If that sounds obvious, and even a bit silly, maybe it is worth thinking about the fact that this particular span of one hundred years linked the Elizabethan era to the beginning of what we now can think of as the modern age, and so many things happened in that time that it would take twenty volumes the size of this one to even begin to do the subject justice. Indeed, at the birth of the seventeenth century, Elizabeth the virgin queen was still on the English throne, albeit in the twilight years of her long life and reign, and by the end of the century the country had executed a king, experienced Parliamentary 'democracy', made great strides towards colonising and 'civilising' great tracts of the globe, and seen the real beginning of the first scientific age, thanks to the enthusiasm and patronage of Charles II when he wasn't bouncing around atop Nell Gwynne and others. In between times there was the Bubonic Plague, which decimated a large part of the population, and the Great Fire of London, whose origin still gives rise to much debate.
