[Footnote 31: Glory of Regality, p. 81.]
[Footnote 32: These were (prudently enough, after the error hinted at,)
the whole of the words used at the late ceremonial.]
Sec. 2. ANECDOTES OF THE DISUSED CEREMONIES OF THE CORONATION.
We regard the coronation ceremonies of England as presenting a
bird's-eye view of our history; and particularly of the various claims
and privileges--and changes--of the monarchical branch of the
Constitution. Some of these ceremonies, as we have seen, had their
origin in those remote periods in which every believer in Revelation
must accord "a divine right" to the kings of Judea; others are connected
with the ancient hero-worship of our Pagan ancestors; while a third
class perpetuate certain feudal rights and customs, of which they form
the only distinct remaining traces. Some, again, are memorials of the
triumph of our princes over the liberties of the people, while others
present the plainest proof of the noble and successful struggles of the
people against the encroachments of the crown.
The RECOGNITION, with which the coronation, strictly so called, begins,
is an elective rite, in which some of the more direct terms of appeal to
the people are disused. Its title, "the Recognition," is of modern
date[33]. After reciting the coronation oath, a respectable writer of
queen Elizabeth's time thus gives the "sum of the English coronation."
"Then doth the archbishop, turning about to the people, declare what the
king _hath promised_ and _sworn_, and by the mouth of an herald at arms
asketh their _consents_, whether they be content to submit themselves
unto this man as their king, or no, under the conditions proposed;
whereunto when they have yielded themselves, then beginneth the
archbishop to put upon him the regal ornaments[34]." Some of the
questions anciently asked, accordingly, were, "Will you serve at this
time, and give your good wills and assent to this same consecration,
enunction, and coronation?"--To which the people answered, "Yea, yea."
This was the form observed on the coronations of Edward VI., Henry
VIII., and Henry VII. That of Henry VI.'s reign is curious. The
archbishop made the "proclamacion on the iiij quarters of the scaffolde,
seyend in this wyse: Sirs, heere comyth Henry, kyng Henryes sone the
Vth, on whose sowle God have mercy, Amen. He humblyth hym to God and to
holy cherche, askyng the crowne of this reame by right and defence of
herytage; if ye hold y^e pays with hym say Ya, and hold up handes. And
then all the people cryed with oon voyce, Ye, ye[35]."
King John claimed the throne by "unanimous consent of the kingdom;" and
the prelate of the day observed to the people that it was well known to
them "that no man hath right of succession to this crown," except by
such consent, and that "with invocation of the Holy Ghost, he be elected
for his own deserts[36]."
During the Norman reigns it is evident that the coronation oath was
administered before the recognition, and then the archbishop having
stated what the king had engaged to do, asked the people if they would
consent to take him for their king[37]? And of an earlier period, says
Mr. Turner, "From the comparison of all the passages on this subject,
the result seems to be that the king was elected at the Witenagemote,
held on the demise of the preceding sovereign[38]."
On the whole, what is left of this ceremony seems rather unmeaning. The
people are addressed, "ye that _are come_ this day _to do_ your homage,
service, and bounden duty, are ye willing to do the same?" A feudal
"recognition," and feudal "homage," it is not for the people, but the
prelates and peers to perform; the ceremony, however, establishes what
our history will corroborate, the undoubted right of the people to
interfere with, and limit the succession of their princes, on
extraordinary occasions, while it is the peaceful and sound policy of
the Constitution to keep as near to the hereditary line as the emergency
of the times shall allow.
It was at Edward VI.'s coronation that the ancient form of receiving the
king's oath, prior to the recognition, was first reversed.--See the
Chronological Anecdotes.
Coronations were anciently regarded as a species of parliamentary
meeting between the king and his subjects. Writs of summons issued for
the coronation of Edward II. are preserved in Rymer, which require the
attendance of the people by their "knights, citizens, and burgesses;"
and which differ very slightly from the ordinary parliamentary writs.
Selden observes that at the coronation of Henry I. _clerus Angliae et
populus universus_ were summoned to Westminster, "when divers lawes were
both made and declared[39]."
