Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [117]
According to the Scotsman John Elder, who was present at court, Philip struck observers in England as the image of a true king:
Of visage he is well favoured … with a broad forehead, and grey eyes, straight-nosed and manly countenance. From the forehead to the point of his chin, his face groweth small. His pace is princely, and gate [gait] so straight and upright, as he los-eth no inch of his height; with a yellow head and yellow beard. And thus to conclude, he is so well proportioned as nature cannot work a more perfect pattern; and, as I have learned, of the age of 28 years; whose majesty I judge to be of a stout stomach, pregnant-witted and of most gentle nature.14
It was a marriage that promised much, though it remained to be seen whether Mary’s hopes for both a political partnership and a personal union could be realized.
PART FOUR
A King’s Wife
CHAPTER 49
WITH THIS RING I THEE WED
PHILIP AND MARY WERE MARRIED ON JULY 25, 1554, THE FEAST OF Saint James, the patron saint of Spain. It was a marriage intended to recast England in Europe and breed a new line of Catholic princes. And it was the first wedding of a reigning English queen.
The ceremony was one of unparalleled pomp and extravagance. Winchester Cathedral was decorated resplendently with banners, standards, streamers, and tapestries, all emblazoned with Spanish regalia. A raised wooden platform, covered with carpets, reached from the main door of the church to the choir, at its center a dais in the shape of an octagon, the setting of the solemnization of the marriage.1 The arrangements for the wedding were based on those of Mary’s mother’s marriage to Prince Arthur. The ceremony was to be traditional and performed in Latin by Bishop Gardiner, assisted by five other bishops, all attired in copes and miters.
At about eleven in the morning, Philip arrived at the cathedral, accompanied by many Spanish knights and wearing a doublet and hose of white satin, embroidered with jewels, and a mantle of cloth of gold—which Mary had sent him—ornamented with jewels and precious stones, together with the ribbon of the Order of the Garter that had been presented to him at Southampton.2 Half an hour later Mary arrived, dressed in a gown of white satin and a mantle to match Philip’s, which “blazed with jewels to an extent that dazzled those who gazed upon her.” On her breast she wore a piece of jewelry called “La Peregrina,” set with two diamonds, one the gift from Philip in June, the other from Charles V, which had previously been set in the ring given to the Portuguese princess Isabella, whom he had married after breaking off his betrothal to Mary in 1525. Mary’s sword was borne before her—a sign that she was monarch—by the earl of Derby and the marquess of Winchester. The lord chamberlain, Sir John Gage, carried her train.
Once the full party had assembled, Don Juan Figueroa, regent of Naples, handed to Gardiner two pronouncements by which Charles V bestowed on his son the Kingdom of Naples and the Duchy of Milan. Gardiner at once declared to the assembly, “it was thought the Queen’s Majesty should marry but with a prince; now it was manifested that she should marry with a King.”3 Then the banns were bidden in Latin and in English, with Gardiner declaring that if “any man knoweth of any lawful impediment between the two parties, that they should not go together according to the contract concluded between the both realms, then they should come forth, and they should be heard.”
According to the official account recorded by the