Charles Three Masques Research Paper

Charles' reign began with war against Spain, so initially his masques were not as extravagant and expensive as his father's were so famously known for because his money was going towards "more needful purposes ". His masques always argued his claim to the throne and included the most current political and legal events which suggest that the King was actively involved in their composition. "Charles was not merely being entertained by his masques, the form was an extension of the royal mind ". In fact Buckingham, Charles' right hand man, sponsored two masques himself in 1626 and 1627. The first was staged at York at his home in London, where Charles and his Queen Henrietta Maria were escorted in with the rest of their court. But the real guest of honor that night was not the King, but the French ambassador, Francois de Bassompierre who was in England to calm quarrels between the French and English . …show more content…
Montague in which Buckingham himself joined in. The masques contents (the desire for peaceful Anglo-French relations) were apparently so realistic that Henrietta Maria could identify key French people, such as her mother Marie de Medici . The Queen herself even commissioned her own pastoral masque designed by none other than Inigo Jones in which she and her ladies in waiting performed title The Shepard's Paradise. This masque's themes were about beauty and, one of her favourite topics, platonic love . The last court masque James ever saw was performed was in 1640, The Masque of Salmacida Spolia, right before the country slid into civil war and the King's execution, or what he and his followers liked to call regicide