Cassidy Cash discussed Shakespeare’s involvement in the Essex Rebellion at the Tudor Summit 2018.
Cassidy is an artist who loves William Shakespeare. She believes that in order to take Shakespeare’s work from page to performance understanding the history of the man who wrote them is essential.
That motivation, along with a tremendous passion for Shakespeare, paint, and coffee is why she launched That Shakespeare Girl in July 2017, with a very caffeinated youtube channel called Did Shakespeare, where she asks quirky questions about the real life of William Shakespeare, then provide plausible answers for those questions.
The bite-size, bouncy, and intelligently fun approach to learning Shakespeare worked so well, that 9 months later, she started the podcast That Shakespeare Life on April 23, 2018. Since the launch, she has had the honor to interview world-renowned experts by inviting them to sit down for coffee to talk about our favorite topic: Shakespeare.
Almost every episode comes with a free download of artwork that illustrates that week’s topic. She is an artist. She learn things visually, and so she creates guides with caffeine and paint– then share them with you!
Most days, she feels like the Grandpa in The Princess Bride when Kevin makes that incredulous face and asks, “A book? Are you serious?” –That’s what many people have to say at first about Shakespeare, too.— And here she is, like Peter Falk, saying “Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles!” That’s Shakespeare!!
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Transcript: Cassidy Cash on Shakespeare and Rebellion
My name is Cassidy Cash, That Shakespeare girl. Today I’m going to tell you about William Shakespeare‘s involvement in the Essex’s Rebellion. You may know about the Essex’s Rebellion and that Robert Devereux tried to overthrow the Queen and failed. But you may not know that one of the pivotal players in this rebellion was William Shakespeare himself. In fact, it was a decision by William Shakespeare that helped put the rebellion into motion.
Robert Devereux was the 2nd Earl of Essex. He and William Shakespeare were almost the same age. They were born about a year apart. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that William and Robert Devereux were actually friends, but even if they weren’t friends, they definitely knew each other. Now, this matters because traditionally, in Elizabethan theater, for most of Elizabeth I’s reign, theaters weren’t what we think of them today. There wasn’t a building, like we have them today, where you go and the theatre hosts plays, and you can come and buy tickets and attend there. That did happen during Elizabeth I’s reign, but it happened at the very end.
The very first purpose-built theater wasn’t put in London until 1597 by the Burbages. So all the time prior to that, theaters relied very heavily on their patrons. The patrons would support theater by inviting all the nobles to their house and the playing company would be paid to put on a performance for their friends at their homes or at their courts. It was a very travel, very group association. It wasn’t people come to us, the playing company went to them.
So the patrons played a huge role in the life of the theater, and in the life of the playing company itself. William Shakespeare would’ve known and had a very close relationship to his patrons, which included the Earl of Essex, and famously, Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton who also plays a role in the Essex’s Rebellion.
The plays during this time period really demonstrate just how massive the social and political upheaval that was going on in this kind of storm around William Shakespeare when he was putting on these plays. To demonstrate how everything flows together, I want to introduce you first to Leicester’s Men.
Robert Dudley was the Earl of Leicester, he was the Queen’s favorite. He was actually her choice for husband, although she never did marry him, she promised him again and again that she would. They were favorite at court and he was her favorite and they flirted and it was this very romantic, very public relationship. He would often organize events for the pleasure of the Queen, and he was a military leader under Elizabeth, and so he could invite her to visit her troops.
One time that he invited her was at Kenilworth Castle, and this was a famous event in 1575. He invited the Queen to visit her troops at Kenilworth Castle and she showed up and she stayed for three weeks, which was a massive statement by Elizabeth for her favorite, to Dudley. By this time, Dudley was already the principal patron of literature and the arts and Elizabethan theater.
In many aspects, Leicester’s playing company was the premier company of Elizabethan drama of its time, and its involvement would establish the business and structure format for many playing companies that would follow after it. Dudley himself was involved in ushering in the format for the theater that would ultimately play to Essex’s advantage when he led the rebellion.
The format that helped Robert Devereux form his rebellion later was instituted as a form of theater by Robert Dudley and Leicester’s Men, and we have evidence of this in a letter from James Burbage. The letter is dated January 1572 for James Burbage and the company, suggesting that the players were not merely the Earl’s liveried retainers but that they were actually “household servants”.
This distinction allow them to come and go around London without restriction and they further put in place that they did not want money from the Earl of Leicester for their performances, instead they wanted to enjoy his legal protection while operating as an independent commercial entity.
