Godebog! - by Kathryn Thompson
Kathryn Thompson has been working on our project for the past week, focusing on the Colchester Pageant of 1909.
Over the past week, I’ve been looking at the Colchester Pageant, 1909. Its pageant master was Louis Napoleon Parker, and as such it was one of the more ‘traditional’ pageants. The pageant included the usual characters: Boadicea (Boudicca!) riding in on her chariot to defeat the Romans and encourage the people to ride with her to Londinium and Queen Elizabeth visiting Colchester on one of her tours of the country. Many other monarchs visited Colchester in this pageant, some on pilgrimages to Walsingham.
Above: A striking flyer for the Colchester Pageant
The pageant included some tales that I found rather curious so I did a little more research on them. The Book of Words states that the king of Colchester in A.D. 274 was King Coel Godebog and his daughter was Helena, potentially St Helen. Helena becomes engaged to Constantius Chlorus in this scene which negates the payment of a tribute from the Britons to the Romans. Saint Helen was the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, so this scene implies that Constantine was the grandson of Old King Coel. During my research I found that whilst Saint Helena was the mother of Constantine, it’s questionable whether she was King Coel’s daughter. King Coel was also probably not a ‘merry old soul’ as the nursery rhyme goes.
However, the pageant didn’t only use myths about Colchester’s history. Something I found interesting was the mention of Thomas Audley. Having done some work on the Tudors and the dissolution of the monasteries, I didn’t expect his name to pop up as a town clerk in Colchester. He has his future read by gypsy woman when Catherine of Aragon visits the town on her pilgrimage, and the gypsy tells him he will be a Lord. In the next scene, Audley does become Lord Audley, and is involved in the dissolution of the monasteries. I think this shows the benefit of pageants in informing people about the history of their areas, as even if there are some scenes that are inaccurate, the pageants still provided a sense of community.
The Colchester pageant overall was very popular, with around 3,000 performers and a grandstand built to seat 5,000 that was full every performance. It made £6,286 over the six performances which resulted in quite a generous profit.
Kathryn Thompson
Above: A Scene from the Colchester Pageant