XVIII. KING HENRY THE SEVENTH, 1485.

[Fabian.]

After the victory of Bosworth, Henry, on approaching the city, was on the 28th of August met at Shoreditch, by the Mayor and his brethren, in scarlet, with other worshipful citizens, clothed in violet; and so with great pomp and triumph he rode through the city to the cathedral church of St. Paul, where he offered three standards; one with the image of St. George, another with a red fiery dragon beaten upon white and green sarcenet, and the third with a dun cow upon yellow tartern.* After prayers, and the singing of Te Deum, he departed to the Bishop's palace, where he remained for some days.

XIX. THE SAME, 1487.

[Ives's Select Papers, 1773, 4to.]

The King was received with very similar ceremonies when he came to London to attend the Queen's Coronation, in 1487. He was met by the citizens at Hornsey Park, and there knighted the Lord Mayor, Sir William Horne. The Queen, the Countess of Richmond the King's mother, and other Ladies, were privately placed to behold the show in a house near St. Mary's Hospital without Bishopsgate. The livery companies lined the street; and at St. Paul's the King was received by the Archbishop of Canterbury and other prelates. At his entrance into the cathedral he was censed with the great censers of St. Paul's by an angel who came out from the roof. Having offered at the customary places within the church, he went to the Bishop's palace to lodge.

* Tarteron, a kind of fine cloth of silk. Blount's Glossary.

XX. QUEEN ELIZABETH OF YORK, 1487.

[From the narrative of her Coronation, in Ives's Select Papers, 1773, 4to.]

The Coronation of Henry the Seventh in 1485 was hurried over with less ceremonial than usual, and without any procession through the city; but that of the Queen in 1487 was attended with all the pomp customary on similar occasions.

On Friday next before St. Katherine's day, Elizabeth, accompanied by the Countess of Richmond and many lords and ladies, came from Greenwich by water. The Mayor, Sheriffs, and Aldermen, with several worshipful commoners, chosen out of every craft, in their liveries, were waiting on the river to receive her. Their barges were freshly furnished with banners and streamers of silk, richly beaten with the arms and badges of their crafts; and especially one called the bachelors' barge, was garnished and apparelled beyond all others. In it was a dragon spouting flames of fire into the Thames, and many other gentlemanly pageants, well and curiously devised to give her Highness sport and pleasure. And so, accompanied with trumpets, clarions, and other minstrels, she came and landed at the Tower, and was there welcomed by the King.

On the following day she went through London to Westminster, apparelled in white cloth of gold of damask, with a mantle of the same furred with ermine, fastened before her breast with a great lace of gold and silk, and rich knobs of gold, tasseled at the ends; her fair yellow hair hanging down plain behind her back, with a cawl of pipes over it; and confined only on the forehead by a circlet of gold ornamented with precious stones. On her passage to her litter, her train was born by her sister Cecily. The litter was covered with white cloth of gold, and furnished with large pillows of down covered with the same; and supported by twelve Knights of the Body, who changed by four and four at stated points.

The streets through which her Grace passed were cleansed, and dressed with clothes of tapestry and arras, and some streets,

as Cheap, hung with rich cloth of gold, velvet, and silk; and along the streets, from the Tower to St. Paul's, stood in order all the crafts of London in their liveries, and in various places were ordained singing children, some arrayed like angels, and others like virgins, to sing sweet songs as her Grace passed by.

Next before the litter rode the Duke of Bedford the King's uncle, as High Steward of England, and many other noblemen, among whom went the Mayor of London with Garter King of Arms. There were also fourteen newly created Knights of the Bath in their blue bachelor gowns.

After the litter went Sir Roger Colton, the Queen's Master of the Horse, leading a horse of estate, with a woman's saddle of red cloth of gold tissue; six Henchmen riding on white palfreys, with saddles to match the saddle of estate, and their harness ornamented with roses and suns, the badge of Edward the Fourth: then two chariots, covered with cloth of gold, the first containing the Duchess of Bedford and the Lady Cecily, and the other the Duchess of Norfolk, the Duchess of Suffolk, and the Countess of Oxford; then six Baroneses, in one suit of crimson velvet, upon fair palfreys, caparisoned like the horses of the henchmen; then two more chariots, and lastly the remainder of the Queen's ladies on palfreys, who were wonderfully richly bedecked with great beads and chains of gold about their necks.

