Bedingfeld’s Remembrances of Princess Elizabeth’s Journey to Woodstock, May 1554.

In this series:

• Queen Mary I to Princess Elizabeth, January 26, 1553 [1554 N.S.]
• Sir Henry Bedingfeld’s Notes Regarding Princess Elizabeth in The Tower.
• Bedingfield’s Remembrances of Princess Elizabeth’s Journey to Woodstock, May 1554.
• Queen Mary I to Henry Bedingfeld, 21 May 1554. Instructions for care of Princess Elizabeth at Woodstock.

Princess Elizabeth was released from her imprisonment in The Tower, on May 20, 1554, and transported to the palace at Richmond where Queen Mary was then in residence. The Queen “offered her pardon and liberty, on condition of her accepting the hand of Philibert of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont, in marriage”[1]. The Princess refused.

As a consequence, her servants were discharged by the Queen. Elizabeth feared this might indicate that she was about to be executed. Her gentleman usher went to Lord Tame to ask if it was so. According to Strickland, he received the following answer. ‘”Marry, God forbid!” exclaimed Lord Tame, “that any such wickedness should be intended, which rather than it should be wrought, I and my men will die at her feet.”’[2]

This next morning she was embarked for the royal lodgings at Woodstock in the custody of her keeper, in The Tower, Sir Henry Bedingfield, accompanied at various stages by fifty horsemen and a number of knights whose estates lay along the way. The following are notes Bedingfield kept by way of record of the events of the journey and give us an unusually detailed account for the times.

A rememberunce of hyr gracs Jo^urneye from M. Dormers house in Westwyekh[a]m unto the lorde Wyllms house, the xxij^th daye off maye.

 

Ffyrst, hir grace entered the lytter at the halle doore off Wyllm Dormer, takeng hyr leve off y^e Ladie Dormer and hir doughter, the quenes M^astie mayde, w^thin whyche place su[m] women dydde beholde hyr entree in to the lytter, and w^thoute the gate were some more people to beholde, and passyng thorough [one] Corner off the sayde toune, where she was lykewyse scene and spoken unto; thus safelye she passed w^thoute [any] grette [meeting] w^th unto a towne called Aston, where su[m] people looked on hyr passyng, and foure repa[i]red to the churche and range the bells, w^ch were, by order of the lorde Wyllyams, S^r henrye Bed., and S^r Wyllm Dormer, putte in warde[3] prese[n]tlye; and thus hir grace passed to the lorde Wyllms house,[4] whether c[er]tayn people were gathered to see hyr, into the chambers in the inner Courte, and alighted oute off hyr lytter at the hall doore, where the Ladie Wyllms, w^th other gentlwomen, dydde entertayn hyr grace; ffrom whence she passed directlye to hyr lodgyng, from the w^th she sturred not untyll she had supped, when she called for the lorde Wyllms, S^r henrye Bed., and S^r Wyllm Dormer to awayte hyr plesure in the utter chamber off the three, with whom she talked.

Itm, she hadde the ladye Wyllms w^th hyr at Supper, whoe remayned there tyll y^e [livery] was s[er]ved.

A rememberunce off hyr entertaynm^t at the Lord Wyllms, and hir [j]o^rneye from thense to Woodestocke, the xxiij off maye.

 

Ffyrst, hyr grace was mervolouslye well entertayned, as well in hyr diet as lodgyng, in whyche she co[n]tinued all that nyght w^thoute [any] removyng.

Itm, at the house off the sayde lorde Wylliams, [betwixt] the hower of viij and nyne [of] the clocke in the morning foloweng, hyr grace desyred to goo into the gardeyn there. Uppon hyr wayted thither S^r henrye Bed., w^th the ladies and gentlewomen appoynted to hir grace, where havyng nooe shadowe[5], she desyred to passe to an other garden on the weste syde off the house, where lykewise fynding noe shadowe, she, by hyr desyer, passed to the Orcharde off the same, all by p[ri]vye wayes, and there spendyng the tyme, &c.

