Bookies, Clownes, Lunisequa and more.

It's that time, again!
It's Tudor Trivia Tuesday! 

1) The great English statesman William Cecil’s father was Richard Cecil, Groom, and afterwards Yeoman of the Wardrobe to Henry VIII. He held the latter office under Edward VI. and died in it. March 22, 1552/3.

2) Don Juan de Figueroa, a Spaniard, was as representative of the Emperor Charles V to be present at the nuptials of Philip of Spain and Queen Mary I, and to make a formal resignation to them, in his name, of the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. Both the nuptials and the coronation as Queen of the two kingdoms were performed at Winchester on the 25th of July, 1554.

3) December 4, 1549, Roman bookies were offering 100 for 40 for those betting on the English Cardinal Reginald Pole to replace Pope Paul III who had died on November 10.  Later in the day he had backers at 100 for 46–50; and at night he was at 100 for 80, and 30 ducats were paid down for payment of 100, in the event of his being proclaimed Pope on the morning of the 5th. At midnight of the 4^th, the Cardinal of England was at 100 for 95. (During the conclave bookies — “bankers’ shops” — were never closed at any hour.)  On February 7, Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte was elected Pope Julius III.

4) The last of her dalliances with the French Duke de Anjou (formerly Alenҫon) having ended, Queen Elizabeth had lost her most effective diplomatic ploy: the suggestion that she might marry.   On April 19, 1581, a French embassy made up from many of France’s finest families was invited to visit the English Court.  The embassy was made up of Francis de Bourbon, Dauphin d'Auvergne, and Charles de Bourbon, Count de Soissons; Marshal de Cossé, Pinart, La Mothe Fenelon, Brisson, and some 200 other courtiers of rank. So desirous was Elizabeth that they should be impressed with the splendor of her court, that she ordered that the London mercers should sell their fine stuffs at a reduction of 25 per cent, in order that the courtiers might be handsomely dressed.

5) On April 30, 1581, the Baron Burghley entertained the French legation at great Cecil House on the Strand.  The following is the account for the evening:

…two stags, 40s.; two bucks, 20s.; six kids, 24s.; six pigs, 10s.; six shins of beef, 24s.; four gammons of bacon, 16s.; one swan, 10s.; three cranes, 20s.; twenty-four curlews, 24s.; fifteen pheasants, 30s.; fifty-four herons, £8, 15s.; eight part ridges, 8s., and vast quantities of meat of all sorts; and sturgeon, conger, salmon, trout, lampreys, lobsters, prawns, gurnards, oysters, and many sorts of fresh-water fish. Herbs and salads cost no less than 36s., and cream, 27s. There were consumed 3300 eggs, 360 lbs. of butter, 42lbs. of spices, and three gallons of rose-water. £11, 7s. 3d. was paid for the hire of extra vessels and glass; flowers and rushes cost £5, 7s. 10d., and Turkey carpets, £11, This Gargantuan feast was served by forty-nine gentlemen and thirty-four servants, and was washed down with £75 worth of beer as well as Gascon, sack, hippocras, and other wine costing £21 ; the entire expenditure on the afternoon's feeding being £649, 1s. 5d.

6) The 1536 miniature of Jane Seymour by Nicholas Hilliard is believed to have been copied from an original portrait by Holbein.

7) “The fondness of our countrymen and countrywomen for sweets astonished the Spaniards who came with the embassy of the Count Villamediana in 1603. At Canterbury the English ladies are described as peeping through the latticed windows (ventanas rejas) at the hidalgos, who presented the ‘curious impertinent’ fair ones with the bonbons, comfits, and sweetmeats that were upon the table, “which they enjoyed mightily ; for (it is remarked) they eat nothing but what is sweetened with sugar, drinking it commonly with their wine and mixing it with their meat.” [Brenchley Rye]

8) “Clownes and vulgar men onely use large drinking of Beere or Ale, how much soever it is esteemed excellent drinke even among strangers; but Gentlemen garrawse onely in Wine, with which many mixe sugar—which I never observed in any other place or kingdome to be used for that purpose.” [Moryson]

9) It was believed by many in Tudor times that the moon had an attendant star—Lilly calls it "Lunisequa". Some Shakespeare scholars find an allusion to this idea in Love's Labour's Lost (IV.iii), where the king says:

My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon:

She an attending star, scarce seen a light.

10) Cataracts were commonly called the “pin and web” in Shakespeare’s time.  He uses the term in the Winter's Tale  (I.ii.):

Leontes.                              all eyes blind

With the pin and web, but theirs, theirs only

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• Get Thee to the Mop.  September 30, 2019.  'The most curious name by far, and the most persistent, it having become the popular name for such fairs, was the “mop fair,” or “the mop” for short.'
• The Secret Correspondence of Robert Cecil and James I. August 25, 2019.  “As he was planning an armed attempt to “secure the person of the Queen,” after having returned from the country, in disgrace, and to force her to dismiss ministers who did not satisfy him, he was waiting for a return letter from King James VI of Scotland.”
• A Brief Introduction to Poisoning a Nobleman.  August 4, 2019. “As those who read the primary accounts whenever possible know, never were vagaries so vague as in the Middle Ages.”
• 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.”
• 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.