The Elizabethan age is seen as a golden age because it was a long period of peace and prosperity in England in which the economy grew and the arts flourished.
After a period of civil war, called the War of the Roses, dragged the country down in the late fifteenth century, the Tudor family won and established a dynasty that united the two warring families that war. Henry VII set up the groundwork for the modern bureaucratic state, and his son, Henry VIII, continued that policy of much needed centralization, but also caused a great deal of turmoil by pulling the country out of Roman Catholicism and into Protestantism so that he could divorce his wife. After his death, there was more turmoil, especially during the reign of his daughter Mary, known as Bloody Mary for her severe persecution of Protestants.
After all this polarization and upheaval, the country was...
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more than ready for peace and stability by the time Elizabeth came to the throne. Elizabeth was a wise ruler who combined the best traits of her parents. She knew her grasp on the throne was tenuous—she was a woman, which many people felt disqualified her, and she was the daughter of a woman whom many people did not believe was legitimately married to Henry VIII. Therefore, Elizabeth had to tread very carefully, doing her best to pull her country together and not alienate anybody unnecessarily. She insisted on Protestantism as the state religion, as she had to, as that was the only faith that legitimized her as monarch, but she persecuted Catholics as little as possible. She kept her country out of war, meaning many resources could be used to grow domestic prosperity.
Under Elizabeth's reign of peace and general benevolence, the arts flourished. This an age particularly associated with great literature, such as the plays of Shakespeare and Marlowe, Spenser's Faerie Queen, and the rise of the sonnet, all important parts of why Elizabeth's reign is seen as a golden age.
It was a good time to be English during the Elizabethan era. During this era, Shakespeare created many of his famous plays, thus making England a cultural center recognized by all of Europe and eventually the world. The English economy improved during Elizabeth's reign. with the Royal Stock Exchange being established by Sir Thomas Gresham. The nation also enjoyed at time of relative religious peace at home, as Elizabeth was a Protestant with no ties to the Roman Catholic Church.
Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of Elizabethan England was the nation's rise as a maritime power. England survived a potential attack by the Spanish Armada in 1588. The queen even threatened to personally fight for the nation's defense. English pirates had been taking Spanish gold shipments from the New World for years; now Francis Drake and his Seadogs led the way in England becoming an imperial nation in its own right. Drake circumnavigated the globe, thus earning international acclaim. English shipbuilding increased during this period, and this would set the stage for the next three hundred years of English imperialism. Elizabeth would charter the East India Company, and settlers would attempt to colonize the New World with the failed colony at Roanoke.
While conditions for the poor and religious dissenters were quite bad in England during this time, one must consider that religious dissenters were treated poorly everywhere. English maritime power dates back to the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Shakespeare made English literature internationally famous with his plays and sonnets. These things made the Elizabethan era one of the best times, for those living within the nation, in English history.