HENRY VIII. AND QUEEN KATHERINE. 33 the church by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Durham, and other Prelates; made her offering at the shrine of St. Erkenwald; and finally rested for the night at the Bishop's palace. The marriage took place in the same church on the Sunday following. XXIII. KING HENRY THE EIGHTH AND [Hall's Chronicle.] On Saturday the 24th of June 1509, the day before his Coronation, King Henry the Eighth, with his newly married bride, Queen Katherine, passed in triumph from the Tower to Westminster. The streets were very richly hung with tapestry and cloth of arras, and a great part of the south of Cheap, as well as some part of Cornhill, with cloth of gold. From Grass Church to Bread Street the streets were on one side barred off with rails, behind which stood every occupation in their liveries, beginning with the base and mean occupations, and so ascending to the worshipful crafts. Highest and lastly stood the Mayor with the Aldermen. The Goldsmiths' stalls at the end of the Old Change were filled with virgins in white dresses, holding branches of white wax; the priests and clerks in rich copes, with crosses and censers of silver, were ready to cense the King and Queen as they passed. "The features of his Grace's body," breaks forth the ancient chronicler, "his goodly personage, his amiable visage, his princely countenance, with the noble qualities of his royal estate, to every man known, need no rehearsal; yet, partly to describe his apparel, it is to be noted that his Grace wore uppermost a robe of crimson velvet, furred with ermines; his jacket or coat of raised gold, the placard embroidered with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, great pearls, and other rich stones; a great baudrick about his neck of great balasses." The trapper of his horse was of damask gold, with a deep purfle of ermines. His Knights and Esquires for his body were in crimson velvet; and all the gentlemen, and others of his chapel, and all his officers and household servants, were apparelled in scarlet. The Barons of the Five Ports bore the canopy or cloth of estate. Before the King rode two gentlemen richly apparelled, and having hats powdered with ermine, who, about their bodies over-thwart, bare two robes, the one for the Duchy of Guienne, and the other for that of Normandy; and near them rode two persons of good estate, bearing the King's cloak and hat, whose apparel was both of goldsmiths' work and embroidery, the edges and borders being fretted with gold of damask, and their horses trapped in burnished silver, drawn over with cords of green silk and gold. Sir Thomas Brandon, Master of the King's Horse, was clothed in tissue, embroidered with roses of fine gold, and over-thwart his body a great and massive baudrick of gold, his horse trapped in gold; and he led by a rein of silk the King's spare horse, trapped bard-wise, with harness embroidered with bullion gold, curiously wrought by goldsmiths. Then next followed, upon great coursers, the nine children of Honour, apparelled in blue velvet, powdered with fleurs-de-lis of gold, and chains of goldsmiths' work, each of their horses trapped with a trapper of the King's title, as of England and France, Gascoigne, Guienne, Normandy, Anjou, Cornwall, Wales, Ireland, &c. wrought upon velvets with embroidery and goldsmiths' work. Following these came the Queen's retinue, Lords, Knights, Esquires, and Gentlemen in their degrees. The Queen sat in a litter borne by two white palfreys, trapped in white cloth of gold. Her person was apparelled in white satin embroidered, her hair hanging down her back to a very great length, beautiful and goodly to behold; and on her head was a coronet set with many rich orient stones. Next after her Majesty followed six honourable personages on white palfreys, all apparelled in cloth of gold; and then several covered chariots, containing ladies,' every one after their degrees in cloth of gold, cloth of silver, tinsels, and velvet, with embroideries ; the complements of the chariots, and the draught harnesses, powdered with ermines mixed with cloth of gold. And so with much joy and honour they came to Westminster. XXIV. QUEEN ANNE BOLEYN, 1533. [Hall's Chronicle.] In preparation for the Coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn, on Whitsunday 1533, the King sent letters to the Mayor and Commonalty, signifying his wishes that they should fetch her from Greenwich to the Tower, and see the City ordered and garnished with pageants in the accustomed places, to honour her passage through it. In consequence, a Common Council was called, and commandment given to the haberdashers, of which craft the