Enrollment of letters patent issued under the signet and privy seals authorizing the King's Men

Although James VI of Scotland was proclaimed king of England on March 24, 1603, it took him over a month to arrive in London. Within ten days of his arrival there, and despite the fact that the theaters were closed due to plague, he gave instructions for turning the Lord Chamberlain's Men, of which Shakespeare was a member, into the King's Men.

This enrollment on the rolls of Letters Patent is the third of three surviving administrative documents that eventually led to the issuing of Letters Patent under the Great Seal that formally created the King's Men, although they do not explicitly refer to the players as the King’s Men. The process began two days earlier on May 17, 1603, when the Signet Office produced a formal warrant known as a Signet Bill that both instructed the Privy Seal Office to draw up a further warrant, and provided the text for the formal Letters Patent. The next day, May 18, the Privy Seal Office, issued a warrant under the Privy Seal, instructing the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England to further issue the Letters Patent under the Great Seal.

Accordingly, on May 19, the warrant under the Privy Seal was presented to the Rolls Office in Chancery Lane, where it was enrolled in the current Patent Roll, as shown here. Further copies of the Letters Patent do not survive.

This enrollment abbreviates the opening part of the original text, but is in all other respects a faithful copy. The marginal flag characterizes the warrant as a “special commission.” The enrolled text adds, at the very end, “Witnesse our selfe at Westminster the nyntenth daye of May”. Though “our selfe” refers to King James, it may be questioned whether the warrant was conferred by the king in person, or by his administrators.

From the moment of enrollment, Shakespeare and the other players listed -- Lawrence Fletcher, Richard Burbage, Augustine Phillipps, John Hemings, Henry Condell, William Sly, Robert Armyn, Richard Cowley, "and the rest of their associates" -- were under the patronage of the king. According to the warrants and letters patent, after "the infection of the plague shall decrease," the players were free to perform at the Globe and throughout the country "for the recreation of our loving Subjects," as well as for the king's "solace and pleasure when we shall thinke good to see them." The Lord Chamberlain’s book, a roughly contemporary source, demonstrates that Shakespeare’s company was one of three companies patronized by the Crown: the King’s Men, the Queen’s Men, and the Prince’s Men, patronized by King James, Queen Anne of Denmark, and Prince Henry respectively.

Privy Seal records sent to the Lord Keeper or Lord Chancellor, including this warrant, were kept in Chancery from the time of their creation until 1884, when all such records were removed to the Public Record Office (now The National Archives).