Great Britain -- History -- Mary I, 1553-1558; Mary I, Queen of England, 1516-1558
After the ceremony at Winchester, the king and queen had gone first to
Windsor, and thence the second week in August they went to Richmond.
The entry into London was fixed for the 18th; after which, should it
pass off without disturbance, {p.153} the Spanish fleet might sail
from Southampton Water. The prince himself had as yet met with no
discourtesy; but disputes had broken out early between the English and
Spanish retinues, and petty taunts and insolences had passed among
them.[363] The prince's luggage was plundered, and the property stolen
could not be recovered nor the thieves detected. The servants of Alva
and the other lords, who preceded their masters to London, were
insulted in the streets, and women and children called after them that
they need not have brought so many things, they would be soon gone
again. The citizens refused to give them lodgings in their houses, and
the friars who had accompanied Philip were advised to disguise
themselves, so intense was the hatred against the religious
orders.[364] The council soon provided for their ordinary comforts,
but increase of acquaintance produced no improvement of feeling.
[Footnote 363: Avecques d'aultres petits
depportements de mocquerie qui croissent tous les
jours d'ung couste et d'aultre.--Noailles to the
King of France, August 1.]
[Footnote 364: Noailles, and compare Pole to
Miranda, Oct. 6: _Epist._ Reg. Pol. vol. v.]
The entry passed off tolerably. Gog and Magog stood as warders on
London Bridge, and there were the usual pageants in the city. Renard
conceived that the impression produced by Philip had been rather
favourable than otherwise; for the people had been taught to expect
some monster but partially human, and they saw instead a well-dressed
cavalier, who had learnt by this time to carry his hand to his bonnet.
Yet, although there were no open signs of ill-feeling, the day did not
end without a disagreeable incident. The conduit in Gracechurch Street
had been newly decorated: "the nine Worthies" had been painted round
the winding turret, and among them were Henry VIII. and Edward. The
first seven carried maces, swords, or pole-axes. Henry held in one
hand a sceptre, in the other he was presenting a book to his son, on
which was written _Verbum Dei_. As the train went by, the unwelcome
figure caught the eye of Gardiner. The painter was summoned, called
"knave, traitor, heretic," an enemy to the queen's Catholic
proceedings. The offensive Bible was washed out, and a pair of gloves
inserted in its place.[365]
[Footnote 365: _Chronicle of Queen Mary._
Contemporary Narrative: _MS. Harleian_, 419.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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