OF PALACES BELONGING TO THE PRINCE.
[1577, Book II., Chapter 9; 1587, Book II., Chapter 15.]
It lieth not in me to set down exactly the number and names of the palaces
belonging to the prince, nor to make any description of her grace's court,
sith my calling is, and hath been such, as that I have scarcely presumed
to peep in at her gates; much less then have I adventured to search out
and know the estate of those houses, and what magnificent behaviour is to
be seen within them. Yet thus much will I say generally of all the houses
and honours pertaining to her majesty, that they are builded either of
square stone or brick, or else of both. And thereunto, although their
capacity and hugeness be not so monstrous as the like of divers foreign
princes are to be seen in the main and new found nations of the world, yet
are they so curious, neat, and commodious as any of them, both for
convenience of offices and lodgings and excellence of situation, which is
not the least thing to be considered of in building. Those that were
builded before the time of King Henry the Eighth retain to these days the
shew and image of the ancient kind of workmanship used in this land; but
such as he erected after his own device (for he was nothing inferior in
this trade to Adrian the emperor and Justician the law-giver) do represent
another manner of pattern, which, as they are supposed to excel all the
rest that he found standing in this realm, so they are and shall be a
perpetual precedent unto those that do come after to follow in their works
and buildings of importance. Certes masonry did never better flourish in
England than in his time. And albeit that in these days there be many
goodly houses erected in the sundry quarters of this island, yet they are
rather curious to the eye like paper work than substantial for
continuance: whereas such as he did set up excels in both, and therefore
may justly be preferred far above all the rest. The names of those which
come now to my remembrance and are as yet reserved to her majesty's only
use at pleasure are these: for of such as are given away I speak not,
neither of those that are utterly decayed (as Baynard's castle in London,
builded in the days of the Conqueror by a noble man called William
Baynard, whose wife Inga builded the priory of little Dunmow in the days
of Henry the First), neither of the tower royal there also, etc., sith I
see no cause wherefore I should remember them and many of the like, of
whose very ruins I have no certain knowledge. Of such (I say therefore) as
I erst mentioned, we have, first of all, Whitehall, at the west end of
London (which is taken for the most large and principal of all the rest),
was first a lodging of the archbishops of York, then pulled down, begun by
Cardinal Wolsey, and finally enlarged and finished by King Henry the
Eighth. By east of this standeth Durham Place, sometime belonging to the
bishops of Durham, but converted also by King Henry the Eighth into a
palace royal and lodging for the prince. Of Somerset Place I speak not,
yet if the first beginner thereof (I mean the Lord Edward, the learned and
godly duke of Somerset) had lived, I doubt not but it should have been
well finished and brought to a sumptuous end; but as untimely death took
him from that house and from us all, so it proved the stay of such
proceeding as was intended about it. Whereby it cometh to pass that it
standeth as he left it. Neither will I remember the Tower of London, which
is rather an armoury and house of munition, and thereunto a place for the
safe keeping of offenders, than a palace royal for a king or queen to
sojourn in. Yet in times past I find that Belliny held his abode there,
and thereunto extended the site of his palace in such wise that it
stretched over the Broken Wharf, and came further into the city, insomuch
that it approached near to Billingsgate; and, as it is thought, some of
the ruins of his house are yet extant, howbeit patched up and made
warehouses in that tract of ground in our times. St. James's, sometime a
nunnery, was builded also by the same prince. Her grace hath also Oteland,
Ashridge, Hatfield, Havering, Enfield, Eltham, Langley, Richmond (builded
by Henry the First), Hampton Court (begun sometime by Cardinal Wolsey, and
finished by her father), and thereunto Woodstock, erected by King Henry
the First, in which the queen's majesty delighteth greatly to sojourn,
notwithstanding that in time past it was the place of a parcel of her
captivity, when it pleased God to try her by affliction and calamity.
For strength, Windlesor or Windsor is supposed to be the chief, a castle
builded in time past by King Arthur, or before him by Arviragus, as it is
thought, and repaired by Edward the Third, who erected also a notable
college there. After him, divers of his successors have bestowed exceeding
charges upon the same, which notwithstanding are far surmounted by the
queen's majesty now living, who hath appointed huge sums of money to be
employed upon the ornature and alteration of the mould, according to the
form of building used in our days, which is more for pleasure than for
either profit or safeguard. Such also hath been the estimation of this
place that divers kings have not only been interred there, but also made
it the chief house of assembly and creation of the knights of the
honourable Order of the Garter, than the which there is nothing in this
land more magnificent and stately.
