Queen Mary enters the city. 3 Aug.
On the evening of the 3rd August Queen Mary made her first entry into the city, accompanied by her sister Elizabeth. She had come from Newhall, in Essex, where a few days before she had been presented with the sum of £500 in gold by a deputation of the Court of Aldermen accompanied by the Recorder.[1368] On the 2nd August it was decided that the lord mayor and his brethren should ride out the next afternoon to meet her majesty at the Bars without Aldgate, and taking their places appointed by the herald-of-arms, should accompany the royal procession.[1369] The reception which the new queen met with in the city must have been gratifying. The mayor, on approaching her, handed to her the civic sword, which was given to the Earl of Arundel to carry before her. The mayor himself bore the mace. By express permission of the Court of Aldermen a[pg 457] number of Florentine and other merchant strangers were allowed to attend on horseback, and to erect a pageant at Leadenhall.[1370] The whole length of the streets through which the queen had to pass on her way to the Tower had been lavishly decorated, and was lined with members of the various civic companies in their livery gowns. Nothing was omitted that could please the eye or ear.[1371]
A touching scene took place as Mary was about to enter the Tower. The widow of the Duke of Somerset, to whose policy as protector Mary had offered a steady opposition, met the queen at the Tower gate, and in company with the Duke of Norfolk, Stephen Gardiner and others, who had been confined in the Tower in the late reign, knelt down and saluted her. Mary, in a charitable mood, kissed each of them, claimed them as her own prisoners, and shortly afterwards granted them their liberty.[1372]
Mary releases the bishops and restores the mass.
A week later (10 Aug.) the remains of the late king were carried from Whitehall to Westminster and laid in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, the service being conducted wholly in English, the communion taking the place of the mass, and the priests being vested in a surplice only, in accordance with the provisions of the Book of Common Prayer. For a short time after Mary's accession it was thought that she would be content if the Church were restored to the position it was in at the time when Henry VIII died. It was not long before the new queen shewed this opinion to be erroneous. The Prayer Book of King[pg 458] Edward VI was set aside, the high altars that had been removed were restored, and mass was restored. Ridley was sent to the Tower and Bonner brought out from the Marshalsea and reinstated in the bishophric of London. Gardiner, who had been deprived of his see of Winchester and kept prisoner in the Tower, not only recovered his freedom and his see, but was made the queen's chancellor. On the other hand, Cranmer and "Mr. Latimer" were sent to the Tower.
Disturbances in the city.
The change that was being wrought caused some little disturbance in the city. When Doctor Bourne, who had been put up by the queen to preach at Paul's Cross one Sunday in August, began to pray for the dead, and to refer to Bonner's late imprisonment, one of his hearers threw a knife at him whilst others called the preacher a liar. The queen was so angry at this that she sent for the mayor and aldermen and told them plainly that she would deprive the city of its liberties if they could not better preserve peace and good order within its walls.[1373]
A few days later she issued a proclamation in which, whilst making no secret of her wish that everyone would conform to the religion "which all men knew she had of long tyme observed, and ment, God willing, to contynue the same," she deprecated men calling each other heretic or papist, but willed that everyone should follow the religion he thought best until further orders were taken.[1374] The mayor in the meantime had also issued his precept against any sermon or lecture being read other than the Divine[pg 459] Service appointed until the queen's further pleasure should be made known.[1375]
Lest any disturbance should arise on the following Sunday (20 Aug.), when Bishop Gardiner's chaplain was to preach at Paul's Cross, the queen sent the captain of the guard with 200 men, who surrounded the pulpit, halberd in hand. The mayor, too, had ordered the livery companies to be present "to herken yf any leude or sedicious persons made any rumors"—a precaution which much pleased the queen.[1376]
Election of Thomas White mayor, 29 Sept., 1553.