The Lady Margaret was often at court, especially in the earlier years of the reign. Although she played no formal role in politics, her influence in the domestic sphere was strong, and Elizabeth rarely acted independently of her-and possibly was glad of her advice. Yet as Elizabeth was soon to find, Margaret was frequently at her side, or never very far away. Wherever the King and Queen were, there his mother would usually be too, and she often accompanied Henry and Elizabeth on their travels and progresses around the kingdom. Sometimes she appeared in public with Henry when Elizabeth was absent. His household ordinances provided for lodgings to be kept for her at all the royal residences, often next to his private apartments. At Woodstock, their apartments were linked by a shared withdrawing chamber, and at the Tower they adjoined Henry"s bedchamber and council chamber.62 It was soon accepted that the King, the Queen, and the King"s mother formed an inviolable triumvirate.
The pattern was set less than a month after the wedding when, on February 6, 1486, the King issued a license jointly to his "dearest consort, Elizabeth, Queen of England, and his dearest mother, to found a perpetual chantry in the parish church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Guildford, Surrey, for one chaplain to perform divine service daily for the healthful estate of the King, his consort, and his mother, and for their souls after death."63 In conjunction with this, two gentlemen of Guildford persuaded the Queen, Margaret, and two knights of the King"s household to a.s.sist them in the founding of a guild in honor of the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, St. George, and All Saints at the same parish church.64 In December 1487, Elizabeth and Margaret, along with Archbishop Morton and Reginald Bray, were granted the right to present their candidate to the deanery of the college of St. Stephen at Westminster.65 Whenever Lady Margaret attended church with the King and Queen, she sat beneath her own cloth of estate. If she entertained a bishop to dinner, he would be treated as if he were in the King"s own presence. After Evensong, wine and spices would be served to Margaret as well as to the King and his sons-the Queen was not included. But when Elizabeth went in procession, Margaret had to walk a little behind her, "aside the Queen"s half train." When Henry and Elizabeth dined in state after Ma.s.s, only "half estate" was accorded to Margaret; and at the Easter Garter ceremonies in chapel, while Elizabeth and Margaret were censed after Henry, only the King and Queen might kiss the pax,66 a small tablet adorned with a sacred image, usually the crucifixion, which the devout kissed instead of each other as a sign of peace.
Thus it was soon made clear to Elizabeth that from now on she was invariably to be a.s.sociated with her formidable mother-in-law. It was to be expected that Margaret, an experienced and capable woman of forty-three, would take the young Queen under her wing and act as her mentor. That they enjoyed a harmonious relationship is evident from various sources, and the fact that they collaborated on several occasions when they were of one mind about something. The impression one gets is of two women who got on well working in unison together for everyone"s benefit. As Fisher testified, everyone who knew Margaret loved her, and there is no reason why Elizabeth should have been an exception. Furthermore, Margaret had a sense of humor and could provide congenial companionship: she kept two fools, Skip and Reginald the idiot, and enjoyed gambling at cards and chess, as did the Queen.67 The affection between the two ladies may have been facilitated by the fact that they were not continually obliged to enjoy each other"s company. The Lady Margaret sometimes resided at Lathom House or Knowsley Hall, the northern seats of the Stanleys; when in London, she would stay at Coldharbour.68 After 1499, having taken a vow of chast.i.ty with Stanley"s permission, she was less often at court, having moved into her own house at Collyweston in Northamptonshire, where apartments were permanently kept ready for her husband and her daughter-in-law the Queen.69 She never visited Lathom after that, but sometimes resided at Woking Palace in Surrey or Hunsdon House in Hertfordshire.
Elizabeth"s good relations with her formidable mother-in-law are testimony to her warm heart, her good judgment of character, her peaceable nature, and her talent for diplomacy.
The court over which Elizabeth presided as Queen was as magnificent as her father"s, and like Edward IV"s it was modeled on that of Burgundy. Henry VII has gone down in history as a miser, but he spent freely on the outward trappings of wealth, such as jewels, on which he paid out upward of 128,000 [62.2 million], hundreds of pieces of plate bearing the monogram HE (for Henry and Elizabeth), tapestries, rich furnishings, and the rebuilding and decoration of his palaces. His court was imbued with learning, music, and pageantry. He deliberately exploited the symbolism of royal pageantry and the ceremonial, laying down a new series of ordinances for the regulation of daily royal life and etiquette. Small wonder that Bacon called him "a wonder for wise men."
Elizabeth may have been influential in the development of royal pageantry during Henry"s reign, which would set a pattern for the Tudor court for the next century and more. As the daughter of Edward IV, who had recognized the value of Burgundian court culture, with its emphasis on magnificence and display, and emulated it, she was ideally placed to advise her husband.
On great occasions the court would be the setting for the lavish feasts, tournaments, pageants, and revelry deemed essential for a successful monarchy, but as we have seen, Henry VII enjoyed simpler pleasures too. No great sportsman himself-although he liked hunting, hawking, c.o.c.k-fighting, bull baiting, shooting crossbows at the b.u.t.ts, and the spectacle of jousting-he nevertheless installed bowling alleys and tennis courts on the grounds of his palaces, and laid on hunting expeditions and lavish musical entertainments, all for the diversion of his courtiers and guests. Elizabeth shared many of these interests, including hunting and archery; her privy purse expenses record payments for her greyhounds and for arrows and broadheads (arrow tips). She went hawking too: Oliver Aulferton was keeper of the Queen"s goshawks and spaniels, and was paid a salary of 2 [970].70 Where the moral laxity of some European courts was notorious, the court presided over by Henry and Elizabeth was a byword for propriety, which was ensured by the marital fidelity of the King and Queen, and no doubt by the guiding moral hand of the Lady Margaret. It was also a great center of piety and learning, peopled by divines, scholars, and poets.
When they were not on display to the court, the royal family enjoyed living in the warmth and intimacy afforded by the warren of small closets beyond the public chambers of their apartments, an arrangement that reflected the increasing desire of European monarchs to achieve some privacy in their otherwise very public lives, although privacy as they understood it invariably meant having many select persons in attendance to look to their every need. It was during Edward IV"s reign that this growing taste for seclusion emerged, so Elizabeth would have grown up with the notion of kings and queens enjoying a private life away from the court. That would have been a foreign concept to earlier medieval kings, whose lives had been communally centered on the great hall, and who were incessantly on display.
The court was not just a magnificent domestic and ceremonial inst.i.tution; it was also the seat of government and the political hub of the kingdom. There were two political ent.i.ties in the court: the Privy Council, which-presided over by the King-attended to matters of state; and the Privy Chamber, the nerve center of monarchical power. It was Henry VII who created the Privy Chamber, the department of state comprising the influential and often powerful gentlemen who waited personally upon the sovereign and were thus able to influence him and bestow patronage. There are frequent references to his retiring among them in his private lodgings, which were also called the privy chamber.
