4
The Elizabethan Court

In Elizabethan England there was one center of power—the royal court. A royal court is difficult to define because it changed constantly, but it was generally made up of the queen and all of the people who clustered around her, taking care of her household and personal needs and helping her to govern the country. This was a very complex operation. Elizabeth I's (1533–1603; reigned 1558–1603) retinue, or group of attendants, ranged from one thousand to fifteen hundred people. Court members included household staff, such as cooks and bakers, and the highest statesmen in England, including the Privy Council, a powerful group of nineteen (later fourteen) advisors and administrators who carried out most of the day-to-day governing of the kingdom. At court one would usually also find many visiting dignitaries (people of high rank or importance), both foreign and English, and their attendants.

Elizabeth's court was concerned with more than governmental or domestic issues. The queen also attracted the greatest scholars, artists, explorers, scientists, and performers from England and abroad. She was enthusiastic about music, dance, literature, and drama, and she was fascinated by the tales of explorers and the mysteries being uncovered by scientists and scholars. Though she never traveled beyond southern England, she spoke six languages fluently and conversed easily with foreign dignitaries. With her great energy and intellectual curiosity, her court became the center stage in the development of the Renaissance, a cultural movement involving the rebirth of classical thinking and the arts that had been occurring in Europe for over a century. Though Elizabeth firmly believed in many rigid social structures from the past, her reign brought about a cultural revolution in England, giving rise to new views on human nature and the seemingly unlimited potential of human reason and spirit.

WORDS TO KNOW

allegory:

A story or painting that represents abstract ideas or principles as characters, figures, or events.

archbishop:

The head bishop of a province or district.

bishop:

A clergyman with a rank higher than a priest who has the power to ordain priests and usually presides over a district called a diocese.

bureaucracy:

Staff of administrative officials.

clergy:

Authorized religious leaders, such as priests and ministers.

coronation:

The crowning ceremony in which a monarch officially becomes king or queen.

courtier:

A person who serves or participates in the royal court or household as the king's or queen's advisor, officer, or attendant.

dignitary:

A person of high rank or importance.

etiquette:

The conduct expected to be followed in a social or official environment.

gentry:

Landowners who did not hold titles but were from influential families.

knight:

A man granted a rank of honor by the monarch for his personal merit or service to the country.

lady-in-waiting:

A woman in the queen's household who attends the queen.

masque:

A short drama, usually full of music and dance, that presents an allegory.

nobles:

Elite men and women who held social titles.

patronage system:

A system in which a person with a lot of power or wealth grants favors to, financially supports, enters into contracts with, or appoints to office people who in return must promise to give their political support or access to their artistic achievements.

peer:

A noble holding the title of duke, marquis, earl, viscount, or baron.

progress:

A royal procession, or trip, made by a monarch and a large number of his or her attendants.

retinue:

Group of attendants.

shire:

County.

The powers of the queen

The English monarchy was based on the principle of the divine, or God-given, right of the monarch (king or queen) to rule the nation. Elizabeth was considered God's representative on earth; no human being in the kingdom was her equal. That meant, in theory, that no one could question her judgment or rebel against her. In reality, though, no monarch ever wielded absolute power in England. The English Crown did not have enough money to pay for a national army, police force, or a large bureaucracy (staff of administrative officials) to carry out the day-to-day administration of the kingdom. For these tasks the monarch relied on the country's upper classes—the nobility and the gentry. (Nobles were a small group of elite men and women who held social titles. The gentry were landowners who did not hold titles but were from influential families.)

Elizabeth was a gifted politician who seemed to know instinctively how to persuade or manipulate her courtiers. Courtiers were people who served or participated in the royal court or household as the king or queen's advisors, officers, or attendants. She allowed the nobles and gentry enough of a role in her government that most did not feel left out, but she remained remarkably powerful. From the start Elizabeth participated fully in all the major decisions—and many of the minor ones—of her kingdom. The members of her Privy Council were experienced statesmen. When the inexperienced, twenty-five-year-old queen took the throne, they assumed she would leave the important decision-making to them. They were wrong. Though Elizabeth listened to her advisors, in the end she made the decisions herself. She required all documents and letters on state matters to pass through her hands, even when it meant working late into the night to read and respond to them. In the early years of her reign her active participation in the government worried and frustrated her councilors. Most did not think a woman was capable of ruling the kingdom. Nevertheless, they carried out her will, and in time they learned to respect her political instincts as well as her title.

