The work marked a major development in Jonson's career, as the first of many entertainments and masques that he would write for the Stuart Court.
[2] The entertainment was designed to welcome the members of the Stuart royal family to England during their progress from Edinburgh to London after the Union of the Crowns.
[3][4] Anne of Denmark and her son Prince Henry came to Althorp, the Northamptonshire estate of Robert Spencer on Sunday 25 June from Dingley.
He produced a major segment of his total literary output for their court, and received a large share of his income from those works.
Under the title, A Particular Entertainment of the Queen and Prince their Highness at Althorp, the work was entered into the Stationers' Register on 19 March 1604, and was published later that year in a quarto that also included Jonson's The Coronation Triumph.