Elizabethan Architecture

Elizabethan architecture is the building style of England during the reign of Elizabeth I, from 1558 to 1603, drawing more on the design of northern Europe than on Italy. Its clearest expression is the prodigy house, a large, often square country house built by courtiers competing for royal favor, featuring mullioned windows, elaborate skylines that recall medieval fortification, Dutch gables and Flemish strapwork, and interiors organized around long galleries and withdrawing rooms for a new emphasis on domestic comfort. Little new church building took place in the period, following the earlier dissolution of the monasteries. Hardwick Hall, Burghley House, Wollaton Hall, Longleat House and Montacute House are its defining surviving examples, and the style evolved into Jacobean architecture after James I came to the throne in 1603.