There were other governmental institutions in England outside of Elizabeth's court, the largest of which was the English Parliament. Parliament was made up of the monarch and two Houses. The House of Lords was comprised of the nobility and higher clergy, namely, bishops, or clergymen above the level of priest who preside over a district, and archbishops, bishops who oversee entire provinces. To sit in the House of Lords was a birthright; every peer (noble holding the title of duke, marquis, earl, viscount, or baron) in England was personally summoned to sit in the House of Lords. The House of Commons was comprised of knights (men granted a rank of honor by the monarch for their personal merit or service to the country), merchants, and other commoners who were selected as representatives by the shires, or counties, and towns of England. Part of Parliament's role in the government was to present the views of the English people to the queen. Parliament infuriated the queen, for example, when it petitioned her to marry soon after her accession. The main function of Parliament in Elizabeth's time, though, was to serve the queen. It was brought together at the queen's request to enact laws or to levy taxes, usually to raise money for wars. Though monarchs could impose laws without Parliament, Parliamentary statutes—those passed by both houses of Parliament and approved by the monarch—formed the highest law of England. While English people believed in the divine right of the queen, it was the "queen in Parliament"—a combination of the royal will and the voice of the people—that was the final authority.

Other governmental organizations carried out England's business and legal functions. The Exchequer was the center of finance and accounting. There was a central court system in Westminster Palace in London. Twice yearly its judges traveled to the remote regions of England to check up on local law enforcement and administration. Elizabethan England had fifty-three shires. The gentry in each shire enforced the royal laws and regulations. Local law and order was overseen by the country's fifteen hundred justices of the peace, who were assisted by sheriffs, or law enforcers. The two most distant regions of England, Wales and the northern shires, each had their own Regional Councils, which were powerful Crown-appointed assemblies headed by a Lord President. The royal court, however, was the final authority over all governmental institutions in England.

The queen's revenue

For her day-to-day expenses Elizabeth relied on her personal income, which was estimated to be about £250,000 per year in 1558, and about £600,000 per year at the time of her death. The largest part of her revenue came from renting out the sixty royal estates she had inherited. She also received income from court fines and fees and from special taxes. Although her annual income amounted to a lot of money at that time—enough to keep up her palaces and feed her huge retinue—it was not sufficient to cover major expenses, such as the high cost of war or the creation of a navy. For these Elizabeth had to convene, or call together, Parliament and ask for taxes to be imposed on the English people. Calling a Parliamentary session was always a last resort. Taxation was very unpopular, and Elizabeth was usually reluctant to convene Parliament, since it nearly always meant sharing power in some way.

Elizabeth was good at managing money, particularly in the first half of her reign. In fact some considered her to be too frugal. Her desire to save money caused her to consistently resist going to war. Though most historians today view this as a positive factor in bringing peace and stability to England, at the time Elizabeth's council members often lamented her reluctance to engage in the turbulent religious wars in Europe.

