E X T E N S I O N ELIZABETH S CHRISTENING The 7th of September 1533, being a Sunday, between three and four in the afternoon, the Queen Anne was delivered of 1 a fair lady; for whose good deliverance Te Deum was sung incontinently, and great preparation was made for the Christening. The Mayor and forty of the Chief Citizens, were commanded to be at the Christening the following Wednesday. Upon which day the Mayor in a gown2 of crimson velvet and all the aldermen3 in scarlet, with collars and chains, and all the Council of the City with them, took their barge4 at one o clock, and the Citizens had another barge, and so rowed to Greenwich, where were many Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen assembled. All the walls between the King s Palace and the Fryers were hanged with arrass5, and all the way strewed6 with green rushes. The Fryers Church was also hanged with rich arrass: the font was of silver, and stood in the midst of the church three steps high and it was covered with a fine cloth. Betweene the queere7 and body of the church was a close place with a pan of fire, to make the Childe readie in. When all these thinges were ordered, the Childe was brought to the hall, and then every man set forward. The old Dutches of Norfolke bore the Childe in a mantle of purple velvet, with a long traine furred with ermine. The God-father8 was Lorde Thomas Archhyshoppe of Canterburie; the God-mothers were the olde Dutchesse of Norfolke, and the olde Marchionesse of Dorset, Widdowes, and the Childe was named Elizabeth, and after that all things were done at the church doore, the Child was brought to the font, and christened. Then was brought in wafers, confects, and ipocrasse9, in such plentie, that every man had as much as he woulde desire: then they set for warde, the trumpets afore going in the same order toward the Kinges pallace . (from a contemporaney account of Elizabeth s Christening) 1. was delivered of: gave birth to. 2. gown: dress. 3. alderman: a member of a municipal body. 4. barge: flat-bottomed boat. 5. arrass: rich tapestry. 6. strewed (strew-strewed-strewn): scattered. 7. queere: old use, choir. 8. god-father: a man who serves as a sponsor for a child at a baptism. 9. ipocrasse: old use, hippocrass, spiced wine. 19