- Queen Elizabeth Emerges from the Tower for Her Grand Procession, January 14, 1559.
- Eyewitness Account of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth I: January 15, 1559.
Her Majesty, being pleased to follow the example of her ancestors about the Coronation, determined to have it performed on the 15th January of this year 1559; so she left her palace of Whitehall on Thursday the 12th to go to the Tower by water. The necessary ships, galleys, brigantines, &c., were prepared as sumptuously as possible to accompany her Majesty and her Court thither by the Thames, which reminded me of Ascension Day at Venice, when the Signory go to espouse the sea.
At 2 p.m., the flood-tide then serving to pass under London Bridge, her Majesty, accompanied by many knights, barons, ladies, and by the whole Court, passing through the private corridor, embarked in her barge, which was covered with its usual tapestries, both externally and internally, and was towed by a long galley rowed by 40 men in their shirts, with a band of music, as usual when the Queen goes by water. Her Majesty having passed the bridge, in sight of the Tower, some pieces of artillery were fired; she landed at the private stairs, and, entering by a little bridge, was seen but by very few persons.
On the morning of Saturday the 14th, as in the afternoon her Majesty was to make her state entry into London, the whole Court so sparkled with jewels and gold collars that they cleared the air, though it snowed a little. During this assemblage the Queen dined. The houses on the way were all decorated; there being on both sides of the street, from Blackfriars to St. Paul's, wooden barricades, on which the merchants and artisans of every trade leant in long black gowns lined with hoods of red and black cloth, such as are usually worn by the rectors of universities in Italy, with all their ensigns, banners, and standards, which were innumerable, and made a very fine show. Owing to the deep mud caused by the foul weather and by the multitude of people and of horses, everyone had made preparation, by placing sand and gravel in front of their houses.
The number of horses was in all 1,000, and last of all came her Majesty in an open litter, trimmed down to the ground with gold brocade, with a raised pile, and carried by two very handsome mules covered with the same material, and surrounded by a multitude of footmen in crimson velvet jerkins, all studded with massive gilt silver, with the arms of a white and red rose on their breasts and backs, and laterally the letters E. R. for Elizabetta Regina wrought in relief, the usual livery of this Crown, which makes a superb show. They were uncovered (scoperti), and without anything on their heads. The Gentlemen-Pensioners of the Axe walked at the sides, with hammers in hand, and clad in crimson damask, given them by the Queen for livery, all being on foot and bareheaded.
Her Majesty was dressed in a royal robe of very rich cloth of gold, with a double-raised stiff pile, and on her head over a coif of cloth of gold, beneath which was her hair, a plain gold crown with out lace, as a princess, but covered with jewels, and nothing in her hands but gloves.
Behind the litter came Lord Robert Dudley, Master of the Horse, mounted on a very fine charger (corsiero), and leading a white hack ney (acchinea) covered with cloth of gold. Then came the Lord Chamberlain and other Lords of her Majesty's Privy Chamber, who were followed by nine pages dressed in crimson satin on very hand some chargers richly caparisoned, with their Governor and Lieutenant. After passing the Tower, her Majesty arrived at [blank] where the Londoners had raised the first triumphal arch, which was very lofty, divided into three floors. In the first were King Henry the Seventh, of the House of Lancaster, with a large white rose in front of him, and his wife, the Queen Elizabeth, of the House of York, with another large red rose in front of her, both in royal robes.
On the second floor above there were seated King Henry VIII. with a white and red rose in front of him, with the pomegranate between them, and Queen Anne Boleyn, mother of the present one, with a white eagle and a gold crown on its head and a gilt sceptre in its right talon (mella destra griffa), the other resting on a hillock; and surrounded in front of her by small branches of little roses, the coat of arms and device (arma et impresa) of the said Queen.
I break off here, much of what remains being in Latin. Next I will continue Schifanoya's long letter of January 23, 1559 (1558 O.S.), the next part of which describes the coronation itself.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
No comments:
Post a Comment