The Masque of Indian and China Knights was performed at Hampton Court in Richmond, England on 1 January 1604. [1] The masque was not published, and no text survives. It was described in a letter written by Dudley Carleton. [2] The historian Leeds Barroll prefers the title, Masque of the Orient Knights. [3]
This masque marked the return of the royal households to London after an outbreak of plague. [4] The households of Anne of Denmark and Prince Henry had travelled to Winchester, and entertained themselves in October with the masque, Prince Henry's Welcome at Winchester . [5] The French ambassador, Christophe de Harlay, Count of Beaumont, heard that Anne of Denmark was planning more superior and costly events for Christmas time, to be realised as this masque and The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses . [6] There was also an equestrian show of running at the ring, and a special "standing" was built for Anne of Denmark to use as a grandstand. [7]
A letter written by Arbella Stuart appears to identify the Masque of Knights and another masque as the invention of a group of male courtiers rather than the queen's personal production, writing on 18 December 1603 that she was their confidante, "Certain noblemen (whom I may not yet name to you because some of them have made me of their counsel) intend another. Certain gentlemen of a good sort another". [8] On 21 December Dudley Carleton wrote that the Duke of Lennox was the deviser or producer of the masques to be performed by men, "We shall have a merry Christmas at Hampton Court, for both male and female masques are all ready bespoken, whereof the Duke is rector chori of the one side, and the Lady Bedford of the other". [9]
The French ambassador, Christophe de Harlay, Count of Beaumont, and the Spanish ambassador Juan de Tassis, 1st Count of Villamediana competed for precedence at court. Beaumont was invited to Lennox's masque and Villamediana was invited to the more prestigious twelfth night masque, The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses. Beaumont took this as a slight, but was compelled to attend the gentleman's masque or sword dance. The controversy delayed the production of The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses. [10]
The general theme of the masque is a visit of knights from distant lands to the new Stuart court in England. [11] Their foreigness may have been intended to put into perspective differences between Scottish and English courtiers. [12] The representation of a Chinese magician in the masque can be seen as an example of cultural appropriation, while the imagined country he describes seems, from Carleton's report, to be a kind of fictionalised Utopia. [13]
English court masques had previously featured arrivals, in January 1512 twelve masquers in disguise, "after the manner of Italy", [14] and in January 1527 Henry VIII and courtier shepherds arrived at Hampton Court. [15] Precedents can also be found in the records of the Scottish court. Shepherds arrived at Castle Campbell for a wedding masque in January 1563. [16] The Navigatioun by Alexander Montgomerie was probably performed in the Christmas season 1579/80. [17] This masque involved the torchlit entrance at Holyrood Palace of a narrator and his three companions, a "Turk, the More, and the Egyptien". [18] [19] The court musicians were bought "mask claithis" comprising red and yellow taffeta with swords and daggers. Montgomerie's prologue alludes to the Magi and Epiphany to represent James VI as the Northern Star. James was also characterised as Solomon. The masque was followed by dancing. The king's favourite, Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox may have been involved in this entertainment; the narrator describes himself as "german born", meaning he is a cousin. [20]
At the masque celebrating the baptism of James VI in 1566, Indian nereids had used compasses to navigate their way to Stirling Castle following the Great Bear from the New World. [21] The Indian knights at Hampton Court may have represented Indigenous peoples of the Americas. During the inaugural Entry of Anne of Denmark into Edinburgh in May 1590, actors portrayed the "Moirs of Ind", who dwelt in harmony and abundance by "Synerdas", who had sailed to Scotland to offer her the wise counsel of their "most willing minds". [22]
