Thomas Benger

Who was Thomas Benger?

Sir Thomas Benger Master of the Revels succeeded Sir Thomas Cawarden as Elizabeth I's Master of the Revels on 18 January 1560. He served until 1572 when it appears Sir Thomas Blagrave stepped in. Benger was considered to be an ineffectual master of the revels, purely on account that a charter for his successor hadn't been drawn up at his death. Benger had been a loyal member of the Princess Elizabeth's household at Hatfield during the several imprisonments she had suffered under her sister, Mary I.

On 5 June 1555 he had been examined by Secretary Bourne, the Master of the Rolls, Sir Francis Englefield, Sir Richard Read and Doctor Hughes, 'upon such points as they shall gather out of their former confessions, touching their lewd & vain practises of calculating or conjuring, presently sent unto the with the said letters.'

Benger produced forty-six plays and masques that dealt with the factional intrigues surrounding the Queen's marriage negotiations between 1560 and 1572.