to be St. Elizabeth's day, but this second triumph seems to have been only occasional.[1]
Christmas was ordinarily kept at Whitehall; the occasional substitution of Richmond, Greenwich, Hampton Court, or even Windsor is sometimes to be explained by the prevalence of the plague in London, sometimes perhaps by nothing more than a royal whim. But during the years of strain which preceded the Armada Elizabeth appears to have shunned Whitehall as much as possible, not merely at Christmas but at all times, probably from a sense that her personal security could be better provided for in some more compact and less accessible abode.[2] Whether in Whitehall or elsewhere, the twelve days of Christmas, from the Nativity to the Epiphany, were a season of high revels. I do not find that Elizabeth, like her father and brother, ever appointed a Lord of Misrule, although there is some trace of an election of a King of the Bean on the last and greatest day of all, Twelfth Night.[3] But Twelfth Night itself, with St. Stephen's, St. John's, Innocents', and New Year's Day, were regularly appointed for plays and masks, which often overflowed on to other nights during the period. Sometimes, too, there was another tilt, or a barriers in the hall or banqueting-room. And on New Year's Day it was etiquette for the lords and ladies at Court and many of the officers of the household to present the Queen with the New Year gifts or strenae which had been immemorial in European courts since the days of the Roman Empire, while she in turn rewarded the donors with gilt plate from the royal jewel house and distributed largess amongst her personal attendants and other customary recipients.[4]
- ↑ Sp. P. iv. 494; cf. Kitto, 407: 'P^d ye iij^d of November to y^e Parrito^r for a warrant to kepe holy y^e xix^{th} day At w^{ch} tyme he^r ma^{tie} should a gone to Powles'. The ceremony, however, was deferred to 24 Nov. There was also a tilt on 19 Nov. in 1590. Von Wedel (2 R. Hist. Soc. Trans. ix. 236, 256) says in 1584 that this was a regular day for tilting; but he also says it was the royal birthday, which was 7 Sept.
- ↑ I find no prolonged stay at Whitehall between May 1584 and Jan. 1589. If her presence in London was necessary during this period Elizabeth seems to have preferred St. James or Somerset House. She opened Parliament in Feb. 1586 from Lambeth; there were other visits to Lambeth and the Lord Admiral's house (Hance's) in Westminster.
- ↑ V. P. vii. 374 (6 Jan. 1566). Machyn, 273, records a visit to the court of a lord of misrule from the city in 1561.
- ↑ Cf. Mediaeval Stage, i. 238. Nichols, Eliz. i. 108; ii. 65, 249; iii. 1, 445, prints rolls of gifts to and from the Queen for 1562, 1578, 1579, 1589, and 1600 from manuscripts in the British Museum and in private hands. A roll for 1585 is noticed in Arch. i. 11. Those for 1563, 1577, 1598, and 1603 appear to be among the Miscellaneous Rolls of Chancery in the R. O. (Scargill-Bird^2, 363), but are unprinted. Nichols also prints shorter lists of jewels given to the Queen for a number of years.