This worked out really well for the Burbages and in terms of furthering into modern theater, this was a pivotal moment for the economics and innovations of the theater industry. But, for Robert Devereux, it played a key role because later, when he was in financial ruin, he was still able to use the theater as part of his rebellion because he didn’t have any money, but this clause made it so that didn’t matter.
Now we mentioned that he entertained the Queen at Kenilworth Castle in 1575, well the playing company that performed for the Queen that day was Leicester’s Men and they put on a massive presentation. Kenilworth Castle was only 12 miles outside of Stratford-upon-Avon, and this celebration was no small thing. It was massive and it was known everywhere around that this was going to be going on.
It’s not unheard of to think that William Shakespeare would have traveled over to Kenilworth Castle to witness this spectacle. At the time, Shakespeare was a small young boy. He would’ve been 11 years old at this time, but there’s historical evidence to suggest he did actually go and see Leicester’s Men perform this play, because in his works, there’s evidence to Arion riding a dolphin and that was part of the presentation that Dudley presented for the Queen at Kenilworth Castle. The quote is “Arion on the dolphin’s back” from Twelfth Night Act I. That is an indication that William Shakespeare would’ve seen the play when he was 11 years old.
Now famously at Kenilworth Castle that where Robert Dudley and Queen Elizabeth decided to call it quits. It’s where it became officially and painfully obvious to both of them that there was not going to be a marital future between the two of them. There was too much scandal around. Robert Dudley’s potential killing of his wife in order to free himself up to be available for Elizabeth, and the scandal around that just crushed any chances they might have had. This is where it really became official, was at that event. The very next year, Robert Dudley married Lettice Knollys in 1576.
Now that matters because Lettice Knollys was Robert Devereux’s mom and we don’t know what Queen Elizabeth’s opinion was. I mean, we know she was very unhappy with this marriage. She banished Lettice Knollys and she was very upset about that. But Robert Devereux was presented at court as a very young man, and he was very well-received by Queen Elizabeth.
She showed him a great deal of affection, some historians call it a kind of maternal affection. There is speculation that she felt towards the Earl of Essex a kind of motherly affection because he represented the kind of son she could’ve had with Robert Dudley. That’s entirely speculation but what’s not speculation is she had genuine affection for the Earl of Essex and she demonstrated that at court repeatedly.
Now in spite of or perhaps encouraged by her genuine affection for him, the Earl of Essex was for his entire life known for his conspicuous daring. He was quite free with his emotions. He was thought to often be too familiar with Queen Elizabeth in public and would behave in this very impetus fashion.
In spite of his audacious personality, he had an extremely successful military career. By the time he was just 20 years old, he had distinguished himself in the Netherlands. He was made Master of Horse in 1587 and he was made Queen Elizabeth’s Spymaster by the year 1590.
Elizabeth would go on to give him a monopoly in sweet wine which made him very very rich. She appointed him to her Privy Council, which made him one of her closest advisors. Now, his audacious and conspicuously daring personality would come to a head on the Privy Council. He made a lot of enemies with the other people on that council. He had a hot temper and he was often spiritedly jealous of the other people on the council.
By the late 1590s, he was at odds with people like Sir Walter Raleigh and Robert Cecil coming almost to the point of armed conflicts with these men. There are reports that Essex publicly drew his sword on Queen Elizabeth in a verbal quarrel at court. Afterwards, he had to do something very daring to regain her favor because he lost it quite quickly – you don’t draw your sword on the Queen.
That’s how he became appointed to leadership in Ireland. In 1599, same year William Shakespeare built the Globe Theatre, Essex embarked on a military expedition to Ireland. That entire move was considered an apology on Essex’s part to Queen Elizabeth to try and regain her favor.
Many believe that the attempt to go to Ireland and succeed was what inspired Shakespeare to write Henry V. The public in England were concerned about this ongoing war and they needed something to inspire them that this was going to come to an end, and that England would fight strongly there, and that was part of what played into Shakespeare writing Henry V.
In addition to inspiring the populous by writing Henry V, Essex was Shakespeare’s patron and as such, he could request what he wanted them to perform. Additionally, they were probably friends, and so Shakespeare would’ve been personally motivated to rally support for Essex through what he was putting on stage.
The theater was a known political weapon and it was used to influence the emotions and opinions and political stands of the people of England. Even if Shakespeare was not a friend of Essex on a personal level, on a business level, he would’ve been motivated to see Essex succeed because as his patron, if Essex did well, Shakespeare’s business did well also.
