another at that period, as England and Japan have
at the present.

The ensuing day, the festival of St. James, the patron saint of Spain,
was the one appointed for the marriage. Philip exchanged his usual
simple dress for the bridal vestments provided for him by his mistress.
They were of spotless white, as the reporter is careful to inform us,
satin and cloth of gold, thickly powdered with pearls and precious
stones. Round his neck he wore the superb collar of the Golden Fleece,
the famous Burgundian order; while the brilliant riband below his knee
served as the badge of the no less illustrious order of the Garter. He
went on foot to the cathedral, attended by all his nobles, vying with
one another in the ostentatious splendor of their retinues.

Half an hour elapsed before Philip was joined by the queen at the
entrance of the cathedral. Mary was surrounded by the lords and ladies
of her court. Her dress, of white satin and cloth of gold, like his own,
was studded and fringed with diamonds of inestimable price, some of
them, doubtless, the gift of Philip, which he had sent to her by the
hands of the prince of Eboli, soon after his landing. Her bright-red
slippers, and her mantle of black velvet, formed a contrast to the rest
of her apparel, and, for a bridal costume, would hardly suit the taste
of the present day. The royal party then moved up the nave of the
cathedral, and were received in the choir by the bishop of Winchester,
supported by the great prelates of the English Church. The greatest of
all, Cranmer, the primate of all England, who should have performed the
ceremony, was absent,--in disgrace and a prisoner.

Philip and Mary took their seats under a royal canopy, with an altar
between them. The queen was surrounded by the ladies of her court; whose
beauty, says an Italian writer, acquired additional lustre by contrast
with the shadowy complexions of the south.[104] The aisles and spacious
galleries were crowded with spectators of every degree, drawn together
from the most distant quarters to witness the ceremony.

The silence was broken by Figueroa, one of the imperial council, who
read aloud an instrument of the emperor, Charles the Fifth. It stated
that this marriage had been of his own seeking; and he was desirous that
his beloved son should enter into it in a manner suitable to his own
expectations and the dignity of his illustrious consort. He therefore
resigned to him his entire right and sovereign