Who Actually Paid for the Gloriana Myth? (The Hidden Cost of Tudor Image-Making)

Everyone knows the image: the pearls, the sieve, the impossible gown. Elizabeth I as Gloriana, timeless and untouchable.

But someone paid for that image. A lot of someones. Today we're following the money behind Tudor image-making, from the Norwich aldermen who spent months of public funds on five days of royal pageantry, to Robert Dudley bankrupting himself at Kenilworth, to Nicholas Hilliard painting the most iconic portraits of the age while struggling to pay his own debts.

The Gloriana myth was brilliant. It was also built on a foundation of panicking town councils, bankrupt earls, and poets who never quite got what they were owed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices