Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Sources; Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603 -- Sources
And the next morning, as is aforesaid, she died. Immediately after her
death, as well of the Council as other noblemen that were at the Court,
came from Richmond to White-hall by six o’clock in the morning, where
other noblemen that were at London met them; but as they began to sit in
council in the privy chamber at White-hall, the Lord Keeper, Sir Thomas
Egerton, and the rest of the Council that were no barons, offered to
sit at the lower end of the council table, and not above any of the
meanest nobility; but the noblemen, in respect of their former
authority, called them to the higher end of the table, and wished them
to keep their places, whereunto the Lord Keeper answered, viz. “If it be
your Lordships’ pleasures, we will do so; but that is more of your
courtesies than we can demand of duty”; and so they sat down, every man
according to his degree in Council; touching the succession, where after
some speech had of divers competitors and matters of State, at length
the Lord Admiral rehearsed all the aforesaid premisses, which the late
Queen had spoken to him and to the Lord Keeper and Mr. Secretary, with
the manner thereof; which they, being asked, did affirm to be true upon
their honours.
APPENDIX
THE ENTERTAINMENT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH (1575).
=Source.=--_The Princely Pleasures at the Courte at Kenelwoorth._
Imprinted at London by Richard Jhones, 1576. Reprinted in Nichols’
_Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_, vol. i. These revels were also
described, more vividly, but at greater length, in West Country
dialect, by Laneham in his _Letter_, reprinted by Nichols and also
by the Early English Text Society.
A brief Rehearsal, or rather, a true Copy of as much as was presented
before her Majesty at Kenilworth during her last abode there, as
followeth:
Her Majesty came thither, as I remember, on Saturday, being the ninth of
June last past: On which day there met her on the way, somewhat near the
Castle, Sibylla, who prophesied unto Her Highness the prosperous reign
that she should continue, according to the happy beginning of the same.
The order thereof was this: Sibylla being placed in an arbour in the
park, near the highway where the Queen’s Majesty came, did step out, and
pronounced as followeth:
“All hail, all hail, thrice happy Prince, I am Sibylla she,
Of future chance and after hap foreshewing what shall be.
* * * * *
And so pass forth in peace, O Prince of high and worthy praise:
The God that governs all in all increase your happy days!”
This device was invented, and the verses also written, by Mr. Hunnis,
Master of her Majesty’s Chapel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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