Palaces and homes

Elizabeth had many royal palaces at her disposal. She traveled regularly among several residences that were each large enough to accommodate her one thousand attendants. The royal court most often resided at the Palace of Whitehall, the largest palace in Europe, with over fifteen hundred rooms. Whitehall occupied about twenty-five acres in the heart of London and had long been the center of the English government and the main residence of the monarch. It had what was considered to be the finest art collection in England, with great paintings, statues, and tapestries from all over the world lining its walls and galleries. One of Elizabeth's favorite abodes was the palace in which she was born, Greenwich. Greenwich faced the Thames River in what is now suburban London. At Greenwich the queen kept her royal barge (a large, flat-bottomed boat), using it to travel up and down the river with twenty men at the oars. Richmond Palace, the residence Elizabeth called her "warm box," in which she liked to spend her winters, was west of London. She also stayed at Hampton Court, an eight-hundred-room palace with extensive gardens in which she enjoyed walking. Another regular residence was Windsor Castle, perched high over the Thames River west of London. After housing English royalty for over nine hundred years, Windsor remains an official residence of England's monarchy and is the largest occupied castle in the world. Later in her reign Elizabeth would acquire a country palace built by her father, Henry VIII (1491–1547), called Nonsuch, in the southeastern county of Surrey. Of all the palaces Nonsuch was the finest example of Tudor architecture.

The queen never stayed more than a couple of months at any one palace. The court was forced to move regularly because there were no flush toilets or plumbing systems. With so many people living in one place, after a time the palace and the area surrounding it began to smell. In addition local supplies for feeding and housing so many people often ran out after a prolonged stay.

Life at court

The royal court was a place where upper-class English people could achieve privileges or advancement. Most of the opportunities in the kingdom were controlled by Elizabeth under a patronage system. In a patronage system a person with power or wealth grants favors to, financially supports, enters into contracts with, or appoints people who in return must pledge their political support or perform their art in court. A courtier had to be in the good graces of the queen to receive a court or government job, a monopoly (the exclusive right to sell or trade a particular good), a pension, or a knighthood.

It was very difficult for a newcomer to the royal court to attract the queen's attention. She was constantly surrounded by guards and by a group of elite courtiers already in her favor. Only gentry or peers were allowed to attend the court, and they were only allowed in the Presence Chamber, a great hall where the queen entertained and communicated with the public. Even a courtier from a well-known noble family would often wait in the halls of the Presence Chamber for months at a time without gaining the queen's notice. In the meantime, many of these hopefuls lived beyond their means, dressing in the latest fashions daily. Most sought the help of one of the favored courtiers, often offering a substantial bribe for introducing them to the queen. Even with bribery and the finest of clothing, there was no assurance of success.

The Social Ranks of Peers

The social world of Elizabethan England was hierarchical; that is, everyone had a specific level, even the nobility. The top social level in England was the queen. Directly beneath her was a very small group of titled nobility called peers. The titles of the peers were determined by their birth or created by the monarch. Elizabeth was reluctant to bestow titles, keeping the peerage numbers low. There were about fifty-seven peers in England when Elizabeth became queen, and there were never more than sixty during her reign. The titles of peers, in descending order, were:

• Duke and Duchess;
• Marquis and Marchioness;
• Earl and Countess;
• Viscount and Viscountess;
• Baron and Baroness.

Religious leaders were given peer status in England. Bishops were ranked on the level of earls, while archbishops were ranked on the level of dukes.

Dukedom, the top title of the nobility, had once been reserved only for royal princes (sons of a king), but by Elizabethan times the title was used for a few other top nobles. There was only one duke in England during Elizabeth's reign, the Duke of Norfolk, and he was executed in 1572.

Women of noble families took their titles from their husbands, if married, and from their fathers, if single. It was correct to call any male of the peerage "Lord," and any woman "My lady." Most of the peers went by a territorial title. For example, Robert Dudley, after being created earl, was the Earl of Leicester.

Elizabeth spent much of her time in the well-guarded set of rooms of her court called the Privy Chamber. There she conducted business, entertained herself, slept, and ate. Only a few privileged attendants or courtiers could enter the Privy Chamber. Looking after Elizabeth in her private quarters were four Ladies of the Bedchamber, eight Gentlewomen of the Privy Chamber, and about six maids of honor, who served the queen her food and helped her dress. They were educated women, skilled in the same pastimes as the queen, and served as companions as well as attendants. The highly valued ladies-in-waiting positions were usually given to the daughters of the highest noble families. The young women were required to live at court and rarely received permission to leave, because the queen did not like change. In serving the demanding queen they earned every bit of the income they were paid, but most were happy to be at court. In return for good service these young women could expect Elizabeth to arrange excellent marriages for them.

