Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, 12 miles southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chief minister of Henry VIII. In 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the cardinal gave the palace to the king to check his disgrace. The palace went on to become one of Henry's most favoured residences; soon after acquiring the property, he arranged for it to be enlarged so that it might more easily accommodate his sizeable retinue of courtiers. The palace is currently in the possession of King Charles III and the Crown.
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio. A masque involved music, dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the architectural framing and costumes might be designed by a renowned architect, to present a deferential allegory flattering to the patron. Professional actors and musicians were hired for the speaking and singing parts. Masquers who did not speak or sing were often courtiers: the English queen Anne of Denmark frequently danced with her ladies in masques between 1603 and 1611, and Henry VIII and Charles I of England performed in the masques at their courts. In the tradition of masque, Louis XIV of France danced in ballets at Versailles with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully.
Nonsuch Palace was a Tudor royal palace, commissioned by Henry VIII in Surrey, England and completed in 1538. Its site lies in what is now Nonsuch Park on the boundaries of the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey and the London Borough of Sutton.
Niccolò dell'Abbate, sometimes Nicolò and Abate was a Mannerist Italian painter in fresco and oils. He was of the Emilian school, and was part of the team of artists called the School of Fontainebleau that introduced the Italian Renaissance to France. He may be found indexed under either "Niccolò" or "Abbate", though the former is more correct.
The Banqueting House, on Whitehall in the City of Westminster, central London, is the grandest and best-known survivor of the architectural genre of banqueting houses, constructed for elaborate entertaining. It is the only large surviving component of the Palace of Whitehall, the residence of English monarchs from 1530 to 1698. The building is important in the history of English architecture as the first structure to be completed in the classical style of Palladian architecture which was to transform English architecture.
The Masque of Beauty was a courtly masque written by Ben Jonson, and performed in London's Whitehall Palace on 10 January 1608. It inaugurated the refurbished banquesting hall of the palace. It was a sequel to the preceding Masque of Blackness, which had been performed three years earlier, on 6 January 1605. In The Masque of Beauty, the "daughters of Niger" of the earlier piece were shown cleansed of the black pigment they had worn on the prior occasion.
The artists of the Tudor court are the painters and limners engaged by the monarchs of England's Tudor dynasty and their courtiers between 1485 and 1603, from the reign of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I.
WilliamScrots was a painter of the Tudor court and an exponent of the Mannerist style of painting in the Netherlands.
Anthony Toto or "Antony", real name Antonio di Nunziato d'Antonio (1498–1554), was an Italian painter and architect at the English court.
Robert Peake the Elder was an English painter active in the later part of Elizabeth I's reign and for most of the reign of James I. In 1604, he was appointed picture maker to the heir to the throne, Prince Henry; and in 1607, serjeant-painter to King James I – a post he shared with John De Critz.
Sir Adam Otterburn of Auldhame and Redhall was a Scottish lawyer and diplomat. He was king's advocate to James V of Scotland and secretary to Mary of Guise and Regent Arran.
Sir Thomas Cawarden of Bletchingley, Nonsuch Park and East Horsley (Surrey) was Master of the Revels to Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I.
The Inventory of Henry VIII compiled in 1547 is a list of the possessions of the crown, now in the British Library as Harley MS 1419.
Giovanni da Maiano II was an Italian sculptor employed by Henry VIII of England and Cardinal Wolsey to decorate their palaces. Maiano, from which village Giovanni took his name, is near Fiesole and Florence. He was the son of Benedetto da Maiano.
Bartolommeo Penni was a Florentine High Renaissance painter active in the 16th century, the brother of the painters Luca Penni and Gianfrancesco Penni - the three brothers originally came from a family of weavers. Bartolommeo moved to England with "Antony Toto" and served as a court artist to Henry VIII of England between 1531 and 1533. He probably came to Henry from Cardinal Wolsey, as he and Toto first appear in the accounts just after Wolsey's fall in October 1529. "Toto" had been signed on in Florence in 1519 as an assistant to Pietro Torrigiano, who in fact left England for good later that year. Toto and Penni spent most of their time after 1538 working on Nonsuch Palace, including elaborate stucco work for Henry's most advanced building, now vanished. Penni is recorded as still in England in 1538 and also worked as painter-decorator to Henry's son and successor Edward VI of England.
Pedro de Negro or Pedro Negro was a Spanish soldier who fought for Henry VIII of England and Edward VI of England in France and Scotland.
Hans of Antwerp was a goldsmith and merchant working in Tudor London. He supplied silver plate and jewels to the court of Henry VIII.
The coronation of Mary I as Queen of England and Ireland took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on Sunday 1 October 1553. This was the first coronation of a queen regnant in England, a female ruler in her own right. The ceremony was therefore transformed. Ritual and costume was interlinked. Contemporary records insist the proceedings were performed "according to the precedents", but mostly these were provisions made previously for queens consort.
Walter Fyshe was a London tailor who worked for Elizabeth I until 1582. He also made some of her farthingales. Fyshe made the queen's ceremonial clothes and coronation robes, altering robes made for the coronation of Mary I of England.
The coronation of Edward VI as King of England and Ireland took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on 20 February 1547. Edward ascended the throne following the death of King Henry VIII.
