DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0201
TOURNAMENT AT WHITEHALL 175
“ On St. Peter’s Day,” continues Chiericati, “ all the
ambassadors of the league went to court, and the King
heard mass in the Capella Grande below, and wore his
royal robes of brocade and ermine, and a train resplen-
dent with jewels, carried by pages.” But the finest
sight of all was the tournament held on the Feast of
the Translation of St. Thomas of Canterbury, in a
piazza three times as large as that of S. Pietro of Man-
tua, surrounded by walls, with tiers of seats occupied by
thousands of spectators, with two great pavilions of
cloth of gold on either side. The King appeared on
horseback in a white damask surcoat, embroidered with
his device of roses in rubies and diamonds, with a
helmet on his head, and a richly jewelled breast-
plate valued at 300,000 ducats. He was followed by
forty knights on white horses, with bridles and harness
of pure silver, worked in niello with the King and
Queen’s initials and devices, upon which all the gold-
smiths in the city had been employed for the last
four months. “ The Duke of Suffolk [Suforche in
the nuncio’s spelling] rode out at the head of a
similar troop from the opposite pavilion, and when he
met the King in single fight, we seemed to see Hector
and Achilles. After this encounter, the King took
off his armour and appeared in blue velvet, em-
broidered with gold bells, attended by twenty-four
pages in the same livery, and rode before the Queen
on a very tall white horse, prancing and leaping as
it went, and when he had tired out one horse, he
went back to his tent and mounted another.”1
The banquet which followed in the Palace of
Whitehall was on a magnificent scale; the gold and
silver plate piled on the sideboards was worth a
1 B. Morsolin, F. Chiericati, pp. 124-237.
“ On St. Peter’s Day,” continues Chiericati, “ all the
ambassadors of the league went to court, and the King
heard mass in the Capella Grande below, and wore his
royal robes of brocade and ermine, and a train resplen-
dent with jewels, carried by pages.” But the finest
sight of all was the tournament held on the Feast of
the Translation of St. Thomas of Canterbury, in a
piazza three times as large as that of S. Pietro of Man-
tua, surrounded by walls, with tiers of seats occupied by
thousands of spectators, with two great pavilions of
cloth of gold on either side. The King appeared on
horseback in a white damask surcoat, embroidered with
his device of roses in rubies and diamonds, with a
helmet on his head, and a richly jewelled breast-
plate valued at 300,000 ducats. He was followed by
forty knights on white horses, with bridles and harness
of pure silver, worked in niello with the King and
Queen’s initials and devices, upon which all the gold-
smiths in the city had been employed for the last
four months. “ The Duke of Suffolk [Suforche in
the nuncio’s spelling] rode out at the head of a
similar troop from the opposite pavilion, and when he
met the King in single fight, we seemed to see Hector
and Achilles. After this encounter, the King took
off his armour and appeared in blue velvet, em-
broidered with gold bells, attended by twenty-four
pages in the same livery, and rode before the Queen
on a very tall white horse, prancing and leaping as
it went, and when he had tired out one horse, he
went back to his tent and mounted another.”1
The banquet which followed in the Palace of
Whitehall was on a magnificent scale; the gold and
silver plate piled on the sideboards was worth a
1 B. Morsolin, F. Chiericati, pp. 124-237.