English Settlements Begin In America

English Settlements Begin In America

1606 - We are now at the beginning of the English settlement in what will become the United States. It begins this year with the Virginia Company of London getting a royal charter and sending 120 colonists to Virginia. The system of colonization works like this - A private company is founded with a board of governors who own the stock and put up the money for the enterprise hoping to reap big profits from it. They sometimes also sell shares to other investors. The company (sometimes before, sometimes after selling shares) applies to the King for a patent (a specific grant of land.) The King specifies (very loosely) which patch of 1606 - We are now at the beginning of the English settlement in what will become the United States. It begins this year with the Virginia Company of London getting a royal charter and sending 120 colonists to Virginia. The system of colonization works like this - A private company is founded with a board of governors who own the stock and put up the money for the enterprise hoping to reap big profits from it. They sometimes also sell shares to other investors. The company (sometimes before, sometimes after selling shares) applies to the King for a patent (a specific grant of land.) The King specifies (very loosely) which patch of

a patent. The whole affair is very untidy. This year James I* gives a patent to two small groups of colonizers, one from the city of Plymouth, the other from London. Each one gets a tract of land of 10,000 square miles. Plymouth is to settle their group between the 38th and 45th parallels and London between the 34th and 41st. So the London patentees head off for Virginia and the Plymouth ones try (but don't make a go of it) for Maine.

1607 The first great operatic composer, Claudio Monteverde* (1567-1643), gets his opera, Orfeo*, put on in Venice. He pushes the emphasis toward musical rather than dramatic values and introduces a greater role for instrumental music.

The English put a permanent colony in the Americas at Jamestown, Virginia. In Ireland the Brits are defeating the Irish and as a result of the massive defeats the Irish

leaders flee the country. This is known as the "Flight of the Earls," who escape to Europe to avoid persecution for their rebellion.

Spain has national bankruptcy and this causes the Bank of Genoa to fail. 1607 - Shakespeare* is doing Antony and Cleopatra*, Timon of Athens*. John Fletcher* and

Francis Beaumont* collaborate on The Knight of the Burning Pestle. 1608 - Parigi* does another major festival in Florence. This one has a really spectacular water

procession (naumachia*) on the Arno River called "The Battle of the Argonauts*." By the early part of this century there are three basic elements in the settings for productions:

side wings; back shutters; and, overhead borders. Shakespeare* is doing Pericles*, Coriolanus*. Finally his company, now the King's Men*,

gets to make use of the private theatre at Blackfriars*. CHURCH THEATRE CONTROVERSY IN SPAIN - In Spain the problem of actresses leads to a decree that no one except actors are permitted

backstage. The Spanish are getting much stricter on censorship of plays, friars are forbidden to attend the theatre and secular plays are banned from presentation in religious houses and churches.

1608 Poland takes over much of northeast Russia and blockades Moscow. The Russian nobility (Boyars) form a provisional government and install a Polish Czar.

1609 In Spain Phillip III*, in his extreme piety, throws out the last of the Moors (known as Moriscos*) which is economically a disaster. He also recognizes the independence of the Netherlands.

The first tea from China is shipped to Europe by the Dutch East India Company.

James I* issues a second colonizing patent to the Virginia Company (who sell open stock) for

a strip 400 miles wide stretching from the Atlantic to Pacific. 1609 - Shakespeare* is doing Cymbeline*. Jonson* does Epicaene* performed by the

Children of the Queen's Revels* at Whitefriars*. The Knight of the Burning Pestle* is performed.

1610 - Shakespeare* is doing A Winter's Tale* and Jonson* The Alchemist*. Fletcher* and Beaumont* write The Maid's Tragedy*.

1610 The French king, Henry IV*, is assassinated and his son, Louis XIII* succeeds at the age of nine. Obviously there is a regent, his mother, Queen Maria de'Medici*.

Over in the New World the English explorer, Henry Hudson*, is exploring Delaware Bay and Hudson Bay.

