William Shakespeare lived in a time when politics and religion ruled the strategy of Kings and Queens throughout Europe, but perhaps the most notable method of securing peace for the self-styled King of Peace was through marriage. Bringing his own form of stability back to England through his marriage and children on the heels of the infamously virgin Queen and heirless monarch, Elizabeth I, James had marriage as a focal point of both his life and his political strategy. One of the defining moments of his reign was his and Queen Anne’s focus on procuring marriage to his son Charles, and seeking out specifically a Spanish Match for that son. Today, our guest Mira Kafantaris is here to share with us the history of James “Spanish Match”,what the cultural reception to all of the marriage for peace was in the common realm of England during and just after Shakespeare’s lifetime, and whether we can see echoes of this cultural reality show up in the plays of the bard.