‘Booted, to Betoken’: Bonny Boots, Thomas Watson, and the Discovery of a New Oriana

ABSTRACT Who was Bonny Boots? This article proposes that the music lyricist, poet, and spy Thomas Watson can be identified with this mysterious madrigal character, thereby offering a new solution to what may well be the longest-lasting puzzle of English music historiography. Identifying Watson in this role also brings an unexpected benefit: a new and fully fitting English identity for Oriana, who has hitherto been associated solely with Queen Elizabeth and her successor Anna of Denmark. In considering the biographical, literary, and musical evidence as would a detective, this study exposes the riddling techniques in Watson’s lyrics, entertainment texts, and poetry, which were all designed to serve high-ranking patrons in their dealings with the Queen and her succession, thus offering new interdisciplinary perspectives on the way Tudor music, poetry, and politics were deeply enmeshed at the highest levels.