Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World (46 page)

The tables were then cleared for the second course, which was heralded by another fanfare of trumpets and the parading of a third subtlety, this time served with hippocras (spiced wine). A further twenty-seven dishes were offered: mawmenny (rich beef or chicken broth) garnished with lozenges of gold leaf; roast peacock in hackle, i.e., re-dressed in its plumage; bitterns, pheasants, “browes” (broth or gravy), “egrets in beorwetye” (possibly a beer sauce), cocks, partridge, sturgeon with fresh fennel, plovers, suckling rabbit, “seal in fenyn [leeks] entirely served richly,” red shanks, snipe, quails, “larks engrailed” (presumably in a pie with an indented crust), crayfish, “venison in paste royal” (pastry), baked quinces, marchpane royal, cold baked meats, “lethe of Cyprus” and “lethe ruby” (milk puddings), fritters, “castles of jelly in temple-wise made,” and a last subtlety.
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During the meal the King’s minstrels “played a song before the Queen.”

After the feast, Elizabeth distributed largesse three times, as was customary at coronations, and Garter King of Arms, “with other kings of arms, heralds, and pursuivants, did their obeisance, and in the name of all the officers, gave the Queen thanks, saying, ‘Right high, mighty, most noble and excellent Princess, most Christian Queen, and all our most dread sovereign and liege lady, we, the officers of arms and servants to all nobles, beseech Almighty God to thank you for the great and abundant largesse which Your Grace has given us in honor of your most honorable and righteous coronation, and to send Your Grace to live in honor and virtue.’ ” And he cried her largesse “in five places of the hall.”

“Then played the Queen’s minstrels, and after them the minstrels of other estates.” A bowl and towel were presented so the Queen could wash her hands, whereupon the trumpets sounded, “fruit and wafers” were served to her, and the Lord Mayor, Sir William Horne, came forward and offered her the traditional golden goblet of hippocras—wine infused with costly spices—in return for which she gave him a covered gold cup in fee. “And after the feast the Queen departed with God’s blessing and the rejoicing of many a true Englishman’s heart.”

Verses were composed in her honor, such as this one, “Prophecy for the Crowned Queen,” probably written by Bernard André:

With “divine inspiration,” André “foretold the success of the happy prince,” Arthur, while lauding his “distinguished mother.” Calliope, the goddess muse of epic poetry, was the inspirer of this panegyric, along with Apollo, or Phoebus, the god of music and prophecy, light and the sun. Diana was a huntress but, more importantly here, the virgin goddess of women and childbirth. The Sibyl had the gift of prophecy. The theme of the roses predominates.

On the morning after the coronation, the King and Queen, the Lady Margaret and the princesses, heard Mass in St. Stephen’s Chapel, “nobly accompanied” by eighty peeresses, ladies, and gentlewomen. Then Elizabeth went in procession to the Parliament chamber, where “she kept her estate” to receive guests, sitting on her throne under a canopy of estate, with the Lady Margaret seated firmly at her right hand, and her aunt, the Duchess of Bedford, and Cecily of York, on her left. They sat together thus at the banquet that followed, with the Archbishop of Canterbury and many duchesses and baronesses also at the table. After dinner Elizabeth presided over the celebrations at court, during which she and her ladies danced. On that day, November 26, Elizabeth was finally assigned her dower as Queen of England. The next day she was conveyed by barge to Greenwich Palace.

A
s Queen, Elizabeth had her own household and administrative officers. They were an extension of the King’s court, and very much a part of it, although they operated separately, enabling her to fulfill her duties in her husband’s absence. Her household and estates were her legitimate sphere of influence,
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and it was through them that she could exercise patronage, but no queen could function without an army of officers and servants to support her, headed by her councilors and her chamberlain; and all were answerable ultimately to the King.
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They organized all her “matters and businesses” for her, from managing her estates and maintaining standards in her household to buying clothing, providing entertainment, and arranging pilgrimages and visits to her children. They were appointed by the Queen herself, or by the King or members of his council.

The Queen had her own council to govern her affairs, which comprised her chief administrative officers—her chamberlain, chancellor, receiver-general (who collected her rents and revenues), secretary, attorney-general, sergeants-at-law, knights carver, the clerk to her council, and several noblemen. It probably met in the chamber in
Westminster Palace that had been used since 1404 by the councils of previous queens. The function of the Queen’s council was to give her advice, oversee the administration of her lands, deal with her legal business, and act as a court of appeal.
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These were areas in which she and her council enjoyed some autonomy and took their own internal decisions without reference to the King. The business they transacted would be administered by clerks and other officials. Elizabeth’s chancellor, Edward Chaderton, had been Treasurer of the Chamber to Richard III. Richard Eliot was her attorney, Richard Bedell her auditor, John Holland keeper of the council chamber, and John Mordant, her sergeant-at-law.
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Sir Thomas Lovell, who led the commons when they petitioned the King to marry, was the first treasurer of the Queen’s chamber, and treasurer of the King’s chamber and household. It was not uncommon for a man to serve both the King and the Queen in similar capacities. The Queen’s treasurer, unlike her council, was accountable to the Exchequer.
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John Yotton was the Queen’s secretary. Richard Deacons was her clerk of the signet, cofferer, accountant, and surveyor of her lands. In 1503 his salary was £10 [£4,860]. In addition, “for his costs lying in London about the Queen’s matters and business” and riding out to survey the Queen’s lands, he received £16.13s.4d. [£8,100]. Paper, ink, and sealing wax was provided for him at an annual cost of £3.6s.8d. [£1,620].
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Elizabeth’s most important personal servant was her chamberlain, to which office the King’s friend, the wealthy Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond, was appointed “with the Queen’s good grace.”
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His task was to rule her privy chamber, and by August 1486 he had been rewarded for his “good and acceptable service to the King and his consort, to their singular pleasure.”
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His chief duty was to look to his mistress’s welfare and comfort. He appointed and supervised her staff, ensured that due ceremonial was observed in her household and whenever she appeared in public, and made sure that she was properly attired at all times.
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Much of his work was delegated, of course.

