Introduction

The Tudor and Stuart age was a tumultuous period in English history, characterized by a series of reformations, rebellions, and revolutions. Beginning in the 1530s and continuing until the 1560s, England transitioned from Roman Catholicism under the authority of the pope to a national, Protestant religion under the authority of the monarch, which later came to be known as Anglicanism. The Tudor and Stuart period was also one of great uncertainty and misfortune. England was often at war, not only domestically during the Civil war, but also internationally in numerous conflicts with the Dutch, French, Spanish, and the various nations that comprised the Holy Roman Empire. War caused a high degree of xenophobia against continental Europeans who lived in England. Witnesses usually stood and spoke from wherever they were in the room, rather than take a more formal position in a witness box. This made the proceedings much less formal than the austerity of modern criminal courtrooms.