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The Funeral of Elizabeth of York, Wife of Henry VI
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The Funeral of Elizabeth of York, Wife of Henry VII
[1503]
WHEN the news of Elizabeth's decease spread through the
city, the utmost sorrow was manifested among all ranks
of her subjects. The bells of St. Paul's tolled
dismally, and were answered by those of every church
and religious house in the metropolis or its
neighborhood. Meantime the queen was embalmed at the
Tower; for this purpose were allowed "sixty ells of
holland cloth, ell broad; likewise gums, balms, spices,
sweet wine, and wax; with which, being sered, the
king's plumber closed her in lead, with an epitaph
likewise in lead, showing who and what she was. The
whole was chested in boards covered with black velvet,
with a cross of white damask." The day after the
queen's demise, Sunday, February 12, her corpse was
removed from the chamber where she died to the chapel
within the Tower, under the steps of which then
reposed, unknown to all, the bodies of the queen's two
murdered brothers, Edward V and Richard, Duke of York.
Far different was the order of their sister's royal
obsequies to that dark and silent hour when the
trembling old priest, who had belonged to this very
chapel, raised the princely victims from their
unconsecrated lair, and deposited them secretly within
its hallowed verge. Could the ladies and officers of
arms, who watched around the corpse of their royal
mistress in St. Mary's chapel within the Tower during
the long nights which preceded her funeral, have known
how near was the mysterious resting-place of her
murdered brothers, many a glance of alarm would have
fathomed the beautiful arches, and many a start of
terror would have told when the wintry wind from the
Thames waved the black draperies which hung around.
The Tower chapel was on this occasion what the French
call a chapelle ardente. The
windows were railed about
with burning lights, and a lighted hearse stood in the
choir of the chapel. In this hearse was deposited the
royal corpse, which was carried by persons of the
highest rank, with a canopy borne over it by four
knights; followed by Lady Elizabeth Stafford and all
the maids of honor, and the queen's household, two and
two, "dressed in their plainest gowns," or, according
to another journal, "in the saddest and simplest attire
they had, with threadden handkerchiefs hanging down and
tied under their chins." The Princess Catherine, led by
her brother-in-law, the Earl of Surrey, then entered
the chapel, and took her place at the head of the
corpse: a true mourner was she, for she had lost her
best friend and only protectress. When mass was done
and offerings made, the princess retired. During the
watch of the night, an officer-at-arms said, in a loud
voice, a paternoster for the
soul of the queen at every
kyrie eleison, and an oremus
before the collect.
On the twelfth day after the queen's death, mass was
said in the chapel early in the morning. "Then the
corpse was put in a carriage covered with black velvet,
with a cross of white cloth of gold, very well fringed.
And an image exactly representing the queen was
placed in a chair above in her rich robes of state, her
very rich crown on her head, her hair about her
shoulders, her scepter in her right hand, her fingers
well garnished with rings and precious stones, and on
every end of the chair sat a gentlewoman usher kneeling
on the coffin, which was in this manner drawn by six
horses, trapped with black velvet, from the Tower to
Westminster. On the fore-horses rode two chariotmen;
and on the four others, four henchmen in black gowns.
On the horses were lozenges with the queen's
escutcheons; by every horse walked a person in a
mourning hood. At each corner of the chair was a banner
of Our Lady of the Assumption, of the Salutation, and
of the Nativity, to show the queen died in child-bed;
next, eight palfreys saddled with black velvet, bearing
eight ladies of honor, who rode singly after the corpse
in their slops and mantles; every horse led by a man on
foot, bareheaded but in a mourning gown, followed by
many lords. The lord mayor and citizens, all in
mourning, brought up the rear, and at every door in the
city a person stood bearing a torch. In Fenchurch and
Cheap-side were stationed groups of thirty-seven
virgins,—the number corresponding with the queen's
age, all dressed in white, wearing chaplets of white
and green, and bearing lighted tapers. From Mark-lane
to Temple-bar alone were five thousand torches, besides
lights burning before all the parish churches, while
processions of religious persons singing anthems and
bearing crosses met the royal corpse from every
fraternity in the city." The Earl of Derby, the queen's
old friend, led a procession of nobles, who met the
funeral at Temple Bar. The Abbots of Westminster and
Bermondsey, in
black copes and bearing censers, met and censed the
corpse, and then preceded it to the churchyard of St.
Margaret, Westminster. Here the body was removed from
the car and carried into the abbey. It was placed on a
grand hearse streaming with banners and banneroles, and
covered with a "cloth of majesty," the valance fringed
and wrought with the queen's motto, "Humble and
Reverent," and garnished with her arms. All the ladies
and lords in attendance retired to the queen's great
chamber in Westminster Palace to supper. In the night,
ladies, squires, and heralds watched the body in the
abbey.
The next morning the remains of Elizabeth were
committed to the grave; her sister Catherine attended
as chief mourner. The queen's ladies offered
thirty-seven palls, first kissing them, and then laying
them on the body. Four of these palls were presented by
her sisters, who were all present as mourners. A
funeral sermon was preached by Fitzjames, Bishop of
Rochester, from the text in Job, Miseremini mei,
miseremini mei, saltem vos amici mei, quia manus Domini
tetigit me.
"These words," he said, "he spake in the
name of England, on account of the great loss the
country had sustained of that virtuous queen, her noble
son the Prince Arthur, and the Archbishop of
Canterbury." The palls were then removed from the
coffin, the queen's effigy placed on St. Edward's
shrine, and the ladies quitted the abbey. The prelates,
with the king's chaplains, approached the hearse, and
the grave was hallowed by the Bishop of London: after
the usual rites the body was placed in it.
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