Les Quatrains Du S. De Pybrac Dediez A Tresnoble et Treshonorable Seigneur, Monseigneur de Hayes . . . 1607. Newberry Library Wing MS miniature ZW645.K292 (Photo by G Ziegler)

Esther Inglis gave this beautiful manuscript as a New Year’s gift in 1607 to someone she addressed as M. de Hayes. With no first name to go on, the bibliographers A.H. Scott-Elliot and Elspeth Yeo suggested years ago that he might be Sir Thomas Hayes, who had received a knighthood from King James in 1603 and was to be Lord Mayor of London from 1614-15 (SE/Y no. 31). Somehow, this didn’t exactly make sense in various ways. First of all, Esther and her family were not living in London when Thomas Hayes was Lord Mayor; they had long before moved on to Willingale Spain in Essex. Secondly, the other manuscripts she gifted at this time were for prominent members of the court: Ludowic Stewart, Duke of Lennox; Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury; Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury.

Looking through the other courtiers, however, I found James Hay (or Hayes) c.1580-1636, a Scot from Fife, who in 1603 became a member of Queen Anna’s bedchamber and was made Lord Hay in 1604.¹ King James liked the man and continued to shower land and honors on him, finally making him a baron in 1606. Part of this beneficence was in the interest of promoting a marriage between Lord Hay and Honora Denny, also a member of the queen’s court, whose father had severe objections to the union.

In the end, Sir Edward Denny came round, and the couple were married at a festive occasion on 3 January 1607. Their wedding was celebrated with a masque specially written by Thomas Campion, known familiarly as “Hayes Masque” and printed soon after it was performed.

This delightful detail of gilded snail and flower is found on fol. 32.

Newberry Library Wing MS miniature ZW645.K292 (Photo by G Ziegler)