Elizabeth had her corresponding private apartments, where she resided with her ladies and other female attendants-a chaste female enclave within the King"s "house of magnificence." It usually consisted of three distinct parts: a great chamber, a presence chamber for audiences and entertaining, and a privy chamber, which, like the King"s, might comprise bedchambers, closets, a privy, a privy wardrobe, and sometimes a privy kitchen, where the Queen"s meals were prepared. Guards were stationed at the entrance to each room, and only the King, Elizabeth"s servants, and the most privileged guests would be admitted to her privy chamber. Elizabeth would usually dine with her ladies in her presence chamber, rather than with the King.71 Edward IV"s "Black Book of the Household" had laid down that service to the Queen "must be nigh like unto the King."72 The Queen was not of course confined to her apartments. She enjoyed the freedom of the court and the King"s lodgings, and it was expected that she would be at his side whenever appropriate: at the great religious festivals, when both wore their crowns, at "days of estate," feasts, courtly celebrations, receptions and entertainments, and when peers were enn.o.bled. When the King sat in his chair of estate, or throne-the actual seat of government-there she would be, seated on a lower chair beside him, with "the cloth of estate hanging somewhat lower than the King"s, by the valance."73 Although he was "frugal to excess in his own person," Henry VII "kept a sumptuous table. There might be six to seven hundred persons at dinner. His people say that his Majesty spends upon his table 14,000 [nearly 7 million] annually."74 On a "day of estate" when Henry dined before the court in his great chamber, he would have a bishop and a duke, or two earls, at table with him, and Elizabeth-who arrived in procession preceded by her chamberlain and usher-always sat at her own table with a d.u.c.h.ess, a countess, and perhaps a baroness. She had her own servers and carver, and her sewer (food taster) to bring her neck towel, or napkin, which was worn over one shoulder. Everyone else was seated below the high tables according to rank. Once the meal was over, the boards were cleared and the royal sewers spread a clean "surnap" (tablecloth) across them, which the ushers then smoothed over. Knights or barons would bring basins and covered ewers containing water, and at a sign from the King everyone washed their hands. The esquires then took up the boards, while the ushers knelt down to "make clean the King"s skirts" of crumbs. Grace was said by a bishop or a royal chaplain.75 Music, minstrelsy, and disguisings were part of the culture of the Tudor court. Elizabeth loved them all, especially music; she had grown up in a court where her parents both employed musicians, and she too had her own minstrels and drummers; three of the latter would serve her son, Henry VIII. Among her musicians were Mark Jaket and Janyn Marcazin, who is listed as a minstrel in 1503, Richard Denouse, William Older, and a fiddler whom Henry VII rewarded.76 Late in 1486, Jaket and Older received a reward of 5 [2,500]. In 1502 the Queen"s minstrels were headed by "M. of Lorydon," and each received a salary of 2.6s.8d. [1,130].77 These minstrels were professional musicians and their function was to entertain the Queen, her household, and her guests, and provide accompaniment for dancing in the privy chamber; they also taught musical skills to the royal children.
Elizabeth was to commission works from William Cornish and Richard Fairfax, two virtuosi of the Tudor court.78 Her pa.s.sion for music, which was to be inherited by her children, may be measured by the large sums she was ready to spend on it-money she could ill afford. She would handsomely reward minstrels such as the man who played a drone-possibly an organ or a cornemuse (bagpipes)-before her at Richmond. One of her most lavish purchases was a pair of clavichords for herself, costing 4 [1,950].79 Her influence was significant. Her daughters played skillfully upon the lute, and her son, the future Henry VIII, became a notable musician and composer.
Books would have had a prominent place in the Queen"s chamber; they were not just there for the pleasure to be obtained from them, but as outward manifestations of magnificence, for they were fabulously expensive objects of desire and proclaimed the erudition and interests of their owners. Elizabeth"s love of books had stayed with her from childhood. Hers were a mix of the secular and the devotional. She owned one of the finest ma.n.u.scripts of the age, the beautifully illuminated "Hours of Elizabeth the Queen," dating from ca.141530. It is now thought to have been owned by her, rather than by her mother, as was previously claimed, and had once belonged to her cousin, Cecily Neville, Countess of Warwick (d. 1450), daughter of Ralph Neville, Earl of Salisbury. Its colorful pages ill.u.s.trate the Hours of the Virgin and the Pa.s.sion of Christ, the Penitential Psalms, the Office of the Dead, the Commendation of Souls, and prayers to St. Mary. There are eighteen exquisite miniatures, borders lavishly decorated with foliage on solid gold leaf, 423 decorated initials, and roundels showing the signs of the Zodiac. The ma.n.u.script bears the inscription "Elysabeth ye quene" in the lower margin of one folio, beneath a miniature of the Crucifixion.80 The beautiful fourteenth-century Bohun Psalter owned by Elizabeth of York as Queen is in Exeter College, Oxford, and is inscribed on the first page in her hand: Thys book ys myn Elysabeth ye quene.
It is also known as "The Ma.s.s Book of King Henry VII"s Queen Elizabeth and King Henry VIII"s Queen Katherine," and contains calendar notes by Elizabeth and her daughter-in-law, Katherine of Aragon, to whom it came after her death, and a further autograph inscription: Thys book ys myn Katherine the qwene.
Elizabeth also recorded in it the birth dates of her children.81 An illuminated ma.n.u.script of verses written between 1415 and 1440 by Charles, Duke of Orleans,82 bears the arms of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. It may have been partly executed for Edward IV at the end of his reign, but was completed by the anonymous Master of the Prayer Books under the direction of Quentin Poulet, Henry VII"s librarian, by 1500.83 It was probably a gift from Henry to Elizabeth. Orleans, a French prince captured at Agincourt, wrote his poems while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. They tell of love, of spring, and of melancholy, and one speaks of jealousy, which may have struck a chord with Henry: Strengthen, my Love, this castle of my heart, And with some store of pleasure give me aid, For Jealousy, with all them of his part, Strong siege about the weary tower has laid.
Nay, if to break his bands thou art afraid, Too weak to make his cruel force depart, Strengthen at least this castle of my heart, And with some store of pleasure give me aid.
Nay, let not Jealousy, for all his art Be master, and the tower in ruin laid, That still, ah Love! thy gracious rule obeyed.
Advance, and give me succour of thy part; Strengthen, my Love, this castle of my heart.