The performance at Hampton Court may have been influenced by French practice, the ambassador the Comte de Beaumont said Lennox's ballet was organised à la Française and the Earl of Worcester described another of the January masques as a "ballet" rather a masque. Beaumont also mentions a third masque, a ballet d'Écossais, the Scottish masque. [23] Carleton says this was a masquerade on 6 January by "Scotchmen" in the Queen's presence involving a sword dance comparable to a Spanish matachin . [24] There are some similarities in Carleton's description of the Masque of Knights with the Ballet des Princes de la Chine performed at the French court in 1601. One of the 1604 masquers, Lord Aubigny, younger brother of Lennox, may have attended this ballet in person. [25]
David Bergeron notes in connection with the Masque of Knights that the Duke of Lennox had previously helped to plan the reception of Anne of Denmark in May 1590 and the masque at the baptism of Prince Henry at Stirling Castle in 1594, and mentions that Lord Aubigny hosted Ben Jonson from 1604 onwards. [26]
According to the report of Dudley Carleton, [27] the masque was staged at night after a performance of a Robin Goodfellow play, probably A Midsummer Night's Dream . [28] [29] The scene opened with Heaven, built in the hall, from where a Chinese magician made a long speech describing his country, comparing it "for strength and plenty" with England. [30] He announced the arrival of "certain Indian and China knights", who he had magically conveyed on clouds to Hampton Court. A curtain or "traverse" was pulled back to reveal the masquers playing the knights and carrying torches and lanterns. After some songs, the masquers approached the king in turn. [31]
William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, presented James VI and I with a shield bearing an impresa or poem, which he explained. He gave the king an expensive jewel. Dudley Carleton wrote that King James was planning to buy this jewel from the financier Peter Vanlore. The jewel cost "a great sum of money", although the price mentioned by Carleton, £40,000, seems far too high. [32] The jewel was perhaps a diamond with a pendant pearl delivered with a ruby ring to the king on 1 January, which cost £760. [33] Soon after King James obtained a large table ruby and two lozenge diamonds, for which he sent Vanlore a parcel of Queen Elizabeth's jewels worth £5492–11s–2d in part-payment. [34]
The other masquers presented shields with emblems. Philip Herbert's shield depicted a horse in a green field, which he explained was descendent of Alexander's Bucephalus. The king made a joke about a showman called Bankes whose act involved a dancing and calculating horse, and then on cue, the formal dance of the masque took place. Next, Anne of Denmark and her ladies in waiting joined in the dancing, "taken out" of the audience by the masquers. Carleton mentions the Countess of Bedford, the Countess of Hertford, Susan Vere, Penelope Rich, and Lady Southwell the elder. The event ended with the return of the magician who dissolved the entertainment by revealing the identities of the eight masqued English and Scottish courtiers. [35]
Some surviving music was copied by Nicholas Le Strange from the January 1604 masques at Hampton Court. [36] William Bankes and his famous horse had visited Edinburgh in April 1596. [37]
The courtier Roger Wilbraham wrote a summary of his impressions of the entertainments at court in January 1604 and their costs;
King James was at his court at Hampton, where the French, Spanish, and Polonian ambassadors were severallie solemplie feasted, many plaies & daunces with swordes, one mask by English & Scottish lords, another by the Queen's Maiestie & eleven more ladies of her chamber presenting giftes as goddesses. These maskes, especially the laste, costes £2000 or £3000, the aparells, rare musick, fine songes, and in jewels most riche £20,000, the least to my judgment, & [jewels for] her Majestie £100,000, after Christmas was running at the ring by the King & 8 or 9 lords for the honour of those goddesses & then they all feasted together privatelie." [38]
The eight courtiers wore robes of crimson satin embroidered with gold and dressed with silver lace over silver doublets, with swords and hats with an Indian bird feather. These costumes, according to Dudley Carleton, were too cumbersome for dancing. [39]
Anne of Denmark was the wife of King James VI and I. She was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until her death in 1619.
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox and 1st Duke of Richmond, lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was a Scottish nobleman who through their paternal lines was a second cousin of King James VI of Scotland and I of England. He was involved in the Plantation of Ulster in Ireland and the colonization of Maine in New England. Richmond's Island and Cape Richmond as well as Richmond, Maine, are named after him. His magnificent monument with effigies survives in Westminster Abbey.
