Iconic performance of King John

Shakespeare’s play about 12th Century power struggles, political intrigues and the battle to hold on to the crown was performed in Northampton, at a location associated with the real-life monarch.

Royal & Derngate partnered with Shakespeare’s Globe to mark the Magna Carta's 800th anniversary with a production of King John that played at Temple Church in London, Salisbury Cathedral - where several of the plays characters are buried - and The Holy Sepulchre in Northampton, which was visited often by King John and his court.

The tour was a landmark project in 2015, with the locations chosen for their links with the real King John and where he took his court.

Northampton Castle was one - where King John set up in the town - so its church was chosen for the play as it was more than likely he visited this very location.

Shakespeare’s play is partly set in Northampton, at a point in its history when it was just emerging as a great thoroughfare. At the centre of the country, the town regularly hosted the Parliament of England and the Treasury was based there in 1205, so it took on the aura of a capital city.

Shakespeare’s play charts one king's struggle to retain the crown against claims that he is not the rightful heir and in doing so discusses the tensions that Northampton would have experienced : between church, crown and state.

The play was a co-production involving Shakespeare’s Globe and RSC actors.

For the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death there will be a travelling production of The Herbal Bed, a fictional thriller which is about the 'secret' life of the Bard's daughter Susanna. The characters include his granddaughter Elizabeth. This is a co-production with English Touring Theatre and Rose Theatre, Kingston and after Northampton it visits Cambridge, Liverpool, Exeter, Brighton, Salford, Bath, Oxford and Kingston.

Elizabeth (1608 – 1670) was the last descendant of William Shakespeare and was the only grandchild he ever knew. She is linked to the county through her second marriage to John Barnard (1604 – 1674) of Abington. He became an MP for Huntingdon in 1660, and a baronet a year later . Elizabeth became Lady Barnard and resided at the family home in Abington Park. She died without children and there is a memorial.