Elizabeth Goldring

“A mercer ye wot az we be”: The Authorship of the Kenilworth Letter Reconsidered

The authorship of the Kenilworth Letter, an account of the festivities staged at Kenilworth Castle during Queen Elizabeth Is 1575 progress, has long been a matter of debate, with some scholars suggesting that the work was a pseudonymous hoax foisted upon an unwitting Robert Langham. New findings, together with a re‐examination of the existing evidence, suggest the following: first, that the Letter began life as a bona fide missive from Langham to his fellow mercer Humphrey Martin, which, though envisioned for circulation in manuscript, was almost certainly not – in the first instance at least – intended for publication; and second, that William Patten, to whom the Letter sometimes has been attributed in the past, may have been instrumental in the initial efforts to print the work, albeit without Langhams knowledge or permission. Also considered is the wider context of Elizabethan mercery, with particular reference to the close (but often overlooked) political, economic, and cultural ties between the court and the City of London. In addition, this article explores the extent to which the Letter offers a reliable guide to the people, places, and events it describes.

Gascoigne and Kenilworth: The Production, Reception, and Afterlife of The Princely Pleasures†

Long synonymous with the title of George Gascoigne’s Princely Pleasures, the 1575 Kenilworth revels were the longest and most lavish attempted in the course of the Elizabethan progresses. For nearly three weeks in July 1575, Elizabeth I and her court were entertained at Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, with diversions ranging from music, masques, and dancing to tilting, hunting, and bear-baiting. In the evenings, fireworks displays punctuated elaborate banquets. The Queen’s host on this occasion was her long-standing favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who, in preparation for Elizabeth’s visit, reputedly spent £60,000 on new building works alone. These entertainments have been called “sixteenth-century England’s grandest and most extravagant party.” But the Kenilworth revels were more than this, for the dramatic fictions of the masques provided an opportunity to broach politically sensitive subjects with the Queen. One of the newly commissioned entertainments articulated Leicester’s advocacy of English military intervention in the Dutch revolt against Spain, others his desire to marry the Queen. In addition, these festivities were an