This is the first in a series of books that tells the history of early modern England from the perspective of people living at the time. Norman Jones' account charts both the small changes and the large historical ones which dominated life during the 1560s. As the decade opened, the English were preoccupied with hunger, sickness and a depressed economy. At the same time, the 1560s saw the settling of a number of issues that had been plaguing Tudor England since the reign of Henry VIII. With the accession of Elizabeth I the Henrican succession was complete, Protestantism finally victorious and entangling dynastic wars ended. No sooner were these resolved, however, than they rose again in new forms as fear over the succession, religious dissent, and ideological commitment began to reshape foreign and domestic concerns. The high politics of the decade, as well as its religious history, concentrated on these issues. Norman Jones draws on both primary and secondary works to provide this account of life in the 1560s through the voices of contemporaries.