Humphery Duke of Glocester was that day overseer and stood before
the Queen bareheaded, Sir Richard Newel was carver and the Earl of
Suffolk’s brother cup-bearer, Sir John Stewart, Sewer, the Lord
Clifford (instead of the Earl of Warwick) Pantler, the Lord Willoby
(instead of the Earl of Arundel) chief Butler, the Lord Gray Caterer,
Naperer, the Lord Audley (in the stead of the Earl of Cambridge)
Almner, the Earl of Worcester was Lord high Marshal, who rode about
the Hall on a great courser, with many tip-staves about him to make
room in the Hall. In the which Hall next after the Queen, the Barons
of the Cinque Ports began the table, upon the right hand towards St.
Steven’s Capel (_sic_), and beneath them at the table sat the Vouchers
of the Chancery, and upon the left hand next to the cupboard sat Sir
Richard Whittington (now the third time Lord Mayor) and his brethren
the Aldermen of London. The rest of the Bishops began the table over
against the Baron of the Cinque Ports, and the ladies and chief
noble-women the table against the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen, at which
two tables of the Bishops the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Durham
sat highest at the one and the Countess of Stafford and the Countess
of March on the other. And for ordering of the service divers chief
lords were appointed officers as Steward, Controuler, Surveyor, and
the like, which places were supplyed by the Earls of Northumberland
and Westmorland, the Lord Fizmur, the Lord Farneval, the Lord Gray
of Wilton, the Lord Feres of Groby, the Lord Poynings, the Lord
Harrington, the Lord Ducy, the Lord Daker, the Lord Delaware, &c.
I have shewed you onely the ordering of this rich feast, but the
cost and sumptuousness of the fare would ask too long and large a
circumstance to discourse; what I have hitherto done was onely to
show to the world that at those high solemnities inaugurations and
coronations the Lord Mayor of the City of London and the Aldermen have
place, and their presence is still required; the City being the King’s
Chamber and in an interregnum he the first and prime officer in the
kingdom. But I fear I have dwelt too long on the premises which I hope
none will hold for an unnecessary deviation. I come now to discourse
unto you of Sir Richard Whittington’s invitation of the King and Queen
into the City when he bountifully feasted them in his own house at his
own proper charge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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