*They believed that life was exciting and beautiful and should be enjoyed immediately.* Shakespeare’s Hamlet exclaims, “What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable.” The Renaissance *emphasis on the magnificence and wonder of the individual person, as well as of the surrounding world*, encouraged Elizabethans to consider life as more than a process of waiting for life after death. It also resulted in a burst of creativity in, and cultivation of, the fine arts in a growth in the spirit of individualism in an expansion of intellectual thought and in a new insight into the purpose and significance of the human person. This “rebirth,” later labeled by historians as the *Renaissance*, was sparked by a renewed interest in the classics of ancient Greece and Rome. Enjoying the spirit of success, England was an eager recipient of the spirit of “rebirth” or “reawakening” that was influencing the thought of sixteenth-century Europe. Trade with distant countries provided a new source of wealth to the middle class merchants. Consequently, England emerged as a leader in the European race to build commercial empires. The Elizabethan Age was a period of geographical explorations and expansion.
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England ruled the seas and her spirit of pride and patriotism soared. The Spaniards lost over sixty-three ships and nine thousand men, and Spanish dominion of the seas was ended. In July 1588*, Philip II of Spain sent his Invincible Armada to invade England.
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One of the greatest crises England encountered during Elizabeth’s reign was an *attack by the powerful Spanish navy. After Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, took the throne, she definitively established the Anglican Church. The power struggle between religions accelerated under Henry’s son and immediate successor, Edward VI, and under Mary, Henry’s daughter by Catherine and successor to Edward.