A Game at Chess Thomas Middleton

A Game at Chess satirises historical events and figures of the early seventeenth century.[1] Those depicted include members of the English court, the Spanish court, and prominent religious figures. James I, who reigned as King of England and Ireland from 1603 until his death in 1625, is depicted as the White King by Middleton.[2] His son and successor, Prince Charles or Charles I, reigned after the play was written and is depicted as the White Knight.[2] Elizabeth of Bohemia, James I's daughter, is also represented in the play as the White Queen.[2] From Spain, Middleton depicts Philip IV, who reigned as King from 1621 to 1665, as the Black King. His sister Maria Anna of Spain is represented by the Black Queen.[2][3] Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Conde de Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador who was deeply unpopular in England, is depicted as the Black Knight.[2][4] Religious figures depicted include Archbishop of Split, Marco Antonio de Dominis, or the Fat Bishop, who left the Roman Catholic Church to join the Anglican Church, later returning to Rome.[4]

The play takes place at a time of heightened tension between England and Spain, and it alludes to negotiations between the two countries to wed Prince Charles to the Spanish Infanta Maria Anna.[5] The royal families hoped that the Spanish match would at the very least resolve some of the conflicts between England and Spain that still lingered after the Thirty Years' War.[6] Additionally, James I hoped that a marriage alliance would restore his daughter Elizabeth to the Bohemian throne.[5] Protestant English citizens were antagonistic toward the prospect of a marriage between their prince and the Catholic Infanta. Many feared for the safety of Prince Charles and the Duke of Buckingham when they travelled to Spain in February 1623 for the negotiations, and some feared that Charles would convert to Catholicism. Charles and Buckingham, who travelled in disguise, were unprepared to negotiate effectively with the Spanish, and they agreed to Spanish terms in order to return to England unharmed.[5][6] The marriage did not go ahead, and the English public largely saw Charles's safe return and the failure of the negotiations as a victory against Spanish Catholics.[5]

The play was stopped after nine performances (6–16 August, Sundays omitted), but not before it had become "the greatest box-office hit of early modern London".[7] The Privy Council opened a prosecution against the actors and the author of the play on 18 August, on the grounds that it was then illegal to portray any modern Christian king onstage. The Globe Theatre was shut down by the prosecution, though Middleton was able to acquit himself by showing that the play had been approved by the Master of the Revels, Sir Henry Herbert.[8] After James I's death, the play was printed in multiple editions, but Middleton never wrote another full play.[2]