Cue for Treason

In Cue for Treason, Geoffrey Trease imbues his historical setting with social and political detail. This creates a rich backdrop that informs the circumstances and motives of the protagonists and antagonists.

In particular, the book draws on the nature of social structures and power in 16th-century England. Peter’s family are in the yeomanry, a rural middle class that grew in Elizabeth’s reign: relatively wealthy farmers who owned their own land. The yeomanry’s relative privilege meant that they were able to access education, especially the boys, and engage in wider intellectual and cultural pursuits. Peter’s experiences are revealing of this class: He attends grammar school and so, when he meets the theater troupe, he understands the dramatic genre and is able to read scripts very well.

Peter’s Coming of Age is impacted by wider social issues in Elizabeth’s reign. The yeomans’ protest that leads to Peter fleeing is in relation to enclosure, when landowners appropriated land that had traditionally been communal to enrich their own estates. Between 1530 and 1650, enclosure protest was the main cause of social revolt across England. Peter’s travels across the country with the troupe enable him to witness mass unemployment, poverty, and vagrancy.