Shakespeare lived during a remarkable period of English history, a time of relative political stability that followed and preceded eras of extensive upheaval. During Queen Elizabeth’s 45-year reign as the Queen of England, London became a cultural and commercial centre where learning and literature thrived.

 

When Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, violent clashes between Protestant and Catholic leaders occurred all over the country. Though she followed and honoured many of the beliefs set by her late father, King Henry VIII, she attributed many concessions to the Catholic people, preventing the emergence of any attempted rebellion. However, when comprise could not be obtained, Queen Elizabeth was an exacting leader who didn't shy away from the conflict.

 

During her reign, Queen Elizabeth recognised the importance of the arts to the life and for the legacy of her nation. Fond of the theatre especially, time bloomed for the English playwrights active during her reign such as; Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and the great William Shakespeare. With her permission theatres were established all throughout England for the first time. Attracting 15,000 theatregoers per week in London, a city of 150,000 to 250,000.

 

For Shakespeare, writing to an English audience about a Jewish moneylender would have been totally foreign. That's because there were approximately zero Jews in 16th-century England… they had been kicked out in 1290 under the Edict of Expulsion. The Jews who were left had to practice their religion in secret.

 

Still, Jews were a popular target of hatred in Shakespeare's England in large part due the trial of Queen Elizabeth's personal physician, Rodrigo Lopez, a converted Portuguese Jew. In 1594 Lopez was convicted of plotting to poison Queen Elizabeth I and was executed as a traitor—meaning he was hanged, cut down (while still alive), and mutilated before a crowd of spectators.

 

Shakespeare, with his pulse on the popular interest, presented The Merchant of Venice around 1597, hot on the heels of the Lopez trial. Presenting his audiences with the Jewish money lender Shylock, a recognisable character for the audiences of the Elizabethan time.