ROYAL

PROCESSIONS AND ENTERTAINMENTS

IN THE

CITY OF LONDON.

I. KING HENRY THE THIRD, 1236.

[Matthew Paris.]

A PROCESSION through London appears connected with the Coronation from very early times. King Henry the Third, having solemnised his marriage with Eleanor of Provence, in the city of Canterbury, they were, on their way to London, met by the Mayor, Aldermen, and principal citizens, to the number of three hundred and sixty, sumptuously apparelled in silken robes, richly embroidered, riding upon stately horses, and each man carrying a gold or silver cup in his hand, in token of the privilege claimed by the city, of being the Chief Butler of the Kingdom at the King's Coronation. The streets of the city were adorned with rich silks, pageants, and a variety of pompous shows; and the citizens, attending the King and Queen to Westminster, had the honour of officiating at the Queen's Coronation. At night the city was beautifully illuminated with an infinite number of lamps, cressets, &c.

II. KING EDWARD THE FIRST, 1274.

[Matthew of Westminster.]

Edward had been four years absent on an expedition to the Holy Land, and his father had been dead nearly half that time before he returned to England. He came to London on the 2d of August, 1274, where he was received with all the expressions of joy that could be devised. The streets were hung with rich cloths of silk, arras, and tapestry; the Aldermen and Burgesses of the City threw out of their windows handfuls of gold and silver, to signify their great gladness at his safe return, and the conduits ran plentifully with wine, white and red, that every creature might drink his fill. The Coronation took place on the 19th of the same month.

III. QUEEN MARGARET, 1300.

[Stow's Chronicle.]

Margaret of France, the second wife of King Edward the First, was married to him in 1299. In the following year, after she had given birth to a son at Brotherton, in Yorkshire, she first came to London. The citizens rode to meet her four miles without the City, to the number of 600, in one livery of red and white, with the cognizance of their mysteries embroidered upon their sleeves, and so conveyed her to Westminster.

IV. KING EDWARD THE SECOND, 1307-8.

[Holinshed.]

Edward, returning to England with his French bride Isabella, was joyfully received by the citizens early in February, and crowned on the 25th of that month.

V. KING RICHARD THE SECOND, 1377.

[Walsingham.]

In the days of Richard the Second, the main business of the day took place after dinner. On the feast of St. Swithin, being Wednesday the 15th of July, after dinner, the Mayor and citizens assembled near the Tower, when the young King, clad in white garments, came forth with a great multitude in his suite; the Duke of Lancaster officiating as Lord High Steward, and Lord Percy as Earl Marshal. Sir Simon Burley bare the sword before him, and Sir Nicholas Bond, on foot, led the King's horse by the bridle. The city was in every way most richly adorned, and the conduits ran with wine for three hours. In the upper end of the Cheap* was erected a castle with four towers; on two sides of which ran forth wine abundantly. In the towers were placed four beautiful virgins, of stature and age like to the King, apparelled in white vestures; these damsels, on the King's approach, blew in his face leaves of gold, and threw on him and his horse counterfeit golden florins. When he was come before the castle, they took cups of gold, and filling them with wine at the spouts of the castle, presented the same to the King and his nobles. On the top of the castle, betwixt the towers, stood a golden angel, holding a crown in his hands; and so contrived, that, when the King came, he bowed down and offered him the crown.

This was the most striking of several pageants with which the citizens were eager to evince their hopes from the activity of the untried youth of their new monarch, and their joy at anticipated relief from those grievances which had been attributed to the "slothfulness of the aged king deceased, and the covetousness of those who ruled about him."

* The Cheap (i. e. the market) continued for many centuries the name of the principal thoroughfare of the metropolis: "Cheapside," originally applied to houses on the side of the Cheap, is, as the name of the whole street, comparatively modern.

VI. KING RICHARD THE SECOND, 1392.

[Knighton and Fabian.]

In 1392, on the restoration of the City's privileges, which had been forfeited on account of riots, King Richard came to receive its homage in person. On leaving his manor of Sheen (now Richmond), he was met on the heath by four hundred of the citizens on horseback, clad in one livery, who in the most humble manner, craving pardon for their offences past, besought him, by their Recorder, to take his way to his palace at Westminster through the city of London. The request having been granted, he pursued his journey to Southwark, where, at St. George's church, he was met by a procession of the Bishop of London, and all the religious of every degree and both sexes, and above five hundred boys in surplices. At London bridge a beautiful white steed, and a milk-white palfrey, both saddled, bridled, and caparisoned in cloth of gold, were presented to the King and Queen. The citizens received them, standing in their liveries on each side the street, crying, "King Richard, King Richard!”

In Cheap a conduit ran with wine, which was handed to the Royal visitants, as on the last occasion, by a little boy apparelled in white like an angel. At the Standard a very sumptuous stage was erected, on which were stationed various personages, and an angel that put on the King's head as he passed a rich crown of gold garnished with stones and pearl, and another on the head of the Queen. Shortly after (probably at the goldsmiths' shops, which from other sources we learn were at the western end of Cheapside, near the cathedral *) were presented to the King a golden tablet of the Trinity, of the value of 800%.; and to the Queen another of St. Anne, whom she held in especial devotion and reverence, because her own name was Anne.

The King then rode to St. Paul's, and made his offering;

* By the foundation charter of the Goldsmiths' Gild, 1 Edw. III. all of the trade were directed to sit in their shops in the High Street of Cheap.