Tudor New Year’s Day Celebrations

The Tudors believed that the new year began on March 25^th and on this day held the Feast of Annunciation, “celebrating when Mary was first told of the forthcoming birth of Jesus” (Sim, 2009, Pg. 85).

The main feature of the 1^st of January then was the giving and receiving of gifts. Although gift giving was popular in the upper classes there are no records of it happening in the homes of ordinary people. This is not to say that it didn’t happen, it simply wasn’t recorded. Alison Sim points out one possible exception, this mention of gift giving in a poem by Thomas Tusser:

“At Christmas of Christ many carols we sing,

and give many gifts in the joy of that king.” (Sim, 2009, Pg. 86)

In the upper classes, gift giving was of great political significance and undertaken with much ceremony evident in the fact that all royal gifts were recorded in a New Year’s Gift list.  Instructions for the reception of royal gifts in Henry VIII’s court survive today and Sim describes part of the ceremony:

“The King would finish dressing on New Year’s morning, and just as he put his shoes on a fanfare would be sounded and one of the Queen’s servants would come in carrying a gift from her, followed by the servants of other important courtiers bearing their master’s gifts. The Queen, meanwhile, also received gifts in her own chamber.” (Sim, 2009, Pg. 86)

If the King accepted your gift you were held in favour but if the King rejected your gift things were not looking good for you. Perhaps the best example of this occurred in 1532 when Henry VIII accepted an exotic set of richly decorated Pyrenean boar spears as a New Year’s present from Anne Boleyn but rejected Katherine of Aragon’s gold cup (Ives, Pg. 148-149).  Henry and Anne go on to wed the following year.

In 1571, the Duke of Norfolk, whilst imprisoned in the Tower of London for his involvement in the revolt of the Northern Earls, sent Queen Elizabeth a very lavish jewel as a New Year’s gift.  Although impressive, Elizabeth rejected the gift and the Duke was executed on 2^nd June 1572.

The New Year’s gift could also be a way of regaining royal favour. In 1580 Sir Philip Sydney angered Queen Elizabeth by writing to her and imploring her not to marry the Duc d’Alencon. But in 1581, after presenting Elizabeth with a jewelled whip to show his subjection to her will, he regained royal favour once more (Sim, 2009, Pg. 72).

After being presented with a gift, the Monarch would give a gift in return and demonstrate their generosity by ensuring the gift they gave was of more monetary value than the gift they received. In 1532 after receiving Anne Boleyn’s gift, King Henry VIII gave her “a matching set of hangings for her room and bed, in cloth of gold, cloth of silver and richly embroidered crimson satin” (Ives, Pg. 148).  It was also customary for the King to give gifts to the Queen and her ladies although in the year 1532, Henry VIII decided against it.

The messengers that presented the gifts on behalf of their masters were also rewarded with money. A sliding scale determined how much the messenger received and of course depended on whether they were a knight, an esquire or an ordinary messenger (Sim, 2009, Pg. 87).

The Queen was also expected to give gifts to her ladies. In 1533, Anne Boleyn gave her ladies palfreys and saddles. The Queen’s ladies also gave the King gifts, these were generally personal items such as embroidered shirts. In 1534, Elizabeth Boleyn, Anne’s mother, gave Henry VIII a “velvet case embroidered with the royal arms, containing six collars, three worked with gold and three with silver”.  Anne’s sister in law, Lady Rochford, presented the King a shirt with a collar of silver work. (Ives, Pg. 216).

So we can see that the gifts varied and could consist of anything from plate, shirts, jewels, spears or saddles. Another gift worthy of mention is Anne Boleyn’s New Year’s gift to Henry VIII in 1534. On this occasion, Anne gave the King a silver gilt table fountain almost certainly designed by Holbein. The fountain was a “pumped device which circulated rosewater into a basin so that diners could rinse their hands” (Ives, Pg. 237). The New Year Gift list describes it as

“A goodly gilt bason, having a rail or board of gold in the midst of the brim, garnished with rubies and pearls, wherein standeth a fountain, also having a rail of gold about it garnished with diamonds, out whereof issueth water at the teats of three naked women standing about the foot of the same fountain.” (Ives, Pg. 238)

We can see then that the custom of exchanging gifts at court served a political purpose. It was a way for the upper class to gain royal favour, to assert their status and show off their wealth by giving incredibly lavish gifts. It was also a way for the Monarch to show their pleasure or displeasure by accepting or rejecting gifts.