Greenwich was first builded by Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, upon the
Thames side, four miles east from London, in the time of Henry the Sixth,
and called Pleasance. Afterwards it was greatly enlarged by King Edward
IV., garnished by King Henry VII., and finally made perfect by King Henry
VIII., the only Phoenix of his time for fine and curious masonry.
Not far from this is Dartford, and not much distant also from the south
side of the said stream, sometime a nunnery builded by Edward the Third,
but now a very commodious palace, whereunto it was also converted by King
Henry the Eighth. Eltham (as I take it) was builded by King Henry the
Third, if not before. There are besides these, moreover, divers others.
But what shall I need to take upon me to repeat all, and tell what houses
the queen's majesty hath? Sith all is hers: and, when it pleaseth her in
the summer season to recreate herself abroad, and view the estate of the
country, and hear the complaints of her poor commons injured by her unjust
officers or their substitutes, every noble man's house is her palace,
where she continueth during pleasure, and till she return again to some of
her own, in which she remaineth so long as pleaseth her.
The Court of England, which necessarily is holden always where the prince
lieth, is in these days one of the most renowned and magnificent
courts[204] that are to be found in Europe. For, whether you regard the
rich and infinite furniture of household, order of officers, or the
entertainment of such strangers as daily resort unto the same, you shall
not find many equal thereunto, much less one excelling it in any manner of
wise. I might here (if I would, or had sufficient disposition of matter
conceived of the same) make a large discourse of such honourable ports, of
such grave councillors, and noble personages, as give their daily
attendance upon the queen's majesty there. I could in like sort set forth
a singular commendation of the virtuous beauty or beautiful virtues of
such ladies and gentlewomen as wait upon her person, between whose amiable
countenances and costliness of attire there seemeth to be such a daily
conflict and contention as that it is very difficult for me to guess
whether of the twain shall bear away the pre-eminence. This further is not
to be omitted, to the singular commendation of both sorts and sexes of our
courtiers here in England, that there are very few of them which have not
the use and skill of sundry speeches, besides an excellent vein of writing
beforetime not regarded. Would to God the rest of their lives and
conversations were correspondent to these gifts! For as our common
courtiers (for the most part) are the best learned and endued with
excellent gifts, so are many of them the worst men when they come abroad
that any man shall either hear or read of. Truly it is a rare thing with
us now to hear of a courtier which hath but his own language. And to say
how many gentlewomen and ladies there are that besides sound knowledge of
the Greek and Latin tongues are thereto no less skilful in the Spanish,
Italian, and French, or in some one of them, it resteth not in me, sith I
am persuaded that, as the noblemen and gentlemen do surmount in this
behalf, so these come very little or nothing at all behind them for their
parts: which industry God continue, and accomplish that which otherwise is
wanting!
Besides these things, I could in like sort set down the ways and means
whereby our ancient ladies of the court do shun and avoid idleness, some
of them exercising their fingers with the needle, others in caulwork,
divers in spinning of silk, some in continual reading either of the Holy
Scriptures, or histories of our own or foreign nations about us, and
divers in writing volumes of their own, or translating of other men's into
our English and Latin tongue,[205] whilst the youngest sort in the
meantime apply their lutes, citherns, pricksong, and all kind of music,
which they use only for recreation's sake when they have leisure, and are
free from attendance upon the queen's majesty or such as they belong unto.
How many of the eldest sort also are skilful in surgery and distillation
of waters, besides sundry other artificial practices pertaining to the
ornature and commendations of their bodies, I might (if I listed to deal
further in this behalf) easily declare; but I pass over such manner of
dealing, lest I should seem to glaver and curry favour with some of them.
