New Year's Day gift (royal courts)

At the Tudor and Stuart royal courts in Britain it was traditional to give gifts on New Year's Day, on 1 January. Records of these gift exchanges survive, known as "gift rolls",Cassandra Auble, "Bejeweled Majesty: Queen Elizabeth I", Debra Barret-Graves, The Emblematic Queen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), p. 41. and provide information about courtiers and their relative status.Maria Hayward, "Gift Giving at the Court of Henry VIII", The Antiquaries Journal, 85 (2005), pp. 125–175. : Jane Lawson, "Ritual of the New Year's Gift", Valerie Schutte & Jessica S. Hower, Mary I in Writing: Letters, Literature, and Representation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), pp. 165–188: Jane Lawson, The Elizabethan New Year's Gift Exchanges, 1559–1603 (Oxford, 2013): John L. Nevinson, "New Year's Gifts to Queen Elizabeth I, 1584", Costume, 9 (1975).Jane A. Lawson, "Rainbow for a Reign: The Colours of a Queen's Wardrobe", Costume, 41:1 (June 2007), p. 43–44., list of extant Elizabethan gift rolls. A similar custom at the French court was known as the étrenne. Gift-giving on New Year's Day at the court of King Arthur is the setting of the 14th-century romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.Lars Kjaer, The Medieval Gift and the Classical Tradition: Ideas and Performance of Generosity in Medieval England (Cambridge, 2019), p. 177. Historians often analyse these gift economies following the ideas of the anthropologist Marcel Mauss and Bronisław Malinowski's description of the Kula ring.Peter Burke, "Renaissance Jewels in their Social Setting", Anna Somers Cocks, Princely Magnificence: Court Jewels of the Renaissance, 1500–1630 (London, 1980), pp. 8–11: Brigitte Buettner, "Past Presents: New Year's Gifts at the Valois Courts, ca. 1400", The Art Bulletin, 83 (4):598 (December 2001), pp. 598–625. : Arjun Appadurai, "Commodities and the politics of value", The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 3–63.Natalie Zemon Davis, The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France (Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 3–35: Lisa M. Klein, "Your Humble Handmaid: Elizabethan Gifts of Needlework", Renaissance Quarterly, 50:2 (Summer 1997), pp. 459–493 Catherine L. Howey, "Women, Dress, and Power at Court", Anne J. Cruz & Mihoko Suzuki, The Rule of Women in Early Modern Europe (University of Illinois, 2009), pp. 142–143.

Gifts and status Margaret of Anjou and Elizabeth of York gave and received jewels and plate as New Year's Day gifts.Alec R. Myers, "The Jewels of Margaret of Anjou", Crown, Household, and Parliament in Fifteen Century England (London: Hambledon, 1985), pp. 211–229: A. R. Myers, "The Jewels of Queen Margaret of Anjou", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 42 (1959), pp. 113–131. The value of the plate given was calibrated to match the rank, status, and standing of the courtier. While gold plate might not always have been more valued than silver, gem-set jewellery seems to have been a token of special royal favour.Michele Seah, "Gifts and Rewards: Exploring the Expenditure of Late Medieval English Queens", Journal of Medieval History, 50:5 (2024), pp. 581–597. : Nicola Tallis, All The Queen's Jewels, 1445–1548: Power, Majesty and Display (Routledge, 2023), p. 37.

In 1504, James IV of Scotland gave Margaret Dennet, an English servant of his queen consort Margaret Tudor, a gold chain with a figure of Saint Andrew worth £20 Scots.Michelle Beer, Queenship at the Renaissance Courts of Britain: Catherine of Aragon and Margaret Tudor (Woodbridge, 2018), p. 107: James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 412, 472. James IV gave Margaret Tudor two sapphire rings, and in 1507 a "serpent's tongue", a fossil shark's tooth supposed to be a talisman against poisoning.Nicola Tallis, All The Queen's Jewels, 1445–1548: Power, Majesty and Display (Routledge, 2023), p. 199: Michelle Beer, Queenship at the Renaissance Courts of Britain: Catherine of Aragon and Margaret Tudor (Woodbridge, 2018), pp. 106–107. In 1507, James IV gave Elizabeth Berlay, another English attendant of Margaret, gold rosary beads with a cross costing £62 Scots.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1901), pp. 92, 116, 360. On 1 January 1512, Ellen More, an African servant, was given 5 French crowns at Holyrood Palace and the same amount was given to two "maidens" at Holyrood Palace, servants of Elizabeth Barlay. Elizabeth Sinclair received 10 crowns.Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1902), p. 324

James V bought New Year's Day gifts for the French court in 1537, including daggers or whingers for Dauphin Henry and King Henry II of Navarre and ruby bracelets for the dauphine, Catherine de' Medici.Accounts of the Treasurer, 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. xvii, 7. He gave gifts at the New Year Mass in 1539, and a length of black ribbon was bought to make loops for lockets or pendants known as "tablets".Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie: The Court of James V, 1528–1542 (John Donald, 2005), p. 209: Rosalind Marshall, "The Jewellery of James V, King of Scots", Jewellery Studies, 7 (1996), p. 84: James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 123. He paid a goldsmith John Mosman £410 Scots for making chains, rings, tablets, bracelets, targets (brooches or hat badges), and other gold work brought to him at Stirling Castle to be New Year's gifts for his courtiers in January 1541. Other gifts of gold "Paris work" were provided by Thomas Rynd including "chaffrons" for French hoods, bracelets, rosary beads, buttons and a ring.Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie: The Court of James V, 1528–1542 (John Donald, 2005), p. 120: James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 400–401, 408.Sally Rush, 'Looking at Marie de Guise', Études Epistémè, 37 (2020)

In 1520, the Duke of Buckingham commissioned a gold pomander with the heraldic badges of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon for her New Year's Day gift, to be filled with scented compound and worn on her girdle.Diana Scarisbrick, Jewellery in Britain (Norwich, 1994), pp. 145–146. The lady-in-waiting Isabel Leigh gave Henry VIII a shirt she had embroidered and received a silver cup in return.Maria Hayward, "Gift Giving at the Court of Henry VIII", Antiquaries Journal, 85 (2005), pp. 147, 165, 171 fn. 88. The council of the household of Princess Mary wrote from Tewkesbury to Cardinal Wolsey in November 1525, wondering if she should send New Year's Day gifts.Melita Thomas, The King's Pearl: Henry VIII and his daughter Mary (Amberley, 2017), p. 82: Henry Ellis, Original Letters, 1 (London, 1825), pp. 270–271.

