{"id":14562,"date":"2022-05-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=14562"},"modified":"2022-05-16T10:24:47","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T08:24:47","slug":"this-month-in-history-1613","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/2022\/05\/05\/this-month-in-history-1613\/","title":{"rendered":"This month in history: 1613"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2022 <\/span>THIS MONTH IN… 1613<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n
ANNIVERSARIES THAT HAVE MADE HISTORY<\/span><\/h5>\n\n

The Globe theatre burns to the ground<\/h2>\n\n

Words: Emma Slattery Williams<\/p>\n\n

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The original Globe theatre, seen on the right, depicted in an illustration from c1599. The structure on the left was known as the Bear Garden, used for bloodsports <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
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A Victorian-era statue of the Globe\u2019s esteemed co-founder, William Shakespeare, in London\u2019s Leicester Square<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

In the summer of 1613, William Shakespeare was at the height of his fame. He had written most of his best-loved plays and audiences still flocked to see his work being performed. However, on 29 June that year, one of his performances took the popular phrase \u2018burning down the house\u2019 a little too literally.<\/p>\n\n

On that warm summer\u2019s day, Henry <\/em>VIII, <\/em>or <\/em>All <\/em>is <\/em>True <\/em>was being watched by eager theatregoers at the Globe in Southwark, London. As per the script, the actor (or \u2018player\u2019, as they were known) in the role of King Henry VIII made a surprise entrance on the stage at the end of the first act, accompanied by cannon fire. However, during this performance, a stray piece of flaming rag or paper from one of theatre\u2019s cannons landed on the Globe\u2019s thatched roof. At first, everyone was so engrossed in the play in front of them that no one noticed that flames were engulfing the theatre, assuming the smoke was all part of the show\u2019s special effects. Within an hour, however, the entire structure was ablaze.<\/p>\n\n

The Globe was a polygonal (many-sided) building, with an open-air yard and tiered galleries around the sides. Due to the nature of its design, most of the assembled crowd only had two narrow doors to make their escape as the timber burned around them. Soon, the theatre had been reduced to ashes, with the hot weather hastening its demise.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cSoon, the theatre had been reduced to ashes, with the hot weather hastening its demise\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Burning breeches <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
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Politician Sir Henry Wotton wrote a detailed account of the 1613 fire that engulfed the original Globe theatre<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Fortunately, everyone was able to evacuate the premises swiftly, with politician Sir Henry Wotton giving an eyewitness account of the disaster in a letter a few days later. In it, he described how the audience were clearly enjoying themselves too much to notice the fire at first \u201cas their eyes [were] more attentive to the show\u201d. He then wrote how the fire \u201ckindled inwardly, and ran round like a train, consuming within less than an hour the whole house to the very <\/span>grounds…<\/span>nothing did perish but wood and straw and a few forsaken cloaks\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

There were no reports of serious injuries, although Wotton explained how one theatregoer made a lucky escape: \u201cOnly one man had his breeches set on fire that would perhaps have broiled him if he had not by the benefit of a provident wit put it out with bottle ale.\u201d The theatre\u2019s destruction was likely the talk of London for the next few weeks, and an anonymous street ballad was even printed about the incident the following day, each of its eight verses ending with \u201cOh sorrow, pitiful sorrow, and yet all this is true\u201d \u2013 a reference to the alternative title of the play that had been performed. Although it was clearly an upsetting ordeal for those who witnessed the blaze, one advantage of the event is that it gives us the exact date on which one of Shakespeare\u2019s works was originally performed \u2013 something that historians often struggle to pinpoint. <\/p>\n\n

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The Globe saw the first performances of many of Shakespeare\u2019s plays, including Julius Caesar <\/em>and Hamlet<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
The play\u2019s the thing <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

The fire, which also destroyed a taphouse attached to the venue, would have been a major blow to Londoners. Watching a show at the theatre was one of the most popular leisure pursuits in Elizabethan England, and by the turn of the 17th century, the city had been blessed with no fewer than four public theatres. These put on a vast range of productions, from moral and religious plays to comedies and tragedies.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
A portrait of Richard Burbage \u2013 a key performer with the Lord Chamberlain\u2019s Men, of which William Shakespeare was also a member<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

But perhaps the biggest disappointment would have been experienced by William Shakespeare himself. The Globe was likely a source of great personal pride, and the result of years of hard work. During the 1590s, the Warwickshire-born playwright had made a name for himself as one of London\u2019s most popular dramatic talents, becoming a writer, actor and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain\u2019s Men. Not only did the group have the influential Lord Chamberlain Henry Carey as its patron (hence its name), but its members included two of the most acclaimed acting talents of the era, William Kempe and Richard Burbage. <\/p>\n\n