Nevertheless this I will generally say of them all, that as each of them
are cunning in something whereby they keep themselves occupied in the
court, so there is in manner none of them but when they be at home can
help to supply the ordinary want of the kitchen with a number of delicate
dishes of their own devising, wherein the Portuguese is their chief
counsellor, as some of them are most commonly with the clerk of the
kitchen, who useth (by a trick taken up of late) to give in a brief
rehearsal of such and so many dishes as are to come in at every course
throughout the whole service in the dinner or supper while, which bill
some do call a memorial, others a billet, but some a fillet, because such
are commonly hanged on the file and kept by the lady or gentlewoman unto
some other purpose. But whither am I digressed?
I might finally describe the large allowances in offices and yearly
liveries, and thereunto the great plenty of gold and silver plate, the
several pieces whereof are commonly so great and massive, and the quantity
thereof so abundantly serving all the household, that (as I suppose)
Cinyras, Croesus, and Crassus had not the like furniture; nay, if Midas
were now living and once again put to his choice, I think he could ask no
more, or rather not half so much as is there to be seen and used. But I
pass over to make such needless discourses, resolving myself that even in
this also, as in all the rest, the exceeding mercy and loving kindness of
God doth wonderfully appear towards us, in that he hath so largely endued
us with these his so ample benefits.
In some great princes' courts beyond the seas, and which even for that
cause are likened unto hell by divers learned writers that have spent a
great part of their time in them, as Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, one (for
example) who in his epistle _Ad aulicum quendam_, saith thus--
"_An non in inferno es amice, qui es in aula, ubi dæmonum habitatio
est, qui illic suis artibus humana licet effigie regnant, atque ubi
scelerum schola est, et animarum jactura ingens, ac quicquid uspiam
est perfidæ ac doli, quicquid crudelitatis et inclementiæ quicquid
effrænatæ superbiæ et rapacis avariciæ quicquid obscenæ libidinis,
fædissimæ impudicitiæ, quicquid nefandæ impietatis et norum
pessimorum, totum illic acervatur cumulatissime ubi strupra, raptus,
incestus, adulteria, principum et nobilium ludi sunt ubi fastus et
tumor, ira, livor, foedaque cupido cum sociis suis imperavit, ubi,
criminum omnium procellæ virtutumque omnium inenarrabile
naufragium_," etc.
In such great princes' courts (I say) it is a world to see what lewd
behaviour is used among divers of those that resort unto the same, and
what whoredom, swearing, ribaldry, atheism, dicing, carding, carousing,
drunkenness, gluttony, quarrelling, and such like inconveniences do daily
take hold, and sometimes even among those in whose estates the like
behaviour is least convenient (whereby their talk is verified, which say
that the thing increaseth and groweth in the courts of princes, saving
virtue, which in such places doth languish and daily fade away), all which
enormities are either utterly expelled out of the court of England or else
so qualified by the diligent endeavour of the chief officers of her
grace's household that seldom are any of these things apparently seen
there without due reprehension and such severe correction as belongeth to
those trespassers. Finally, to avoid idleness, and prevent sundry
transgressions otherwise likely to be committed and done, such order is
taken that every office hath either a Bible, or the books of the Acts and
Monuments of the Church of England, or both, besides some histories and
chronicles lying therein, for the exercise of such as come into the same:
whereby the stranger that entereth into the court of England upon the
sudden shall rather imagine himself to come into some public school of the
universities, where many give ear to one that readeth, than into a
princes' palace, if you confer the same with those of other nations. Would
to God all honourable personages would take example of her grace's godly
dealing in this behalf, and shew their conformity unto these her so good
beginnings! Which, if they would, then should many grievous offences
(wherewith God is highly displeased) be cut off and restrained, which now
do reign exceedingly, in most noble and gentlemen's houses, whereof they
see no pattern within her grace's gates.
I might speak here of the great trains and troops of serving men also
which attend upon the nobility of England in their several liveries and
with differences of cognisances on their sleeves, whereby it is known to
whom they appertain. I could also set down what a goodly sight it is to
see them muster in the court, which, being filled with them, doth yield
the contemplation of a noble variety unto the beholder, much like to the
shew of the peacock's tail in the full beauty, or of some meadow garnished
with infinite kinds and diversities of pleasant flowers.[206] But I pass
over the rehearsal hereof to other men, who more delight in vain
amplification than I, and seek to be more curious in these points than I
profess to be.[207]