The Queen’s chamberlain had under him a vice chamberlain and many ladies, gentlemen, household officers, knights carver, esquires,
valets, ushers, grooms, pages, and porters. Menial servants, such as kitchen staff, were employed by the King’s household, but the Queen had to pay their wages when her husband was away, and it has been estimated that Henry and Elizabeth were apart for an average of four or five months each year. When they were residing together she was obliged to pay £7 [£3,400] a day for their services. She also employed a personal chef, Brice, the “cook of the Queen’s mouth,” and a “gentleman of the pantry,” Richard Brampton.
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Sir Roger Cotton, Elizabeth’s master of horse, had responsibility not only for supplying and caring for the Queen’s horses, but also for her traveling arrangements. Elizabeth journeyed widely around England. Her main form of transport was a horse litter (also known as a chair or chariot), a covered but unsprung wagon, which was “appareled” in velvet at a cost of £22.9s.8d. [£11,000]. She also owned “palfreys and other horses,”
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and would have used the former for riding when she wasn’t pregnant.

Cotton was assisted in his duties by John Reading, the clerk of the Queen’s aviary—her “avener.” In July 1486, Reading was paid £51 [£25,000] for various “expenses of stable,” and later that year he received further payments of £50 “for his expenses in waiting upon the palfreys and other horses of the Queen,” and “for the expenses of her horses and other necessaries of her stable,” and also “for the expenses of the Queen’s palfreys and offices.” Cotton himself received various payments for “harness and other necessaries.” Nicholas Mayor was the Queen’s saddler.
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Elizabeth’s privy purse expenses show that she had horses stabled at the royal stud at Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire, Havering, Essex, Fotheringhay, and Ham, near Richmond,
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and no doubt others were stabled elsewhere. The King gave frequent payments to Elizabeth for the support of her horses, in which she evidently took a keen and affectionate interest, given the many references to them in the records.

Nicholas Gainsford and Arnold Chollerton were “ushers of the chamber to the King’s most dear consort,” with responsibility for many tasks, the most important being controlling entrance to the Queen’s apartments. Gainsford, who was granted an annuity of £20 [£10,000] in June 1486, had served Elizabeth Wydeville in the same capacity,
and his wife, Margaret Sidney, was in the household of both Queen Elizabeths in turn. Nicholas Matthew was a yeoman of the Queen’s chamber; in 1502 she recompensed him for the charges he had incurred after being injured by servants of Sir William Sandys. John Duffin, William Pole, John Field, Thomas Woodnote, and John Staunton were grooms of the chamber, and Edmund and Edward Calvert, William Gentleman, and John Bright pages of the chamber. Owen Whitstones was the Queen’s messenger, receiving £2 [£970] per annum.
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“The boys and pages of the Queen’s chamber” were sometimes handsomely rewarded with sums of £40 [£19,500]; it was the responsibility of the pages of the chamber to keep Elizabeth’s jewels securely.
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Her portraits show that she owned many costly pieces. George Hamerton was groom porter. William Denton was the Queen’s carver, as well as the King’s, and his high salary of £26.13s.4d. [£12,960] reflected the perception that carving meat was the attribute of a gentleman. Elizabeth also had her own cupbearers and servers.
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One grant from the King was made “in consideration of the true and faithful service which our well-beloved Richard Smythe, the yeoman of the robes with our dearest wife, the Queen, hath done to us.”
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The Queen’s wardrobe, where her clothing and personal household stuff were stored, was headed by Smythe, appointed on June 20, 1486,
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and was staffed by a groom, Ellis Hilton, and pages.
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The pages were busy men, for the Queen’s clothes, food hampers, and other effects were frequently transported from one house to another, whenever she changed residences, and they also had to make each set of lodgings ready for her.
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In 1502, for instance, Richard Justice, page of the robes, was dispatched from the Great Wardrobe at Blackfriars to Westminster to fetch a gown for the Queen. Richard Deacons gave him 8d. for hiring a boat; 5d. “for conveying all the Queen’s lined gowns from London to Westminster by water, and for men’s labor that bare the same gowns” to and from the water; 5d. “for bringing the Queen’s furred gowns”; 4d. for conveying “such stuff as remaineth there”; 4d. for “going from Westminster to London for black damask, and for a frontlet of gold for the Queen”; and 6d. for making a new key for the “great standard” at her wardrobe of the robes and mending two locks. His
expenses totaled 2s.8d. [£70]. His duties also included mending and hemming Elizabeth’s clothes.
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John Coope was keeper “of the Queen’s stuff of her wardrobe of the beds” at Baynard’s Castle. John Belly and William Hamerton (probably a relation of George) were “yeomen of the Queen’s stuff of her wardrobe of the beds,” John Brown was groom of the beds, and Henry Roper, Benjamin Digby, Thomas Swan, and William Paston were pages of the beds, and were each paid £1.13s.4d. [£810]. Elizabeth bought William Paston his wedding clothes in 1502. The pages of the beds were responsible for seeing that the Queen’s bed was properly arrayed and made up. Her wardrobes had a clerk to help with administration.
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