Love's Triumph Through Callipolis

Love's Triumph Through Callipolis was the first masque performed at the Stuart Court during the reign of King Charles I, and the first in which a reigning monarch appeared. The work was written by Ben Jonson, with costumes, sets, and stage effects designed by Inigo Jones, and music by Nicholas Lanier.

At the start of his reign in 1625, Charles discontinued the practice of staging annual masques during the Christmas season, which had prevailed throughout the reign of his father James I, from The Masque of Blackness in 1605 to The Fortunate Isles and Their Union in 1625. His new bride, Henrietta Maria of France, was too young and inexperienced to take over the role of the previous queen, Anne of Denmark, who had been the prime mover in the production of the masques. The resumption of masquing in 1631 has been seen as a sign of the greater maturity and the growing influence of Charles's then 21-year-old queen.

Love's Triumph Through Callipolis, performed at Whitehall Palace on 9 January 1631, was only the first of two masques mounted at Court that winter season; the second was Chloridia, staged on 22 February. The first masque featured King Charles himself, performing with fourteen lords of his Court; the second featured Henrietta Maria and her ladies in waiting. The former circumstance constituted a major innovation: in the previous reign, Queen Anne had regularly appeared in masques, but the King never did. Charles would perform again in the next year's masque, Albion's Triumph by Aurelian Townshend (designed again by Inigo Jones), and in subsequent masques as well.

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