XXI. KATHERINE OF SPAIN, 1501.

ON HER MARRIAGE WITH ARTHUR PRINCE OF WALES.

[Abridged from a long narrative of the circumstances of his marriage, preserved in MS. in the College of Arms, and printed in the Antiquarian Repertory.]

On Friday the 12th of November, after dining at Lambeth Palace, the Princess proceeded forth to St. George's Field, and was there met by a numerous company on horseback, of all the Lords, both spiritual and temporal, then in London. These conducted her through Southwark, until they came to the entrance of the great bridge of London.

Here was the first of the six pageants. It consisted of a tabernacle of two floors, resembling two roodlofts ;* in the lower of which sat a fair young lady with a wheel in her hand, in likeness of Saint Katherine, with many virgins on every side of her; and in the higher story was another lady, in likeness of Saint Ursula, also with a great multitude of virgins right goodly dressed and arrayed. Above all was a representation of the Trinity. On each side of both stories was one small square tabernacle, with proper vanes, and in every square was a garter with this poesy in French, Dnye soit que male pens, inclosing a red rose. On the tops of these tabernacles were six angels, casting incense on the Trinity and the two Saints. The outer walls were painted with hanging curtains of cloth of tissue, blue and red; and at some distance before the pageant were set two great posts, painted

* This was a narrow platform formerly existing in most churches, and commonly erected over the screen which divided the nave from the chancel. Upon it was placed the Rood, that is, a representation of our Saviour on the cross, with figures of St. Mary and St. John on either side. This small stage was also occasionally employed for the performance of mysteries, or religious dramatic Exhibitions.

Some roodlofts still remain in this country, and the staircases which led to them are frequently to be found. In some continental Churches the roodloft, with all its paraphernalia, may be seen in all its pristine splendour.

with the three ostrich feathers,* red roses, and portcullisses, and surmounted by a lion rampant, holding a vane painted with the arms of England. The whole work was carved with timber, and was gilt and painted with biss and azure. Both the Saints addressed the princess in long poetical "proposicions," which will be found in the "Antiquarian Repertory."

The second Pageant was erected in the broadest part of Grass-church + Street. In the middle of the street, "where the water runneth into the channel," was fixed a foundation of stone of three or four feet high, having a sufficient passage for the current of water as usual: on which foundation was erected a castle, formed of timber, but covered with canvas painted to resemble masonry. Within a man's height from the stone work, were battlements ornamented with these badges; 1, a red rose with a white one within it, surmounted by a crown of gold; 2, three blue garters, with the poesy of the order, also crowned; 3, a golden fleur-de-lis; and 4, a portcullis with two chains, surmounted by a crown. In some parts also were clouds, with beams of gold, in a blue firmament; in other places white harts; and in others peacocks displayed. Above this first battlement was a great gate, with folding leaves, full of great bars of iron and many nails, and over the gate a large portcullis, having in every joint a red rose; over this gate, as it were on the stone work, were the King's arms, supported by goodly beasts, that on the right side being a red dragon, dreadful, and the other on the left a white greyhound; and a yard from these arms on every side was a great red rose of half a yard's breadth. Above this gate was another course of battlements and badges, like the * In former times the feather was drawn single; I have not met with an earlier instance of the three in a plume.

The Church of St. Bennet received this name, now written Gracechurch, from its contiguity to an ancient grass-market. In the reigns of Elizabeth and James the First the name was corrupted to Graciousstreet; and, in Dekker's description of the Royal procession in 1603-4, we are told that it "was never worthy of that name it carries till this houre." From a similar cause a church near Lombard Street is named St. Mary Woolchurch, having been contiguous to the ancient trade in wool.

A practise happily long obsolete in London, but still retained in the French metropolis.