Henry may also have presented Elizabeth with the "Miroir des Dames," a ma.n.u.script containing moral instruction for queens and other highborn ladies.84 Based on a thirteenth-century text, of which copies had been owned by several European queens, and finished in 1428, it contained an addition in the form of a frontispiece showing the crown of England resting on a hawthorn bush-that favored Tudor symbol-with a salutation to Henry VII, "Vive le n.o.ble roy Henry," perhaps added soon after Bosworth, possibly around the time of the King"s marriage. The nature of the text-which reminds queens that, as the image of feminine perfection, they are blessed with a special grace and must be an example to their s.e.x-makes it likely that this book was given by Henry to Elizabeth of York.85 Another illuminated ma.n.u.script a.s.sociated with Elizabeth is a lavish "Legendary," a book of the lives of the saints, dating from ca. 1250.86 The flyleaf bears the inscription "G.o.d save King Harry and Queen Elizabeth," which must have been added before 1503, and a mark identifying it as later belonging to Henry VIII"s library.87 A prayer book that had belonged to Elizabeth of York was sold at auction in 1983.88 Like her parents, Elizabeth was a patron of William Caxton and his successor at the Westminster printing press, Wynkyn de Worde. In 1490, Caxton"s translation of Eneydos, a French version of Virgil"s Aeneid, was dedicated to her eldest son, and around 1491, Caxton printed the Orationes: Fifteen Oes and Other Prayers "by commandments of" the Queen and the Lady Margaret. It was his last publication, and comprised fifteen prayers then believed to have been written by St. Bridget of Sweden, all beginning with the letter O.89 It was probably Elizabeth"s grandmother, Cecily Neville, who had nurtured in her a special devotion to St. Bridget, which she shared with Margaret Beaufort. Margaret was a regular visitor to the Bridgetine abbey of Syon,90 where Elizabeth"s cousin, Anne de la Pole, was prioress. When Anne died in 1501, her successor maintained good relations with the Queen, sending her quails and rabbits for her table.91 Books were valued gifts. In 1494, Margaret Beaufort commissioned from Wynkyn de Worde a weighty book of spiritual exercises ent.i.tled Scala Perfectionis (The Scale of Perfection) by the Augustinian mystic Walter Hilton, which she and Elizabeth jointly presented to their kinswoman, Mary Roos, who served the Queen as lady-in-waiting. Elizabeth inscribed it: "I pray you pray for me. Elysabeth ye quene."92 Elizabeth may have been the "Queen Elizabeth" who gave a book of hours to Katherine Neville, the widow of Lord Hastings, but Elizabeth Wydeville could also have been the donor.93 Both the King and Queen wrote inscriptions in a Parisian missal of 1498 owned by one of Elizabeth"s ladies. Henry"s read: "Madam, I pray you remember me, your loving master, Henry R." Elizabeth"s was less formal: "Madam, I pray you forget not me to pray to G.o.d that I may have part of your prayers. Elysabeth ye Queene." Evidently she felt she needed the spiritual consolation these prayers might afford her.94 Henry VII was astute when it came to finance. His tough upbringing had taught him the value of money and of enforcing policies that would ensure peace and generate wealth; he understood that the subtle practice of statecraft was infinitely preferable to achieving his aims through war. Yet although he was generous in giving alms to the sick and the dest.i.tute, and in enriching the Church, he was to gain a lasting reputation for parsimony. It was said that "although he professes many virtues, his love of money is too great."95 The Milanese amba.s.sador reported in 1495, "The King is rather feared than loved, and this is due to his avarice."96 A Venetian amba.s.sador thought him "a great miser," and wrote that he "had acc.u.mulated so much gold that he was supposed to have more than well-nigh all the other kings in Christendom."97 The Spanish amba.s.sador observed, "The King"s riches augment every day. I think he has no equal in this respect. If gold coin once enters his strongboxes, it never comes out again. He always pays in depreciated coin. All his servants are like him: they have a wonderful dexterity in getting other people"s money."98 A papal envoy who came to the English court to raise money for a crusade was disconcerted to find only 11.11s. [5,650] in his collecting box, "which result made our hearts sink within us, for there were present the King, the Queen, the mother of the King, and the mother of the Queen," and many lords and ladies.
But the description of Henry as a miser, a gloomy, Scroogelike figure in sober, shabby clothing counting his money, is a distorted one. He had known adversity and realized that strength lay in financial security. By ama.s.sing a fortune, he was bolstering the future success of his dynasty, and he was determined to live in a style befitting a great prince. But his subjects paid a high price for it. A few years later Pedro de Ayala, the Spanish amba.s.sador, imputed "the decrease of trade" to "the impoverishment of the people by the great taxes laid on them. The King himself said to me that it is his intention to keep his subjects low, because riches would only make them haughty." He was to pay for this with his popularity. "He is disliked, but the Queen is beloved because she is powerless."99 Henry"s carefulness with money did not extend to the state he kept as King. It was expected of Renaissance sovereigns that they looked and acted the part magnificently, outward display considered essential to command the respect, confidence, and admiration of their subjects and other nations. In this, Henry was following the precepts of the court of Burgundy. Careful in other respects with money, he recognized the value of regal display and spent lavishly on it. "He knew well how to maintain his royal majesty and all which pertains to kingship."100 As Queen, according to Thomas More, Elizabeth enjoyed "plenty of every pleasant thing."101 Rodrigo de Puebla, amba.s.sador from the court of Queen Isabella of Spain, observed: "There is no country in the world where queens live with greater pomp than in England, where they have as many court officers as the King."102 But that high estate had to be maintained. On marriage, every English queen consort received a dower for the financial support of herself and her household. This took the form of a substantial settlement of lands, manors, and other crown property, making her one of the major landowners in the realm.103 Elizabeth was co-heiress with her sisters to lands of the n.o.ble families of Mortimer, March, and Clare, which had been inherited by the House of York. These lands, in which Cecily Neville held a share as dower, were not part of the crown estate, and should have been divided between the Yorkist princesses and then pa.s.sed to their husbands on marriage; but Henry VII appropriated their shares as well as what was his in right of his wife, quietly incorporated them into the crown lands, and dowered Elizabeth from them.104 She was in possession of lands of the earldom of March in Herefordshire by September 1486;105 some of the rest went toward the support of Elizabeth Wydeville and Cecily, d.u.c.h.ess of York; but for Elizabeth"s sisters there would be nothing, not even dowries.