So his plays would’ve had a personal reason to try and influence Essex’s succeeding in this expedition. Now, had Essex succeeded in Ireland, he would’ve regained the Queen’s favor. But the quest was a fool’s errand and he failed miserably. The result was such a disaster that the Queen vanished him and said “Don’t come back to England, you’re not allowed”.
Well, he ignored her command and returned to England anyway, which gave Cecil and Raleigh more than enough reason to demand his arrest, and they did. They arrested him almost promptly when he returned in June of 1600. He was stripped of all his public offices, and had the sweet wine turf that made him so rich was completely removed from him as well.
When he was finally released from house arrest, his support had severely dwindled. He’d enjoyed a massive amount of popularity in London, and now it was very very small. He had abused his position and squandered his support. In a last attempt to regain power, he came up with this idea that he was going to gather support, raise the rebellion, remove Queen Elizabeth. Replace, specifically Cecil from the Privy Council, he was going to be gone.
The night of this rebellion was going to take place, some of the conspirators gathered together at Essex’s house. Now, Robert Devereux himself did not go, and he did not go on purpose to remove suspicion from himself. That seemed silly to me, because of course people would suspect him with everything else going on, but whatever. He didn’t go but his conspirators got together at his house to discuss how they’re going to pull this together.
After that meeting, just three days later, some of Devereux men approached William Shakespeare and asked him to perform Richard II. Richard II was a popular play during this time and had been performed in the streets at least 40 times on record, but they had left out the abdication scene. On this day, three days after they’ve gotten together to plan the rebellion, the night before the rebellion was supposed to take place, they asked Shakespeare to perform Richard II with the abdication scene included. It was a deliberate stab at Queen Elizabeth, who is recorded by her archivist saying she knew she was Richard II.
At first Shakespeare was hesitant to put on, obviously, as you should be if you are a reasonable person. But they offered William Shakespeare an unreasonable amount of money to perform the play anyway. They paid well-above what was ordinary. It was the sum of about 40 shillings which translates to almost $500 in today’s money, and about 400 pounds. They paid him this huge amount of money to give him the courage to put it on, and he agreed.
They performed the play and then the next day, Essex tried to plan his uprising. The Queen sent some of her men to confront Essex, and Essex captured them and held them hostage. When he did that, Robert Cecil sent a warning to the mayor saying “Devereux is a traitor.” Once he was officially declared a traitor, a lot of those 300 supporters he had gathered dwindled away, and they got scared and then they left.
So then he found himself here, on the eve of an uprising without his people, and he freaked out and returned to Essex House, his home. When he got there, the Queen sent men to arrest him. He was arrested and then on February 25th of 1601 he was beheaded at the tower, and his rebellion had failed.
What is really interesting about this is that there’s not much of an official response from Queen Elizabeth about this rebellion beyond the beheading of Essex himself. The only response we have is, a few months later after they had performed Richard II for the rebellion, Queen Elizabeth called Shakespeare’s playing company to Whitehall Palace to perform Richard II as a celebration of Shrove time. She called them to London to perform that at her court.
Why Shakespeare himself was never executed or tried for treason remains a mystery. Certainly, other play writers were arrested and executed for much less.
Interestingly, Essex’s co-conspirator, Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, escaped execution when a friend of his fought for his sentence to be commuted from execution to life in prison. He served a prison sentence until 1603 when James I came to the throne. The Earl of Southampton was released and one of his first official acts after being released from prison was to return to the theater. We have a record that he performed a play for Queen Anne at his home and he invited Shakespeare’s company to do the performance.
That’s the story of how Shakespeare got away with using theater as a weapon against the Queen. If you enjoy learning history like this about William Shakespeare’s life, I invite you to subscribe to That Shakespeare Life. I have a newsletter that you can sign up to to get episode notifications every Monday.
I take listeners behind the curtain and into the real life of William Shakespeare, including things like this, where we’ll be talking with Lady Clare Asquith, Countess of Oxford, about Shakespeare’s involvement in the Essex’s Rebellion where I’ll be asking her about how Shakespeare was able to avoid execution and why he was able to continue such a successf after so actively threatening the reigning monarch.
All of these questions and more are covered every week in That Shakespeare Life, and I invite you to be a part of it by signing up to be notified when that episode becomes available. Thank you for joining me today, I hope you enjoyed the rest of the conference. My name is Cassidy Cash, That Shakespeare Girl, and I hope you learned something new about The Bard.
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