April 23rd is approaching, a date which is something of a double celebration. Not only is it St George’s Day, but it is also Shakespeare’s birthday.

In the lead up to this auspicious occasion we will be undertaking several Shakespeare’s London walks which will look at different aspects of the City that he knew.

Needles to say several of those London Walking Tours will pass the Ne Globe Playhouse which stands on the south bank of the River Thames opposite St. Paul’s Cathedral.

One of the stories we tell on our Shakespeare London walk is how William Shakespeare inadvertently found himself embroiled in a notorious plot to remove Elizabeth 1st from the throne of England. The events, as far as Shakespeare’s involvement was concerned, actually centred on the original Globe Playhouse, which stood a few Streets behind the New Globe, the site of which is covered on several of our London walks around Southwark.

It was at this Playhouse that many of Shakespeare’s plays received their first airing and it was here that Shakespeare found himself inadvertently embroiled in the aforementioned plot that could have had fatal consequences for him.

On Friday 6th February 1601, some of the Earl of Essex’s followers turned up at the Globe and requested that Shakespeare’s play Richard 11 be given a special performance the following afternoon.

The actors replied that the play was now an old one and unlikely to attract an audience. Essex’s men promised to indemnify the players against any loss that they might incurr and so at three O’clock on the Saturday afternoon the play, which deals with the deposing and killing of a monarch, went ahead.

What Shakespeare and his fellow players didn’t know was that the play was to be a rallying call for Essex’s followers to rise up in revolt, in order that he might seize the city and ultimately the throne of England, with Essex then ruling as Lord Protector.

Although Essex gave explicit instructions that the Queen was not to be harmed, one of his supporters later claimed that they had agreed to “draw blood from herself” should their coup fail.

Throughout the night of 7th February Essex and his followers made their preparations to seize the City of London.

The next morning he and several hundred followers rode into the City. But no sooner had he got there than a herald proclaimed him a traitor, and his supporters began to fall away. Racing back to his home in Essex the crestfallen nobleman realised that the game was up and, having burnt any incriminating documents, he gave himself up. On February 25th , Ash  Wednesday he was beheaded at the Tower of London.

Shakespeare’s company were suspected of being involved in the rebellion, but they argued that since they had been requested to put on the play at the request of their betters -  all of whom were Lords and Knights of the realm - it would have been unseemly to refuse.

Luckily their innocence was accepted and they were even summoned to court to perform before the Queen. We don’t know which play they presented but it would have been typical of the Queen’s sardonic sense of humour to have requested that they perform the play that had been intended as the rallying call for rebellion - Richard 11.