As I mentioned in my post about my recent trip to the Globe
theatre, I had made my Elizabethan suit for a holiday in America.
Neither I, nor my fiancé, Teddy, are sports fans. We do not
engage in conventional sports; we do not watch them. I used to think that I had
never done any sort of sport until I thought about it again and noted that I have done riding, archery, 22 shooting, judo
and fencing.
Anyway, I live in Wimbledon and have lived with having to
avoid the sudden influx of people for the tennis every year all my life. I was,
therefore, not looking forward to the London Olympics in 2012.
Teddy has to cross the city every day to get to work in
north London and he wasn’t looking forward to the event either.
We formed a plan. Our friends, Karen and William, live in
Homewood, just outside Chicago. We had stayed with them for holidays several
times before and they said we were welcome to stay for a longer period.
Teddy saved up as much leave as he could carry over between
years and I, having been made redundant from my post working for the Church of
England as an admin, was free to take a long holiday for the first time.
We planned so that we left before the Games began and came
back after the Paralympics closed.
Karen told us that whilst we were there, she and William
would be going to the Bristol Renaissance Fayre, where they re-enacted as
member of Queen Elizabeth’s court. She played the Countess of Shrewsbury and he
portrayed Sir Francis Drake. They said we would be welcome to join them and
could be assigned roles to play.
I had already started an Elizabethan suit for a costume set
that never happened, so I resolved to finish it. Teddy started a suit of his
own.
I’m a bit more organised and focused than Teddy and had
finished my suit , with a spare pair of venetians before we left, Teddy still
had quite a bit of work to do.
When we arrived in Homewood, I learnt that William had also
been asked to paint up a couple of large shields. One was to help decorate the
place where we would be re-enacting and the other was a gift for someone. I
offered to help.
The first shield was the arms of Sir John Hawkins and the
second was to have a blue giraffe (which I understand was the recipient’s
nickname). I set to work and here are the results.
In the UK we are often able to re-enact at historic castles and
houses, but these do not exist in the states (prior to the Georgian and
Victorian periods).
The Bristol Renaissance Fayre had solved this problem by
building a small village of Tudor-style shops and adding three open-air theatre
stages, a full-sized galleon in its own dock and tilt yard and a small fort.
They re-enacted a visit made by Queen Elizabeth to Bristol,
two shows a day, for the public every day for two weeks every year.
As both Karen and William worked, we were to go for the two
weekends. I was assigned the role of Lord Mounteagle, a relative of the Earl of
Derby. Thus, as a true Yorkist at heart, I had to grit my teeth and play a
Stanley. I borrowed a sword belt and rapier from William for the role (though I
bought a beautifully tooled sword belt and hanger at the fayre. Teddy had
finally got his suit to a stage where it
was wearable( I forget who he was to play).
Unfortunately, Teddy was feeling ill and throwing up on the
morning of the first weekend, so we went without him.( We did not find out till
we got back that he was still feeling ill and couldn’t move from a prone
position without hurling. As we didn’t know what was wrong with him, we ended
up calling an ambulance. He was diagnosed with severe vertigo and spent a
couple of days in hospital).
With me feeling slightly guilty for leaving him behind, we
arrived at the fayre and dragged our wheeled cases over the rough track to the
rear of the small fort that backed the royal court.
Other members of the group (the Guild of St George) had
already arrived and we helped get the large carpets and all the furniture out
of the store room and set it up. The formal part of the day was Court, where
various worthies were presented to the queen and there were some set pieces ,
and the Procession thought the town to one of the main stages. There was then a
set piece between the Queen and Leicester. The Queen and some nobles then
attended a joust in the afternoon.
The rest of the time we were free to wander and be involved
in our own plots etcetera.
I attended the joust several times, mostly to cheer on a
rather handsome young knight (even if he was playing a Frenchman). Here he is
I had great fun and Teddy was well enough to join us the
second weekend.
They had a professional actress playing the queen and she
was excellent. I could not fault her accent. The chap playing Leicester was
also very good, but he was of southern extraction and twinges of accent or
idiom crept in on occasion.
The was a marvellous performance by Drake and the other sea
captains , where they were brought before the court drunk, to explain how the
inn came to be burnt down. Somehow they got away with it – probably by blaming
the Spanish.
The other re-enactor of note was the man playing Sir Francis
Wallsingham, who was excellent. I became involved in a plot where he had been
captured by some Scots and they were trying to get a ransom. I somehow managed
to get the negotiation turned into an auction and the Scots ended up getting so
confused they bought him.
We enjoyed ourselves and, it seems, made an impression on
the guild. They were disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to join them for the
2013 shows.
Until next time
Adieu