The word "renaissance" remind us a rebirth, something that was born again. According to this period of time that in England roughly goes from the early XXVI Century to the early XXVII, changes are in the foreground because old traditions didn't work anymore. People need to go exploring new places (reason of the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492), to improve science knowledge (Copernicus denied the Earth its central position within the Universe), but especially to rediscovery the classical Greek and Roman world with the consequent development in art, philosophy and learning to the detriment of medieval ideas (From a regular world view to a secular one).

But cultural shifts are usually linked to a political stability, as a matter of facts people are interested in cultural developments only in peacetime or when they have a social stability. Here's why the Renaissance was born after a war (the Wars of the Roses) and it developed during the Tudor dynasty with the consolidation of Elizabeth I's reign. It also makes us to understand that during the Renaissance the woman's position was less underrated than during the Middle Ages, in fact a woman even managed to become a queen!

During her reign, she brought some changes, especially what concerns religion. Indeed Elizabeth made sure that the Church of England remained a protestant church and that the sovereign was its head: therefore England's faith was different than the rest of the Continent. It is important to remind that England become protestant with Henry VIII in 1533, when he finds a pretext to split with the Pope and the Church in order to spoil monastery(a way to achieve money) and that Henry's daughter Mary I ("Bloody Mary") tried to bring Catholicism back.

Certainly Elizabeth also had to face to problems. They were caused by the increase of population and price inflation but it doesn't influenced cultural developments.
Cultural improvements were influenced by the new faith but especially by the new idea of individual expression and importance of human being. Both literature and other forms of art were focused on man: his weaknesses and qualities. An example of Elizabethan form of literature was drama (the basic theme was clash between individual and social orders and it wasn't religion, no more the privilege code).
This period was the golden age of drama because it was one of the best way to represent human being.
The best known playwrights (called the "university wits") were Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), Robert Greene (1558-1592), Thomas Nashe (1567-1601) and Shakespeare. His importance is given by his knowledge of human heart.

Beyond the drama, sonnets originated during the Renaissance but also Metaphysical poetry thanks to contribution of John Donne ( 1572-1631) and George Herbert (1593-1633). This poetry talked of religion and love and it examined the relationship between the God and the universe and it was expanded with new scientific discovery and theories (it was probably born in a way to link the old traditions with the new ideas and to broaden human horizons).

But these shifts brought uncertainty and restlessness because the idea of the world changed and people used to find the meaning of their life only to religion. During the Renaissance instead the ideal was harmony of mind and body (this conception originated in Italy and the cultural movement named "Humanism") and the life should have been based on love, wars, poetry and politic.