Children of the Chapel

Children of the Chapel, prominent and long-lived company of boy actors that was active during most of the 16th and early 17th centuries in England.

The troupe was originally composed of boy choristers affiliated with the Chapel Royal in London who first performed during the reign of Henry IV. From 1509 to 1523, when it was under the direction of William Cornish, the Children of the Chapel emerged as one of the two significant children’s companies. They often were the first to perform works by Ben Jonson, Francis Beaumont, and John Marston, and many of the boys who started in the Children of the Chapel, including Nathan Field and Ezekiel Fenn, also achieved success as adult actors.

With the accession of James I in 1603, the company was reorganized and (briefly) given the name Children of the Queen’s Revels. Soon after, however, the troupe lost royal favour when the king took offense at the content of several plays, including Eastward Ho (1605), written by Jonson, Marston, and George Chapman, and The Isle of Gulls (1606) by John Day. The company’s affiliation with the Chapel Royal was ended, and in 1606 the troupe was reborn as Children of Blackfriars. Two years later it moved again, this time to Whitefriars, with a concurrent name change. Once again, in 1610, the troupe was renamed the Children of the Queen’s Revels, but by that time interest in children’s companies was waning, and in 1615 the group was disbanded.