Elizabeth I’s Progress to Cambridge University, 1564: Preparations at Greenwich.

In the Progress to Cambridge University, 1564 series:

The host is notified

Preparations at Greenwich

The Host Makes Ready

Final Inspections

Her Arrival

Preparations for a royal progress were daunting. They would have been even more so if a system hadn’t been instituted over the centuries. That system changed from reign to reign and even progress to progress. The general principles, however, remained much the same.

Among the matters about which we can be sure, monarchs did not travel light. Queen Elizabeth would be accompanied by half-a-dozen lords, their ladies, the numerous  servants of each, a score or more or ladies-in-waiting, her physicians, personal attendants, and various officers of her household and clerks. The Queen’s furniture and a healthy selection of hangings displaying her royal crest would travel with her and give her lodgings a familiar and regal touch.

These items would travel to her destination on two-wheeled carts pulled by mules. Presumably, they would be at the front of the long train of such carts carrying the courtiers and all of the baggage expected to fill those needs not provided by hosts along the route. Interspersed would be heavily pack mules and “carriage horses”. Carriage horses did not draw carriages, however. They carried loads. They were trained to walk side-by-side saddled together with a rectangular platform upon which particularly large burdens were placed.

While carriages-in-the-modern-sense had just begun to be a feature of noble life there were almost no roads fit for them to travel even around London. They could never have survived a 60+ mile trek to Cambridge over rutted and sometimes nearly nonexistent roads. Even by the time of Charles I, carriages had only the most limited ambit.

In amongst it all, grooms attended to the sometimes headstrong chargers that would be spared the burden of a rider during the trip and to the hackney and hobby horses that the ladies would ride into their various destinations.

None of the ladies, older gentlemen or attendants were likely to be up to traversing the entire distance on horseback. The Queen herself would ride most of the way on a closely guarded two-wheeled cart. Her arrival in Cambridge upon a royal charger would be accomplished by saddling it just outside the city for her royal entrance. The proud young noblemen beside her had likely ridden the distance on the finest horse available to them.

The higher up in the Court hierarchy the lord or attendant was positioned the more space they would be allotted for their own clothing and furniture. The Royal Court  traveled quite a lot. They knew the drill, as it were. Wherever they settled in, each noble person surely had his or her special touches, small items of furniture and tapestry. Those touches, however, had to be small and light. The courtier’s life involved few personal possessions.  The pageantry and comfort of their lives was provided by their hosts and the common domain of all in accordance with their degree.

This is not to say that the royal stables possessed all of this equipment. It would be ruinously expensive to maintain it all on a permanent basis. They housed enough, in each palace, to attend to normal business. The royal charters granted to each city, town and organization — as well as the conditions placed upon each grant of royal lands  — required them to provide shelter, travel victuals, horses, mules, carts, grass and fodder upon demand. All of this included grooms and drivers. Some of these agreements required provision for free, others at nominal prices. As might be expected, misappropriation and complaints were a constant feature of the system.

Warrants for all the supplies that would be needed were issued by or on the behalf of the Steward of the Royal Household. The officers of the Court would collect or receive them. If necessary, threats of fines or imprisonment would be used to expedite and ensure a proper generosity.

To travel 60 miles in a single day approached the limit of even the hardiest rider. One or more stops would be necessary for a night. While only a corrupted transcription of Elizabeth’s Principal Secretary, Sir William Cecil’s diary seems to be publicly available, it strongly suggests that the retinue stopped over at the recently purchased estate of Cecil, called Theobalds, where some limited itinerary would surely have been planned.  The manor house was more or less a derelict at the time of purchase, in 1563, and couldn’t have been much improved at the time of the progress. It would later be expanded into one of the Queen’s favorite stops along her progresses. Cecil may just have stopped briefly on the way to the nearby town of Enfield where the retinue would stop for perhaps a night or two. Perhaps a week. The manor there had been granted to Elizabeth by Edward VI, when she was a princess, and was apparently sufficient for a short time.

Of course, the servants there would also have received their warrants, and the townspeople, assuring that chambers had been made ready, victuals laid in, stables stocked with provisions for the horses. The Queen would settle into her customary chambers. The retinue would have to be packed-in like sardines in any available corner. Perhaps even in outbuildings. Being a mere stop along the way, there would have been minimal ceremony.

Whether the train was scheduled to stop at Hertford or Cheshunt, for nights further along, there would seem  to be no publicly available record.  The manor at Enfield included a deer park with toils. Elizabeth loved to hunt deer driven into toils[1] by drovers. She was quite proud of her skill with the crossbow in this sport. Robert Dudley and Cecil would both present a goodly number of bucks[2] to their hosts at Cambridge, upon arrival there, which would suggest that the retinue was scheduled to spend the time between July 27 and August 5 at various country pleasures there.

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[1] Toils were long, heavy nets drawn up in order to corral deer inside.

[2] Peck, Francis. Desiderata Curiosa, II.vii.267 “This day Mr. Chancellor called the vice-chancellor to dinner, with the bedells. And afterwards sent to them five bucks, to bestowe upon the university. He also sent one unto the bedells. Also the Lord Robert sent ten for that purpose & end.”

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• Sir Henry Bedingfeld’s Notes Regarding Princess Elizabeth in The Tower. February 7, 2021. “Itm, hir grace to have lib'tee to walke in the Gardeyn when so ever she doth comaunde, forenoone and afternoone,…”
• Gutenberg, proto-Hack Writers and Shakespeare. May 26, 2020. “A less well known effect of the Reformation was that many young Catholic men who had taken religious orders in order to receive an education began to lead lives at large from monastic discipline.  Like Erasmus and Rabelais they took up the pen.”
• Gossip as History: The Murder of Amy Robsart. February 17, 2020. "The first sudden death Leicester was rumored to have caused was that of his wife, Amy Robsart, in 1560. In that year, it was still not clear whether the Queen would marry. But certainly not her beloved Leicester if he were married."
• Gossip as History: Anne Boleyn, Part 1.  November 8, 2019. “This is more than just gossip, I submit.  It is a vital part of the historical record.”
• 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 Letters Index: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.