Elizabeth had to wait for the rest of her settlement, for it was not finally a.s.signed to her until November 1487; until then her financial needs were mainly met by the King"s household, further-and perhaps deliberately-limiting her sphere of influence and her capacity for patronage. From time to time she received grants from the King, such as the annuity of 100 [48,900] bestowed on February 3, 1486, at Sheen Palace.106 When she finally was a.s.signed her dower, for life, no set amount appears formally to have been settled on her. To the Mortimer and Clare estates were added her mother"s lands, worth about 1,890 [924,000], and annuities from fixed rents from the towns of Bristol (amounting to 102.15s.6d., now 50,250) and Bedford. In addition, like her predecessors, she had income from wardships, fines, and tax exemptions granted her by the King, and in 1487, Parliament enacted that she could sell and grant leases in her own name, without the King"s consent, in consideration of the great expense of her chamber. On February 1, 1492, Henry settled upon her the reversion of the dower lands of her grandmother, d.u.c.h.ess Cecily, which she should have inherited anyway as part of the Mortimer and Clare inheritance.107 Henry had not only to maintain his wife, but also her mother-effectively, he was supporting two queens, which placed an unusual strain on his finances, as a new queen was usually a.s.signed the dower of her predecessor; as we have seen, Henry had granted other lands to Elizabeth Wydeville. He also gave grants to his own mother, and was responsible for the maintenance of Elizabeth"s dowerless sisters, although he expected her to support them out of the income allocated her. It did not help that revenues from the dukedom of York were tied up in her grandmother"s generous dower. To boost Elizabeth"s income, the King, "in consideration of the great expenses and charges that his most dear wife, Elizabeth, Queen of England, must of necessity bear in her chamber," obtained the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament that she should "be able to sue in her own name, without the King, by writs &c., all manner of forms [contracts], rents, and debts due to her; and sue in her own name in all manner of actions, and plead, and be impleaded, in any of the King"s courts."108 Queens, unlike other married women, enjoyed the unique privilege of granting and acquiring lands as femmes sole, and they could also sue, and be sued, independently of the King.109 However, Henry VII, like Edward IV, was not above alienating lands he claimed to hold "in right of Elizabeth, the Queen consort," as in 1494 when he gave away some Irish estates of Elizabeth"s earldom of March to her chamberlain, Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond.110 In 1489, Elizabeth was granted the use of some of the property of her aunt, Isabella Neville, d.u.c.h.ess of Clarence, during the minority of Isabella"s son, the Earl of Warwick. In 1495 she inherited Mortimer and Clare property worth 1,400 [684,500] from her grandmother, Cecily Neville, which she had been granted in reversion in 1492.
Elizabeth had her own auditors. Each year, they and her receiver-general would tour her estates, inspect her stewards" accounts, compile valuations of her properties, arbitrate in disputes, and advise their mistress on various issues.111 There could be a shortfall between what was due to her in rents and what was actually received.112 There is evidence to show that Elizabeth and her council were obliged to extract as much income as they could from her manors, but that this was resented by her tenants. For example, in 1487 they established a collector of rents at the royal manor of Havering in the hope of ensuring that all monies due to the Queen would be raised, but the local people made life difficult for every occupant of the post until, in 1497, the then inc.u.mbent, Thomas Elrington, was a.s.saulted after ordering the bailiff to seize the goods of the Queen"s tenant, local justice of the peace Sir Philip c.o.ke, who might have been knighted for valor in the recent Cornish uprising but had rent outstanding. c.o.ke, whose wife was probably the sister or aunt of Margaret Belknap, one of Elizabeth"s gentlewomen, was accused of an act injurious to the honor of the Queen and as a dangerous example to her other tenants. Her council fined him 5, whereupon Elrington demanded twelve years" back rent. c.o.ke reacted violently, and was fined a further 5; he never again held office, but in a sense his was the victory, because Elrington was relieved of his post to avoid further violence, and was never replaced.113 The Queen had the right to make a new appointment every time a post on one of her estates fell vacant: it was another way in which she could show favor to those who had served her well. Sir Gilbert Talbot, who had been a.s.sociated with Elizabeth in "The Song of Lady Bessy" and was now one of Henry VII"s privy councilors, was appointed steward of her lands in f.e.c.kenham, Worcestershire. A letter from Elizabeth survives in which she acknowledges the good and faithful service he had rendered to her.114 In November 1502, Talbot sent her a wild boar as a gift.115 Margaret of Anjou had received a dower of 10,000 marks [at least 1.5 million], which was later increased. Elizabeth Wydeville"s dower was at least 4,500 [2.1 million]. Elizabeth of York"s dower lands were ultimately worth only 3,360 [1.6 million] in 1506, less than two-thirds of her mother"s income.116 Although she had brought him a great inheritance (the lands of the Mortimers and the Clares), Henry kept her short of money, which meant that financially she would always be heavily dependent on him for loans and gifts of cash, several of which are recorded.117 She was obliged to borrow small sums from her sisters and even her servants.118 Though she appeared outwardly wealthy,119 Elizabeth struggled to make ends meet, and her extant privy purse expenses show that often she could settle her debts only in part, leaving much still owed, in several cases over an extended period. One London silk merchant, Henry Bryan, had to submit his account for 107 [52,000] several times, and in the end was obliged to settle for payment in installments.120 By 1495, Elizabeth was deeply in debt, and had been driven to p.a.w.ning her plate to Sir Thomas Lovell for 500 [250,000], and borrowing money from her chamberlain and her ladies. In February 1497 the King ordered 2,000 [972,200] to be delivered to her "to repay her debts," but it was only another loan. When he loaned her money, he expected her to pledge her plate as security, and to redeem it on the due date, and took care to see that she did.121 She was not extravagant in her personal expenditure. She ran her household economically, better than her mother had run hers. She paid her ladies lower salaries than previous queens, the highest being 33.6s.8d. [16,200]. As well as her dower, she received money from the Exchequer for her chamber expenses, and this she spent on items such as clothes for herself and for her household, horses, repairs to her barge and litters, repeated "boat hire," household items (such as sheets, baskets, bellows, carving knives, bolts, locks, an axe, brushes, wheels, wax, f.a.ggots, and barehides), jewels, a small pair of enameled knives for the Queen"s own use, meat for her goshawks and spaniels, offerings in church, barrels of Rhenish wine, bread, ale, b.u.t.ter, eggs, and milk, and payments to her physicians and apothecaries. There were a few luxury items too, including chair coverings of crimson and blue cloth of gold and crimson velvet with linings of blue satin; and, for the Queen"s litters, twenty-seven cushions of blue cloth of gold, backed with various shades of satin, damask, and velvet. Elizabeth herself checked and signed every page of the book in which details of her income and her privy purse expenses were listed, ensuring that her officers were acting within their means. The most costly items she ever bought for herself-apart from clothing-were the clavichords and popinjay for which she paid a poor man 13s.4d. [320].122 The small sums of pocket money she apportioned to herself were given by her accountant, Richard Deacons, into the hands of her ladies (usually Lady Anne Percy, Lady Elizabeth Stafford, or Elizabeth Lee), who would put them in her privy purse. It was rare for Elizabeth to receive more than 10s. [250] or 20s. [500] at a time, and sometimes she got as little as 4s.4d. [110]. She was, however, abundantly generous, which may have been the cause of some of her financial difficulties.123 The King gave her only a very small allowance for the charities to which she was expected to dispense, so she had to make stringent economies in order to give to the poor. Much of her available funds were spent on gifts-numerous, but not lavish-and donations to religious establishments. That left less for alms, and it has been noted that she outlaid only 9.11s.5d. [4,650] on those in her last year. Her gambling debts at Christmas 1502 were about half that amount.124 She also had to support her unmarried sisters, paying them annuities of 50 [24,450] each out of her privy purse. When they married, they received no dowries from the King, so she paid their husbands annuities of 120 [58,350] for their maintenance. In addition, she sent her sisters gifts of cash: in 1502, for example, she gave Anne 6.13s.4d. [3,250] for pocket money.125 Often, Elizabeth would go without to do all this. She might have lived in great state and luxury, but the Queen of England had to juggle her financial resources as carefully as any peasant"s wife.
