The Lewkenor Circle · The Stuart court
James I and Lewes Lewkenor
The King and his Master of the Ceremonies: languages, diplomacy, Parliament and the practical work of receiving the world at court.
James I’s accession in 1603 transformed Lewes Lewkenor’s court career. He had already helped receive foreign visitors under Elizabeth. Under the new King, that work became the continuing business of a named royal office. He was acting as Master of the Ceremonies from 1603; the formal patent followed on 7 November 1605, with a yearly fee of £200 and provision for his expenses.
The King’s description of the man he wanted is exact: languages, education and discretion. Lewkenor needed to interpret more than speech. Titles, seating, coaches, lodgings, audiences and the wording of a letter could all become tests of the honour accorded to a foreign prince. His surviving correspondence shows how quickly ceremony could become an affair of state.
“A thing much concerning our honour”
The opening of the royal grant explains why the office mattered. Reception was an expression of the King’s own standing:
Forasmuch as we hold it a thing much concerning our honour that ambassadors and messengers sent and employed to us from foreign princes, and all princes, noblemen and other strangers of quality coming to us, should be with all respects due to them received, used and entertained, both during their abode with us and in their journeys also, we have thought good to appoint a gentleman well languaged, of good education and discretion, to attend and perform that service, which hereby we do erect into an office for that purpose, to be taken and known by the name and title of Master of the Ceremonies.
Royal grant, 7 November 1605, De concessione officii Magistri Ceremoniarum pro Lodovico Lewknor milite; opening passage, spelling modernised.
The grant then names the officer who will undertake it:
Know ye therefore that, of our special grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, we have given and granted, and by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, we give and grant unto our trusty and well-beloved servant, Sir Lewes Lewknor, knight, one of our Gentlemen Pensioners in Ordinary, the office and place of Master of the Ceremonies.
Royal grant, 7 November 1605; spelling modernised.
Lewkenor’s title therefore carried a defined responsibility. He was to attend visitors during their journeys as well as their residence at court. The work began at ports and landing places, continued through the provision of transport and accommodation, and culminated in access to the King.
Dover, June 1603: coaches before compliments
Lewkenor’s letter of 4 June 1603 catches him preparing for the arrivals of the Count of Arenberg and the French envoy, Maximilien de Béthune, Sieur de Rosny. He had to anticipate what the visitors would need before he knew exactly who was coming:
The Count of Aremberg embarked yesternight with his train, and the ships are now within kenning of this place, so that we expect their landing immediately. I cannot learn the names of persons of account that come with him. The shooting I wrote to you of was only to do him honour, and there was no thought of opposition, as the Scottish gentleman doubted with whom I met yesterday. Monsieur de Rosny cometh this night to Calais so that we expect him not here before Monday. I hope they shall both be accommodated and provided for as is fitting. I have borrowed Sir Thomas Fane’s coach, and sent besides three or four geldings to the waterside, to bring the Count and some of the chief gentlemen into the town, and I have taken order for horses and carriages to be here ready for him tomorrow, because I understand he intends to stay in this town tonight.
Lewkenor to Lord Thomas Howard and Lord Cecil, Dover, 4 June 1603; Cecil Papers, (187.59), calendared text; spelling modernised.
The letter moves between diplomatic uncertainty and practical decisions. Even the sound of gunfire needed explanation: it was a salute, not hostility. A borrowed coach and horses sent to the waterside were part of ensuring that the King’s guests received an appropriate welcome.
A royal letter that nearly offended France
Later that month, Rosny took exception to the form in which James addressed Henry IV of France. Lewkenor was standing with him on the pier when the packet arrived. The envoy insisted that the English King’s reply should match the style of the French King’s earlier letter:
Standing this night upon the pier with Monsieur de Rosny a packet of letters was delivered unto him by Mr. Manwood, wherein amongst others was one of his Majesty’s own hand to the French King with this superscription: “À mon très cher frère le Roi très chrétien”; which did put him into such exceeding passion that I was bold to demand the cause of his so sudden alteration, which he frankly confessed unto me to proceed from that manner of his Majesty’s writing, in regard that the French King had written “À Monsieur mon frère”, etc.; and thereupon he instantly requested me with all secrecy and speed to dispatch a messenger to the court for the reformation of this error (as he called it), and that it would please his Majesty to write a letter with correspondent style to the same which he had formerly received and that you would send it after him with all possible speed, for he cannot deliver this which he hath received to the King his master without great scandal to his master and imputation to himself, as he saith.
Lewkenor to Lord Cecil, Dover, 27 June 1603; Cecil Papers, (100.137), calendared text; spelling modernised, French accents supplied.
The urgency followed Lewkenor into his room. His postscript gives the scene its human detail:
Monsieur de Rosny was so nettled that while I was writing this letter he came to my chamber and writ there with my paper and ink a letter to the ambassador Beaumont, which he entreated to send away with mine; which I have done.
Postscript to Lewkenor’s letter of 27 June 1603; calendared text.