Itm, after masse don[e], hir lyke desyer was to go into the grette galerie thorough the grette Chamber; and beeng lykewyse attended uppon by s^r henrye Bed. and the ladies, w^th other appoynted to hir grace, the sayde grette chamber [voided of] the other people, she passed to the same Galerie; w^thin the doore of the same galerie there awayted hyr coming [one] Edmonde, s[er]vnte unto hir grace, whooe abydeth at the house off y^e sayde lorde "Wylliams, and by leve the nyght before caried a dysh to the doore off the dyneng Chamber.

Itm, at hir gracs dep[ar]tyng from the lorde Wyllms hyr grace tooke hir leve at the foote off the stayer from the p[a]lo^r of the ladye Wyllms and all other the gentlewomen there and so passed thorough the hall, and at the doore off the samc tooke hir lytter, where sum peple dydde beholde hyr, and w^thoute the gate su[m] moore.

Itm, passyng by the towne off Whatleye, there all the people awayted hir passyng w^th godde save yo^r grace.

Itm, lyke was used at Stanton saynte Jone.

Itm, half a myle on that syde [of] Islyppe there was a number off men & chyldren off the same towne fetchyng hom to the use off the churche, as thei sayde, gyven to them by the lorde off the same, a [load] off woode, and accordyng to their use, as theye sayde, to be drawen hom[e] by the strenght off men draweng in tracs, and havyng w^th them for their furder sporte a mynstrelle, whom at hyr comyng bye she dydde a lyttle beholde, and thei salutyng hyr she passed on the waye, and at y^e brydge off the same towne the women off the toune were redye to beholde hyr grace.

Itm, at Goswurth hir comyng was lykewyse looked for, from whense she passed streyght to Woodestock; and at the parke gate awayted hyr comyng the fosters & kepers off the parke, and at the gate off the house were su[m] peple gathered where also stoode w^thin the same gate Syxe [of] the [keepers] off the same house, we opened w^th forest bylls, at whyche gate she entered and passed towards hyr lodgyng after hyr lyghtyng oute off the lytter, after whyche tyme she sturred [not] that nyght

M^d that at hir comyng to Woodestock there was onlye p[re]pared for hyr grace fower Chambers hanged w^th the quenes stuff and hir grac[e]s owen."

Itm, that in the hoole house there were butte three doors onelye that were able to be locked and barred, to the grette disquiet and treble off mynde off the p[er]sons comaunded to attende upon hir grace in so large an house and unacqu[ai]nted countraye.

Itm, the lorde Willms and S^r leonard Chamberlayne, whoe hadde awayted upon hir grace all the same iourneye frome Rychemonde to Wodestocke, havyng In nombre iiij^xx and x horsemen by estimacōn, dydde lye that nyght them selves at the lodge in Woodestocke parke, and there supped that nyght and dyned the nexte daye.

Itm, that my lorde Willms cam unto my ladies grace, aboute tooe off the clocke in the afternoone uppon the xxiiij^th off maye, and tooke hys leve off hyr, and so dep[ar]ted to hys owen house.

 

---

[1] Strickland, Agnes. The Life of Queen Elizabeth (1906). 91.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Prevented from continuing.

[4] At Ricot, Oxfordshire.

[5] shade

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• Excerpts from Letters about the Origin of the 1563 Plague. January 17, 2021.  “on the progress of the conflict between Queen Elizabeth I’s forces and those of the French Regent, the Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici.”
• A Thousand Years of English Terms.  June 2, 2019.  ‘One person did not say to another, “Meet you at three o’clock”.    There was no clock to be o’.  But the church bell rang the hour of Nones and you arranged to meet “upon the Nones bell”.’
• A Most Curious Account of the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth I: April 28, 1603.  April 28, 2019.  “Once it was clear that James I would face no serious challenges, Cecil and the others could begin to give attention to the matter of the Queen’s funeral.”
• The Battle Over Shakespeare's Early and Late Plays. September 24, 2018. “The answers to the post-Oxford dilemma, of course, are three.”
• Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
• Check out the English Renaissance Letter Index for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.