The coronation oath has undergone some remarkable changes. The oath of
AEthelred II. dated A.D. 978, is extant both in Latin and Anglo-Saxon,
and agrees exactly with that of Henry I. preserved in the Cotton
Library--a proof, as Lord Lyttleton observes, that even at the Conquest
it was thought expedient to respect this fundamental compact between the
prince and people. In the reign of Edward II. it first assumed the
interrogatory form in which it is now administered, and remained in
substance the same until the accession of Charles I. In this reign
Archbishop Laud was accused of making both a serious interpolation, and
an important omission in the coronation oath--a circumstance which, on
his trial, brought its introductory clauses into warm discussion. Our
forefathers had ever been jealous of all encroachments on what some
copies of the old oath call "the lawes and customes of the people," by
"old, rightfull, and devoute kings graunted;" and others "the laws,
customs, and franchises granted to the clergy, and to the people by the
glorious king St. Edward, according and conformable to the laws of God,
the true profession of the Gospel established in this kingdom," &c. They
had even compelled the Conqueror to engage repeatedly that these
ancient statutes of the kingdom should not be violated; a stipulation
renewed expressly in the great charter of his son Henry I. Laud was
charged with adding, after the clause last quoted, the words "agreeable
to the king's prerogative;" and of omitting these words, "which the
people have chosen or shall choose." Of the latter charge he soon
disposed by proving there were no such words in the oath of James I.;
and on the former he remarks, "First, I humbly conceive this clause
takes off none of the people's assurance. Secondly, that alteration,
whatever it be, was not made by me--'tis not altogether improbable [it]
was added in Edward VI. or Queen Elizabeth's time; and hath no relation
at all to the laws of this kingdom _absolutely_ mentioned before in the
beginning of this oath; but only to the words, 'the profession of the
Gospel established in this kingdom:' and then immediately follows 'and
agreeing to the prerogative of the kings thereof,'--If this be the
meaning, he that made the alteration, whoever it were, for I did it
not, deserves thanks for it, and not the reward of a traitor[40]."
In James II.'s oath, as preserved by Sandford, and in which the
precedent of Charles II.'s coronation was followed, we find both these
alleged alterations!
On the accession of William and Mary it was enacted, that "as the
[coronation] oath hath hitherto been framed in doubtful words and
expressions, with relation to ancient laws and constitutions at this
time unknown, and to the end that one uniform oath may be in all times
to come taken by the kings and queens of this realm, and to them
respectively administered at the time of their coronation," the oath, of
which the following is a copy, should be taken by all succeeding
sovereigns.
"_Abp._ Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the people of this
kingdom of England [now, this united kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland,] and the dominions thereunto belonging, according to the
statutes in parliament agreed on, and the [respective[41]] laws and
customs of the same?
_King._ I solemnly promise so to do.
_Abp._ Will you, to your power, cause law and justice, in mercy, to be
executed in all your judgments?
_King._ I will.
_Abp._ Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the laws of God,
the true profession of the Gospel, and the Protestant reformed Religion
established by law? [Here was inserted, at the Union with Scotland, in
1707, And will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of
the Church of England, [now the united church of England and Ireland]
and the doctrine, worship, discipline and government thereof as by law
established, within the kingdoms of England and Ireland, the dominion of
Wales and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the territories thereunto
belonging, before the union of the two kingdoms[42]?] And will you
preserve unto the bishops and clergy of England, and to the churches
there committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by
law do or shall appertain unto them or any of them?
_King._ All this I promise to do."
We have some slight traces in the history of our Anglo-Saxon kings of
the Gothic mode of royal inauguration by the elevation of their princes.
Eardnoulf, the second of those monarchs whose coronation is mentioned by
our historians, was Ahožen, lifted up to his royal seat, we are told by
the Saxon Chronicle; and Athelstan received the royal unction at
Kingston on a high scaffolding which exhibited him to the multitude[43].
This custom is no further worth noticing, than as a pagan rite which was
soon disused, on the direction of these ceremonies being assumed by the
church: and as being probably the origin of the existing mode of
chairing members of parliament[44].
Anciently the king knelt while receiving the sacred unction from the
prelate of the day, who sat in his chair at the high altar[45]: a
deference to the priesthood which the kings of France retained to the
period of the Revolution; and which the Roman Pontifical expressly
requires. Since the Reformation our monarchs have also dispensed with
"sprinkling the crown with holy water" and "censing it" before it is
made use of in these important ceremonies--duties of the archbishop
which are laid down in the Liber Regalis, of the dean and chapter of
Westminster.
There seems to have been a double anointing of our kings at their
respective coronations until the reign of James I. or Charles I.; that
is, after the present use of the unction on the hands, breast, &c.; the
_chrism_ of the Catholic church was applied, in forma crucis, on the
forehead. The distinct signification of this anointing we cannot
discover, even after a late learned attempt to elucidate it[46]. The
sign of the cross, a symbolical acknowledgment of the Christian faith
used in the anointing, we retain: but the _two_ vessels, the eagle and
vial of the ancient ceremonies (so intelligently provided by the Virgin;
see our last section) establish the fact of a double anointing having at
one time obtained.
