[Steppes] 12th Night Theme

[David L. Cox]

Greetings Unto The Populace of The Steppes:

I am very humbled to be selected to autocrat the 30th Annual observerance of 12th in our noble lands. 

So that you may begin to plan you table decorations, what to wear and circile your calendars here are the basics:

Date: 07 January 2006 CE
Where: Ennis, TX
Theme: 12th Night In The Court Hall With Henry VIII 1530 CE
Feast Bid: To Be Opened 10 July 2005
Site Token Bid: To Be Opened 10 July 2005

The Year is 1530 CE, and the House of Tudor rules England in the person of Henry VIII.  In Rome Michelangelo had yet to asked to finish the design of the great cathedral of Saint John, and it is under construction. He is employed to paint the frescos by the Pope, such is the age.

Henry VIII at 39 has been on the throne for just over 12 years. Pope Clement VII is on the Throne of St. Peter in Rome, and it is the middle of the Italian Renaissance.  Henry?s Queen is his first wife, Catherine of Aragon .  His one surviving child - Princess Mary,  is now 14 and a visible part of Hampton Court. Henry VIII is considered by many court observers to be most handsome prince in all of Europe, and reputed to be in the eye of many of the Ladies of the Court. Future history will come to show just how accurate these most human observations will come to be.

Henry VII was also an accomplished musician of the flute, recorder, and virginals. During that period harps, reed organs, harpsichord, viols, lute, tabor, cittern, sackbut, drone, naker, bell, cello, cornets, shawm, timpani, trumpets, crwth, and psaltery were used. Much of 14th century holiday music still is found in use today. 

The evening?s 12th Night feast circa 1530 is set in the original ?Court Hall? at the venerable Hampton Court. This hall would be raised in 1532 by Henry VIII to make the now famous Great Hall. This Court Hall had two functions. First, to provide a great communal dining room for members of the Court, and secondly, to provide a magnificent entrance to the State Apartments that lay beyond. We shall dine in that most elegant setting.

The first hall, from many historical sources, had a splendid hammer-beam roof, richly decorated with carved and painted pendants, royal arms and badges and a series of heads. Originally the whole ceiling would have been painted with blue, red and gold. So we will recreate the setting for our 12th Night Feast, much has Henry VIII did that night, in January 1530. We will festoon the ceiling in drapes, the walls in banners, and coats of arms, and the Court Stage will be draped in the colors of the Kingdom, appropriate for the season. To add to the air of the night, we will place hundreds of miniature electric lights  to the sides of the great ceiling drapes, dimmed, to suggest the great candles that must have lit the hall night for the Royal Court. 

Our celebration is also of great importance, for Henry has received that prior day in His Royal Court a most wealthy visiting Arabic Sheik, Qadi Abd al-Mahdi Jamal ibn Hakim and his first wife, Contessa Valeria Richila Navarro. Trade routes controlled by Qadi Mahdi carry an estimated 75% of all goods to and from the Middle East. That they are independent of those few routes controlled by Church of Rome has become of great importance to Henry, to ensure that wealth continues to flow into his empire. Government Ministers from much of Europe are there this evening, to ensure that nothing Henry does goes unanswered. Court intrigue is rife this night. We will suggest that due to the setting of the Holiday Night, our guest consider the wear of their best clothes to Feast and Court. 


(More Later In the Next Edition of The Steppes Letter)