Title: Charles II Manuscript restoring the English Theatre
Year: 1642?
Material: Partchment
Creator: King Charles II
Collection: Rosenbach Museum and Library Manuscript
Collection
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| This is a similar document to the one at the Rosenbach. |
This
object is important to several groups of people. From a historical perspective
this object is important to historians as a whole. This document was the first
to allow women in the theatre. This forever changed this business and that led
to today’s movie industry. This document also changed the roles of women in
society. This document is also important to historians that study England and
royalty. Charles II was the first King to restore the monarchy after the
English Civil War. This document is also important to the current royal family.
Charles II had not legitimate children and 12 illegitimate children. His
brother took the thrown after his death. Princess Diana is a descendent of one
of Charles’s illegitimate children. William, the Duke of Cambridge, will be the
first direct descendent of Charles II to be King.
This
object is on display in the hall of the Rosenbach’s house. The document is
hanging on the wall above a wooden chest that also belonged to Charles II.
There is no label for this object, however the docent presented the information
about the object is a story- like fashion. Only the important and interesting
information about the object was described. The docent mentioned the importance
of the document and told us about the story behind the wooden chest. This object is on display because it
represents a large portion of the Rosenbach brother’s collection habits. They
tended to collect many things associated with England and the monarchy. The
object was acquired by one of the brothers at auction in the 20th
century.
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| Charles II |
The
majority of the surrounding objects do not relate to the document because of
the historic house setting. However, the wooden chest right below the document
does contribute the your understanding of Charles II as a man. On our tour we
were told that a mistress might have used the chest. The ornate nature of the
chest also suggests that Charles was very wealthy. Upon further research these
ideas were confirmed. Charles II had eight confirmed mistresses with six more
as a possibility. Charles was also allotted 1.2 million pounds (today that
would be close to $147 million today).
Fields
of study and resources that might add to your understanding of this object
include restoration history, English Civil War, restoration comedy, royal
history, British history, and Puritan history.
This
object may not be interesting to those who feel they are not connected to the
subject matter. Some people may feel that a document for a British king isn’t
relevant or important to them today. This could especially be true for those
not interested in the monarchy or the theatre.
People
that may have heard about Charles being a partier may have a different point of
view about the document. Some may fell that he allowed women to act in the theater because the most popular actress, Nell Gwyn was his mistress.
Other
experiences that might engage viewers with this object would be an adults only
program that included a performance of a restoration comedy. That would show
visitors the popular types of theatre productions that were a result of the
document. Another program idea would be an investigation of the parts of the
document. Since it is a royal decree there would be a lot of information to
discuss.
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