The queen's favorites

Outside of the Privy Chamber, Elizabeth preferred the company of men to women. She had many favorites, the handsome and bold young men who received most of her attention. The queen enjoyed men who could challenge her intellect, and she preferred them to be handsome and confident. Most of Elizabeth's favorites were able flatterers, as well as good dancers, dressers, or horsemen. Aside from Robert Dudley (Earl of Leicester; 1532–1588), her constant companion in her first years as queen and friend for forty years, some other favorites were Christopher Hatton (1540–1591), Walter Raleigh (sometimes spelled Ralegh; c. 1552–1618), and Robert Devereux (Earl of Essex; 1566–1601). Hatton caught the queen's attention by dancing very skillfully in a court performance, but he rose in her esteem over the years and received many major appointments, including a high position on the Privy Council. Hatton was said to be so in love with Elizabeth that he never married, and there was jealous rivalry between him and Raleigh. Raleigh, an explorer and poet, came to court a bit later in the queen's reign, bringing tales of high sea adventure that fascinated her. Legend had it that, in a supremely gentlemanly act, he spread his costly cloak over a puddle so Elizabeth could cross without damaging her shoes or gown. Elizabeth knighted him, gave him estates in Ireland, and appointed him captain of her guards. Devereux was the stepson of Dudley, becoming a favorite in the queen's older years. Theirs was a turbulent relationship that ended in disaster.

Attending Elizabeth in her court was not easy. She expected a great deal of time and loyalty from her council, attendants, and favorites. She preferred not to have her courtiers' wives at court and rarely allowed her attendants to leave, making family life nearly impossible for them. Elizabeth was extremely vain about her looks, even as she grew older. Males who wished her favor paid court to her as though they were in love with her. She had a fiery temper, and did not spare her sharp tongue when annoyed. She once threw a shoe at a courtier in a temper tantrum, and on another occasion she boxed a courtier's ears. She shocked some of her intimates with her colorful swearing. But the queen also showed warm and loyal affection to her closest associates. Most of her courtiers were genuinely drawn to her magnetic presence, and to them she was known as the "sun queen." Her godson, the courtier and writer John Harington (1560–1612) summarized, as quoted in Neville Williams's essay "The Tudors": "When she smiled, it was a pure sunshine that everyone did choose to bask in if they could." On the other hand, Harington added, when Elizabeth was crossed, "the thunder fell on all alike."

Elizabeth was careful never to let herself become anyone else's equal, and kept her innermost feelings to herself. Like all British monarchs she considered herself to have two bodies, the private body of a woman and the public body of a monarch. She prided herself in devoting herself to her public role, the body of the "prince" of England, as she often called herself, no matter what her private needs as a human woman were.

Keeping up appearances

Though Elizabeth was frugal in her household budget, she maintained a magnificent and hospitable court. She knew the importance of displaying the Crown's power and wealth, giving notice to all who entered her court that England and its queen were forces to be reckoned with. Although Elizabeth was too worried about expense to build new palaces, she furnished those she owned lavishly with gold and silver decor, lining the walls with fine paintings and tapestries. The queen's guests at court were received with generous hospitality, including elegant feasts and entertainment. Room and board was provided for their personal attendants.

As one might expect, the court practiced strict etiquette and great ceremony in the presence of the queen. (Etiquette is the conduct expected to be followed in a social or official environment.) When Elizabeth arrived in the Presence Chamber, her guards lined the pathway before her and trumpets sounded a fanfare to announce her arrival. It was customary for her courtiers to kneel as she walked into the room and when she addressed them. It was improper to turn one's back to the queen; to leave her presence, one had to walk out of the room backwards.