9.
"Offspring of the Race of Kings"
Early in January 1486, before her wedding, it had been confidently expected that the new Queen would immediately be crowned, and it must have been on the King"s orders that a royal official, Piers Curteys, drew up a memorandum listing expenditure for items to be delivered "against the Queen"s coronation": spurs for the henchmen who were to ride in the procession; "tawing" (treating) of ermines; "canopy staves and ye timber work of two chairs of estate"; hire of a cart "to carry in ye Rennes"-a fine linen cloth woven in Brittany, to be dyed scarlet and used as a carpet-"unto Westminster, and six porters" wages for to help to lay the same Rennes from Westminster Hall unto the abbey"; ermines, miniver, and "powderings for furring of divers of ye Queen"s robes" (small spots added to distinguish royal ermine from that worn by the n.o.bility); worsted, "white bogy [lambskin] for furring of ye henchmen"s gowns," and "scarlet," a fine, expensive wool cloth.1 In the event, though, there was no coronation for Elizabeth-not for nearly two years. It is often said that Henry expected her to bear him a son before he outlaid any serious expenditure on her crowning, or that he did not want people to think that the ceremony was an endors.e.m.e.nt of her t.i.tle; but the likeliest explanation for it being deferred is that, by Lent, it was known that Elizabeth was expecting a child.
Loyal subjects had "prayed to Almighty G.o.d that the King and Queen would be favored with offspring, and that eventually a child might be conceived and a new prince be born, so that they might heap further joys upon present delights." They had not had long to wait. "Our Lord Jesus Christ heard their prayers and permitted the joyous Queen to become pregnant with the desired offspring."2 The speed with which Elizabeth conceived-on her wedding night, perhaps-must have seemed to Henry, and no doubt to many of his people, to be the greatest manifestation of divine approval of his marriage. "Then a new happiness took over the happiest kingdom, great enjoyment filled the Queen, the Church experienced perfect joy, while huge excitement gripped the court and an incredible pleasure arose over the whole country."3 The bodies of queens were effectively public property, for their fertility was of prime importance to the nation and a legitimate object of speculation in courts, diplomatic circles, n.o.ble households, taverns, and humble hovels. The swift arrival of an heir would go far toward a.s.suring the stability of the Tudor dynasty, and it would immeasurably increase Elizabeth"s standing with her husband the King and the country at large.
The news that any highborn lady was to bear a child was cause for great celebration in that dynastically minded age, and it was the subject of much interest on the part of both s.e.xes. It was not expected that the Queen would retire from public view or swath herself in shawls like Queen Victoria, for there was then no sense of squeamishness or embarra.s.sment about what was regarded as a highly desirable condition; and it was customary for relatives and friends to send good wishes for a safe delivery-a "happy hour." Everyone was well aware of the risks involved in childbirth.
Henry VII might have claimed his crown by right of conquest, but now that he had married Elizabeth, it was indisputably his by right. It should have ensured his security and been "the final end to all dissensions, t.i.tles, and debates,"4 yet it was already obvious that this marriage, which had been made to heal the breach between the warring royal houses, was insufficient to stifle treason and had not reconciled all the King"s opponents. Some diehard Yorkist activists just would not accept it, and they were making their opposition plain.
In the spring of 1486, Henry VII felt it politic to go on a progress to Lincolnshire and Yorkshire to be seen by his northern subjects and to "weed, root out, and purge men tainted with dissension and privy factions," especially in Yorkshire, where Richard III had once been popular.5 Elizabeth stayed behind at the palace of Placentia at Greenwich with her mother. It has been suggested that Henry did not take her with him because he wanted to make it clear he did not owe his crown to her or "seek popularity on her account,"6 yet it is far more likely that she was suffering the nausea and fatigue common in early pregnancy; moreover, the King was visiting areas where pockets of Yorkist resistance were antic.i.p.ated, so he would not have wanted his expectant Queen to be exposed to any risk.
Henry departed before Easter, which fell on March 26 that year, and he would be away for three months, visiting-among other places-Waltham, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Stamford, Lincoln, Doncaster, Pontefract, York, and Worcester. On the way, he had to suppress insurrections involving Humphrey Stafford, and Francis, Lord Lovell, one of Richard III"s closest adherents, and deal with a plot against himself-but generally he was well received, even in York. While he was away, he sent frequent letters to Elizabeth.
Placentia, where she was staying, was a beautiful palace built around 1427 as "Bella Court" by Henry V"s brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who had acquired the large hunting park surrounding it in 1433. The large stone mansion was seized by Margaret of Anjou on his death in 1447, and it was she who renamed it "Placentia," meaning a "pleasance," or pleasant place, and set about converting it into a palace. To that end, ranges of brick and timber were built, the floors paved with terra-cotta tiles bearing her monogram, beautiful gla.s.s windows decorated with marguerites and hawthorn buds inserted, pillars and arcades adorned with sculpted marguerites added, and a vestry built to serve as a jewel house. Tapestries covered the walls of the royal apartments, and in the gardens there was an arbor for ladies to sit in. Queen Margaret"s house was arranged around two courtyards, and to the west she ordered a pier constructed, so royal barges could land.7 In 1465, Placentia was granted to Elizabeth Wydeville as part of her jointure.
The palace lay in a healthy setting, aired by breezes from the Thames, and nestling in two hundred acres of rolling parkland. Elizabeth had known this palace from childhood, and it was already one of Henry VII"s favorite residences. He was soon to rename it Greenwich Palace.
On March 6, Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull confirming the dispensation issued by the Bishop of Imola. On March 27, in another bull, he gave his own dispensation addressed to "thou King, Henry of Lancaster, and thou, Elizabeth of York," recognizing Henry as King, threatening anyone who rose against him with excommunication, and informing the royal couple that "as their progenitors had vexed the kingdom of England with wars and clamors, to prevent further effusion of blood it was desirable for them to unite in marriage." He referred to Elizabeth as "the undoubted heir of that famous king of immortal memory, Edward IV." The bull arrived in England in June, and copies of it, printed in Holborn by William Machlin, were distributed.8 Henry VII was at Worcester when the dispensation was brought to him, and he was present in Worcester Cathedral on Trinity Sunday to hear John Alc.o.c.k, Bishop of Worcester, read it, proclaiming to all that "understanding of the long and grievous variance, contentions, and debates that hath been in this realm of England between the House of the Duchy of Lancaster on the one party, and the House of the Duchy of York on the other party," and "willing all such divisions to be put apart, by the counsel and consent of his College of Cardinals," His Holiness had approved, confirmed, and established "the matrimony and conjunction made between our sovereign lord, King Henry VI of the House of Lancaster of that one party, and the n.o.ble Princess Elizabeth of the House of York of that other, with all their issue lawfully born between the same." A copy was presented to the Queen at Sheen, and the text was printed, circulated, and read out in pulpits throughout the realm "for conservation of the universal peace and eschewing of slanders."9 When the King was at Coventry Cathedral on St. George"s Day, John Morton, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, and many other bishops, all in their pontifical vestments, "read and declared the Pope"s bulls, touching the King"s and Queen"s right, and there in the choir, in the bishop"s seat, by the authority of the same bulls, cursed with book, bell, and candle all those that did anything contrary to their right, and approving their t.i.tles good."10 In a third bull of dispensation, issued on July 23,11 the Pope confirmed that "if it please G.o.d that the said Elizabeth (which G.o.d forbid) should decease without issue between our sovereign lord and her of their bodies born, then such issue as between [the King] and her whom after that G.o.d shall join him to shall be had and born inheritors to the same crown and realm of England." In other words, Henry"s t.i.tle, and his children"s right to the succession, did not depend on his marriage to Elizabeth, but was vested in him independently. It was through him, not his wife, that the crown would descend. Again, Elizabeth"s t.i.tle to the throne had been slighted, while this bull confirmed Henry"s t.i.tle and threatened anyone challenging it with excommunication.
