In England, the renaissance is known as the Elizabethan age or The Golden Age. This period was named after a powerful English ruler, Queen Elizabeth I who ruled Great Britain for 45 years. She inherited the throne at quite a difficult time. There were an enormous amount of changes, both social and cultural but first and foremost, religious changes. England had a great growth in population but also a particular growth in London as it gets a lot bigger over the cause of Elizabeths reign. But England emerged as the leading naval and commercial power of the western world, strengthened its position with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, and Elizabeth firmly established the Church of England begun by her father, King Henry VIII. Elizabeths reign began a period of english history during which language and literature flourished. At the heart of the english renaissance was the love of language and the art of theatre. Several developments during her reign helped the theatre to thrive, for an example, acting changed from amateur to a professional status. The citizens who had preformed the medieval, religious plays and the plays in the homes of the nobility were replaced by companies of professional actors who played regularly around London and around the country. Throughout The Virgin Queen’s reign, a man named William Shakespeare was born in 1564. He was the third of eight children of John Shakespeare, a glove maker and leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a landed local