But the most important ceremonies of the coronation which the superior
economy, or superior intelligence, of modern times has taught us to
omit, are the special creation of Knights of the Bath on this occasion,
and the progress of the court from the Tower, through London.
The ancient and noble order in question was so far very appropriately
connected with the assumption of a sovereignty partly feudal, as it
formed one of the most splendid feudal distinctions. It was conferred
with great solemnity, among the Franks and Saxons, long prior to the
Conquest; at which period our first William is shown by Mr. Anstey, to
have been in the habit of bestowing it both in his Norman and English
dominions. The candidate for that honour was required to keep his vigils
with great strictness, after a previous ablution from which the name of
the order is derived, and which were together meant to indicate the
moral purity required of him; as the motto "_Tria juncta in uno_"
implied a peculiar devotion to the honour of the Holy Trinity.
The coronation of Henry IV. however, first brings it prominently into
notice in our history. That prince, having compelled the unfortunate
Richard II.
"With his own tears to wash away his balm,
With his own hands to give away the crown,
With his own tongue deny his sacred state;"
was anxious to give those "sun-shine days" to the people which should
induce them to forget the stormy commencement of his reign. Froissart
describes him as proceeding with great pomp from Westminster to the
Tower, "on the Saturday before his coronation." This was at that time
"the castle royall and cheefe howse of safetye in this kingdome."
Hither, therefore, many of our princes repaired for security until "all
things of royal apparell and pompe necessarye and proper" to the
coronation could be arranged. "Those squires who were to be knighted
watched their arms that night: they amounted to forty-six; each squire
had his chamber and bath, in which he bathed. The ensuing day the duke
of Lancaster (Henry IV.) after mass, created them knights, and presented
them with long green coats, with straight sleeves lined with minever,
after the manner of prelates. These knights had on their left shoulders
a double cord of white silk, with white tufts hanging down."
Henry VI. created thirty-six knights on his coronation; Edward IV.
thirty-two; and Charles II. sixty-eight. The marriages of the royal
family, the birth of heirs to the crown, and the fitting out of military
expeditions of importance, furnish other accessions to the order during
this long period. After the reign of Charles II. this part of the
ceremonial was omitted; and the order, in fact, discontinued until the
accession of the House of Brunswick[47].
The princes of this august house, however, have not revived the custom
of an extraordinary creation of knights as a part of the coronation
ceremonies.
The other ancient and disused custom of a royal progress from the Tower
to Westminster is a theme of admiration with several of our old
chroniclers, and must have been a highly interesting and popular
accompaniment of the royal pageant.
The monarch, ordinarily, dined at the Tower on the day after the
creation of the Knights of the Bath; and devoted the greater part of the
day, _after_ dinner, to this prolonged exhibition of himself to the
people. Charles II. dined at what is called an "early" hour, in the
"account" of sir Edward Walker, i.e. nine o'clock in the morning, on
this occasion.
Froissart thus gives us the progress of Henry IV. "The duke of Lancaster
left the Tower this Sunday after dinner, on his return to Westminster:
he was bare-headed, and had round his neck the order of the king of
France. The prince of Wales, six dukes, six earls, eighteen barons,
accompanied him; and there were, of knights and other nobility, from
eight to nine hundred horse with the procession. The duke was dressed in
a jacket of the German fashion, of cloth of gold, mounted on a white
courser, with a blue garter on his left leg. He passed through the
streets of London, which were all handsomely decorated with tapestries
and other rich hangings: there were nine fountains in Cheapside, and
other streets he passed through, which perpetually ran with white and
red wines. He was escorted by prodigious numbers of gentlemen, with
their servants in liveries and badges; and the different companies of
London were led by their wardens, clothed in their proper livery, and
with ensigns of their trade. The whole cavalcade amounted to six
thousand horse, which escorted the duke from the Tower to
Westminster[48]."
Or, as Shakspeare brings every movement of a similar procession of this
monarch before us,
"Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed,
Which his aspiring rider seemed to know,
With slow but stately pace, kept on his course:
While all tongues cried, God save thee, Bolingbroke!
You would have thought the very windows spake,
So many greedy looks of young and old
Through casements darted their desiring eyes
Upon his visage; and that all the walls
With painted imagery had said at once
Jesu preserve thee! welcome Bolingbroke!
