1603: The Death Of Elizabeth I And The Birth Of The Stuart Era

1603 was one of the most important and pivotal years in British history.

Queen Elizabeth I, the last of the Tudors, died, and Scotland's James VI claimed his throne as James I of England. The cataclysmic time of the Stuarts had come when Britain moved from Tudor medievalism towards the wars, republicanism and regicide that lay ahead.

Diaries and notes written in 1603 describe how a resurgence of the plague killed nigh on 40,000 people; from a ship's log we learn of the first precious cargoes of pepper arriving from the East Indies; Shakespeare was finishing 'Othello'.

Christopher Lee, acclaimed author of 'This Sceptred Isle', unfolds the story of 1603 from first-hand accounts and original documents to mirror the lives of both the history makers and the common people in this seminal year.