The Spanish ambassador’s account of James I’s entry into London, 1604 [with Text].

Abstract

The ceremonial entry of James I into London in 1604 was scripted by Thomas Dekker (with a poem by Thomas Middleton), Ben Jonson, and Stephen Harrison: texts of the entertainment were published by Dekker, Jonson, and Harrison in 1604; in addition, modern scholars have drawn upon three manuscripts detailing the order of the procession, and a putative eyewitness account by Gilbert Dugdale, also printed in 1604. Hitherto unknown until we found it in the Archivo General de Simancas is a further account compiled by the Spanish ambassador, who along with fellow ambassadors watched the procession from a vantage point in the Strand. We provide here a transcription in Spanish together with a fully-annotated translation, and situate the textual transmission to Philip III in the context of the peacemaking that would lead to the signing of the Treaty of London in August 1604 and its ratification the following year in Valladolid.