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This book presents a biography of the poetics and politics of London in 1613, from Whitehall to Guildhall, that is, Shakespeare's London. It examines major events at court, such as the untimely death of Prince Henry and its aftermath, and the extravagant wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Frederick of Germany and her journey to the Continent. The city flourished with scores of publications on a vast array of topics, including poetry, travel narratives, music, and, of course, plays. The book offers summaries and analyses of most of these texts, knowing that some of them may not be well-known to all readers. Many of these publications had a kind of link to the court. In order to understand the context of the year 1613, the book actually begins in October 1612 with Prince Henry's illness and death in November, which had a major impact on what happened in 1613. It proceeds more or less chronologically from this event to Princess Elizabeth's wedding and the stunning array of dramatic performances at court, and includes the journey to her new home in Germany. As part of the year's cultural nexus, the narrative reaches into the Guildhall experience to explore the riches of the books that emanated from London's printers and to examine specifically the drama performed or published in 1613. The final major focus centres on the Carr-Howard wedding at the year's end, full of cultural activities and ripe with political significance.
his son’s death and yet moving on with the demands of the kingdom. Two events began the transformation that led toward Princess Elizabeth’s wedding: the official contract between her and Frederick on 27 December, and the outpouring of dramatic performances at court, beginning in the Christmas season and spilling over into 1613. On Christmas Sunday, the Duke of Lennox, the royal
members, who for him was slain” (ll. 67–70). For Herbert, peace is more than the absence of war; it is also an inner state that contributes to the particular social and political relationships necessary for peace. Two Latin poems written in 1613, when Herbert was roughly twenty years old, were discovered in the mid-twentieth century in a collection of epithalamia presented to the “Winter Queen,” Princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I, and her husband, Frederick, Elector Palatine (1610–23) and King of Bohemia
MS 23, Letter, 1606, p. 40. James I seemed completely uninterested in maintaining this entail and in 1608 attempted to gift the Clifford hereditary lands in Westmorland and Skipton in Yorkshire to Francis Clifford. See Great Books, ed. Malay, pp. 734–738. 10 See Malay, ‘The Marrying of Anne Clifford: Marriage Strategy in the Clifford Inheritance Dispute’, Northern History 159.2 (2012), pp. 251–264. introduction 3 During this early period of her life Anne entered into the Court life of Queen Anne of Denmark and her daughter the princess Elizabeth, and maintained
Chapter 3 1611–13 ‘The true Panthæon of Great Britaine’ Voicy L’Alexandre de la grande Bretaigne ... Le voicy les armes à la main, face et pointe tournées ver L’ennemy de Dieu ...1 T he role played by James’s eldest son, Prince Henry, in the inculcation of an imperial mentality was critical. The period from 1611 to 1613 saw the apotheoses of theatrical material relating to the new Britain, coinciding as it did with Henry’s investiture as Prince of Wales and the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine. These years also witnessed the accretion
: The Palsgraue is invincible I thinke. Not to be ouercome. Nor to be tam’de by any. Matchlesse, and farre beyond the praise of words, Are all thy actions, let me honour thee.71 Savoy is made emperor, the Palsgrave happy to let the more qualified man take the role, while the underlying message of the play is clear. The Hector of Germany strongly suggests that Henry Stuart lived on in the hopes surrounding the Elector Palatine, following his marriage to Princess Elizabeth, hopes which indeed were given new impetus by his election in 1618 – but in 1614 the German
This book looks at the interrelationship between nationalism and theatre in the Jacobean period. It also looks at the creation of a British identity brought about by the accession of King James VI of Scotland to the English throne in 1603. The most significant political legacy of James's national project was the creation of an emphatically British identity among the settlers from both England and Scotland who planted Ulster. A series of plays in London's theatres was staging the lives of a group of earlier British rulers. The theatre of the Jacobean period does not rest on Shakespeare alone. What emerges in the study of the London stages in this period is that his work fits into a wider framework of dramatic material discoursing on not just the Union, but on issues of war, religion and overseas exploration. Under James VI and I, the discourse on empire changed to meet the new expansion overseas, and also the practicality of a Scottish king whose person fulfilled the criteria of King of 'Great Britain' in a way that Elizabeth never could. For James VI and I, Shakespeare's play was a celebration of the British imperium that seemed secure in the figures of Henry, Prince of Wales, Prince Charles and the Princess Elizabeth. The repertoire of the theatre companies suggests that in terms of public opinion there was a great deal of consensus regarding the direction of foreign policy.
him nearby. In fact, Somerset was probably at the height of his political power in early 1614. He and his wife took over the palace space formerly occupied by Princess Elizabeth. She, of course, after her wedding in 1613, had moved to the Continent and had settled into a pleasant life with her husband in Heidelberg. On 2 January 1614, Elizabeth gave birth to the first of fourteen children: a son, named
. If Shakespeare resided in the Blackfriars gatehouse, westward a couple of miles away, Ludovic Stuart, Duke of Lennox, occupied the Holbein Gatehouse in Whitehall Palace, the seat of government and residence of the royal family. When King James moved south from Scotland in 1603 to become King of England, he eventually brought with him his family: Queen Anne, Prince Henry, Princess Elizabeth, and
had most devises, but when yt came to execution, had worst successe’ (423). Even this slight disappointment cannot dampen the enthusiasm that greeted the evening spectacle. Another source highlights the setting: in the evening the King, Queen, Prince Charles, Prince Frederick, Princess Elizabeth ‘with the rest of the nobilitie of England’ had gathered ‘in the galleries and windowes about his highnes