Pictured here is a Renaissance gentleman dressed as a medieval knight about to enter the lists to fight hand-to-hand combat in an old-fashioned joust. Although this style of combat had been long gone from the battlefields of the 16^th and 17^th centuries, the court continued to keep the tradition alive. It would be as if the president celebrated Veterans' Day by having his cabinet dress up as Washington's soldiers and fire on each other with muskets. This kind of anachronism was characteristic of the English court, which sought to preserve the past. It may help explain why so many of the history plays are set far in the past where Shakespeare could evoke the sense of a romantic yesteryear.

As Elizabeth grew older the question of who would succeed her became more pressing. With no children and having outlived all her immediate family, Elizabeth at her death would leave the potential for a bloody civil war unless there were a firm successor acceptable to a majority of the people. This concern and uneasiness is reflected in a number of plays written in the years just before the queen's death in 1603. Both Julius Caesar and Hamlet have strong undertones of the dangers when succession to the throne is unclear.

Some people believed they could not await the outcome. A former favorite, the Earl of Essex, following his unfortunate military campaign against the Irish, returned in disgrace. He decided to stage a coup, seize the queen and take over the throne rather than to allow a non-English monarch on the throne. He gathered many young noblemen to his conspiracy, including Shakespeare's patron Southampton, and after arranging for a special performance of Shakespeare's Richard II, which showed a king abdicating, his coup began. It was a disaster, and most of the conspirators were beheaded. Shakespeare, however, escaped punishment because none of his company had been involved in the coup attempt itself.