That summer, after suppressing "tumultuous sedition" in the North,12 Henry returned south via Worcester, Hereford, Gloucester, and Bristol, rejoining Elizabeth at Sheen.13 By now she would have begun loosening the front laces of her bodice as her pregnancy began to show. There was no concept of antenatal care in those days, and a midwife would not have been engaged until near the time of the expected confinement. On June 5 the royal couple traveled by barge to Westminster for London"s official welcome.14 Andre says that "while the Queen was close to delivery," Henry was administering affairs from Windsor. At the end of August the King and Queen moved to Winchester,15 the ancient capital of England, where Henry wanted his heir to be born, for he believed it to be the site of Camelot, King Arthur"s fabled seat, and that being born there would be portentous for the prince who would bring a new golden age to England.
In Winchester Castle there was a round table, said to be King Arthur"s, but in fact dating from the mid-thirteenth century. It has been said that the Queen wished to give birth in the castle but that it proved inconvenient, so she moved instead to St. Swithun"s Priory, the ancient Benedictine monastery founded in AD 64243, attached to Winchester Cathedral. However, the city of Winchester was by then depopulated and run-down, and the castle in decline, the last major works having been undertaken in the fourteenth century,16 so it is likely that the Queen had intended all along to be confined in the priory, where most of the buildings dated from the later Middle Ages.
Prior Thomas Hunton gave Elizabeth the use of the luxurious Prior"s House, now the Deanery. It was originally built in the thirteenth century, from which time the triple-lancet-arched porch survives, but was largely reconstructed in the seventeenth century after becoming derelict. The Prior"s House stood at the southeast corner of the Great Cloister, on the edge of Little Cloister. It had a vaulted ground floor, above which was the Prior"s Chapel. Adjoining the house was his great hall with its magnificent timber roof, erected in 145960. Here, Elizabeth established her small court, with her mother, her sisters, and the Lady Margaret in attendance. "The prior"s great hall was the Queen"s chamber."17 While Elizabeth rested, the King took advantage of the good hunting to be had nearby in the New Forest, braving the torrential rains that swept the land as autumn approached.18 Records survive of the expenditure laid out by the King on items for Elizabeth in preparation for her confinement, "both for her own use and also for the removal of the Queen to the city of Winchester, and afterward for the taking of her chamber before the birth, and also toward the birth, as in divers robes and divers other ornaments pertaining to the said lady Queen": lengths of cloth of scarlet and of various other colors, white woolen cloth and cloth of frieze (a coa.r.s.er woolen cloth); thirty-three timbers of whole ermines; thirty-nine timbers of ermine backs; 2 timbers of ermine bellies; one pane (piece) of ermine; forty-nine timbers and fifteen bellies of pure miniver; 13 timbers of "lettuce" ("letoux") miniver, which was white or pale gray; powderings of bogy; 66 yards of cloth of "doubly set" velvet, probably having a two-pile warp; 42 yards of "singly set velvet"; 1 yards and three separate "nails" (yards) of cloth of gold; 23 yards of damask; 5 yards of satin; 230 yards of sarcenet, to be furred with ermine and miniver; pieces of buckram, worsted, and fustian (a thick woven cloth of wool, Egyptian cotton, or linen); 440 ells of Holland linen cloth for napkins and kerchiefs; 119 ells of canaber cloth, a linen cloth for making hose; 4 ounces of silk; two pounds and twelve ounces of silk ribbon; one pound of gold-colored silk ribbon; fringe of silk and Venice gold; thread, cord, down, and wool. Among "divers other things necessary for the said Queen" were a chair of state, two beds, fourteen pommels of cypress wood, gilded; gilt nails, rings of lacquered iron, skins of leather, iron hammers, two pounds of feathers, four fustian cushions, seventeen yards of waxed linen, and two saddles covered with velvet.19 As much importance was accorded to the maintenance of the Queen"s royal estate during her confinement as to practical essentials.
Benjamin Digby, page of the Queen"s bed, was paid 16s.8d. "for preparing certain stuffs for the lady Queen against the nativity of the lord Prince," while Thomas Swan, his colleague, received 40s. "for the making of divers bearing sheets [infant mantles] of Holland cloth."20 There was no question of Elizabeth taking charge of her own confinement. Even though childbirth was an exclusively female preserve, even for queens, it was the King who regulated ceremonial affairs in the royal household. On December 31, 1494, evidently inspired by Olivier de la Marche"s L"etat de la Maison de Charles de Bourgogne, commissioned by Edward IV in 1473 to facilitate the establishment of fashionable Burgundian protocols at his court, Henry drew up a series of ordinances governing the running of the royal household and laying down the ceremonials to be observed there. These included "ordinances as to what preparation is to be made against the deliverances of the Queen, as also for the christening of the child when she shall be delivered"; ordinances that were to be observed for many decades to come.21 There is no evidence that they were drawn up by Margaret Beaufort, as is often stated, although it is likely that she was consulted. Elizabeth herself may also have contributed her views.
