Admiral’s Men

Admiral’s Men, a theatrical company in Elizabethan and Jacobean England. About 1576–79 they were known as Lord Howard’s Men, so called after their patron Charles Howard, 1st earl of Nottingham, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham. In 1585, when Lord Howard became England’s lord high admiral, the company changed its designation to the Admiral’s Men. It was later known successively as Nottingham’s Men, Prince Henry’s Men, and the Elector Palatinate’s (Palsgrave’s) Men.

The chief actor of the Admiral’s Men was Edward Alleyn; their manager and effectively their employer until his death in 1616 was Philip Henslowe, whose Diary, covering the years 1592 to 1603, documents the Elizabethan theatre and its organization. The company was closely associated with Christopher Marlowe and performed several of his works including Tamburlaine and Faustus. In addition, the Admiral’s Men were the first to produce George Chapman’s plays, and they staged the first known London comedy, William Haughton’s Englishmen for My Money (1598). Once considered the premier Elizabethan theatrical company, the Admiral’s Men began to decline with the rise of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (located at the Globe Theatre), their move to the Fortune Theatre in 1600, and the subsequent retirement of Alleyn in 1603. By 1631 the company had disbanded.