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THE

QUEENS OF ENGLAND

AND THEIR TIMES.

FROM

MATILDA, QUEEN OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR,

ΤΟ

ADELAIDE, QUEEN OF WILLIAM THE FOURTH.

BY

FRANCIS LANCELOTT, ESQ.

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AUTHOR OF AUSTRALIA AS IT IS," '' THE PILGRIM FATHERS," &c. &c.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

346 & 348 BROADWAY.

M DCCC LVIII.

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Grey Friars' church. The citizens led been served in abundance, the proces the way, two and two; then followed sion returned to the palace, in the same gentlemen esquires, chaplains. After order as it had set out, excepting that the them the aldermen, then the mayor by Earl of Worcester, Lord Thomas Howhimself, then the privy council in robes, ard, the Lord Fitzwalter, and Sir John then the gentlemen of the King's chapel Dudley, preceded by trumpeters, carried in copes, then barons, bishops, earls, the gifts of the sponsors before the then the Earl of Essex, bearing the gilt Princess. Five hundred staff torches, covered basin; after him the Marquis of carried by the yeomen of the guard and Exeter, with a taper of virgin wax, fol- the King's servants, lit up the way homelowed by the Earl of Dorset, bearing the ward; and twenty gentlemen, bearing salt, and the Lady Mary of Norfolk, bear large wax flambeaux, walked on each ing the chrism, which was very rich with side of the Princess, who was carried to pearls and precious stones; lastly, came the Queen's chamber door, when a flouthe Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, bear-rish of trumpets sounded, and the proing in her arms the roval infant, wrap-cession dispersed. ped in a mantle of purple velvet, having a long train furred with ermine, which was borne by the Countess of Kent, assisted by the Earls of Wiltshire and Derby. The Duchess was supported on the right side by the Duke of Norfolk, with his marshal's rod, and on the left by the Duke of Suffolk-the only dukes then existing in the peerage of England -and a rich canopy was borne over the babe by the Lords Rochford, Hussey, and William and Thomas Howard. At the church door the child was received by the Bishop of London, who performed the ceremony, and a grand cavalcade of bishops and mitred abbots. The sponsors were Archbishop Cranmer, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, and the Marchioness of Dorset. The future Queen was carried to the fount, and, with the ceremony of the Catholic church, christened Elizabeth, after her grandmother, Elizabeth of York; and that done, Garter Kingat-Arms cried aloud, "God, of his infinite goodness, send prosperous life, and long, to the high and mighty Princess of England, Elizabeth!" then the trumpets sounded, the Princess was carried up to the altar, the Gospel read over her, and she was confirmed by Archbishop Cranmer, and presented with the following gifts:-A standing cup of gold by Cranmer; a similar cup, fretted with pearls, by the Duchess of Norfolk; three gilt bowls, pounced, with covers, by the Marchioness of Dorset; and three standard bowls, graven and gilt, with covers, by the Marchioness of Exeter. Then, after wafers, comfits, and ipocras had

Elizabeth passed the first six weeks of her existence at Greenwich; the Lady Margaret Bryan was appointed governess to her; in December she was removed to Hatfield, where she resided till the subsequent April, when she was conveyed to the Bishop of Winchester's palace at Chelsea. She was created Princess of Wales when three months old, and weaned in her thirteenth month with extraordinary ceremony. About this time a futile attempt was made to betroth her to the Duke D'Angoulême, the third son of Francis the First of France. In compliance with the act of Parliament, passed in March, 1534, which pronounced the marriage between Henry the Eighth and Katherine of Arragon unlawful and null, and that between him and Anne Boleyn lawful and valid, Elizabeth was honoured as heiress presumptive, and the Princess Mary forced to yield precedence to her, and to dwell under the same roof with her, more like a bondmaid than a sister and a princess. But this unjust elevation was of short continuance. The divorce and tragic death of Anne Boleyn rendered Elizabeth motherless in her third year, and placed her in a situation at once precarious and embarrassing. On the day immediately succeeding the Queen's death, the King, with the most unblushing effrontery, was publicly married to Jane Seymour; and shortly afterwards an act of Parliament was passed, illegitimatizing Elizabeth, and settling the succession to the throne on the offspring of Henry VIII. by his present Queen."

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