Jacobean Pageant

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The king is the leading actor in an English court pageant (1603–25) of jousts, masques, brilliant weddings, and glittering receptions. Scholarship as vivid as fiction presents all major aspects of the court from its intrigues, organization, and finances to the topography of Whitehall Palace and the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury. The cast includes Secretary Cecil, Lord Chancellor Bacon, Lady Arabella Stuart, and Sir Walter Raleigh. The first full study of James’s court in more than a century, Jacobean Pageant not only utilizes the findings of modern scholarship but makes generous use of primary sources, printed and manuscript.