Early Modernity Today: 3 January

On this date, 3 January:


1540: Henry VIII meets Anne of Cleves.

On 3 January, after Henry had greeted her publicly on Blackheath Common, he instructed Cromwell to question her ambassadors about the validity of her Lorraine union. Having requested a day's delay (not two days', as some scholars maintain) to consider their response, they swore on 4 January that she was not the wife of Lorraine and promised to have a copy of the contract forwarded to England.    (Warnicke)

1563: William Rastell flees to Louvain from the Elizabethan regime.

Rastell's appointment as a justice of the queen's bench on 27 October 1558, three weeks before the queen's death, was renewed the following month by Elizabeth I, but he was unable to reconcile himself to the new religious settlement and on 3 January 1563 he again fled to Louvain. An inventory of the books seized from his study in Serjeants' Inn included a selection of classical authors. Rastell lived in Louvain until his death on 27 August 1565, when he was buried in the church of St Pierre beside his wife, Winifred. During this second exile Rastell is said to have written a life of More. Only a fragment of it, mostly concerning John Fisher, has survived for certain; though a Latin account of More's condemnation (‘Ordo condemnationis Mori’) has also been attributed to him.     (Baker)

1600: William Smith registers "Sonets by W.S." with the Stationer's Company.

Smith, William (fl. 1596), poet, dedicated to Edmund Spenser a sequence of sonnets, entitled Chloris, or, The Complaint of the Passionate Despised Shepheard (1596)... There is no evidence that ‘Sonnets by W. S.’, entered in the Stationers' register on 3 January 1600, was related either to the author of Chloris or to Shakespeare.     (Brink)

1614: Ben Jonson's The Irish Masque performed after Frances Howard's marriage to Robert Carr.

On 26 December 1613 Frances Howard was married to Robert Carr, newly created earl of Somerset, and was led to the altar by Jonson's old enemy, her great-uncle Henry Howard, the earl of Northampton. Jonson, who had written Hymenaei in celebration of Frances Howard's first marriage in 1606, was now required to help celebrate her dubious second match. A Challenge at Tilt (performed on 27 December 1613 and 1 January 1614) and The Irish Masque (performed on 29 December 1613 and 3 January 1614) were the result. Whether Jonson was aware of the already circulating rumours that the couple had conspired to poison Overbury, it is impossible to say. The precise facts of the situation would at this stage have been far from clear, but the extreme awkwardness of Jonson's position must have been very evident.     (Donaldson)

1641: George Coke sent to London.

In December 1641 Coke was one of the twelve bishops who petitioned parliament, for which he was impeached and imprisoned for seventeen weeks. Retiring to his see, he was in Hereford in April 1643 when it fell to the parliament but, under the articles of surrender of the town, escaped molestation. However, when Hereford fell for the second time, in December 1645, he was captured and taken to Gloucester, and on 3 January 1646 the Commons ordered that he and the other prisoners be sent to London.     (Atherton)

1661: Samuel Pepys sees women on stage.

Pepys had first seen women on the stage at Killigrew's theatre, on 3 January 1661, as he noted without comment. Davenant's articles of agreement with his players show that he too had decided to use actresses: but he wisely did not deploy them until he opened at the Duke's Playhouse, where he would have rehearsed them with special care. He had recruited eight, and boarded the four principals, mistresses Davenport, Saunderson, Gibbs, and Norris, in his own part of the building. With them too he was fortunate: Mary Saunderson was the first leading English professional actress.     (Edmond)

Works Cited

Atherton, Ian. “Coke, George (1570–1646).” Ian AthertonOxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, . 3 Jan. 2015 <http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/view/article/5827>.

Baker, J. H.. “Rastell, William (1508–1565).” J. H. BakerOxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. May 2008. 3 Jan. 2015 <http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/view/article/23151>.

Brink, Jean R.. “Smith, William (fl. 1596).” Jean R. BrinkOxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, . 3 Jan. 2015 <http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/view/article/25921>.

Donaldson, Ian. “Jonson, Benjamin (1572–1637).” Ian DonaldsonOxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Sept. 2013. 3 Jan. 2015 <http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/view/article/15116>.

Edmond, Mary. “Davenant , Sir William (1606–1668).” Mary EdmondOxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oct. 2009. 3 Jan. 2015 <http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/view/article/7197>.

Warnicke, Retha M.. “Anne [Anne of Cleves] (1515–1557).” Retha M. WarnickeOxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, . 3 Jan. 2015 <http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/view/article/558>.