Henry VIII gave Anne Boleyn a large quantity of silver plate on 1 January 1533, many pieces were newly refurbished and stamped by Cornelis Hayes with her arms as Marquess of Pembroke, and some had been confiscated from Sir Henry Guildford.Arthur J. Collins, Jewels and Plate of Queen Elizabeth I: The Inventory of 1574 (London: British Museum, 1955), pp. 99, 375–6.Sylvia Barbara Soberton, "Marquis or Marchioness? Analysing BL, Harley MS 303 and Other Previously Unpublished Sources about Anne Boleyn's Elevation to the Marquisate of Pembroke", The Court Historian, 29:3 (November 2024), pp. 219–228. Anne Boleyn told the goldsmith Cornelis Hayes that she would give her ladies-in-waiting riding equipment rather than jewels or plate.Maria Hayward, "Gift Giving at the Court of Henry VIII", Antiquaries Journal, 85 (2005), p. 133. In 1534, George Boleyn gave Henry VIII a bonnet of black velvet adorned with gold aglets and buttons, a further set of buttons and a brooch.Maria Hayward, "Male Headwear at the Courts of Henry VIII and Edward VI", Giorgio Riello and Peter McNeil, The Fashion History Reader: Global Perspectives (Routledge, 2010), p. 126.

Henry VIII sometimes received his gifts in person, in 1538 leaning against a cupboard while Brian Tuke made notes of the presents and donors.Nicola Tallis, All The Queen's Jewels, 1445–1548: Power, Majesty and Display (Routledge, 2023), p. 195. The silver and gilt plate which Henry gave to his courtiers in return for their gifts was made or supplied by goldsmiths including Cornelis Hayes and Robert Amadas.Maria Hayward, "Gift Giving at the Court of Henry VIII", Antiquaries Journal, 85 (2005), p. 133. Claiming these items of gift plate could involve administrative fees and a visit to the Jewel House, a process described in 1605 by the Earl of Huntingdon.Felicity Heal, The Power of Gifts: Gift Exchange in Early Modern England (Oxford, 2014), p. 143: Sarah Gristwood, Arbella: England's Lost Queen (Bantam Books, 2003), p. 282: Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney 1988), p. 93: John Nichols, The Progresses of James the First, 1 (London, 1828), p. 471

When Margaret Douglas was in favour in 1539 at the court of Henry VIII, she was given a gilt cup made by the goldsmith Morgan Wolf as a New Year's Day gift.Maria Hayward, "Gift Giving at the Court of Henry VIII", Antiquaries Journal, 85 (2005), p. 144. In 1543, Margaret Douglas gave Mary a satin gown of carnation silk in Venice fashion.Maria Hayward, "Dressed to Impress", Alice Hunt & Anna Whitelock, Tudor Queenship (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), p. 91: Frederick Madden, Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary (London: Pickering, 1831), p. 96. Prince Edward gave Mary a "little tablet of gold". Mary spent £40 on silver plate from Cornelis Hayes to serve as gifts and gave £30 to Susan Clarencieux and her servant Hobbes to purchase other gifts for January 1543.Melita Thomas, The King's Pearl: Henry VIII and his daughter Mary (Amberley, 2017), pp. 258–259: Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary, pp. 96, 100. Prince Edward wrote to Catherine Parr from Hatfield on 14 January 1547, thanking her for a New Year's Day gift of a jewel or ring with her image and the King's "expressed to the life".Nicola Tallis, All The Queen's Jewels, 1445–1548: Power, Majesty and Display (Routledge, 2023), p. 203: Letters & Papers, 21:2, no. 686: James Orchard Halliwell, Letters of the Kings of England, vol. 2 (London, 1848), p. 23.

Mary Finch gave Queen Mary I a red satin purse containing twelve gold half sovereign coins as a New Years Day gift for 1557. Sybil Penn, who had been Edward VI's nurse, gave Mary I six handkerchiefs edged with gold and silk lace. The artist Levina Teerlinc gave a small painting of the Trinity, and the serjeant painter Nicolas Lizard gave a picture of the Maundy.David Loades, Mary Tudor, A Life (Basil Blackwell, 1989), pp. 363–365: John Nichols, Illustrations of the Manners and Expences of Antient Times in England (London, 1797), pp. 8–9Edward Town, 'A Biographical Dictionary of London Painters, 1547-1625', Walpole Society Volume, 76 (2014), p. 131 (suggests Lizard's subject was the Gospel scene).Lorne Campbell, The early Flemish pictures in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen (Cambridge, 1985), p. xxviii. A surviving miniature painting of the Maundy at court is attributed to Teerlinc, and it has been suggested that her painting was intended as a New Year's Day gift to Elizabeth I.Susan Frye, Pens and Needles: Women's Textualities in Early Modern England (University of Pennsylvania, 2010), p. 81: Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Leeds: Maney, 1988), p. 67.

Elizabethan gifts