1611 In Spain Phillip III*'s queen dies and court performances drop off. In England James I* is having trouble raising money. He dissolves parliament because they

won't do what he wants. This will continue to happen until it turns into a civil war. The King James Bible* (the authorized English version of the Bible commisioned by James

I*, of course) is published. 1611 - Shakespeare* is doing The Tempest*. In Spain Tirso de Molina* comes out with The Man in Green Breeches* which features

women disguised as men. The Spanish Church doesn't like this sort of cross dressing (remember that 1599 ruling against it?)

1612 In Russia they drive out the Poles and put Mikhail Romanov* on the throne. The Dutch on Manhattan Island open a trading center there. The English are planting tobacco

in Virginia and get the right to govern their Jamestown colony. This self-government doesn't work too well.

1612 - John Webster* puts on The White Devil*. 1613 - Shakespeare* is doing Two Noble Kinsmen*, Henry VIII* (both of these with

Fletcher). 1614 -John Webster* puts on The Duchess of Malfi*. 1614 James I* has another parliament that won't discuss finance and he dissolves it again. In America the English colonists prevent French from settling in Maine and Nova Scotia. 1615 -In Spain the number of theatrical companies is increased to twelve, which still must be

licensed.

1616 - Parigi* does another major festival in Florence. In the intermezzo at the Uffizi* palace theatre (built by Buontalenti*) there is a permanent proscenium arch.

Shakespeare* dies this year. 1617 - Jonson* is made poet laureate by James I*. 1618 - The Teatro Farnese* is finished this year at Parma, although it won't be used for

another ten years. It is designed by an architect called Giovan Battista Aleotti* (1546-1636) with a permanent proscenium arch. [This building is really the prototype of the modern stage and still survives today.] Guillen de Castro y Bellvis* (1569-1631) - comes out with Las Mocedades del Cid* in two parts exploring the exploits of Spain's national hero the Cid.

1618 The Thirty Years War* begins with the "Defenestration" (throwing the Regents out the window) in Prague.

1619 The first black slaves arrive in Virginia. 1620 The English colony business picks up this year with the successors of the Plymouth

group getting a new charter as the "Council of New England" and a sneaky band of Puritans (now known as the Pilgrim Fathers) taking ship in the Mayflower* and landing at Massachusetts where they settle in this year as squatters. The Puritans have an OK from the Virginia Company to settle there but they land on Plymouth territory instead. It all gets straightened out and later they are incorporated into Massachusetts.

1621 In Spain Phillip IV* (1605-1665) comes to the throne. Unfortunately for his country he leaves the running of it to his Prime Minister (Olivares* ) who introduces great extravagances and gets the country into a lot of wars. However, the extravagances include spectacular theatre for the court.

The Dutch, who have been fighting with Spain on and off for years, renew their fighting again. They also establish the Dutch West India Company with a monopoly on trade between Africa and America and the right to establish colonies. They start small settlements on the Hudson and Delaware rivers which will become New York City, Albany and part of Philadelphia. These will make up the future colony of New Netherland which they will lose to the English in 1664.

1621 - In England Thomas Dekker* does Witch of Edmonton*. 1622 - In Spain Tirso de Molina* comes out with his best historical play, Prudence in

Women*, treating the heroic Queen Maria. 1622 The Council for New England grants sections of land for colonization to two different

men which starts off the settlement of what will become Maine and New Hampshire. 1623 First English settlement is established in New Hampshire. A Puritan divine gets a spot in

New England to offer refuge for the poor of England and be supported by fishing. This is Gloucester, the first town of the Massachusetts colony.

1624 In France an important figure, both for politics and the theatre, steps onto the national stage. This is Richelieu* (actually named Armand Jean du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu) (1585- 1642). He is already a prominent church man (Bishop and Cardinal) and elected member of the French States-General. As a favorite of of the Queen Regent he now becomes Louis XIII*'s Chief Minister and will exercise complete control.

The English make their first settlement in eastern India and that governance business in Virginia isn't working and James I* takes it back for himself.