In 1563 Thomas Underhill was
assigned the role as Keeper of the Wardrobe for Robert Dudley at Kenilworth
Castle. Robert Dudley would subsequently invest 60,000 pounds[i]
to convert Kenilworth into a place suited to receive the Queen during her
ceremonial ‘progresses’ around her realm.[ii]
As an indication of Dudley’s suitability for hosting Elizabeth and his taste
for entertainment, in June 1559 Dudley formed a company of players. At the head
of this company was James Burbadge, an associate of Shakespeare. [iii]
These players undoubtedly played an
important role in festivities held at Kenilworth Castle.
Thomas Underhill would
accompany Leicester to the Netherlands, where Leicester directed Protestant
efforts against the Spanish.[iv]
For Hugh Underhill to be serving Queen
Elizabeth I at Greenwich, and his son to be serving Robert Dudley at
Kenilworth, was to place two members of the Underhill family as witnesses to one of the greatest intrigues of their time.
Much has been said about the purported relation between Elizabeth and Dudley
that began during their imprisonment in the Tower of London shortly after the
rule of Queen Mary I began, and that continued long thereafter.
Queen Elizabeth I is
reported to have visited Kenilworth Castle several times in 1566, 1572, and
1575. The last visit is remembered as the most lavish. Elizabeth brought
several hundred people with her to visit and was entertained for 18 consecutive
days that cost Dudley almost a thousand pounds a day. One guest declared
afterwards, “For the persons, for the place, time, cost, devices, strangeness
and abundance of all… I saw none anywhere so memorable.”[v]
This had the effect of nearly bankrupting Dudley too for this was among the
most lavish celebrations ever held in England at the time.
People from throughout the
countryside are reported to have visited Kenilworth during the festivities in
1575. John Shakespeare was a well-to-do citizen of Stratford. Given the station
he rose to in life, there likely would have been a friendship between the
Underhill and Shakespeare families.[vi]
That makes the likelihood very good that John Shakespeare brought his son
William Shakespeare who was 11 years old to the pageant at Kenilworth.[vii]
A passage from A Midsummer-Night’s Dream
is considered by some proof that Shakespeare was present for the festivities:
A mermaid on a dolphin’s back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious sounds
That the rude sea grew civil at her song.
This passage is said to be
reminiscent of features of the Kenilworth pageant. The minstrel Arion appeared
on a dolphin’s back singing, and other player representing Triton in the
likeness of a mermaid, commanded the waves to be still. Then fireworks were
like shooting stars that feel to the water, as a passage from Oberon later
stated:
Shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maid’s music.
Thomas Underhill had married
Magdalen Amyas (1553-1597) in 1570 and had a son John Edward Underhill
(1574-1608). Following Leicester’s death in 1589, Thomas Underhill and his son
John Edward Underhill would remain at Kenilworth as part of the retinue of
Robert Dudley, Leicester’s heir. [viii]
Hugh Underhill would
continue to distinguish himself in service to Queen Elizabeth I. In 1572 he
married his second wife Katherine Manning, nearly 30 years his junior, and
would have a second son by her named George Underhill who was born in 1573.
George would graduate from Oxford University in 1588, and have a first wife of
unknown name who died in 1604. His second wife’s name was Elizabeth, and
together they also had a daughter named Elizabeth.[ix]
[ii]
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/kenilworth-castle/history/
Accessed October 2, 2010
[iii] Notices illustrative of the drama,
and other popular amusements, chiefly in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries: incidentally illustrating Shakespeare and his contemporaries;
extracted from the chamberlains' accounts and other manuscripts of the borough
of Leicester, By William Kelly (Published by J. R. Smith, 1865)
[iv]
Breen,63
[v]
Elizabeth I by Anne Somerset (1992, Macmillan)
[viii]
Breen,63
[ix]
http://www.angelfire.com/ny/chickened/underhillfamily.html
[x]
Crossing to Freedom by Elizabeth Wells Bardwell (2002, iUniverse)
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