Her interest in appearances extended to her courtiers. All who attended the court were expected to dress in the latest fashion. Elizabeth herself dressed extravagantly. She was said to have about three thousand dresses in her wardrobe. Her outfits were made from the finest materials, embroidered in silver and gold, and bejeweled with precious stones. They came in many layers and pieces: the elaborate ruff, a large, stiff circular collar of made of delicate lace at the neck; the stomacher, an embroidered or jewel-studded panel worn over the chest and stomach; the kirtle, or underskirt; the farthingale, a large and stiff hooped petticoat; and a gown of the latest European fashions draped over them. It took Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting two hours daily to dress her and don her jewels. As queen Elizabeth believed that she must be dressed more magnificently than any other woman in the country. In fact on at least one occasion she forbid one of her ladies-in-waiting to wear an especially elaborate dress that might compete with the queen's attire.

The center of English culture

Along with statesmen and representatives of foreign kings and queens, the best-known musicians, artists, philosophers, and explorers were found at court. They all sought the patronage, or support, of Elizabeth or the other nobles found at court. Playing for the court was a certain path to a successful career.

Elizabeth loved music and excelled at playing several instruments. She was an accomplished dancer, and kept her own orchestra at court so that she could dance morning and night. Well into her sixties she was frequently seen on the dance floor executing the leaps and twists of the intricate court dances, such as the volte, the pavane, and the galliard. Artists at court were hired to paint things in their ideal state—as the queen wished the country to see them and not the way they actually were. Thus the queen looked young and radiant in portraits even in the years after her golden hair had thinned from age and she wore thick white powder to cover her wrinkles.

The major artistic advances of Elizabethan times were made in literature and drama. Poetry was popular among the courtiers, and Elizabeth herself wrote poems. One of England's most promising young poets, Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1596), the nephew of the Earl of Leicester, was considered the ideal Elizabethan courtier. Edmund Spenser (1552–1599), author of The Faerie Queene, was one of the foremost poets of his age. Spenser embodied Renaissance ideals and his work reflected his strong patriotism and loyalty to his queen, who appears as "Gloriana," the symbol of English glory, in his epic poem. Walter Raleigh, too, was a noted poet and writer.

Elizabeth loved drama, and her reign will forever be associated with it. In the early years of her rule professional theaters had not yet been established. Acting companies wandered from town to town, performing medieval masques and pageants. (Masques are short dramas, full of music and dance, that present allegorical tales, stories in which characters usually represent an abstract idea, such as Death, Time, or Evil, or a historical figure, such as Elizabeth herself. Pageants are shows that usually included music and presented an idea or theme.) Acting troops were considered vagabonds and were often thrown out of towns. Many acting companies in the mid-sixteenth century began to seek the patronage of noble families. The first theater in Elizabeth's court was performed by amateur nobles, who staged masques and pageants to please the queen. Then, in the 1570s, Elizabeth's master of revels, a deputy to the Lord Chamberlain who was in charge of entertainment at court, hired professional companies to perform for Elizabeth. Soon every theater company strove to perform at the royal court. During the course of Elizabeth's reign, playwriting advanced to a highly sophisticated form, involving developed characters and plots. In the later years of her reign, the plays of England's most famous writer, William Shakespeare (1564–1616), were performed at court.

The queen's progresses

During the summer months of most years of her reign Elizabeth arranged to go on progresses, tours of the kingdom made with some portion of her court. The route of the queen's travels and every stop she was to make were prearranged well ahead of the trip. Elizabeth traveled on horseback, in a litter, or in her royal coach, usually with a retinue of about five hundred people. The trips were exhausting for most of her attendants. Planning and packing presented enormous challenges. The procession following the queen consisted of about 2,400 horses, and there were between 400 and 600 carts filled with clothing, jewelry, documents, and many household items belonging to the queen and her attendants. Travel was not easy either; the roads in England were very poor in Elizabethan times. The progress usually advanced only about ten miles a day, and the carts often got stuck. But even on the bumpy, muddy roads, Elizabeth was in her element, extending herself out to her subjects. Each time the progress crossed the border of a shire Elizabeth was welcomed by the local gentry and bells rang to announce her presence. All along the way humble farmers and working families greeted her with their good wishes and gifts, and Elizabeth showered them with her regal attention.

