Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [97]
In the center of the abbey a raised walkway led to the royal stage and then steps to a higher plinth bearing the coronation chair. It had seated every monarch at coronations since Edward the Confessor more than five hundred years before. Now, for the first time, it would seat a queen regnant. Two noblemen led Mary to each corner of the dais so the congregation might see her. To this assembly Gardiner made his address:
Sirs, Here present is Mary, rightful and undoubted inheritrix by the Laws of God and man to the Crown and Royal Dignity of this realm of England, France and Ireland, whereupon you shall understand that this day is appointed by all the peers of this land for the consecration, injunction and coronation of the said most excellent Princess Mary; will you serve at this time and give your wills and assent to the same consecration, unction and coronation?
The gathered throng answered as one: “Yea, yea, yea! God save Queen Mary!”
Mary went before the altar and, as she lay facedown on a velvet cushion, prayers were said over her. From the side of the stage she listened to the sermon of George Day, bishop of Chichester, on the subject of the obedience owed to a monarch. Then, kneeling in front of the altar, Mary prepared to make her oaths, pledging to defend her subjects, maintain peace, and administer justice throughout the realm. She had feared that the oath would be tampered with so that in some way she would be called upon to condone the new religion, and she therefore added the words “just and licit laws” to the traditional form. “Will ye grant to keep to the people of England and others your realms and dominions, the just and licit laws and liberties of this realm and other your realms and dominions?” Mary was asked.2 Then, lying prostrate before the high altar, the choirs sang “Veni Creator Spiritus.”
After the choir quietened, Mary moved to a curtained traverse at the left-hand side of the altar, accompanied by some of her ladies. Here she made her first change of clothing in preparation for her anointing. This, the most solemn part of the ceremony, was intended to mark the monarch with the indelible stigma of divine majesty. Her mantle of crimson velvet was removed, and she returned to the altar in a simple petticoat of purple velvet. She lay again before the altar, a pall held over her by four knights of the Garter, and she was anointed by Bishop Gardiner on her shoulders, breast, forehead, and temples with the holy oil and chrism secretly obtained from Flanders.3 Returning to the traverse dressed in her robes of state, Mary was led to the altar, where she received the ornaments, her symbols of power: the sword, the scepter, and the orbs. She was crowned with the crown of Edward the Confessor, the imperial crown of the realm, and with another specially made for her, a vast yet simply designed crown with two arches, a large fleur-de-lis, and prominent crosses. The choir then burst into a Te Deum.4
Mary was crowned in a fashion similar to her male predecessors: “girt with a sword as when one is armed a knight, and a King’s sceptre was placed in one hand, and in the other a sceptre wont to be given to queens, which is surmounted by doves.”5 Finally, the crimson mantle furred with ermine was fastened on her shoulders. Arrayed in her regalia, Mary was seated in Saint Edward’s Chair, where she received the nobles, led by Gardiner, who paid homage to her as queen.6
At four that afternoon Mary emerged from the abbey as queen of England. Carrying the orb and scepter, which “she twirled and turned in her hand,” she proceeded back along the carpeted path to Westminster Hall for a ceremonial dinner. Gardiner sat to her right, Elizabeth and Anne of Cleves to her left, though