Charles I, London, and the 1641 Royal Entry

Chapter 5 turns attention to royal public ceremonial culture in Caroline London, where Charles has been accused of almost disappearing from public view. The cancellation of the expected royal entry to London after Charles’s 1626 coronation is often cited as an example of the king’s avoidance of public display in the capital. But Charles did participate in a number of public processions and displays of his royalty in the city. These included the funeral procession for his father, James I (1625), formal receptions for visiting ambassadors and royal guests, processions to parliament (before 1629 and after 1640), and, on 25 November 1641, a formal royal entry. As this chapter explores, the 1641 royal entry drew a large audience and prompted a series of celebratory printed accounts and reports, indicating that the king could charm a crowd and still enjoyed some popularity in the capital, despite growing criticism of his reign.

The 1636 Progress

Chapter 4 reflects on Charles’s 1636 progress in the company of his visiting nephews, Charles Lewis, the Elector Palatine, and Prince Rupert. The king’s travels took him into the Midlands and south to Hampshire, and combined visits to towns and country houses. But, the highlight of the progress—and a key focus in this chapter—was a much-publicizd trip to Oxford University. Joined by the queen, the royal visitors were hosted by Oxford’s Chancellor and Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud who entertained them with lavish hospitality and a series of university dramas. While Charles sought to use the 1636 progress to advertise his support for Charles Lewis’s restoration to the electorate of the Palatine of the Rhine and to rally support for Ship Money, the visit to Oxford was an opportunity for Laud to promote himself, the university, and his campaign for religious order and conformity in, and beyond, Oxford.

Introduction

Chapter 1 offers an introduction to the culture of progresses, public processions, and royal entries in early modern England. This includes comparing Charles I’s progresses with the practices of his predecessors and his European contemporaries. The chapter also traces some of the variations in Charles’s practices across his reign, including the shift from the smaller-scale trips of the late 1620s, while England was at war with France and Spain, to royal practice during the peacetime years of the ‘personal rule’ when the king embarked on a series of more public progresses aimed at promoting his rule and his policies. Finally, it reflects on the transition to the militarized progresses into the North in 1639, 1640, and 1641, as Charles sought to deal with the Bishops’ Wars with Scotland. The chapter also offers an overview of the practical organization of Charles’s progresses and entries and their social, cultural, and political functions.

The 1634 Royal Progress to the North Midlands

Chapter 3 analyses Charles’s 1634 progress through the North Midlands with Queen Henrietta Maria. Stretching as far north as Nottingham, this progress was more private than that of 1633, as Charles opted to focus more on visits to, and the cultivation of his relationships with, members of the regional nobility. This included a second visit to William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle, at Welbeck Abbey and another specially-commissioned Ben Jonson progress entertainment, performed at Bolsover Castle: The King and Queen’s Entertainment at Bolsover. During the six-day visit to Cavendish, both the earl and a group of discontented local miners sought to take advantage of the travelling monarch’s presence to petition the king in person. Paying particular attention to Charles’s concentration on visits to noble houses, and the extended visit to Welbeck, the chapter reflects further on Charles’s accessibility to his subjects and his readiness to engage in ceremonial dialogue with them.

The ‘Great’ Progress of 1633

Chapter 2 explores Charles’s 1633 progress to Scotland for his belated coronation as Scottish king. Following a route which echoed that of James I’s 1617 progress to Scotland, and culminating in Charles’s royal entry to Edinburgh, the king used the progress not only to display his majesty but to promote the order and ceremonialism he favoured in the church. During the progress, Charles was fêted by many hosts, including William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle, and the city of Edinburgh. Keen to impress his monarch, Cavendish commissioned Ben Jonson to write a show especially for the occasion: The King’s Entertainment at Welbeck. Like many Elizabethan progress entertainments, Jonson’s seeks to flatter and counsel the monarch. Equally keen to please and influence Charles, Edinburgh’s civic officials welcomed the king with a series of pageants, celebrating Charles but also promoting the wishes and concerns of his Scottish subjects. This chapter analyses both entertainments.

Conclusion

In his afterword to The Royal Image: Representations of Charles I (1999) Kevin Sharpe called for more research on several neglected aspects of the reign and representation of Charles I, including the king’s participation in ‘public festivals and entries’.1 This study has aimed to address this gap in scholarship on Charles I and royal ceremonial culture, by presenting the first extended study of Caroline progressing culture and the king’s royal entries. The picture that emerges of Caroline public ceremonial culture is a rich and varied one. Charles participated in public displays of his majesty on many occasions and interacted with numerous of his subjects during his regular progresses and during his royal entries to regional towns and cities. Nonetheless, it remains true that the second Stuart King engaged less with public ceremonial than his most immediate Tudor predecessor, Elizabeth I, as he—like many of his royal peers in Europe—increasingly favoured court-based, above public, displays of majesty....