The main destination of a progress was usually the large country estate of a noble family selected for the honor of a visit by the queen and her advisors. For the noble families who served as her hosts Elizabeth's visits were a mixed blessing. Although it was a great honor to have such an exalted visitor, it cost a fortune to feed and house her entire retinue. There were many other expenses, even in a short stay. The queen expected to be entertained by her hosts, and wherever she went she was treated to masques, concerts, banquets, fireworks, and festivals. Many noble families tried to outdo one another in lavish hospitality and expensive gifts for the queen. Some nobility built huge country homes specifically designed to be able to accommodate the queen on one of her progresses. But other families fled their homes when they learned of an intended visit, fearing financial ruin. Indeed, Elizabeth viewed her progresses as a way to save the royal income by passing off the expense of keeping her staff and entertainment to her host.

Elizabeth enjoyed her progresses as vacations from the normal routines, but more importantly, she used them as a means to be visible to, and win the hearts of, her subjects outside the capital city of London. She usually had pamphlets describing her progresses printed and distributed throughout her realm. These depicted the splendor of the queen's procession, the adoration of the crowds who received her, and they were particularly designed to promote the mystique of the Virgin Queen. Elizabeth knew, probably through the examples of the reigns of her father, half-brother, and half-sister, that in order to maintain social stability a monarch should be visible and available to her people. Unlike her siblings, she had an instinctive understanding of people and valued spending time with her subjects. On the eve of her coronation, or crowning as queen, she told the crowds in London, as quoted from "The Receiving of the Queen's Majesty": "Be ye ensured that I will be as good unto you as ever a Queen was to her people." During her reign, Elizabeth made twenty-five progresses, much to the delight of the people of the counties through which she passed.

The new era

Elizabeth's concept of the queen's place in the universe was based on the medieval concept of the Great Chain of Being. The Great Chain can be envisioned as a huge ladder mounting up to the heavens. At the very top is God, and below God, in descending order, are the various levels of angels, the stars, the Sun, the Moon, and the planets, humans, animals, plants, and finally rocks and soil. Each element in the universe took a specific place within the hierarchy, or ranking system, according to its unchanging standing in the universe. Like the people of medieval times, Elizabeth firmly believed she was stationed at the very top of the human realm, making her part human, part divine. She believed that people should live the lives they were born into and show respect to people who were born to a higher rank. During Elizabeth's lifetime, though, popular belief in the Great Chain model was just beginning to crumble. A new middle class had arisen, and merchants were rising in the ranks of English society. Renaissance philosophers and artists portrayed human beings as capable of overcoming obstacles and conquering their environments despite the status of their birth. Though she resisted the changes in social order, Elizabeth was fascinated by the new culture, and her court attracted the bold and rash young men who were challenging the old ways.

For More Information

BOOKS

"Receiving of the Queen's Majesty." The Queen's Majesty's Passage and Related Documents. Germaine Warkentin, ed. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2004.

Rowse, A. L. The England of Elizabeth: The Structure of Society. New York: Macmillan, 1961.

Watkins, Susan, with photographs by Mark Fiennes. In Public and in Private: Elizabeth I and Her World. London: Thames and Hudson, 1998.

Weir, Alison. The Life of Elizabeth I. New York: Ballantine Books, 1998.

Williams, Neville. "The Tudors." In The Courts of Europe: Politics, Patronage, and Royalty, 1400–1800. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1977.

PERIODICALS

Sim, Aison. "The Royal Court and Progresses." History Today, May 2003, Vol. 53, Issue 5.

WEB SITES

"The Hierarchy of the Elizabethan Court." Internet Shakespeare Editions, 1998–2003. University of Victoria. http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/history/government.html (accessed on July 11, 2006).

Somerville, J. P. "Elizabethan Government." http://history.wisc.edu/sommerville/361/361-15.htm (accessed on July 11, 2006).