THE art of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I is of a higher
standard than is generally admitted, but it has very few great
names and not many outstanding works, and its history can-
not be told in the form of biographies of its artists. English society
was changing rapidly at this time, and the changes in English art
can be adequately explained only when they are related to the
forces and counter-forces that were then maturing in England at
large. Despite our imperfect knowledge of the period, and the
many unresolved controversies about it amongst historians, an
attempt at such an explanation is overdue. I am well aware that
I could not have begun without the earlier labours of other men
and I trust that this may serve as an acknowledgement to all those
of my predecessors that I have not elsewhere referred to. If there
is any man who finds that I have borrowed his ideas without a
thank you, I hope that he will not regard it as proof of wilful
plagiarism, but of an influence that has gone so deep that I have
become unconscious of it.

Her Majesty the Queen has graciously permitted me to repro-
duce works of art in her collections. I wish also to thank the fol-
lowing for similar permissions: the Duke of Bedford, the Duke
of Portland, the Marquess of Salisbury, the Earl of Derby, Earl
Fitzwilliam, the Earl of Radnor, the Earl of Verulam, Lord Tolle-
mache, Lt.-Col. Sir Edmund Bacon, Brinsley Ford, Esq., Loel
Guinness, Esq., Sir Westrow Hulse, R. H. G. Leveson-Gower, Esq.,
Hon. Robin Neville, Hon. Clive Pearson, Derek Sherborn, Esq.,
Col. V. N. Stopford Sackville, Trustees of the late A. J. C.
Wall, Esq., Oliver Watney, Esq., the British Museum, the Bod-
leian Library, the Cleveland Museum, the Ministry of Works, the
National Portrait Gallery, and the Tate Gallery. For their help so
generously given in various ways I am indebted to Mr. J. W.
Goodison, Sir James Mann, Mr. Robert Sherlock, Mr. Lawrence
Stone, Dr. Pamela Tudor-Craig, and Professor E. K. Waterhouse,
and to the staff of the National Buildings Record and of the

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