Who was in charge in shakespeares time?

Answer 1

Queen Elizabeth herself was totally in charge.

She had royal advisors, such as Lord Burghley, Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton and Sir Thomas Gresham. She was in love with the Earl of Leicester but she kept him out of politics. The King of Spain, King Felipe II, certainly wished he was in charge of England; and the Queen's Admiral, Sir Francis Drake, was a key person in ridding the country of the Spanish threat.

But the truth is that Queen Elizabeth was an absolute monarch who ignored any advice that she didn't like and who played her rival courtiers off against one another. Nobody else had any power over England unless Elizabeth allowed it.

Answer 2

Who was in charge of what? Edmund Tilney was the Master of the Queen's and later the King's revels--he was in charge of court entertainment in England. Sixtus V was one of nine or more popes in charge of the Roman Catholic Church at the time. Selim II was one of the Sultans in charge of the Ottoman Empire. Jacob Van Neck was in charge of a Dutch expedition to the Spice Islands in 1599. A more specific question would be helpful.