Whilst he, from one side to the other turning,
Bare-headed, lower than his proud steed's neck,
Bespoke them thus; I thank you, countrymen;
And thus still doing, thus he past along[49]."
The coronation of Elizabeth the queen of Henry VII. includes one of the
most splendid royal progresses on record. It will be recollected by our
readers that this prince exhibited a strong personal reluctance to marry
Elizabeth as well as to her subsequent coronation; although his union
with her extinguished the bloody feuds of the houses of York and
Lancaster, and bequeathed to posterity the invaluable boon of an
undisputed succession to the throne. The Commons, in presenting him on
his accession with the usual grant of tonnage and poundage, took the
liberty to add their desire that he would "take to wife and consort the
Princess Elizabeth, which marriage they hoped God would bless with a
progeny of the race of kings," (_de stirpe regum_[50], the united race,
perhaps, is meant). But it was not until a pretender to the throne had
shaken the regal authority to its base, that, eighteen months after his
marriage, he prepared for the coronation of his queen. A very superior
modern historian[51] thus expresses the feelings of the prince and
people on this occasion:--
"From this insurrection [that which was terminated by the battle of
Stoke] the king learned an important lesson, that it was not his
interest to wound the feelings of those whose principles had attached
them to the house of York. His behaviour to the queen had created great
discontent. Why, it was asked, was she not crowned? Why was she, the
rightful heir to the crown, refused the usual honours of royalty? Other
kings had been eager to crown their consorts: but Elizabeth had now been
married a year and a half; she had borne the king a son to succeed to
the throne; and yet she was kept in obscurity, as if she were unworthy
her station."
The orders which he now gave, therefore, for her public investiture with
the royal dignity, were calculated fully to conciliate the popular
feeling. On the Friday preceding her coronation fourteen gentlemen were
created knights of the Bath, and on the same day "the queene's good
grace, royally apparelled, and accompanyed with my ladie the king's
mother, and many other great estates, bothe lordes and ladies, richely
besene, came forward to the coronacion; and, at their coming furth from
Grenewich by water, there was attending upon her there, the maior,
shrifes, and aldermen of the citie, and divers and many worshipfull
comoners, chosen out of every craft, in their levereyes, in barges
freshly furnished with banners and stremers of silke, richely beaton
with the armes and bagges of their craftes; and, in especially, a barge
called the bachelor's barge, garnished and apparelled passing all other;
wherein was ordeynid a great redde dragon spowting flames of fyer into
the Thamess, and many other gentlemanlie pagiaunts, well and curiously
devised to do her highness sporte and pleasoure with. And her grace,
thus royally apparelled and accompanied, and also furnished in every
behalf with trumpettes, claryons, and other mynstrelleys as apperteynid
and was fitting to her estate roial, came from Grenewich aforesaid, and
landed at the Toure wharfe, and enterid into the Toure; where the king's
highnes welcomed her in such maner and fourme as was to all the estates
and others there being present, a very good sight, and right joyous and
comfortable to beholde[52]."
Next day she went in procession from the Tower to Westminster, dressed
in white cloth of gold of damask, with a mantle of the same furred with
ermine. Reclining on a litter, she wore "Her faire yelow haire hanging
downe plaine behynd her bak, with a calle of pipes over it;" and
confined only on the forehead by a circlet of gold, ornamented with
precious stones. An elegant canopy of cloth of gold was borne over her
by four knights of the body; and immediately behind her rode four
baronesses on grey palfreys. The streets on this occasion were "clensed,
dressed, and beseene with clothes of tapestrie and arras; and some, as
Cheepe, hanged with rich clothe of golde, velvet, and silke; and along
the streets, from the Toure to Powles, stode in order all the craftes of
London in their liveries; and in divers places of the citie were
ordeynid singing children, some arayed like angelles, and other like
virgins, to sing swete songes as her grace passed by[53]."
Similar accounts are given by Hall of the progress of Henry VIII. and
Catherine of Arragon through the city. "The streates were railed and
barred on the one side; from over ageynst Grace churche unto Bredstreate
in Chepeside, where every occupacion stode in their liveries in ordre,
beginnyng with base and meane occupacions, and so ascendyng to the
worshipfull craftes; highest and lastly stode the maior with the
aldermen. The goldsmithes stalles, unto the ende of the Olde Chaunge,
beeing replenished with virgins in white, with braunches of white waxe;
the priestes and clerkes in rich copes with crosses and censers of
silver, censying his grace and the quene also as they passed[54]." The
latter was borne on a litter by two white palfreys, trapped in cloth of
gold.
