Playing at Cards, Columbus’s Brother, Ceylon and more.

It's that time again!!!
Welcome to Tudor Trivia Tuesday!!!

1)  In 1506, a ship carrying Philip King of Castile, and his queen, Joanna, was pummeled by a violent storm, which lasted eleven days.  Of their small fleet only the ship that carried them survived to limp into the English harbor at Weymouth.  King Henry VII sent congratulations on their good fortune and insisted upon having a noble retinue accompany them to Windsor Castle.  As a mark of special favor Henry went forth to meet them a mile outside of the castle.  The Castilian couple were continuously feted, in the richest fashion, for six continuous weeks.  They were, nonetheless, hostages and were not freed until Philip signed a treaty between the realms that was gratifyingly favorable to the English.

2) Every year, during the reigns from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, in each locality and each corporate town local justices were to assemble before June 10th, in each incorporated town, to set the wages for the year for every kind of manual labor, skilled or unskilled, by the year, week or day.

3) In 1603, the great Irish rebel Tyrone at long last surrendered to the English, calling on Queen Elizabeth for mercy as he did so.  Unbeknownst to him, the Queen had died six days earlier.

4) In 1564, Mrs. Dinghen Vanden Plasse, born at Teenen, Flanders, moved to London, where she did an excellent business in starching (an art little known in the country).  Soon after her customers began to send their daughters and kinswomen to Mrs. Plasse, to learn how to starch: her standard price was four or five pounds to teach them to starch.

Stop by.  Check it out.

5)  In 1541, playing cards, bowling, dicing, tennis and other games by English commoners was declared illegal by the statute 33 Hen 8 c. 9 ('An Act for Maintenance of Archery and Debarring of Unlawful Games.').  The men were encouraged to compete at archery, traditionally the strength of the English army, instead.

6) In 1506 the Portuguese first landed on the isle of Ceylon.  The resident Moors opposed their landing.  The island being the only source of precious cinnamon in the known world they fought to protect their monopoly. The Portuguese prevailed in the end and took control of the island and the lucrative cinnamon monopoly until 1639.

7) In 1509, Admiral James Columbus, son of the great Christopher, settled and planted the island of Jamaica.

8) According to the Chronicon Preciosum, in 1514, a master shipwright's daily pay was five pence with meals and seven pence without meals.

9) In 1601, by statute 43 Eliza. I, c. 12, the first insurance commissioners in England were established “to hear and determine policies of assurance made among merchants.”

10) According to Willughby's Ornithology (1678) quoting Faber: “They are wont in England to train up Cormorants to fishing. When they carry them out of the rooms where they are kept to the fish-pools, they hood wink them, that they be not frightened by the way. When they are come to the rivers, they take off their hoods, and having tied a leather thong round the lower part of their necks that they may not swallow down the fish they catch, they throw them into the river. They presently dive under water, and there for a long time, with wonderful swiftness pursue the fish, and when they have caught them, they arise presently to the top of the water, and pressing the fish lightly with their bills, they swallow them, till each bird hath after this manner devoured five or six fishes. Then their keepers call them to the fist, to which they readily fly; and little by little, one after another, vomit up all their fish, a little bruised with the nip they gave them with their bills. When they have done fishing, setting the birds on some high place, they loose the string from their necks, leaving the passage to the stomach free and open; and for their reward they throw them part of their prey they have caught, to each perchance one or two fishes, which they, by the way, as they are falling in the air, will catch most dextrously in their mouths.”

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• The Fascinating Itinerary of the Gelosi Troupe, 1576.  June 10, 2019.  “The Spanish soldiers had not been paid and unpaid soldiers tend to rob and loot.  The citizens were prepared to give them a fight.  Violent flare ups were occurring everywhere.”
• A Thousand Years of English Terms.  June 2, 2019.  ‘One person did not say to another, “Meet you at three o’clock”.    There was no clock to be o’.  But the church bell rang the hour of Nones and you arranged to meet “upon the Nones bell”.’
• A Most Curious Account of the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth I: April 28, 1603.  April 28, 2019.  “Once it was clear that James I would face no serious challenges, Cecil and the others could begin to give attention to the matter of the Queen’s funeral.”
• The Battle Over Shakespeare's Early and Late Plays. September 24, 2018. “The answers to the post-Oxford dilemma, of course, are three.”
• Stratford Shakespeare’s Undersized Grave.  July 22, 2018.  “Mr. Coll’s considers this evidence to support an old rumor that Shakspere’s head had been stolen in 1794.  But I submit that he is merely making his observation based upon a coincidence.”
• Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.