Comparing Accounts of Mary I’s Procession to Westminster: September 30, 1553.

In This Series:

• Ambassador Noailles’  Account of Mary I’s Procession to Westminster: September 30, 1553.
• Comparing Accounts of Mary I’s Procession to Westminster: September 30, 1553.
• Noailles Account of the Coronation of Mary I: October 1, 1553
• Noailles Full Account of the coronation of the English Queen Mary I.

The text of our last post was Ambassador Noailles’ report of Queen Mary I’s procession through London, to Westminster, on September 30, 1553. It was the day before her coronation. An English translation was provided in a parallel column.

Another description of the procession was provided by John Stowe. It, too, appears to be an eyewitness account.

Not only does Stowe’s account fill out details not mentioned by Noaille but the two contain interesting discrepancies. Compared and collated, we gain a fuller description and insight into how two different perspectives provide a kind of depth perception together with mismatches.

Perhaps the most intriguing mismatch involves the two men’s description of the carriage of the Queen. According to Noailles, Mary rode on a litter with a gold canopy carried aloft by two mules (deux mulets). According to Stowe, Mary rode in a chariot “drawn with six horses”. Noailles describes her gown as “a long silver robe”. Stowe  describes “a gown of purple velvet furred with powdered ermine”.

Carrying the monarch about to be crowned beneath a golden canopy was already long a tradition. It could not likely have safely been done as Noailles describes for any considerable distance. Stowe likely described the carriage of the Queen for most of the route. At some point gown and vehicle may have been changed. Perhaps to enter Westminster at the end of the procession.

Both descriptions describe the richly jeweled silk caul or turban on her head. Stowe, however, give us more fascinating detail: “the same caul and circlet being so massy and ponderous, that she was fain to bear up her head with her hand”. Again, the ceremonial canopy is carried above her head: “and the canopy was borne over her chariot.”

Both men report that Lady Elizabeth and Lady Anne of Cleves followed close behind in a covered chariot in the place of highest honor. Both tell us that the chariot and horses (four according to the Frenchman, six white by Stowe’s count and color) were draped with cloth of silver.

A few more minor discrepancies aren’t worth our precious time. The Noailles account [link] has already appeared here.

What is very different between the two is what they chose to describe from the pageantry along the route. Noailles describes the inscriptions upon the triumphal arches shipped to England  for the occasion by fellow Europeans, the Genovese and Florentines. For the rest of the following description, we are indebted to Stowe, who did not report on inscriptions.

[Stowe] At Fenchurch was a costly pageant made by the Genoese;

[Noailles] Along the road they came upon several triumphal arches, among the which were two particularly beautiful, one from the Genovese & the other from the Florentines, with these inscriptions.

On that of the Genovese one read;

Queen Mary, renowned, constant, pius, receives the imperial crown of Britain in her virtuous hand, the Genovese rejoicing for the public health, render the highest tribute.

And on the other part of the arc;

Strength overcame, justice prevailed, truth triumphs, piety is crowned, the health of the republic is restored.

[Stowe] at Gracechurch corner there was another pageant made by the Easterlings[1].

[Stowe] At the upper end of Grace Street, there was another pageant made by the Florentines, very high, on the top whereof there stood four pictures, and in the midst of them and most highest, there stood an angel all in green with a trumpet in his hand, and when the trumpeter who stood secretly in the pageant did sound his trump, the angel did put his trump to his mouth, as though it had been the same that had sounded, to the great marvelling of many ignorant persons. This pageant was made with three thoroughfares or gates, &c.

[Noailles] And on [the triumphal arch] of the Florentines [one read];

To Mary, Queen of Britain, victorious, pious, august, the Florentines erect this symbol of her glory.

 

The remainder of the description of the various pageants comes from Stowe alone:

The Conduit in Cornhill ran wine, and beneath the Conduit, a pageant made at the charges of the City, and another at the great Conduit in Cheap, and a fountain by it running wine. The standard in Cheap new painted, with the waits[2] of the City aloft thereof playing.

The Cross in Cheap new washed and Burnished.

One other pageant at the Little Conduit in Cheap next to Paul's made by the City, where the Aldermen stood. And when the Queen came against them, the Recorder made a short proposition to her, and then the Chamberlain presented to her in the name of the Mayor and the City, a purse of cloth of gold and 1,000 marks of gold in it.

Then she rode forth, and in Paul's Churchyard against the School, one Master Haywood sate in a pageant under a vine, and made to her an oration in Latin and English.

Then was there one Peter a Dutchman stood on the weather-cock of Paul's steeple, holding a streamer in his hand of five yards long, and waving thereof stood some time on the one foot and shook the other, and then kneeled on his knees, to the great marvel of all people. He had made two scaffolds under him, one above the Cross, having torches and streamers set on it, and one other over the bole of the Cross, likewise set with streamers and torches, which could not burn, the wind being so great. The said Peter had sixteen pounds thirteen shillings and four pence given him by the City for his costs and pains, and all his stuff.

Then was there a pageant made against the Dean of Paul's gate, where the choristers of Paul's played on vials, and sung. Ludgate was newly repaired, painted and richly hanged, with minstrels playing and singing there. Then was there another pageant at the Conduit in Fleet Street, and the Temple Bar was newly painted and hanged. And thus she passed to Whitehall at Westminster, where she took her leave of the Lord Mayor, giving him great thanks for his pains, and the City for their cost.

 

Sources:

Stone, J. M. The History of Mary I. Queen of England (1901). 499-501. Citing: Stowe, John. Annales, or, a General Chronicle of England. Begun by John Stowe (1631). 616ff modernized spelling.

Abbe Vertot. Ambassades: De Messieurs de Noailles en Angleterre (1763). II.196-9.

 

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[1] Easterling] native of the Hanseatic League.

[2] waits] minstrels

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Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.

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