Mayor (Sir Stephen Peacock) then was, that they should provide a barge for the Bachelors, with a wafter and a foist, garnished with banners and streamers, as they were accustomed to do "when the Mayor is presented at Westminster on the morrow after Simon and Jude." All the other crafts were likewise commanded to prepare barges, and to garnish them, both with all the seemly banners they could procure, and with targets on the sides, and in every barge to have minstrelsy, among which are afterwards mentioned the now long-exploded instruments called shalms and sagbuts. On the 29th of May,* the day appointed for the water triumph, the Mayor and his brethren all in scarlet, such as were Knights having collars of SS, and the remainder gold chains, and the Council of the City with them, assembled at St. Mary Hill, and at one o'clock took barge. The barges of the companies amounted in number to fifty; they were enjoined under a great penalty not to row nearer one to another than at twice a barge's length, and to enforce this order, there were three light wherries, each with two officers. They then set forth in the following order. First, at a good distance before the Mayor's barge was a foist or wafter full of ordnance, having in the midst a great dragon continually moving and casting wild fire, and round about it terrible monsters and wild men casting fire, and making hideous noises. On the right hand of the Mayor's barge was that of the Bachelors, in which were trumpets and several other melodious instruments; its decks, sailyards, and topcastles were hung with cloth of gold and silk; at the foreship and the stern were two great banners richly beaten with the arms of the King and the Queen, and on the topcastle also was a long streamer newly beaten with the said arms. The sides of the barge were set full of flags and banners of the devices of the companies of the Haberdashers and Merchant-Adventurers, and the cords were hung with innumerable pencels, having little bells at the ends, which made a goodly noise and a goodly sight, waving in the wind. On the outside of the barge were three dozen scutcheons in metal of the King's and Queen's arms, which were beaten upon square buckram, divided so that the right side had the King's colours and the left the Queen's. On the left hand of the Mayor was another foist, in which was a mount, whereon stood a white falcon, crowned, upon a root of gold, environed with white and red roses, which was the Queen's device.* About the mount sat virgins, singing and playing sweetly. Next after the Mayor followed his Fellowship, the Haberdashers; next after them the Mercers, then the Grocers, and so every Company in its order; and after all the Mayor's and Sheriff's officers. In this order," a goodly sight" for splendour, and each barge provided with its own minstrelsy, they rowed to the point beyond Greenwich; and there turned back in the opposite order (that is to wit, the Mayor and Sheriffs' officers first, and the meanest craft next, and so ascending to the uttermost crafts in order, and the Mayor last, as they were accustomed to go to St. Paul's at Christmas,) and so they rowed down to Greenwich town, and there cast anchor, making great melody. At three of the clock the Queen appeared, in rich cloth of gold, and, accompanied by several ladies and gentlewomen, entered her barge. Immediately the citizens set forwards, their minstrels continually playing, and the Bachelors' barge going on the Queen's right hand, which she took great pleasure to behold. About the Queen went also, each in their private barges, many noblemen, particularly the Duke of Suffolk, the Marquis of Dorset, the Earl of Wiltshire her father, the Earls of Arundel, Derby, Rutland, Worcester, Huntingdon, Sussex, Oxford, and several Bishops. The ships in the river were commanded to lie on the shore to make room for the barges; their guns saluted the Queen as she passed, and before she landed at the Tower, there was as marvellous a peal fired therefrom as ever was heard. At her landing, the Lord Chamberlain, with the Officers of Arms, received her, and brought her to the King, who, at the postern by the water side, received her with a loving countenance. She then turned back, and with many goodly words thanked the Mayor and the citizens, and so entered the Tower. The barges for some time continued hovering before the Tower, making great melody, the Mayor, * The accompanying engraving of this device, copied from Willement's Regal Heraldry, is derived from Anne Boleyn's patent for the marquisate of Pembroke. In his Sepulchral Brass at Hever in Kent, the Earl of Wiltshire, the Queen's father, is represented standing on a falcon. |