Little is known of royal birth conventions prior to the late fifteenth century, but Henry"s ordinances were modeled on procedures laid down in Edward IV"s "Royal Book"22 of court ceremonial, which had drawn on English, French, and Burgundian court ritual: we know that certain formalities had evolved in regard to royal confinements, for in 1456, Isabella of Portugal, d.u.c.h.ess of Burgundy, had consulted a book about the estates of France before preparing chambers for the confinement of her daughter-in-law.23 Henry VII himself expanded on the dictates of the "Royal Book," which may have been based on the court ceremonial of the Lancastrian kings. Even if Elizabeth"s earlier confinements were not conducted according to the 1494 ordinances, she would have been subject to similar provisions laid down in the "Royal Book" for her mother, with which she was no doubt familiar. These determined the color and quality of the furnishings for her chamber and bed, which was to be made up with pillows of down and a scarlet counterpane bordered with ermine, velvet, or cloth of gold.24 Henry VII"s ordinances of 1494 reflected and formalized existing practice-it is stated in places that they were laid down "after the old custom"-and doubtless they embellished it. They provided for "the furniture of Her Highness"s chamber, and the furniture appertaining to her bed, how the church shall be arrayed against the christening, [and] how the child shall go to be christened."25 The King decreed: "As to the deliverance of a queen, it must be known what chamber she will be delivered in, by the Grace of G.o.d; and that chamber must be hanged with rich Arras [tapestry], the roof, side, and windows, all except one window, and that must be hanged so she may have light when it pleaseth her." The room was also to have "a royal bed therein, the floor laid with carpets over and over with a fair pallet bed, with all the stuff belonging thereto, with a rich sperner [bed canopy] hanging over; and there must be a cupboard set fair, covered with the same suit that the chamber is hanged withal." Over the doorway was to be hung a "traverse [curtain] of damask."26 The "stuff for the Queen"s bed" consisted of "two pairs of sheets of Rennes, either of them of four breadths and five yards long; two long pillows and two square, of fustian stuffed with fine down; a pane of scarlet furred with ermines and bordered with velvet or cloth of gold; a head-sheet of like cloth furred in like wise; a counter[pane] of fine lawn of five breadths and six yards long; and hinder [bottom] sheet of the same lawn, four breadths and five yards long."27 The bed linen would have been sweetly perfumed with flowers and herbs. The bed was made according to the King"s regulations, which stipulated that the Queen"s ladies and gentlewomen must perform the task to a set routine that involved drawing the bed curtains back, stripping the mattress and shaking it, then laying each cover separately and straightly, and smoothing it down with care, leaving no wrinkles. They would also have tightened the ropes across the bedstead (the origin of the saying "sleep tight"), then laid upon that a canvas cover before plumping the mattress in place. The curtains would have been drawn to conserve warmth, and the bed sprinkled with holy water.
The pallet bed was to be made up with "a feather bed with a bolster of fine down; a mattress stuffed with wool; two long and four short pillows; a pane of fustian of six breadths and five yards long; two pair of sheets of Rennes of four breadths and five yards long; two head-sheets of Rennes of two breadths and four yards long; a pane of scarlet furred with ermines, bordered with blue velvet upon blue velvet or cloth of gold; a head-sheet of like color, furred with ermines; a coverture of fine lawn of five breadths and six yards long, a head-sheet of the same lawn of four breadths and five yards long; a sperne[r] of crimson satin, embroidered with crowns of gold, the [King"s and] Queen"s arms and other devices, and lined with double tartaron [or tartaire, silk stuff, originally from Tartary] garnished with fringe of silk and gold and blue and russet, with a round bowl of silver and gilt." Also to be provided were "four cushions covered with crimson damask or cloth of gold" and "a round mantle of crimson velvet, plain, furred with ermines, for the Queen to wear about her in her pallet, and all other things necessary for the same."28 Thus royally robed, she would give birth on the pallet bed, and then be lifted into the great bed for her lying-in period.
An altar with relics was to be placed near the pallet bed, so Elizabeth could hear Ma.s.s after being confessed and shriven before facing the dangers of childbirth, and pray for the protection of G.o.d and His Holy Mother during her coming labor. A court cupboard laden with gold plate for the service of her meals was also placed in the bedchamber.29 The Queen, by custom, withdrew from the world for the duration of her confinement: this was known as "taking to her chamber." Precise instructions were given by the King for the ceremonial to be followed, although he would not be present. "And if it please the Queen to take to her chamber, she shall be brought thither with lords and ladies of estate, and brought into the chapel or church there to be house-led [given Holy Communion]." When Elizabeth took to her chamber in good time for the birth, her mother and Margaret Beaufort headed her attendants, and her elder sisters were probably among their number. Throughout her life, Elizabeth would surround herself with family members, especially her female relations, to whom she was evidently close.30 After Ma.s.s, attended by these ladies, her household, and a throng of courtiers, she proceeded "into the great chamber," seated herself on her chair of estate, and took "spice and wine under the cloth of estate."31 Her chamberlain, the Earl of Ormond, "in a very good voice desired in the Queen"s name all her people to pray G.o.d would send her a good hour," and Elizabeth formally bade farewell to the courtiers. "Two of the greatest estates [led] her into her chamber where she shall be delivered, and then they [took] their leave of the Queen. Then all the ladies and gentlewomen [went] in with her" and she disappeared from public view.32 Childbirth being an exclusively female ritual, "no man [was] to come into the chamber where she shall be delivered." All her male officers were temporarily stood down, for "thenceforth, no manner of officer should come within the Queen"s chamber but only ladies and gentlewomen, according to the old custom that women be made all manner of officers, as butlers, panters (keepers of the pantry), sewers, carvers, cup bearers; and all manner of officers shall bring to them all manner of things to the great chamber door." The only men who might be admitted during the weeks to come were the King and the Queen"s chaplains.
It was at this point that the "gossips" took up residence at court. They were the G.o.dparents, or sponsors, of "such estates both spiritual and temporal as it shall like the King to a.s.sign to be gossips," and they were summoned "to be near the place where the Queen shall be delivered," so that "they may be ready to attend on the young prince or princess to the christening."33 Childbirth was a hazardous event for women in Tudor times. There was a very real chance of either mother or baby dying, and because of the risks, life expectancy for women was around thirty years. It has been estimated that one in forty women perished in childbed, and that the average first marriage lasted five years because of that high mortality rate. There must have been countless other women who were injured or traumatized by childbirth, or left with chronic conditions as a result of it. Male physicians were not normally involved in childbirth, as their presence was thought to upset laboring women; a midwife was in charge of the confinement, but midwives were usually of lowly status, poorly paid, and qualified only by reason of their experience.34 The midwives who served queens in this period seem to have practiced their calling professionally, and were probably more expert at it than most. It was common for female relations, friends, and "gossips" to be present at a birth, to encourage the laboring mother, so it was natural for Elizabeth"s own mother, the Queen Dowager, to join her when she took to her chamber, because mothers often a.s.sisted at their daughters" confinements, many traveling long distances to do so.
Knowledge of the reproductive process was limited, but the practices employed by midwives could be surprisingly modern. Herbal baths were given to relax the expectant mother during the later months.35 Doc.u.mentary evidence suggests that women were encouraged to give birth in a sitting or squatting position. They were encouraged to do breathing exercises for labor, much as they are today, but there was no pain relief beyond opiates such as poppy seeds or infusions made of tansy, parsley, mint, cress, willow leaves and seeds, ivy, birthwort, or the bark of the white poplar. Instead, women relied on the protection of female saints such as St. Margaret of Antioch, to whom they would offer prayers of supplication. Westminster Abbey owned a precious relic, the girdle of the Virgin Mary, which was sometimes lent to queens and high-ranking women, so that they could tie it around themselves in labor, for it was believed to be of special efficacy at such times; and there were girdles of other saints with similar miraculous properties.36 Sometimes a prayer on a long scroll of parchment would be wrapped around the mother as a "birth girdle."37 Despite all these practices, many women would have suffered the unmitigated pain of natural labor.
