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O
n March 24, 1603, Queen
Elizabeth I died after
45 years on the throne.
She was succeeded by her cousin
James VI of Scotland, son of Mary
Queen of Scots, whom Elizabeth
had beheaded 16 years earlier. One
of James’s first acts on becoming
king was to give Shakespeare’s
company a royal patent to make
them the King’s Men.
By royal command
This was a financial boost for the
troupe, but it also added pressure.
Now they not only had to please the
general public; they had to please
the king and his courtiers, too.
In the 13 years between James
becoming king and Shakespeare’s
death, the King’s Men performed
for the court 187 times—more
than once a month.
Around this time, Shakespeare’s
style changed. He moved away
from the crowd-pleasing comedies,
romances, and histories of the later
years of Elizabeth’s reign. Now he
wrote fewer plays, but they were
grander and darker. In the first
three years of James’s reign, he
wrote just six plays, five of which
were ambitious tragedies—Othello,
King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and
Cleopatra, and the uncompleted
Timon of Athens. Even Measure for
Measure was intense and morally
challenging. While Shakespeare
was writing these great works, the
company had his impressive back-
catalog to keep the theaters full.Escape to Stratford?
Nobody knows quite how
Shakespeare spent his time
during these years. One of thefew things we do know is that,
by 1604, he was renting a room
in the house of a Huguenot named
Christopher Mountjoy. We know
this because Mountjoy got into a
bitter lawsuit with his son-in-law
and Shakespeare is mentioned
in the legal documents.
Living perpetually in rented
accommodation clearly brought
its stresses. So it may be that
Shakespeare, not under as much
pressure as in his younger days,
took every chance to go home to
Stratford and write in a calmer
environment. He may also
have had to leave London
when the plague returned.
On November 5, 1605, a very
distant relative of Shakespeare,
Robert Catesby, was involved in
the most infamous Catholic attempt
to bring down England’s ProtestantINTRODUCTION
1603
1603
1605
1606
1604
1605
1607
The Gunpowder Plot
to blow up Parliament is
foiled. Ben Jonson’s
Volpone is first
performed at The Globe.Queen Elizabeth I dies
and is succeeded by her
cousin James VI of Scotland
as James I of England.The Treaty of London
ends England’s war with
Spain. Shakespeare is
living in lodgings near
St. Paul’s Cathedral.Monteverdi’s
opera L’ O r f e o
is performed in
Mantua, Lombardy
(in present-day Italy).King Lear and Timon
of Athens are written.
The lead in Lear is
created for the King’s
Men’s lead tragic actor,
Richard Burbage.Shakespeare writes
Measure for Measure
and Othello.Pericles, Prince of
Ty r e is written, and is
performed at the Globe
Theatre.Macbeth, Antony and
Cleopatra, and All’s
Well That Ends Well
are written.1607