Anne Boleyn's progress must not be unnoticed. Like Elizabeth's, it began
with a voyage from Greenwich, and the creation of a due number of
knights "bathed and shryven according to the old vsuage of
England."--"The high stretes where the queene should passe were all
graveled from the Toure to Temple barre, and railed on the one side;
within whiche rayle stode the craftes along in their order. And before
the quene and her traine should come, Cornehill and Gracious Street were
hanged with fyne scarlet, crimson and other greyned clothes, and in some
place with rich arras, tapestry, and carpettes, and the moste part of
the Chepe was hanged with clothe of tyssue, golde, velvet, and many
riche hangings whyche made a goodlie shewe."
Her connexion with the French court, it is to be supposed, suggested the
appearance of "xii Frenchmen, whiche were belongyng to the Frenche
ambassador," coming "fyrst" in her "company--in coats of blewe velvet,
with sleves of yelowe and blewe velvet, and their horses trapped with
close trappers of blewe sarcenet, powdered with white crosses." The
French ambassador also rode before her.
At Gracious Church street was a costly and a marveilous connyng
pageaunt, made by the merchauntes of the Styllarde, for there was the
Mount Penasus, with the fountayne of Helycon, which was of white marble,
and iiii streames, without pype, did rise an elle hye and mette together
in a litle cuppe above the fountain, which ranne abundantly Racke and
Rennishe wyne 'til night! On the mountaine satte Apollo, and at his
feete satte Calliope, and on every side of the mountaine satte iiii
Muses playing on several swete instrumentes, and at their feete
Epigrammes and Poyses were written in golden letters, with the which
every Muse, accordyng to her propertie, praised the Quene.--"At the
conduite in Cornhill there were thre graces set in a throne; afore whom
was the _spryng of grace_ continually ronnyng--wine!" At the cross in
Chepe, "Master Baker, the recorder, with lowe reverence, makyng a proper
and briefe proposicion--gave to her, in the name of the citie, 1000
marks of golde in a purse of golde[55]." This was the last time (we mean
no reflection on its inhabitants,) that the Muses and Graces exhibited
themselves on such an occasion in the city. Hereafter the zeal of
contending religious parties in the state taught them to choose other
emblems of their desires and anticipations.
Edward VI.'s progress exhibited Valentine and Orson, "in Cheap," at due
distance from whom stood Sapience and the Seven Liberal Sciences, who
"declared certaine goodly speeches," for the instruction of the young
king. Various other allegorical personages harangued him by the way; but
the most singular spectacle was that whereby "Paul's steple laie at
anchor," as Holinshed expresses it. An Arragosen made fast a rope to the
battlements of St. Paul's, which was also attached to an anchor at the
gate of the dean's house; and descended upon it in the sight of the king
and assembled populace, to the no small gratification of both.
His sister Mary was welcomed into the city by "one Peter, a Dutchman,"
who placed himself on the weathercock of St. Paul's, holding "a streamer
in his hand five yards long;" occasionally kneeling down on the said
weathercock, "to the great marvell of the people," and balancing himself
sometimes on one foot and sometimes on another.
In her procession appeared "the ladie Elizabeth and the ladie Anne of
Cleve;" the queen rode in a chariot of cloth of tissue, her sister
following in "another chariot having a covering of cloth of
silver."--"She sat in a gowne of purple velvet, furred with powdered
ermins, having on her head a kall of cloth of tinsell, beeset with
pearle and stone, and above the same, vppon her head, a round circlet of
gold, beeset so richlie with pretius stones, that the value thereof was
inestimable; the same kall and circle being so massie and ponderous,
that she was faine to beare vp her head with her hand."
Holinshed is very garrulous on the progress of the Virgin Queen,
although he singularly enough omits all details of the principal parts
of her coronation.
"On Thursdaie the twelfe of Januari (1559), the queene's maiestie
remooved from her palace at Westminster, by water, vnto the tower of
London, the lord mayor and aldermen in their barge, and all the citizens
with their barges decked and trimmed with targets and banners of their
mysteries accordinglie, attending on her grace. The bachellers barge of
the lord maior's companie, to wit, the mercers', had their barge with a
foist trimmed with three tops, and artillerie aboord, gallantlie
appointed to wait vpon them, shooting off lustilie as they went, with
great and pleasant melodie of instruments, which plaied in most swete
and heavenlie maner. Her grace shut (shot) the bridge about two of the
clocke in the after noone, at the still of the ebbe, the lord maior and
the rest following after her barge, attending the same, till her
maiestie tooke lande at the privie staires at the tower wharfe."
