The King’s Men perform in Nottingham

Records show that Shakespeare’s group of actors, The King’s Men, visited and performed in Nottingham between 1614 and 1615…around a year before the playwright died.

The troupe were paid 13 shillings and 4 pence by civic leaders.

By the time of the King’s Men’s first visit to Nottingham in 1614-15 Shakespeare is thought to have retired to Stratford-upon-Avon and would not therefore have been with the travelling troupe, but there’s a good chance that at least some of his plays were in their touring offer, as they continued to be part of the repertory in London right up until 1642.

Indeed, by 1614-15 the players would have had access to all of Shakespeare’s plays, his final work for the troupe – the co-authored The Two Noble Kinsmen with John Fletcher – probably being completed in 1613-14 and perhaps therefore included in the touring repertory in 1614-15 as one of the company’s newest plays and an example of romance drama, the latest hit genre on the London stage.

The civic records do not tell us where or what Shakespeare’s company performed when they visited in the Jacobean and Caroline eras, but the usual venue for civic entertainments was the old Guild Hall which stood on the south side of Weekday Cross. The medieval building does not survive to the present, having been demolished in 1895 to make way for a new branch of the railway, but surviving evidence suggests that the large council hall was on the first floor.

The King’s Men were formed by the new King James when he first came to power in 1603 on the death of Elizabeth I.

It was among the King’s first acts, and gave royal approval to Shakespeare’s troupe, who until then had been known as the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.

Shakespeare wrote the majority of his plays for this group of actors, and he himself took the occasional part, and it is widely agreed joined the occasional tour.

Dr Siobhan Keenan, Reader in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, De Montfort University, Leicester

On 25 August 1642 King Charles I famously raised the royal standard at Nottingham, marking the official start of the English Civil Wars.

But the King’s men who had flocked to Nottingham in 1642 were not the first King’s men or royal servants to whom the city played host.

During Shakespeare’s lifetime and after, Nottingham was also visited regularly by royal and noble acting companies, including Shakespeare’s company, The King’s Players, also known as The King's Men.

Shakespeare’s troupe is first recorded in the city in the years immediately preceding their most famous playwright’s death, receiving 13 shillings and 4 pence from the corporation in 1614-15. They were paid again in 1620-1, this time with Princess Elizabeth’s players, and again on their own in 1628-9, 1629-30 and 1635-6.

By the time of the final payment, though, the London-based King’s Men were not the only King’s players to have visited Stuart Nottingham. The city’s records also include payments to the King’s Players of the Chamber of Bristol (1623-4, 1626-7, 1629-30, 1630-1), the King’s Players of York (1632-3, 1633-4, 1635-6), the King’s Players of Windsor (1630-1) and the King’s Revels players (1623-4, 1626-7, 1629-30, 1630-1, 1632-3, 1633-4).

The popularity of the town with royal players, and vice versa, might well be evidence that Nottingham was known for its royalist sympathies long before the civil wars.

By Alan H Nelson, Record for Early English Drama editor

When Queen Elizabeth died on 24 March 1603, James the Sixth of Scotland acceded to the throne of England as James the First. But as James was in Edinburgh, he required more than a month to get to London.

Edward Alleyn. By permission of the Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery

By the time James got to London, plague was so rife that he postponed his coronation ceremony for almost a year. The same plague shut down the playhouses, leaving players without employment, at least in London.

In the meantime the King's administration carried out its normal functions. On 18 May a warrant was issued authorizing William Shakespeare and his companions to perform plays throughout the realm under royal patronage: the former Lord Chamberlain’s players were now the King’s Men.

Ten months later, on 15 March 1604, James finally had his coronation procession. As the festive day approached, the Lord Chamberlain issued red or scarlet cloth, to be made into livery garments, to more than a thousand royal servants, including twenty-eight players.

From the notebook recording the purchase and distribution of cloth we know the names of three playing companies, the King’s Men, the Queen’s Men, and the Prince’s Men, and we know the names of the nine or ten principal players of each company. The King’s Men were headed by William Shakespeare, the Queen’s Men by Christopher Beeston, and the Prince’s Men by Edward Alleyn. (The queen was Anne of Denmark. The prince was Henry, heir apparent until his tragic death in 1612.)

We don’t know exactly what William Shakespeare did with his four and a half yards of red cloth, or what role he played. The liveried players may have marched in procession, or may have lined the processional route. Two members of the Prince’s Men, Edward Alleyn, famous for his stentorian voice, and William Bird alias Bourne, proclaimed speeches at pageants which lined the processional route; maybe Shakespeare and his men did the same.

Some months later, from 9 to 26 August 1604, twelve fellows of the King’s Men were paid for their attendance upon the Spanish Ambassador at Somerset House. Here they performed not on stage, but literally as royal servants. With a likelihood approaching certainty, one of the twelve grooms of the chamber at Somerset House in August 1605, doubtless dressed in livery, was William Shakespeare.