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Anthony Munday, from The
Triumphs of Reunited Britannia London
![[Click on image to enlarge]](../../images/16thc/poly2.jpg) Following the death of Queen Elizabeth
in 1603, James VI of Scotland came to the
throne as James I of England, ushering in
the Stuart dynasty. The people of England,
used to regarding the Scots as both alien
and inferior, now found themselves under
a Scottish ruler, who made no secret of his
desire to transform his two kingdoms into
a single nation: Great Britain. James's
plans for the political union of Scotland
and England were met with stubborn opposition
from his subjects on both sides of the border.
The English Parliament proved so recalcitrant
that the project eventually had to be shelved.
Scotland would not join England and Wales
as part of a single British state until 1707.
In the early years of James's
reign, many poets and playwrights sought
to flatter their new monarch with pieces
celebrating the unity of Britain. Shakespeare's King
Lear, with its stark portrayal of the
disasters ensuing from Lear's division
of Britain, clearly reflects the Stuart king's
preoccupations — though Shakespeare's
play is too pessimistic in tone, and too
complex in its meditations on history and
loss, to be labeled as simple propaganda.
Far less subtle, and thus probably better
calculated to please the king, is Anthony
Munday's Triumphs of Reunited Britannia,
a pageant performed on the streets of London
in 1605.
Like Shakespeare's play,
the pageant focuses on distant British antiquity.
According to the chronicles of the time,
Britain had been founded by the Trojan Brutus,
who arrived there around the twelfth century
b.c. (While this medieval legend had already
been dismissed by most serious historians,
it maintained a powerful hold on the popular
imagination.) Brutus had founded the city
of London, which he named Troya Nova. At
the end of his life he divided the island
of Britain among his three sons, Locrine,
Camber, and Albanact, whose realms were thereafter
known as Loegria (England), Cambria (Wales),
and Albania (Scotland).
The first excerpt describes
the staging of the pageant, and summarizes
the action. In the second excerpt, drawn
from the middle of the pageant, Brutus and
his sons celebrate the long-awaited reunion
of Britain under the "second Brute," King
James.
On a mount triangular, as the island of
Britain itself is described to be, we seat
in the supreme place, under the shape of
a fair and beautiful nymph, Britannia herself,
accosted with
>> note 1 Brute's divided kingdoms,
in the like female representations, Loegria,
Cambria, and Albania. Britannia speaking
to Brute her conqueror (who is seated somewhat
lower, in the habit of an adventurous,
warlike Trojan), tells him that she had
still continued her name of Albion,
>> note 2 but for his conquest of her
virgin honor, which since it was by heaven
so appointed, she reckons it to be the
very best of her fortunes. Brute shows
her what height of happiness she hath attained
unto by his victory, being before a vast
wilderness, inhabited by giants, and a
mere den of monsters. Goemagot and his
barbarous brood being quite subdued,
>> note 3 his civil followers first taught
her modest manners, and the means how to
reign as an imperial lady, building his
Troya Nova by the river Thamesis,
>> note 4 and beautifying his land with
other cities beside.
But then the three virgin kingdoms seem
to reprove him, for his overmuch love to
his sons, and dividing her (who was one sole
monarchy) into three several estates, the
hurt and inconvenience whereon ensuing, each
one of them modestly delivered unto him.
He stays their further progress in reproof,
by his and their now present revived condition,
being raised again by the powerful virtue
of poesy (after such length of time) to behold
Britannia's former felicity again; and
that the same Albania, where Humber slew
his son Albanact,
>> note 5 had bred a second Brute, by
the blessed marriage of Margaret, eldest
daughter of King Henry VII, to James IV
of Scotland, of whom our second Brute,
royal King James, is truly and rightfully
descended; by whose happy coming to the
crown, England, Wales, and Scotland, by
the first Brute severed and divided, is
in our second Brute reunited, and made
one happy Britannia again; peace and quietness
bringing that to pass, which war nor any
other means could attain to. For joy of
which sacred union and combination, Locrine,
Camber, and Albanact, figured there also
in their antique estates,
>> note 6 deliver up their crowns and
scepters, applauding the day of this long-wished
conjunction, and Troya Nova (now London)
incites fair Thamesis and the rivers that
bounded the severed kingdoms (personated
in fair and beautiful nymphs) to sing paeans
and songs of triumph in honor of our second
Brute, royal King James.
BRUTE
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See, after so long slumbering in our tombs
Such multitudes of years, rich poesy
That does revive us to fill up these rooms
And tell our former age's history
(The better to record Brute's memory)
Turns now our accents to another key,
To tell old Britain's new-born happy
day.
That separation of her sinewed strength,
Weeping so many hundred years of woes,
Whereto that learned Bard dated long length
>> note 7
Before those ulcered wounds again could close
And reach unto their former first dispose,
Hath run his course through time's sandy
glass
And brought the former happiness that was.
Albania, Scotland, where my son was slain,
And where my folly's wretchedness began,
Hath bred another Brute, that gives again
To Britain her first name. He is the man
On whose fair birth our elder wits did scan,
Which prophet-like seventh Henry did foresee
Of whose fair child comes Britain's unity.
>> note 8
And what fierce war by no means could effect,
>> note 9
To re-unite those sundered lands in one,
The hand of heaven did peacefully elect
By mildest grace, to seat on Britain's throne
This second Brute, than whom there else was none:
Wales, England, Scotland, severed first by
me,
To knit again in blessed unity.
For this Britannia rides in triumph thus,
For this these sister-kingdoms now shake hands,
Brute's Troy (now London) looks most amorous
And stands on tiptoe, telling foreign lands
So long as seas bear ships, or shores have sands,
So long shall we in true devotion pray
And praise high heaven for that most happy
day. |
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LOCRINE
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England, that first was called Loegria
After my name, when I commanded here,
Gives back her due unto Britannia,
And doth her true-born son in right prefer
Before divided rule, irregular;
Wishing my brethren in like sort resign,
A sacred union once more to combine. |
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CAMBER
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I yielded long ago, and did in heart
Allow Britannia's first created name,
>> note 10
My true-born Brute have ever took her part
And to their last hour will maintain the same. |
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ALBANACT
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It is no marvel that you gladly yield
When the all-ruling power doth so command,
I bring that monarch now into the field
With peace and plenty in his sacred hand
To make Britannia one united land:
And when I brought him, aftertimes will say,
It was Britannia's happy holiday. |
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TROYA NOVA
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Then you fair swans in Thamesis that swim,
And you choice nymphs that do delight to play
On Humber and fair Severn, welcome him
In canzons, jigs, and many a roundelay,
That from the north brought you this blessed day,
And in one tuneful harmony let's sing,
"Welcome King James, welcome bright
Britain's king!" |
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