The Masque of Blackness was an early Jacobean era masque, first performed at the Stuart Court in the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1605. It was written by Ben Jonson at the request of Anne of Denmark, the queen consort of King James I, who wished the masquers to be disguised as Africans. Anne was one of the performers in the masque along with her court ladies, all of whom appeared in blackface makeup. In a ceremony earlier on the day, Prince Charles, Anne's second son was given the title of Duke of York.
Margaret Stuart, Scottish aristocrat and courtier in England. She served as lady-in-waiting to the queen consort of England, Anne of Denmark. She was the daughter of James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray, and Elizabeth Stuart, 2nd Countess of Moray. The sailor and patron of Ben Jonson, Sir Frances Stuart was her brother.
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 Vision of the Twelve Goddesses was an early Jacobean-era masque, written by Samuel Daniel and performed in the Great Hall of Hampton Court Palace on the evening of Sunday, 8 January 1604. One of the earliest of the Stuart Court masques, staged when the new dynasty had been in power less than a year and was closely engaged in peace negotiations with Spain, The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses stood as a precedent and a pattern for the many masques that followed during the next four decades.
Sir Peter Vanlore was a Dutch-born English merchant, jeweller and moneylender in Elizabethan and Stuart England.
Juan de Tassis y Acuña, 1st Count of Villamediana, was a Spanish diplomat and official, awarded his title by king Philip III of Spain in 1603, and the General Head of Spanish Post Offices.
Susan Herbert, Countess of Montgomery, was an English court office holder. She served as lady-in-waiting to the queen consort of England and Scotland, Anne of Denmark. She was the youngest daughter of Elizabethan courtier, and poet Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
Thomas Somerset, 1st Viscount Somerset (1579–1651) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1601 and 1611. He was raised to the Peerage of Ireland in 1626.
Lady Audrey Walsingham was an English courtier. She served as Lady of the Bedchamber to queen Elizabeth I of England, and then as Mistress of the Robes to Anne of Denmark from 1603 until 1619.
Tethys' Festival was a masque produced on 5 June 1610 to celebrate the investiture of Prince Henry (1594–1612) as Prince of Wales.
Mary Middlemore was a Courtier and Maid of Honour to Anne of Denmark, subject of poems, and treasure hunter.
Dorothy Hastings was a courtier to Elizabeth I of England and Anne of Denmark
Prince Henry's Welcome at Winchester was a masque produced by Anne of Denmark and performed in 1603 at Winchester on a day between 11 and 17 October.
The jewels of Anne of Denmark (1574–1619), wife of James VI and I and queen consort of Scotland and England, are known from accounts and inventories, and their depiction in portraits by artists including Paul van Somer. A few pieces survive. Some modern historians prefer the name "Anna" to "Anne", following the spelling of numerous examples of her signature.
The wedding of Elizabeth Stuart (1596–1662), daughter of James VI and I, and Frederick V of the Palatinate (1596–1632) was celebrated in London in February 1613. There were fireworks, masques, tournaments, and a mock-sea battle or naumachia. Preparations involved the construction of a "Marriage room", a hall adjacent to the 1607 Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace. The events were described in various contemporary pamphlets and letters.
Running at the ring, riding at the ring or tilting at the ring is an equestrian tournament activity originally practiced at European royal courts and likely derived from other lance games like quintain. It gained new popularity at Natural Chimneys near Mount Solon, Virginia, possibly as early as the 1820s, and since 1962, has been the state sport of Maryland. A similar contest, the corrida de sortija, is held in Argentina where it is considered a gaucho sport derived from the Spanish tradition of medieval tournaments.
Christophe de Harlay, Count of Beaumont (1570–1615) was a French politician and diplomat who served as ambassador to England.
Sophia Stuart was the fourth daughter and last of nine children of James VI and I and Anne of Denmark.