Hentzner arrived in Rye and made his way to London, recording everything from the grandeur of the Tower to the crowded churchyards where famous Englishmen lay buried. His perspective is that of an outsider looking in, and that distance produces something precious: uncannily specific observations about a culture so familiar to us through Shakespeare and Spenser, yet rendered strange and wonderful through foreign eyes. The accompanying Fragmenta Regalia turns its attention directly to Elizabeth herself, to her court, and to the powerful favorites who surrounded her. This is not history written with distance but history captured live, full of the particular details that survive only when someone is paying close attention to a world they know they'll never fully understand.