Staging Allegiance, Re-membering Trials: King Henry VIII and the Blackfriars Theater

Abstract

In Shakespeare and Fletcher’s King Henry VIII, or All is True, the king arranges his upcoming divorce hearing by saying, ‘The most convenient place that I can think of / For such receipt of learning is Blackfriars’ (2.2.136-7).¹ Historically, this trial opened on 18 June 1529 in the Parliament Chamber, or Upper Frater, of the Blackfriars complex, the same space that would later become the Blackfriars Theater. In 1613, when Henry VIII entered their repertory, ‘Blackfriars’ would have been a ‘most convenient place’ for the King’s Men as well, since the company had taken over the lease for the indoor playhouse in 1607. After the Globe burned to the ground (during the first documented performance of Henry VIII), the Blackfriars Theater was in fact the only permanent performance space available to the company for nearly a year, and warrants later granted to William Davenant and Thomas Killegrew list the play among others previously staged at that venue.² Given these circumstances, several scholars of the play have proposed that the King’s Men took advantage of the metadramatic potential of Blackfriars for some performances of Henry VIII.³