Agnes Strickland's Queens of England Read Online Free PDF Page B

considered it her duty to yield implicit obedience; and this notion was the cause of many crimes of which she was guilty later in life.
    When she asked whether her name or Philip's should be placed first in the legal documents, Renaud replied, indignantly, " that neither divine nor human laws would suffer his highness to be named last." She next wished to know whether he was to be crowned as king. Her council objected very decidedly, but agreed that the moment he touched English ground he should have a collar and mantle of the Garter worth two thousand pounds.
    When the news arrived that the combined fleets of England and Spain, amounting to one hundred and sixty sails, had made the port of Southampton, the queen was at Windsor Castle. Next day she set out with her bridal retinue for Winchester, where she intended her marriage to be celebrated.
    Don Philip landed July 20, 1554. A crowd of noblemen received the prince and presented him with the

    Order of the Garter, which was buckled below the knee, and the blue velvet mantle, fringed with gold and pearls. He mounted a horse presented by his royal bride, and rode straight to church, where he returned thanks for his safe voyage. Then he was conducted to the palace prepared for him.
    He was dressed simply in black velvet, his cap being trimmed with gold chains and a small feather. The shape of his head denoted ability; but his complexion was yellowish, his hair thin and sandy, and his eyes small, blue, and weak, which, added to a most disagreeably gloomy expression of countenance, rendered Philip of Spain anything but a handsome man.
    The following day being Friday. Don Philip went to mass, and the English nobles who attended him were much pleased with his courteous manners.
    On Sunday morning, Ruy Gomez de Silva, Philip's Grand Chamberlain, was sent to Queen Mary with a present of jewels valued at fifty thousand ducats. After mass the prince dined in public, and was waited upon by his newly-appointed English officers. He tried to make himself popular, told his attendants in Latin that he had come to live among them like an Englishman, and praised their ale, which he tasted for the first time in his life.
    The bridegroom and his suite mounted their horses and set out in a drenching rain on Monday morning for Winchester. He was escorted by the Earl of Pembroke, with two hundred and fifty cavaliers, a hundred archers, and four thousand spectators, who formed a procession.
    Don Philip was dressed as usual in black velvet, but on account of the rain he wore a large red-felt cloak, and a black hat. About a mile from Winchester two noblemen from the queen met the bridegroom, attended by six royal pages, dressed in cloth of gold, and mounted on large Flemish horses.

    Between six and seven o'clock, the procession reached the city-gate, where the aldermen and mayor presented Don Philip with the keys of the city, which he returned. A volley of artillery greeted him, and twelve men, dressed in red and gold, conducted him to the Dean of Winchester's house, where he lived until after his marriage.
    Having changed his dress for a superb black velvet robe bordered with diamonds, he went to the cathedral, and after prayers held his first interview with Queen Mary, who received him very lovingly.
    The next afternoon at three o'clock the queen held a grand court, gave Don Philip a public audience, and kissed him in the presence of a large company. Then after they conversed for a while under the canopy of state, the prince was conducted to his residence by a torchlight procession.
    The marriage was performed next day. One of the Spanish grandees delivered a solemn oration, in which he announced that the emperor had resigned the kingdom of Naples in favor of his son, so that Mary married a king, not a prince. Then the ceremony proceeded in Latin and English, after which the royal pair returned hand in hand from the high altar and seated themselves until the mass was concluded, when they walked