The baby was supposed to arrive within twenty contractions. If it took longer, certain remedies might be essayed to open up the womb, such as opening doors and cupboards, untying knots, or unlocking chests.38 It is hardly surprising that childbirth was an ordeal in those days-and it was an ordeal that many women faced on a yearly basis; Elizabeth was to suffer it seven times.
"Afore one o"clock after midnight" on the morning of St. Eustace"s Day, September 20, 1486, as Margaret Beaufort"s scribe noted in her Book of Hours,39 "the Queen was delivered of a fair prince,"40 to the great joy of the King and his subjects high and low. A ma.n.u.script drawing in the "Beauchamp Pageant" of ca. 148387 shows the birth of Henry VI to Katherine of Valois, wife of Henry V, in 1421, but the costumes and interior are those of the 1480s and reflect the kind of arrangements in place at the time of Elizabeth"s first confinement. The picture depicts the Queen, crowned (although she would not have been in reality), lying in a great bed, tended by four ladies, one of whom holds the swaddled infant, who is also crowned; another smooths the sheets; at the doorway a third lady pa.s.ses on the good news of the birth to a messenger waiting outside.41 Bacon states that Elizabeth"s son "was strong and able, though he was born in the eighth month, which the physicians do prejudge," while Fuller describes him as "vital and vigorous, contrary to the rules of physicians." To have been born at full term, he would have had to be conceived between December 29 and January 6, but his parents had not married until January 18. It is possible that Henry and Elizabeth had preempted their nuptial vows; as we have seen, once a precontract was made, it was acceptable for couples to consummate their union, after which society regarded them as legally wed. Elizabeth had been honored as Queen from December 1485, so maybe she and Henry began sleeping together at that time. Many couples of lesser rank did not bother with a formal marriage ceremony, but for royalty, of course, it was crucial for the avoidance of doubt over the succession. Even if the King and Queen had waited until after their wedding, their child might have been only about two to three weeks premature.
However, other evidence tends to corroborate the statement that he was born at eight months, and suggests that Bacon and Fuller were making flattering a.s.sumptions; the accounts of the bishops of Winchester for 14868742 show that the prince"s nursery household was established for at least the first six months of his life at Farnham, Surrey, halfway between Winchester and London, because he was weak and needed careful nursing until he was strong enough to be moved to London and the palaces of the Thames Valley. William Wayneflete, the Bishop of Winchester, had died the previous month, but the man who was already designated his successor, the aristocratic Peter Courtenay, Bishop of Exeter, was in Winchester for the prince"s christening, and it was probably at his suggestion that the concerned parents decided to send their little son to Farnham. Courtenay, a loyal Yorkist, had been in the service of Edward IV, so may have been familiar to Elizabeth in her younger days. He had joined Buckingham"s rebellion against Richard III, then fled to Brittany to join Henry Tudor, who later rewarded him handsomely, making him keeper of the Privy Seal. The King and Queen would have been grateful to entrust the well-being of their heir to such a loyal supporter.
In her hour of triumph, Elizabeth was in a weak state. She may have caught an infection during parturition, as she is recorded as suffering an ague43-an acute fever-during her lying-in period. The importance of hygiene during childbirth was not fully understood until the nineteenth century, even in royal households, and unwashed hands and instruments not infrequently gave rise to fatal infections such as puerperal fever.44 It was not until the sixteenth century that midwives were urged to wash their hands and remove rings before delivering a baby.
Although Henry and Elizabeth must have felt concern over the health of their child, it surely seemed to them that, in vouchsafing the blessing of a male heir, G.o.d had smiled upon the marriage that united Lancaster and York. Henry named his son Arthur, "in honor of the British race"45 and after the hero-king of legend, in order to underline his much vaunted (but mythical) descent from King Arthur and his dynasty"s links with the ancient rulers of Britain; and because his infant heir had been born at Winchester, "where King Arthur kept his court."46 Above all, he chose the name because it epitomized a universally revered heroic and powerful ideal. "Englishmen no more rejoiced over that name than other nations and foreign princes quaked, so much was the name terrible and formidable to all nations."47 It resonated with their burgeoning nationalism, with its promise that the Tudors were ushering in a new Arthurian age of greatness.
The tiny Prince Arthur, already styled Duke of Cornwall, was bathed, swaddled, and laid in one of the two cradles that had been made for him, the one "fair set forth by painter"s craft" in fine gold-"the little cradle of tree" with buckles that could be attached to his swaddling bands. This was in everyday use. The other cradle, which stood in his outer chamber under a cloth-of-gold canopy, was only "used on state occasion. Furnished with great magnificence," it was five feet six inches long and two feet six inches wide, and was "graven with the King and Queen"s arms" and made up with luxurious bedding of crimson cloth of gold, scarlet, ermine, and blue velvet.48 Yeomen of the Queen"s chamber were immediately dispatched with the "comfortable and good tidings" of the birth to "all the estates and cities of the realm," and the King gave orders for church bells to be rung throughout the land. The Te Deum was sung in churches in thanksgiving, and in the streets people lit bonfires "in praise and rejoicing" and "every true Englishman" celebrated the joyful news.49 On a cold, wet Sunday, September 24, four-day-old Arthur was borne to his christening in Winchester Cathedral. Because so many infants died young, it was customary to have them baptized soon after birth. By tradition, the King and Queen did not attend: Elizabeth, of course, was still lying in, and the King kept no "day of estate," as a christening was seen as "a deed of alms."50 It was the G.o.dparents-or sponsors-who had important parts to play, while the ceremonial was ordered by the King. It is a measure of Henry"s grat.i.tude to Elizabeth-and no doubt of his desire for a display of amity and unity-that her mother and other members of the Wydeville family were a.s.signed prominent roles, while the high-profile presence of Elizabeth"s Yorkist relations was a public acknowledgment of Arthur as the heir to both York and Lancaster, and proclaimed their endors.e.m.e.nt of the legitimacy of the Tudor dynasty. It also showed that in return for their loyalty, Henry was ready to treat them with the honor their blood deserved.
The christening was held up because John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, one of the G.o.dfathers, had been delayed on his way from Lavenham, Suffolk, because of the stormy weather, which had turned the roads into quagmires. After waiting for him in vain for three hours, the King gave the order for the procession to form in Elizabeth"s great chamber. "My Lady Cecily, the Queen"s eldest sister, bare the Prince, [who was] wrapped in a mantle of crimson cloth of gold furred with ermine and with a train" that Sir John Cheyney helped to support. Cecily was attended by her eleven-year-old sister Anne and supported by the Marquess of Dorset and the Earl of Lincoln. It was thought proper that the prince"s train should be borne by an earl, so Lincoln may