PART FOUR
CHAPTER 49
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 English heralds, Mary was given to Philip “in the name of the whole realm” by the marquess of Winchester and the earls of Derby, Bedford, and Pembroke.4 The pair exchanged vows in Latin and English: “This gold and silver I thee give: with my body I thee worship; and withal my worldly Goods I thee endow.”5 Mary then pledged “from henceforth to be compliant and obedient … as much in mind as in body”—in direct contradiction to Gardiner’s insistence that in the marriage contract Philip must undertake to marry as a subject.6 And whereas Mary endowed Philip with all her “worldly goods,” Philip merely endowed Mary with all his “moveable goods.”7 Her wedding ring “was a round hoop of gold without any stone, which was her desire, for she said she would be married as maidens were in the old time, and so she was.”8
Philip and Mary then proceeded hand in hand under a rich canopy borne by six knights. At the choir, a psalm was sung while the king and queen knelt before the altar, a taper in front of each of them. They then retired to their canopied seats on the raised dais to listen to the Gospels, reemerging to kneel before the altar for Mass. The king of arms solemnly proclaimed Philip and Mary king and queen, declaring their titles and style:
Philip and Mary by the grace of God King and Queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, and Ireland; Defenders of the Faith; Princes of Spain and Sicily; Archdukes of Austria; Dukes of Milan, Burgundy and Brabant; Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol.9
Their joint style had been difficult to agree on. The English Council had strongly resisted Philip being named before the Queen, but he had insisted “that no law, human or divine, nor his Highness’s prestige and good name, would allow him to be named second, especially as the treaties and acts of Parliament gave him the title of King of England.”10 England was now part of a much larger European empire.
AT THREE IN THE afternoon, to the blare of trumpets and cheers of the crowd, the royal couple walked hand in hand—the sword of state borne before the king by the earl of Pembroke—under a canopy back to the queen’s palace for the wedding banquet.11
Philip and Mary took their places at a raised table at the head of four long tables where the Spanish and English nobility were seated. Mary was served on gold plates, Philip on silver to indicate his subordinate status. Musicians played at the end of the hall throughout the banquet. When the feast was over and the queen had drunk a cup of wine to the health and honor of the guests, the party moved to an adjoining hall for dancing and entertainment. There was “such triumphing, banqueting, singing, masking and dancing, as was never seen in England heretofore, by the report of all men.”12 The king then retired to his chamber, the queen to hers, where they dined in private.
The evening ended with the blessing of the marriage bed. As one of Philip’s gentlemen wrote soon after, “the Bishop of Winchester blessed the bed, and they remained alone. What happened that night only they know. If they give us a son, our joy will be complete.”13