Kiryukhin D. Rituals of Power in the Festive Culture of the English Royal Court and the Anonymous Chronicle The Receyt of the Ladie Kateryne (1501) [Digital resource] // Vox medii aevi. 2018. Vol. 1(2). P. 71–84. URL: https://voxmediiaevi.com/vol-2-kiryukhin-1
DOI: 10.24411/2587-6619-2018-00004

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Dmitriy Kiryukhin

Candidate of Sciences (History), Associate Professor of the Department “Foreign Languages”, Nizhny Novgorod State Agricultural Academy
bagerlock@gmail.com

Rituals of Power in the Festive Culture of the English Royal Court and the Anonymous Chronicle The Receyt of the Ladie Kateryne (1501)

The article deals with the official anonymous chronicle The Receyt of the Ladie Kateryne (The Reception of Lady Catherine), which describes the festivities of the royal court, organized in honour of the marriage between Prince Arthur of Wales, the eldest son of King Henry VII, and the Spanish Princess Catherine of Aragon. The Receyt provides valuable additional information about this marriage that complements the existing London chronicles. Five books of the anonymous chronicle describe in detail the arrival of the princess in England in the autumn of 1501, the solemn drama festivals with Catherine as the protagonist, jousting tournaments, masked balls and receptions, as well as the funeral of Prince Arthur, who died of sweating fever shortly after the wedding, which took place in Worcester on April 2, 1502. Particular attention is paid to the possible sources that the court author could use when writing the script for the dramatic events held by the Royal court. In conclusion, the author of the present article assumes that such a scenario was possibly created by Bishop Richard Fox, a supporter of King Henry VII, or someone from his inner circle, who was also familiar with the traditions of the Burgundian court, patristic and scholastic texts and the main themes of the new Tudor propaganda, especially the identification of Prince Arthur’s personality with the legendary King Arthur and the constellation of Arcturus.

Keywords: the First Tudors; The Reception of Lady Catherine; Court Culture; the Royal Court.