"At her entring the citie" a variety of pageants were prepared to
express the "praiers, wishes, and welcommings" of her loving people,
which we cannot attempt to particularize. "If a man should saie well,"
remarks our chronicler, "he could not better terme the citie of London
that time than a stage wherein was shewed the woonderfull spectacle of a
noble hearted princesse toward her most loving people, and the people's
exceeding comfort in beholding so woorthie a soveraigne, and hearing so
princelike a voice."
The Muses had, indeed, quitted "the citie"--and miserable enough are the
ditties which Holinshed gives us from the mouth of the various children
"who expounded the pageants:" some appropriate devices were, however,
mixed up with much child's-play. The union of the red and white roses on
the marriage of Henry VII. (the queen's grandfather) with Elizabeth of
York, was commemorated by personages representing the king and queen,
sitting with hands joined together by the ring of matrimony; "and all
emptie places of this pageant were furnished with sentences concerning
vnitie."--"This pageant was grounded upon the queen's name," adds our
historian, "For like as the long warre betweene the two houses of Yorke
and Lancaster then ended, when Elizabeth, daughter to Edward the Fourth,
matched in marriage with Henrie the Seventh, heire to the house of
Lancaster: so--the queene maiestie's name was Elizabeth, and for so much
as she is the onlie heir of Henrie the Eighth, which came of both
houses, [she was] the knitting vp of concord." The eight beatitudes
expressed in the fifth chapter of the gospell of Saint Matthew "applied
to our soveraigne ladie Elizabeth," were at "Soper Lane end," in Chepe:
but the pageant presenting an English Bible to the queen was
particularly well devised. Our readers will take the poetry as by far
the best specimen of the productions of the day. Between two hills,
representing a flourishing and a decayed commonwealth, "was made
artificiallie one hollow place or cave, with doore and locke inclosed,
out of the which, a little before the queenes' highnesse commyng
thither, issued one personage, whose name was Time, apparalled as an old
man, with a sieth in his hand, havinge winges artificiallie made,
leading a personage of lesser stature than himselfe, which was finelie
and well apparalled, all clad in white silke, and directly over her head
was set her name and title in Latin and English, Temporis filia, the
daughter of Time. Which two, as appointed, went forwards toward the
south side of the pageants, and on her brest was written her proper
name, which was Veritas, Truth, who held a book in her hand, upon the
which was written Verbum Veritas, the Word of Truth. And out of the
south side of the pageant was cast a standing for a child, which should
interpret the same pageant. Against whom when the queen's maiestie came,
he spake vnto her grace these sweet words:--
"This old man with a sieth
Old father Time they call,
And her his daughter Truth,
Which holdeth yonder booke:
Whome he out of his nooke
Hath brought foorth to us all,
From whence this manie yeares
She durst not once out looke.
"Now sith that Time againe
His daughter Truth hath brought,
We trust, o worthie queene,
Thou wilt this truth embrace,
And sith thou vnderstandst
The good estate and naught,
We trust wealth thou wilt plant,
And barrenesse displace.
"But for to heale the sore
And cure that is not seene;
Which thing the booke of truth,
Dooth teach in writing plaine:
Shee doth present to thee
The same, o worthie queene,
For that, that words doo flie,
But written dooth remaine."
"Thus the queene's highnesse passed through the citie, which, without
anie foreigne person, of itself beautified itselfe, and received her
grace at all places, as hath been before mentioned, with most tender
obedience and love, due to so gratious a queene and sovereigne a ladie."
JAMES I. made the most important "progress" for himself and family that
we have yet recorded; when, as tranquilly as ever the crown of England
had descended from father to son, the house of Stuart succeeded that of
Tudor on the throne of Great Britain. Nor was his journey from Edinburgh
to London unobserved by the people. They are said to have contrasted his
hauteur and reserve at this period with the well-remembered affability
and popular manner of Elizabeth on such occasions; but neither does his
coronation progress, nor that of his immediate successors, Charles I. or
II. (with whom this usage terminated) present any new features of
interest. The great object of the conductors of the ceremony was to
conform to the ancient precedents; while the personal disposition of
each of the sovereigns of this house was to retain as much of the
demi-god as possible in these stately movements of the monarch.