Throughout Shakespeare’s lifetime one of the most widely circulated and reported on current events was the state of the Holy Roman Empire. Ruled for much of Shakespeare’s lifetime by an eccentric named Rudolf II, who secluded himself in Bohemia to the neglect of his Empire. Rudolf II and his weird choice to isolate himself in Bohemia would have been enough to make Shakespeare’s references to Bohemia in his plays make sense, but on top of Rudolf II there was also Don John of Austria, the half brother to King Philip II of Spain and a threat to the English throne, with many in England concerned he might take over England should the Spanish Armada have succeeded in 1588. For historians, we can look back and see that the Spanish Armada was defeated, but for 28 year old William Shakespeare, that outcome was far from a certainty. Later when William Shakespeare was 49 years old, the eldest daughter of James I, named Elizabeth, married the Frederick V, a senior prince of the Holy Roman Empire, who would go on to become the King of Bohemia--and the irony of that situation could hardly have been lost of William for whom the entirety of his life had been spanned by upheaval in the Holy Roman Empire and an odd relationship to Bohemia. We see glimpses into the contemporary mindset of England and the politics abroad with the Holy Roman Empire as Shakespeare as well as his contemporaries comment on the threat of Don John, the war between the Spanish and Dutch, and even the oddities of the strange, isolated, King of Bohemia, Rudolf II, in plays like King John, which was written the same year Rudolf II died, and Jonsons’ The Alchemist which specifically calls out, and insults, the Hapsburg family with his multiple references to Austrian princes. Here to help us unpack this veritable mountain of history packed into just a few lines of text, and introduce us to the life of Rudolf II, the Hapsburg family, and this part of 16th century current affairs is our guest, Peter Wilson.