On March 25, 1603, following the death of Queen Elizabeth the previous day, King James VI of Scotland also became King James I of England. Shortly after his arrival in London in May 1603, James I granted a formal patent transforming the Lord Chamberlain’s Men into the King’s Men. Both prestige and profit increased for the theater company, William Shakespeare included.
James I was not formally crowned king until nearly a year later due to the long progress (a formal royal journey with many stops at the houses of nobles) from Edinburgh to London, combined with a severe outbreak of the plague in London. To prepare for his coronation, more than 1000 royal servants, including members of the King’s Men, were given the substantial sum £4 each to buy expensive scarlet cloth for a formal uniform for the procession.
The King’s household (King James, Queen Anna of Denmark, and their son Prince Henry) each sponsored their own theater companies in London and were enthusiastic audience members at court performances. The leading players from those three companies are listed by name in a document recording the issuing of coronation cloth. The charter lists 28 players, with the leading player or shareholder listed first. William Shakespeare’s name appears second in the list, indicating he was among the chief sharers in the newly named King’s Men.
The coronation was an occasion that demanded extensive civic pageantry. Other playwrights and poets of the time such as Ben Jonson and Thomas Dekker helped create pageants (short performances) along the coronation route, but apparently James rushed past many of them in his eagerness to be formally crowned in Westminster Abbey.
The King’s Men worked hard after receiving royal patronage, performing nightly for the court at Hampton Court Palace during Christmas festivities in 1603, in addition to other private performances for the royal family. By 1604, The King’s Men were performing plays that connected with James I’s interests, such as
The Records of the Lord Chancellor contains a document granting Shakespeare’s company the right to perform under patronage of the king throughout the realm. A modern-spelling transcription of that royal patent reads:
To all Justices, Mayors, Sheriffs, Constables, Headboroughs, and other our officers and loving subjects, Greeting. Know ye that we of our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have licensed and authorized, and by these present do license and authorize, these our servants Lawrence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augustine Phillipps, John Hennings, Henry Condell, William Sly, Robert Armyn, Richard Cowley, and the rest of their associates freely to use and exercise the art and faculty of playing comedies, tragedies, histories, interludes, morals, pastorals, stage plays, and such other like as they have already studied or hereafter shall use or study, as well for the recreation of our loving subjects as for our solace and pleasure when we shall think good to see them during our pleasure.
(Nelson)
The document goes on to allow the King’s Men to perform outside of London when the theaters are closed due to plague. Another privilege came to Shakespeare as part of this royal patent: along with the other sharers in The King’s Men, Shakespeare became a Groom Extraordinary of the Chamber (a largely ceremonial post as a minor courtier), although The King’s Men did serve as attendants to the Spanish Ambassador when he visited the English court in 1604.