It was the presence of Queen Henrietta which brought over a French company of players with women among them to England in 1659. They established themselves at the celebrated theatre in Blackfriars. But whether their distinguished countrywoman was unable or unwilling to do anything on their behalf, they were very roughly received, less because of the women in the company than because they were foreigners. Their advent gave Prynne an opportunity for venting his indignation. To the stern Puritan the sight of women on the boards was a great additional aggravation. No English company seems to have introduced women till 1660. Pepys, who, as every one knows, was an indefatigable playgoer, records that the first time he saw women act was on January 3, 1660. This was at the Theatre Royal, Clare Market, the play being _The Beggar’s Bush_. Three days later he saw actresses in Ben Jonson’s play, _The Silent Woman_. It has been said that _Othello_ was the play in which women first appeared in England, at a performance given on December 8, 1660. Mrs. Anne Marshall, Mrs. Sanders (afterwards to become famous as Mrs. Betterton, a most successful impersonator of Shakespeare’s female parts), Mrs. Margaret Hughes, and Mrs. Coleman were among the first actresses who appeared in public. Mrs. Betterton, whose character was unexceptionable, was selected to give lessons in elocution to the two princesses, Mary and Anne, daughters of James II. A sort of precedent for women acting in stage plays was to be found in the court performances. It was not till the reign of Charles II. that professional actresses appeared in public, but Queen Anne, wife of James I., was accustomed to take an active part in the masques performed at court, where she was both actress and manager.[59] That these were not mere impromptus may be gathered from the fact that the cost of a performance often exceeded £1000. In the reign of Charles I. the ladies of the court, headed by the Queen, Henrietta Maria, played a French pastoral at Hampton Court to enliven the Christmas season. The French Queen was very favourably disposed towards the stage, and when the churchwardens and constables in 1631 petitioned Archbishop Laud to get Blackfriars Theatre removed, on the ground that it was a nuisance to trade and the public generally, and begged that the council would see to the matter, the answer was returned that the queen was “well affected towards plays, and that therefore good regulation is more to be provided than suppression decreed.” Various members of the aristocracy also took to the stage, or rather the actors under their protection. One of the most constant supporters of the dramatic art was the Countess of Holland, daughter of Sir Walter Cope, whose husband had been executed in 1649. Holland House, Kensington, was frequently the scene of dramatic entertainments.