Accession Day tilt

[1] The tilts combined theatrical elements with jousting, in which Elizabeth's courtiers competed to outdo each other in allegorical armour and costume, poetry, and pageantry to exalt the queen and her realm of England.

[3] Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley, Queen's Champion, devised the Accession Day tilts, which became the most important Elizabethan court festival from the 1580s.

[5] Lee himself oversaw the annual festivities until he retired as Queen's Champion at the tilt of 1590, handing over the role to George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland.

[9] Tilt lists for the Accession Day pageants have survived; these establish that the majority of the participating jousters came from the ranks of the Queen's Gentlemen Pensioners.

Knights participating in the spectacle entered in pageant cars or on horseback, disguised as some heroic, romantic, or metaphorical figure, with their servants in fancy dress according to the theme of the entry.

A squire presented a pasteboard pageant shield decorated with the character's device or impresa to the Queen and explained the significance of his disguise in prose or poetry.

[11] Entrants went to considerable expense to devise themes, order armour and costumes for their followers, and in some cases to hire poets or dramatists and even professional actors to carry out their programmes.

books severally handled and discoursed";[20] The fullest straightforward account of a Tilt is by Lupold von Wedel, a German traveller who saw the 1584 celebrations: Now approached the day, when on November 17 the tournament was to be held... About twelve o'clock the queen and her ladies placed themselves at the windows in a long room at Weithol [Whitehall] palace, near Westminster, opposite the barrier where the tournament was to be held.

George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland attired as the Knight of Pendragon Castle for the Tilt of 1590, by Nicholas Hilliard . His pageant shield leans against the tree. The Queen's "favour", a glove, is attached to his hat.
The Greenwich garniture of Sir Henry Lee , in the Jacob Album
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex in "sable sad" armour, probably for the Tilt of 1590, [ 10 ] by William Segar
Greenwich armour of Sir James Scudamore , 1590s. Jousting was crucial to Scudamore's reputation at court. [ 14 ]
Greenwich armour of George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland (1558–1605), 1586. This has a different design to that in the miniature by Nicholas Hilliard (at top).