Our exhibition How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition reveals some of the most important tips and tricks for aspiring courtiers—the men and women who wanted to become Queen Elizabeth’s most trusted advisors. Some of the tips are superficial, while others require deep reading and training to implement.
Imagine you want to become a power player in the rather authoritarian court of Queen Elizabeth. You want her to notice you in a favorable way, so you need to dress, act, and speak just right. Here are a few pointers.
Queen Elizabeth orders her courtiers to stop wearing “such great and excessive ruffs” (Folger STC 8119.2) | View the Queen’s full order
Dress for success
Dress up according to your social status, but don’t wear a ruff or cloak that is ostentatiously large. The queen frowns upon these expensive and immodest fads.
A depiction of two courtiers engaging in “combat and fight on foote” for the Queen’s entertainment (Folger STC 22163 copy 1)
Fight for your honor
Be impressively brave (but not foolhardy) with a lance, a rapier, and a dagger. The queen appreciates valiant and honorable displays of chivalry, especially when the displays are in her honor, such as at the annual Accession Day Tilts.
Three power players wearing excessively padded trunk hose, four hunting dogs, and one falcon, taking a breather during a royal hunt (Folger STC 24324)
Hunt like a pro
Have a stellar set of horses, hawks, and dogs for hunting. And know how to breed and take care of them. Queen Elizabeth loves to hunt, so it’s a good opportunity to ride alongside her and promote some of your priorities as a power player, away from onlookers and spies.
The Earl of Southampton, striking a manly pose in different versions of his portrait: quarter length, half length, and “head and shoulders.” He and his wife were imprisoned by the Queen when she learned of their marriage.
Expand your brand
Get your portrait done by the court painter and encourage allies to commission and hang copies of it prominently in their picture galleries. This publicizes the fact that you are a power player.
(Above, from left to right: Reproduction from the Collection of the Duke of Northumberland, Syon House, London, UK. By permission of Bridgeman Images; Reproduction of NPG 52. By permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London; Reproduction of Acc. No. 176. By permission of the Master and Fellows of St John’s College, Cambridge; Folger FPb55; and Folger FPb56. Photo by Tim Tiebout / Folger Shakespeare Library.)
Throw amazing dinner parties
Pull out all the stops when the queen invites herself over. A table setting that incorporates the latest trends from Italy, such as starched napkin linens folded into crazy shapes, indicates the lengths you will go to entertain her.
How could the queen not be impressed by a table adorned with starched linen napkins folded in the shape of a castle or boat or fish? (Folger 272938)
Give her a great gift on New Year’s Day
The queen keeps close track of who gives her what each year. Make sure your gift stands out. Her favorite courtier and confidante, the Earl of Leicester, included diamonds and rubies in his gift (listed on line 5).
For New Year’s Day in 1579, the Earl of Leicester gave the queen a bejeweled golden clock, garnished with diamonds and rubies, and a golden apple enameled in green and russet (Folger Z.d.15) | View the full gift roll
The most important tip: Study the Playbooks in order to manage up
Even if you dress fashionably, fight nobly, disseminate your headshot widely, hunt like a pro, and lavishly entertain the queen without going into debt, you won’t automatically become a royal favorite. You still need to earn her trust, profess your love, flatter her with your poetry and speeches and whispers, get her to sign her name to dozens of documents every day, and convince her to adopt whatever policies you are promoting. You need to be a keen observer of her moods, glances, gestures, and energy levels. You need to control what information is fed to her, and match each moment with the perfect words, demeanor, and vibe. You also need to outwit your competition—your so-called friends who are always ready to pounce.
To be a power player in Tudor England, to truly understand the qualities, skills, and behaviors necessary to thrive at court, you need to study the playbooks. These books provide historical examples and modern analysis of leaders who failed up, flamed out, or held steady.
Two of the earliest and most useful playbooks were Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince and Baldesarre Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier. These books (and the many imitations that followed) would help you navigate the treacherous world of Elizabethan politics.
The title page of a surreptitiously-printed 1584 edition of The Prince, with handwritten notes by a Tudor reader named Edward Fisher. (Folger STC 17167)
The Prince
To be Machiavellian is to follow the unethical principles laid out in The Prince and other works by Machiavelli. His philosophy can be summed up by familiar phrases such as “The end justifies the means,” “it is wiser to be feared than loved,” “capture and colonize,” and “appearances are everything.”
This subversive book was banned after it was first published in Italy in 1532, although plenty of copies circulated under the radar of censors.
It was valued for its cynical solutions to leadership problems that were usually mired down by moralistic restraints and Christian values.
The Book of the Courtier
Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier was another popular book. Castiglione introduced the concept of sprezzatura, or how to make hard things look easy—a sort of effortless grace in speech, writing, dress, manners, and actions.
First published in Italy in 1528, the book became a bestseller. Castiglione’s tips on how to be the ideal courtier/power player were invaluable.
He emphasized the importance of perfecting one’s written and conversational style and demonstrating one’s moral values, manners, tact, modesty, and kindness. It doesn’t hurt to have been born into a noble family, with access to tutors who can train you in hunting, dancing, singing, and practical jokes.
The book ends with guidance on the principles of courtly love, and how best to advise the monarch.
The title page of a 1561 edition of The Book of the Courtier, with handwritten notes by an unknown Tudor reader. (Folger STC 4778)
Just as today, being a Tudor power player required a complicated toolkit of skills and attributes, alongside a high tolerance for risk. Power players had to decide if the benefits of proximity to the queen and its attendant rewards —power, money, land, privilege—outweighed the possibility of losing one’s head if she soured on you.
These items are on view in our exhibition How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition, as well as many of our favorite manuscripts and printed books from the Tudor era. Highlights include Anne of Cleve’s gift of a Book of Hours to Henry VIII, one of Queen Elizabeth’s New Year’s Gift Rolls, a gorgeous Nicolas Hilliard miniature of the countess of Leicester, the earl of Leicester’s googly-eyed letter to Queen Elizabeth, James I’s warrant releasing Sir Walter Raleigh from the Tower of London, and an engraving of Sir Philip Sidney’s funeral procession. Explore them all in our companion online exhibition.
How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition
Keep exploring
Folger Finds: Anne of Cleves' gift to Henry VIII
Explore a uniquely inscribed Book of Hours presented to Henry VIII by his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.
Fashion in the Tudor court
Learn the power of style in Tudor England and how the right ruff could help ambitious courtiers distinguish themselves in a competitive court.
A letter from the Queen's lifelong favorite
A letter to Elizabeth I from the earl of Leicester, who was organizing the defense of Britain against the Spanish Armada at the time, shows their playful relationship.
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