After performing at a venue in Shoreditch simply known as \u2018The Theatre\u2019, the company became successful enough to fund a new home in Southwark, and thus the Globe was born. According to one story, the Lord Chamberlain\u2019s Men secretly dismantled The Theatre (which was part of an ownership dispute) in the dead of night and put the timber in storage, allowing it to be resurrected in its new guise across the Thames in 1599. Being outside the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor of London meant that the Globe could operate virtually unhindered \u2013 much like the wild taverns, brothels and animal-baiting venues that were also sited along the South Bank.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The show must go on <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

A year after the fateful blaze of 1613, a second version of the Globe was built on the same foundations as the original theatre, and so as not to tempt fate, was built with a tiled roof. As the company (now known as the King\u2019s Men, after James VI and I) had grown in wealth and popularity, it could afford for this theatre to be more extravagantly decorated \u2013 though the size and overall shape would remain the same.<\/p>\n\n

By the time of the rebuild, Shakespeare had mostly retired from playwriting and had sold his shares in the King\u2019s Men \u2013 possibly a decision hastened by the heartbreak caused by the fire.<\/p>\n\n

Indeed, in the prologue of his final play, The <\/em>Two <\/em>Noble <\/em>Kinsmen, <\/em>which he wrote alongside John Fletcher, there is a poignant reference to \u201cour losses\u201d, which appears to be an allusion to the incident.<\/p>\n\n

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The second Globe, erected in 1614, was built to resemble its predecessor \u2013 albeit with more extravagant interior decoration<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

But the second incarnation of the Globe would also prove relatively shortlived. On 6 September 1642, the Globe \u2013 along with every other theatre in London \u2013 was closed by the Long Parliament, which had first met two years earlier. It described theatre as being of \u201clascivious mirth and levity\u201d, and incompatible with the civil war raging between Parliament and King Charles I.<\/p>\n\n

However, the decision would have certainly pleased one group of people: the Puritans. The strict Protestants saw theatregoing as both immoral and a distraction from religious worship, and decried the crime and excessive drinking that the venues attracted (not to mention the bawdy content of the plays themselves). As the Globe was no longer in use, it was demolished a few years later and the land was sold. The ban on theatres wouldn\u2019t be lifted again until the Restoration and the accession of King Charles II to the throne in 1660.<\/p>\n\n

In 1997, a faithful reconstruction of the first Globe theatre was built around 200 metres from the original site, which today stages Shakespeare\u2019s plays, as well as many other productions. It is the only building in the UK capital that is permitted to have a thatched roof \u2013 ever since the Great Fire of London of 1666, such roofs have been banned in every corner of the city.<\/p>\n\n

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The theatre that stands alongside the Thames today (officially known as Shakespeare\u2019s Globe) was built in 1997, around 200 metres from the original site, which is marked with a plaque (below<\/em>) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
<\/div>
\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

BBC 100<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Every month throughout 2022, we\u2019ll be commemorating the BBC\u2019s 100th birthday with a trip down memory lane..<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

21 June 1937<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Wimbledon is televised<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After Britain\u2019s Fred Perry wins three consecutive Wimbledon singles titles between 1934 and 1936, the BBC is keen to capitalise on the public\u2019s growing appetite for tennis. So, in 1937, the broadcaster begins showing TV highlights from the present tournament, with a match between Bunny Austin and George Lyttleton Rogers the first to be transmitted. Don Budge (pictured<\/em>) <\/em>and Dorothy Round later go on to clinch the men\u2019s and women\u2019s singles titles respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

OTHER ANNIVERSARIES<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
A look back at other events that have taken place in June throughout history<\/span><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

7 June 1329<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Robert the Bruce dies<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Little more than a year after leading his countrymen to victory against the English during the First Scottish War of Independence, Robert the Bruce dies of an unknown illness and is buried in Dunfermline Abbey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In accordance with his wishes, his heart is removed from his body and taken on crusade, before being returned to Scotland, where it is interred in Melrose Abbey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

19\u201324 June 1667<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Dutch raid the Medway<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Two years into the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Dutch naval forces make their way up the Medway in southeast England. They attack Sheerness Fort before advancing on Chatham Docks, where they capture HMS Royal Charles <\/em>\u2013 King Charles II\u2019s flagship. It is towed back to the Dutch port of Hellevoetsluis, where it is showed off as a tourist attraction.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

PICTURE CREDITS: GETTY IMAGES X8, ALAMY X3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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