ABSTRACT
Not the least significant feature of the transition from Elizabeth’s court to James’s English court was the reorganization of the established playing companies. The Queen’s Men, formed in 1583 from the best available players, had declined by the 1590s, and Leicester’s Men, the only Elizabethan company to receive letters patent, had been eclipsed by the royal troupe and did not long survive the earl’s death in 1588. In her last years Elizabeth was entertained chiefly, but not exclusively, by the two companies sponsored by the Lord Admiral and the Lord Chamberlain. James assumed the patronage of the companies retained by the Elizabethan courtiers and assigned the players as household servants to members of the royal family. Within ten days of his arrival in London, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men became the King’s Men, and later in the year the Lord Admiral’s players were formally attached to Prince Henry’s household. The company formed at the end of the previous reign from the merger of the players sponsored by the earls of Worcester and Oxford was transferred to the patronage of Queen Anna.1
