Editing Elizabethan era (section)

==Science, technology, and exploration==
[[File:British - Francis Bacon - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Francis Bacon]], pioneer of modern scientific thought]]
Lacking a dominant genius or a formal structure for research (the following century had both Sir [[Isaac Newton]] and the [[Royal Society]]), the Elizabethan era nonetheless saw significant scientific progress. The astronomers [[Thomas Digges]] and [[Thomas Harriot]] made important contributions; [[William Gilbert (astronomer)|William Gilbert]] published his seminal study of magnetism, ''De Magnete,'' in 1600. Substantial advancements were made in the fields of cartography and surveying. The eccentric but influential [[John Dee (mathematician)|John Dee]] also merits mention.

Much of this scientific and technological progress is related to the practical skill of navigation. English achievements in exploration were noteworthy in the Elizabethan era. Sir [[Francis Drake]] circumnavigated the globe between 1577 and 1581, and [[Martin Frobisher]] explored the [[Arctic]]. The first attempt at English settlement of the eastern seaboard of North America occurred in this era—the abortive colony at [[Roanoke Island]] in 1587.

While Elizabethan England is not thought of as an age of technological innovation, some progress did occur. In 1564 Guilliam Boonen came from the [[Netherlands]] to be Queen Elizabeth's first [[coach-builder]] —thus introducing the new European invention of the spring-suspension coach to England, as a replacement for the litters and carts of an earlier transportation mode. Coaches quickly became as fashionable as sports cars in a later century; social critics, especially [[Puritan]] commentators, noted the "diverse great ladies" who rode "up and down the countryside" in their new coaches.<ref>Ann Jennalie Cook (1981) ''The Privileged Playgoers of Shakespeare's London, 1576–1642,'', Princeton University Press, pp. 81–82 {{ISBN|0691064547}}</ref>