Prince Charles's Men

Prince Charles's Men (known as the Duke of York's Men from 1608 to 1612) was a playing company or troupe of actors in Jacobean and Caroline England.

The company was formed in 1608 as the Duke of York's Men, under the titular patronage of King James' second son, the eight-year-old Charles (1600–49), then the Duke of York. Upon the death of Charles's elder brother Prince Henry in 1612, the company became Prince Charles's Men. They played mainly in the provinces for the first two years of their existence, but in 1610 they received a renewed royal patent that authorized them to play in London, "in such usual houses as themselves shall provide."

Seven actors are listed in the patent: John Garland, William Rowley, Thomas Hobbes, Robert Dawes, Joseph Taylor, John Newton, and Gilbert Reason. Rowley was their dramatist and clown; Joseph Taylor would be their leading man in future years, and then fill the same function with the King's Men, when he replaced the late Richard Burbage in May 1619. Garland was a veteran, having been a founding member of Queen Elizabeth's Men in 1583. Hobbes had a comparably long career ahead of him: he would be with the King's Men as late as 1637. Newton and Reason continued with the company until its end in 1625.

For a short time around 1614–15, they joined forces with the Lady Elizabeth's Men at Philip Henslowe's recently built Hope Theatre, but separated again in 1616 when the Lady Elizabeth's company left London to tour the provinces. Taylor transferred to the King's Men in 1619; in the same year, Prince Charles's Men left Henslowe's Hope (a less-than-ideal venue for drama, since it doubled as a bear-baiting ring) and moved into Christopher Beeston's Cockpit Theatre, and were thereafter closely associated with Beeston's theatrical enterprise. They acted at the Cockpit from 1619 till 1622, and after that, at Beeston's Red Bull Theatre.

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