The Assassination of Shakespeare's Patron: Investigating the Deat ...

Chapter 2

And for the Golden Crown
Award, the Winner Is…

Manufacturing Divine Right

Suppose you were a mass-attending Catholic or an atheist in 1590s England. It was a capital crime to be either for most people. Unless you were awfully good at keeping your beliefs and activities secret—and very few people alive then were that good at it because the government was always better—you would almost certainly be informed upon. Anyone who knew you, and knew about your beliefs and activities, would be afraid not to inform, because, as is usual in such societies, it was also a big-time crime not to inform on friends or acquaintances suspected of criminal activity. You would then be investigated, almost certainly charged, and then, after being found guilty, you’d be severely punished. Public execution preceded by hideous public torture was a not-uncommon punishment—customarily followed by having your head displayed on a high pole.