The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, also called the Chamberlain’s Men, were a theatrical playing company with which William Shakespeare was associated for most of his professional life. It was the most popular company of players in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.

The history of this company is difficult to trace, as it was an amalgamation of several smaller companies. A company known as Hunsdon’s Men is traceable to 1564-67. Their patron, Henry Carey, the first Lord Hunsdon, took office as Lord Chamberlain in 1585, and another company soon came under his patronage about five years later. In 1592 theatres closed because of the plague. When they reopened two years later a good deal of reorganisation had taken place between the various companies, and a central Lord Chamberlain’s company emerged. The Lord Chamberlain died in 1596. For a short while the group was renamed Hunsdon’s Men after their new patron George Carey, Second Lord Hunsdon. When he took office himself in 1597 the company was once again known as the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Upon the accession of James I, in March 1603, the company was taken under royal patronage and henceforth known as the King’s Men.

The Chamberlain’s Men were undoubtedly the most favoured company with the court. Their only rivals were The Admiral’s Men led by one of England’s finest actors Edward Alleyn. The Chamberlain’s Men played continuously in London from 1594-1603, taking only a short break in the autumn of 1597 to travel on a provincial tour. From 1603 onwards the company regularly toured each year.

From 1594 the Lord Chamberlain’s Men had many homes. They used a theatre in Newington Butts (just south of London Bridge), and also played at the Cross Keys Inn within the City of London. Later they probably performed at The Theatre before being re-housed in 1599 to their most famous home, The Globe.

Shakespeare was the company’s principle dramatist, but works by Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker, and the partnership of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher were also presented.

In around 1608, the Blackfriars Theatre became the winter headquarters of The King’s Men.

The company ceased to exist when, at the outbreak of the English Civil Wars in 1642, the theatres were closed and remained so until the Restoration eighteen years later.