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FRANCIS LANCELOTT, ESQ. Queens of England. Vol.1.

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FRANCIS LANCELOTT, ESQ.
Queens of England. Vol.1.
page 354



refuge from the troubles of Scotland to the court of her brother, Henry the Eighth. Queen Margaret remained in England till May, 1517, when she return ed again to Scotland. Just previous to her departure occurred that formidable insurrection of the apprentices and populace of London, which rendered the first of May, 1517, memorable in the annals of the metropolis as the " Evil May Day." The I)uke of Xorfolk, who was sent to quell tbe insurrection, hanged several of the deluded youths before their masters' doors. Two hundred and eighty others, some not more than fourteen years old, were taken prisoners, and, doubtless, would have shared the same fate, but for the intercession of Katherine, who, aided in her mission of mercy by the sister Queens of Scotland and Erance, flew to the King, and on her knees implored him to forgive the misguided youths. " The rioters," says Delaune, " were headed by one Lincoln, who, with a number of others, was hanged; and four hundred more, in their shirts, and bound with ropes, and halters about their necks, were carried to Westminster; but they, crying ' Mercy 1 mercy !' were all pardoned by the King, which clemency gained him much love." In May, 1520, Katherine's nephew, Charles, who had recently been elected Emperor of Germany, on his passage to Flanders, approached the English coast, when, under pretence of paying his respects to the Queen, his aunt, but really to secure the friendship of Henry, and the favour of Wolsey, ho landed at Dover, and proceeded to Canterbury, where the Queen and the court then were, and where this apparently accidental meeting was celebrated, with feasts and rejoicings. After appointing a second meeting in Flanders, the Emperor cmbarked at Sandwich; and, on the fourth of May, the King, the Queen, and the court took shipping at Dover to meet Francis the First of France and his consort, at Ardrcs, a small town near Calais, where tho nobility of both kingdoms displayed their magnificence with such emulation and profuse expense, as procured to the place of interview (an open plain) the name of " The Field of the Cloth of Gold." Henry was lodged in a superb temporary palace, erected on the plain, whilst Francis took up his abode in the castle of Ardres. After arranging an amicable treaty, on terms advantageous to England, the two Kings met in the valley of Andern, and, after embracing, walked arm in arm into a tent of gold, which had been prepared for their reception ; and from this moment commenced a jubilee such as Europe had never witnessed. One unceasing round of jousting, feasting, drinking, music, dancing, and similar amusements continued for a fortnight. Two conduits adjoining the palace continually ran with wine, which was offered without distinction to all comers. People of every grade flocked in thousands to the spectacle. Day after day came vagrants and labourers to drink and carouse, who afterwards lay stretched on the ground in brutal insensibility; and amidst these licentious excesses, Wolsey celebrated high mass, with imposing pageantry. At this solemn service, Wolsey, after having presented to the two monarchs the Gospel and the pix, which each with reverence pressed to his lips, advanced to Queen Katherine, and Claude, the Queen of Erance, who sat side by side in a separate oratory ; but these Princesses, who really felt for each other tho cordial good will which their lords only affected, instead of kissing the pix, tenderly embraced each other, as a pledge of amity, love and concord ; indeed, the intercourse between Katherine and the good Queen Claude appears to have been not merely courteous, but affectionate. During the entertainment they met daily, and, at the final separation, they parted in tears. S Although there was every reason to suppose that Anna Eoleyn, who was then one of the maids of honour to the French Queen, dancedbefore Henry in the masque erformed in compliment to his visit to ,ueenClaude, her presence as yet gave no uneasiness to Katherine. Indeed, Henry, during his continental excursion, appears, by his decorous conduct, to have justified the eulogium which Erasmus had lately bestowed on his conjugal and


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