A grand banquet thrown 400 years ago in honour of King James I is to be recreated in the Great Hall of Warwick’s Lord Leycester next month, giving 100 lucky guests a chance to enjoy a unique evening fit for royalty.

Tickets are on sale now for the special event on 21 September, which includes a four-course feast, traditional drinks, entertainment and free costume hire for the night.

The Lord Leycester, which sits in the heart of Warwickshire’s county town and is one of the most significant medieval sites in Europe, is recreating the banquet hosted by the Earl of Warwick for King James I when the King visited in 1617. At the time the three-day feast was a huge honour for the town but with no expense spared, it left Warwick in debt for 10 years afterwards.

The Lord Leycester is now giving people the chance to relive the famous banquet - but for one night only, rather than three days - when it stages the Lord Leycester King James I Banquet in the venue’s half-timbered medieval hall.

A four-course meal fit for a king will feature traditional dishes including vegetable and pearl barley pottage served in a bread bowl; suckling pig, roasted pork, chicken and venison; and fig tarte tatin or citrus posset, followed by English cheeses prepared by The Fourpenny Shop from Warwick. The traditional drinks of the day ale, mead, claret will be included in the ticket price.

To add to the ambience of the night authentic Elizabethan and Jacobean entertainment will be provided by ‘Mellow Sounds Recorder Trio’ and ‘Diabolus in Musica’.

In the spirit of completing the realism, the Lord Leycester is offering free hire for the night from its range of 350 historical costumes that have been recently donated. People will be able to choose their outfit a week before the event, pay a deposit, then arrive in historical dress on the night of the banquet before returning the costume the following week and claiming their deposit back.

Tickets for the Lord Leycester King James I Banquet are on sale now, priced £85 per person, and are available to buy on the Lord Leycester website or in person from the Lord Leycester Ticket office during opening hours. The ticket price includes all food and drink for the evening, along with free costume hire.

To buy tickets for the banquet, visit lordleycester.com. For more information on the Lord Leycester and its programme of activities visit: lordleycester.com