The Jacobean calendar underwent certain modifications, largely determined by the King's sporting instincts. James kept his Court for the most part at Whitehall, Hampton Court, and Windsor. After the winter of 1603, when plague held him at Hampton Court, his Christmasses and Shrovetides were invariably at Whitehall, and hither he always proceeded at the end of October, in time for the celebration of All Saints' Day on 1 November.[1] On 5 November was kept, after 1605, the anniversary of Gunpowder Plot, and to this day, in course of time, the winter bonfires of folk custom transferred themselves.[2] The Twelve Nights, with Candlemas and Shrovetide, remained the chief seasons for plays and masks, but the plays were greatly increased in number. One was often given on All Saints' Day (1 Nov.) to usher in the winter, and others were called for at intervals during the winter months. James was also regularly at Whitehall on his Accession Day, 24 March, which, like his predecessor, he honoured with a tilt.[3] He maintained the tradition of the progress, generally choosing the direction of such hunting grounds as Sherwood, Wychwood, the New Forest, or Salisbury Plain; and during the course of his progress, on 5 August, he celebrated another anniversary, that of his delivery from the Gowry conspiracy in 1600. On this day ambassadors were expected to pursue him from London and offer their congratulations.[4] The progress generally ended at Havering early in September.[5] Thereafter the household was established at Windsor or Hampton Court until winter began again. But James's personal life was a far less settled one than that of Elizabeth. He disliked London, and at all times of the year, and wherever the Court might be, he was constantly leaving the greater part of it behind, referring the transaction of business to the Privy Council, and betaking himself with the Master of the Horse—> )] with the Knights of the Garter and the court; cf. Nichols, James, ii. 155. It can only have been a Jacobean custom, for Elizabeth did not as a rule reach Westminster by 1 Nov.]
- ↑ V. P. xi. 57, 59, refers to an 'old custom' of keeping All Saints' Day in the city (i.e. Westminster
- ↑ Cf. Mediaeval Stage, i. 124, 248. V. P. xii. 237, notes ringing on 5 Nov. 1611. Williams, Founders, 86, prints a guild order of 1611 for sermons at Paul's Cross and dinners on 'Coronation' day, 5 Aug. and 5 Nov., as days 'of meeting for the kings majesties sarves'.
- ↑ Cf. ch. iv.
- ↑ Camden, Annalium Apparatus, 2 (Aug. 1603), 'Indicitur ut hic dies festus celebretur ob Regem à Gowriorum conjuratione liberatum'; cf. Goodman, i. 3; Boderie, i. 283; V. P. xii. 26, 196, 409. The question as to the bona fides of the plot commemorated is discussed by A. Lang, James VI and the Gowrie Mystery (1902).
- ↑ Goodman, i. 247.
