[Disclosure: The Lord Leycester is a client of my PR consultancy, EMPR. I’m not obliged to share this on my blog, but why wouldn’t I when it’s full of food and drink?]
Do you fancy an evening tucking into food and drink fit for royalty, as well as the chance to don some period costume, and relive a lavish royal banquet from hundreds of years ago?
If that’s the case, you need to get some tickets to the Lord Leycester King James I Banquet.
Set for 21st September, the unique event will recreate a grand banquet thrown 400 years ago in honour of King James I at the Lord Leycester, featuring a four-course feast, traditional drinks, entertainment and free costume hire for the night.
The original banquet was hosted by the Earl of Warwick for King James I when the King visited in 1617. At the time the three-day feast was a huge honour for the town but with no expense spared, it left Warwick in debt for 10 years afterwards.
The Lord Leycester is now giving people the chance to relive the famous banquet – but for one night only, rather than three days – when it stages the in the venue’s half-timbered medieval hall.
A four-course meal fit for a king will feature traditional dishes including vegetable and pearl barley pottage served in a bread bowl; suckling pig, roasted pork, chicken and venison; and fig tarte tatin or citrus posset, followed by English cheeses prepared by The Fourpenny Shop from Warwick. The traditional drinks of the day ale, mead, claret will be included in the ticket price.
To add to the ambience of the night authentic Elizabethan and Jacobean entertainment will be provided by ‘Mellow Sounds Recorder Trio’ and ‘Diabolus in Musica’.
In the spirit of completing the realism, the Lord Leycester is offering free hire for the night from its range of 350 historical costumes that have been recently donated. People will be able to choose their outfit a week before the event, pay a deposit, then arrive in historical dress on the night of the banquet before returning the costume the following week and claiming their deposit back.
Heidi Meyer, Master of the Lord Leycester, said: “The visit by King James I to Warwick and the Lord Leycester in 1617 was a grand event in our collective history – guests to the modern day version of that banquet can dine under the Seal of James I recently revealed in our Great Hall.”
“To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King’s visit, we first recreated the banquet in 2017 and it was a huge hit. We wanted to relaunch the banquet this year with a view to having it as a regular event on the Warwick annual calendar.”
“The banquet will start in the Courtyard as our King arrives and then guests will proceed into the Great Hall where they will dine on long banquet style tables with the King and his courtiers. We have researched the period and copied the style of eating and drinking as best we can given modern day eating standards!”
Tickets for the Lord Leycester King James I Banquet are on sale now, priced £85 per person, and are available to buy on the Lord Leycester website or in person from the Lord Leycester Ticket office during opening hours. The ticket price includes all food and drink for the evening, along with free costume hire.
To buy tickets for the banquet, visit https://www.lordleycester.com/lord-leycester-events/king-james-i-banquet/.
For more information on the Lord Leycester and its programme of activities visit: https://www.lordleycester.com/.
