The superstitions surrounding the ideas of ghosts, death, and what happened to your soul as your body approached it’s demise were all inspiring topics for the plays of William Shakespeare. It turns out that these superstitions were not only fuel for dramatic presentations on the stage, but formed the foundation of pretty creepy tales about the real life of one of England’s most famous monarchs, Queen Elizabeth I. 

According to tales from her handmaiden, Elizabeth was paranoid to a fault, scared of dying, and left specific orders in her will for how her body was to be handled that defied the traditions of the land, and left a set of at least 6 individuals doing work that was scarier than grave digger in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Here this week to share with us the real life history of the three weeks after the death of Elizabeth I and the surprising, often macabre, realities of what those weeks entailed by order of the Queen is the man who wrote his PhD thesis on the Living Death of Elizabeth I, Dr. James Alsop.