Sir Edmund Tilney or Tylney (1536–1610) was a courtier best known now as Master of the Revels to Queen Elizabeth I and King James VI.
[1] Edmund Tilney's mother, Malyn Tilney, was implicated in the scandal leading to the downfall of the Duchess's step-granddaughter, Queen Catherine Howard, and was sentenced on 22 December 1541 to life imprisonment and loss of goods, but pardoned after the Queen's execution on 13 February 1542.
He evidently learned Latin, French, Italian and Spanish because his early works indicate his acquaintance not only with those languages but also with subjects such as law, history, economics and genealogy.
The 2nd Duke of Norfolk's son and grandson held the title of Lord Howard of Effingham consecutively.
The Revels Office has always been under the Lord Chamberlain, and he conferred the position of Master on Edmund Tilney.
When he began his work, it consisted principally of planning and conducting royal entertainments, as a unit of the Lord Chamberlain's office.
A commission issued on 24 December 1581 solved this financial crisis and enabled him to reduce the maintenance costs of the office to a moderate budget.
It began with playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd who were drawing crowds with Tamburlaine and The Spanish Tragedy.
The entire career of William Shakespeare, with the exception of a few years, fell within Tilney's tenure of Mastership.
[6] But if Tilney's censorship restricted the writers, his support protected them from generally hostile civic authorities.
The polite fiction of aristocratic patronage did not obscure the reality that the troupes were commercial enterprises; however, that fiction brought the theatres under royal protection; in 1592, the Lord Mayor of London named Tilney as one of the obstacles to ending public drama in the city.
Just a few years after assuming office, Tilney chose twelve of the best actors from different companies and created the Queen's Men.
Tilney brought about another important change in the development of drama by giving priority to the play instead of the masque as part of the entertainment.
George Buck, supported by the Howards, was also a contender but Tilney retained his position as the Master even under James I.
Some documentary evidence reveals the fact that George Buck had been appointed as acting master.
In the following years, Buck licensed many plays, though Tilney controlled and managed the accounts of the office.
It is an eloquent work of writing and deals with length on the ideal state of marriage between men and women.
This reference work reveals Tilney's knowledge on varied subjects include topography, genealogy, geography, economics and law.
Following his appointment as the Master, he grew increasingly popular and married Dame Mary Braye in 1583.
Starting from scholars like Malone to Sidney Lee, there has been varied representation of facts on Tilney.