Two days later, Lewkenor explained why his earlier dispatch had been so hurried:
I beseech you excuse my last hasty scribbled letter, being thereunto so importunately called upon by Monsieur de Rosny, as though the world had depended upon the speedy dispatch thereof; himself following me to my chamber with Monsieur Fontaine in his company, before I had written six lines.
Lewkenor to Lord Cecil, Dover, 29 June 1603; Cecil Papers, (100.141), calendared text; spelling modernised.
These letters show the strain behind polished reception. Lewkenor was close enough to hear an ambassador’s anger, expected to report it discreetly, and responsible for getting the complaint to the people who could resolve it.
Spain: from wartime experience to royal service
James’s pursuit of peace with Spain gave Lewkenor’s experience a new use. The former soldier in the Spanish Netherlands now helped receive the Spanish King’s representatives. In September 1603 he reported on the ambassador Juan de Tassis at Oxford, describing his reception, his furnishings, his inquiries and his expectations of an audience.
Even the provision of beds required tact. Lewkenor explained why he had pressed the local officials to supply them:
In regard of having some of his gentlemen and servants lodged about him, he requires to have some fourteen beds, whereof four for his principal officers to be furnished with curtains and other furniture out of the town, which I gave direction to the harbingers to do, paying well for them, although there were some difficulty in the execution thereof, yet having brought them hither so well pleased, I was loath that in so trifling a matter they should receive any discontentment.
Lewkenor to Lord Cecil, Oxford, 6 September 1603; Cecil Papers, (187.111), calendared text; spelling modernised.
Peace was negotiated by statesmen, but its reception depended on people performing tasks such as these. Lewkenor’s letters show him preserving goodwill while watching the ambassador’s activities and reporting to Cecil.
Parliament and the Union
Lewkenor also sat for Bridgnorth in James’s first Parliament. On 28 April 1604 he was named among those assigned to the foreign affairs and intercourse business at the conference with the Lords on the proposed Union with Scotland. Francis Bacon headed that group.
The relationship between the King’s two kingdoms was therefore part of Lewkenor’s parliamentary work as well as his court environment. Questions of nationality, allegiance and royal authority were immediate political business. They provide a historical setting for the investigations of Macbeth and Measure for Measure, without establishing that a particular speech or scene records Lewkenor’s own intervention.
Paying for the King’s hospitality
The 1605 patent recognised that an officer arranging journeys and receptions would have to spend money. Alongside his salary, it made provision for approved expenditure:
And further, for that he shall have cause to disburse sundry sums of money, in journeying to and fro with the ambassadors and messengers and other strangers of quality coming to us, or in passing between us or our Council and them, we grant, for us, our heirs and successors, and do will and command the Treasurer and Chamberlains of the Exchequer of us, our heirs and successors that, out of our treasure in the Receipt of our Exchequer, they pay or cause to be paid and delivered unto Sir Lewes Lewknor or his assigns, all such sums of money as he shall from time to time expend in those services, according to such bills testifying the sums by him disbursed, as shall be allowed and subscribed by our Chamberlain or Vice-Chamberlain and Principal Secretary for the time being, or any two of them whereof the Lord Chamberlain to be one.
Royal grant, 7 November 1605; passage on expenses, spelling modernised.
The distinction between salary and expenditure matters. The £200 fee rewarded his office; the allowance for bills supported the transport, attendance and other costs incurred in royal service. The paperwork was part of maintaining the King’s honour.
Foreign visitors and Shakespeare’s theatre
In April 1610 Lewkenor was again preparing for a princely arrival:
The Duke of Wittenberg is under sail hitherward, and his arrival here certainly expected this night. I have advertised Lord Willoughby, who is appointed to receive him here. There is no news of the States coming as yet, their stay being the longer in regard that one of their fellow commissioners is dead.
Lewkenor to Salisbury, Gravesend, 13 April 1610; calendared text, spelling modernised.
The visitor was Prince Louis Frederick of Württemberg. During his stay, his party recorded seeing the history of the Moor of Venice at the Globe. The reception and the performance belong to the same visit, joining the world of royal diplomacy to the recorded performance history of Othello. The theatre entry does not name Lewkenor as accompanying the Prince.
James’s patronage of the King’s Men and Lewkenor’s management of distinguished foreign visitors brought theatre and diplomacy into the same courtly environment. The individual records give that connection its substance: arriving ships, letters, audiences, journeys and performances.
Sources
James I’s grant of the office of Master of the Ceremonies, 7 November 1605, printed in Rymer’s Foedera, under De concessione officii Magistri Ceremoniarum pro Lodovico Lewknor milite. The passages quoted above are extracts, with spelling and capitalisation modernised.
Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Salisbury: Lewkenor’s letters of 4, 27 and 29 June and 6 September 1603, and 13 April 1610. House of Commons Journal, 28 April 1604. William Brenchley Rye, England as Seen by Foreigners (1865), journal of the Württemberg visit, pp. 55–66; British Library Add. MS 20001.
Explore related investigations
Macbeth · Measure for Measure · Othello · Hamlet
Francis Bacon · Sir John Finet · Lewkenor’s letters · Lewkenor’s biography