ill, his court remained similar to his father’s, offering
entertainment and merriment alongside peril. Edward’s
own uncle, the duke of Somerset, who had been named
his protector upon Henry VIII’s death, was eventually
executed. Despite the political and religious upheaval
that went on around him, Edward had a troupe of
actors retained at court, and, like his father, maintained
a deep love for pageantry.
Mary I became queen upon the death of her younger
sibling Edward in 1553. A devotee of music with fer-
vent religious beliefs, the queen knew how to use pag-
eantry to her advantage, beginning with an amazing
show of spectacle for her coronation. Throughout the
fi rst few years of her reign, spectacle entertainments
were quite popular at the Marian court. Musicians also
continued to be in favor, including Thomas Tallis, who
had originally performed for Henry VIII’s court. Tallis’s
accomplishments as a musician and courtier should
not be overlooked as he served under not only Henry
VIII, Edward VI, and Mary, but also under Elizabeth I.
When Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, she
inherited a country in religious turmoil, fi nancial dis-
tress, and political danger. Life at her court would
prove perilous to some as the queen put down rebel-
lion and rebuilt the country’s wealth and power. How-
ever, she too enjoyed music, dancing, theater, and
poetry. Her court was constantly moving from one
royal residence to another or to the country homes of
the ranking nobles, who often provided elaborate
entertainments for their queen. Elizabeth immediately
chose to ban religious drama, a deliberate attempt to
erase the years of religious strife her predecessors had
wrought by fi rst leaving the Roman Catholic Church,
then returning to it, then leaving it again. Elizabeth’s
banning of sacred drama was one of the factors that
precipitated the great secular theater of the period.
Elizabeth I was also an accomplished dancer and
musician, and her love of the arts provided an atmo-
sphere in which different genres could fl ourish, both
in her court and throughout England. Thus, lutenists
such as THOMAS CAMPION coexisted with poets such as
EDMUND SPENSER. Elizabeth ensured that the court was
the center of the English artistic world, attended by
poets such as SIR PHILIP SIDNEY and SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
Sidney was considered a jewel of the court, and he
wrote poems that illuminated the life of both queen
and court, notably Sonnet 9 from his ASTROPHIL AND
STELLA. Though the poem’s overarching theme is one of
love found and lost, the story it tells conveys a strong
sense of the Elizabethan court. Also at court was Phil-
ip’s sister, MARY SIDNEY HERBERT, countess of Pembroke,
who was one of the earliest female poets.
Sir Walter Raleigh was a soldier, a courtier, an entre-
preneur, and an explorer. These diverse aspects of his
life in part contributed to a body of poetic works of
varied forms and substance, and to a rounded view of
the English court. He illustrated the court’s liking for
pomp and circumstance just as clearly as he showed
that he shared the queen’s love for farce.
Perhaps most intriguing was the “virgin queen’s”
insistence on continuing the game of courtly love within
her court. Elizabeth chose “favorites” from among the
many men who attended her—such as Robert Devereux,
earl of Essex—with whom she carried on overt fl irta-
tions. It is likely that she slept with some of these
men—the epithet “virgin queen” refers to her unmar-
ried state, not her sexual experience. She also insisted
that even peers who were not among her “favorites”
treat her as if they were her ardent admirer, casting her
in the role of the “cruel fair” woman so prevalent in the
poets’ SONNET SEQUENCEs. This was a two-sided, danger-
ous game to play, and some men ended up in the TOWER
OF LONDON merely for marrying without Elizabeth’s
permission.
See also PATRONAGE.
FURTHER READING
Anglo, Sydney. Spectacle, Pageantry, and Early Tudor Policy.
2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Dutton, Ralph. English Court Life: From Henry VII to George
II. London: B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1963.
Elton, G. R. England under the Tudors. 3rd ed. London/New
York: Routledge, 1991.
Kimberly Tony KorolCOURTLY LOVE Gaston Paris coined the term
courtly love (amour courtois) in the late 19th century in
reference to the curious dynamics of Lancelot and
Guinevere’s relationship in ARTHURIAN LITERATURE. In
essence, courtly love refers to a highly stylized, ideal
form of love, closely related to the “refi ned love” (fi n’130 COURTLY LOVE