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Revision as of 19:17, 18 December 2024 by Unoquha (talk | contribs) (new)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)At the Tudor and Stuart royal courts in Britain it was traditional to give gifts on New Year's Day. Records of these gift exchanges survive, and provide information about courtiers and their relative status.
Gifts and status
In 1504, James IV gave Margaret Dennet, an English servant of his queen consort Margaret Tudor, a gold chain with a figure of Saint Andrew worth £20 Scots.
The lady-in-waiting Isabel Leigh gave Henry VIII a shirt she had embroidered and recieved a silver cup in return. The silver and gilt plate which Henry gave to his courtiers in return was made or supplied by the goldsmiths Cornelis Hayes and Robert Amadas
When Margaret Douglas was in favour in 1539 at the court of Henry VIII, she was given a gilt cup made by the goldsmith Morgan Wolf as a New Year's Day gift. Margaret Douglas gave Princess Mary New Year's Day gifts, in 1543 the gift was a satin gown of carnation silk in Venice fashion.
The Edinburgh goldsmith and financier Thomas Foulis supplied jewels to James VI to serve as New Years Day gifts in 1596. These included a gold salamander studded with diamonds given to the Master of Work, William Schaw. Anne of Denmark had a diamond set gold locket or tablet with a diamond and ruby necklace. Sir Thomas Erskine had a locket set with rubies and diamonds, the Duke of Lennox had a hat badge in the shape of a diamond set gold crown, and a courtier known as the "Little Dutchman" (possibly William Belo) received a diamond ring.
References
- Maria Hayward, "Gift Giving at the Court of Henry VIII", The Antiquaries Journal, 85 (2005), pp. 125–175. doi:10.1017/S0003581500074382
- Michelle Beer, Queenship at the Renaissance Courts of Britain: Catherine of Aragon and Margaret Tudor (Woodbridge, 2018), p. 107: Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 472: James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 412.
- Maria Hayward, "Gift Giving at the Court of Henry VIII", Antiquaries Journal, 85 (2005), pp. 147, 165, 171 fn. 88.
- Maria Hayward, "Gift Giving at the Court of Henry VIII", Antiquaries Journal, 85 (2005), p. 144.
- Maria Hayward, "Dressed to Impress", Alice Hunt & Anna Whitelock, Tudor Queenship (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), p. 91.
- Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, "King James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts, 1588–1596", Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, 16 (Woodbridge: Scottish History Society, 2020), pp. 84–85.