A Picture of Pageantry and the Arches of Triumph: dramatic, visual, and literary representations of James I and the new Stuart dynasty through Thomas Dekker’s account of the 1604 Royal Entry and Stephen Harrison’s design for its setting by M Castelletti

Focussing on the printed account of Thomas Dekker’s ‘The Magnificent Entertainment’ and the arches designed by architect Stephen Harrison (immortalised and available to date through William Kip’s engravings)as its primary artefacts, this paper aims to portray the representation of the British Monarchy and the socio-political realities in the late Tudor/early Stuart dynasties, as symbolised through the visual and textual allegorical devices used in the 1604 Royal Entry of King James I, contextualising, and affirming this through the various eye-witness (and other) accounts available. Corroborating the research of several authors and historians, and using sources such as John Nichols’ compilations, as well as the study of emblematic devices in the Early Modern Period, this paper asserts that civic pageantry played an important role in defining the perception of the monarchy by its people, and proposes that said artefacts lead to a reading abounding with undertones relating to socio-economic actualities, religious controversy, foreign policy agenda and the assertion of the throne itself.