Here's what the
Admiral's Men performed at the
Rose playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...
Henslowe writes: 26 | ne | ... tt at harey the firste life & deth ... 02 | 10
In modern English: 26th
[May, 1597] ... New ... total at Harry I, Life and Death ... £2 and 10 shillings [i.e. 50 shillings]
Today, the Admiral's Men premiered a new play! Unfortunately,
The Life and Death of Harry I is lost, but its title tells us very clearly that it was a biographical history play about Henry I, the twelfth century king of England.
The reign of Henry I was long and complicated (and almost everyone involved in it was named William, Robert or Matilda), so it is hard to know exactly which events were portrayed in this play. However, if one cuts through the details, it is possible to see how Henry's story could have made for a play that might have appealed to the Rose audience.
The life
 |
King Henry I depicted in The Book
of the Laws of Ancient Kings (1321) |
Henry came to the throne in a contentious manner when King William II died unexpectedly in a hunting accident. Even though Henry was the youngest of William's brothers, he persuaded the lords to crown him king because his older brother, Robert, was far away on a crusade in the Holy Land. Robert was not pleased and returned to claim the English throne. Basing himself in his duchy of Normandy, he attempted an invasion, and the brothers entered into a long contest of wars and negotiations. Robert's story came to an end when Henry invaded his duchy of Normandy and imprisoned him.
Further wars ensued when the King of France, Louis VI (known as Louis the Fat), attempted to take Normandy; the various conflicts included the Battle of Brémule, in which Henry led a victorious army against the French.
Henry also fought the Welsh on the English marches and led an army into Wales, forcing its rulers to sue for peace. However, these events may not have been in the play. In his catalogue of British drama, Martin Wiggins points out that next year the company will perform another play about Henry entitled The Famous Wars of Henry I and the Prince of Wales. This implies that the present play did not cover the Welsh campaign.
Either way, this summary suggests that Henry could have been played on the stage as a triumphant warrior king; if so, he would have been a perfect role for the company's leading actor, Edward Alleyn, who specialized in these kinds of roles.
The death
 |
The shipwreck that killed young William and
Matilda, depicted in The Book of the
Laws of Ancient Kings (1321) |
The Life and Death of Henry I probably ended in tragedy, however. Henry's son William was confirmed as Duke of Normandy, but he returned to England on
The White Ship, which capsized; young William drowned trying to rescue his sister Matilda. Henry was left without an heir.
The title tells that the play included Henry's death. This is surprising, since his end was ignominious. Henry famously died from eating "a surfeit of lampreys", that is, too many portions of this tasty fish. As he lacked a clear successor, Henry's death plunged England into anarchy.
Drawing a crowd
In
her entry on Harry I for the
Lost Plays Database, Roslyn L. Knutson points out that
Belin Dun, the company's much-performed lost play about a highwayman, is set during the reign of Henry I. Indeed, the two men were linked in a lost ballad recorded in 1594 (the year
Belin Dun was premiered), entitled
The Famous Chronicle of Henry the First, with the Life and Death of Belin Dun, the First Thief that ever was Hanged in England. Perhaps Henry appeared in the play of
Belin Dun; could
its recent return to the stage have been a way of raising excitement about the upcoming
Harry I?
Whatever the exact content of The Life and Death of Harry I, today's box office is positive; the Rose is not full, but a very large audience has arrived. The prospect of a new English history play seems to have been very attractive to Londoners.
FURTHER READING
The Life and Death of Harry I information
- Andrew Gurr, Shakespeare's Opposites: The Admiral's Company, 1594-1625 (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 229.
- Roslyn L. Knutson, "Henry I, Life and Death of", Lost Plays Database (2019), accessed May 2021.
- Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 1075.
Henslowe links
Comments?
Did I make a mistake? Do you have a question? Have you anything to add? Please post a comment below!
