of Bohemia. His retinue included Tetzel, who, in describing the
Court of Edward the Fourth, after remarking upon Edward's own handsome
person, says, "The king has the finest set of courtiers that a man may
find in Christendom. He invited my Lord Leo and all his noble
companions, and gave them a very costly feast, and also he gave to
each of them the medal of his order, to every knight a golden one, and
to every one who was not a knight a silver one; and he himself hung
them upon their necks. Another day the king called us to court. In the
morning the queen (Elizabeth Woodville) went from child-bed to church
with a splendid procession of many priests, bearing relics, and many
scholars, all singing, and carrying burning candles. Besides there was
a great company of women and maidens from the country and from London,
who were bidden to attend. There were also a great number of
trumpeters, pipers, and other players, with forty-two of the king's
singing men, who sang very sweetly. Also, there were four and twenty
heralds and pursuivants, and sixty lords and knights. Then came the
queen, led by two dukes, and with a canopy borne over her. Behind her
followed her mother and above sixty ladies and maidens. Having heard
the service sung, and kneeled down in the church, she returned with
the same procession to her palace. Here all who had taken part in the
procession were invited to a feast, and all sat down, the men and the
women, the clergy and the laity, each in his rank, filling four large
rooms. Also, the king invited my lord and all his noble attendants to
the table where he usually dined with his courtiers. And one of the
king's greatest lords must sit at the king's table upon the king's
stool, in the place of the king; and my lord sat at the same table
only two steps below him. Then all the honours which were due to the
king had to be paid to the lord who sat in his place, and also to my
lord; and it is incredible what ceremonies we observed there. While we
were eating, the king was making presents to all the trumpeters,
pipers, players, and heralds; to the last alone he gave four hundred
nobles, and every one, when he received his pay, came to the tables
and told aloud what the king had given him. When my lord had done
eating, he was conducted into a costly ornamented room, where the
queen was to dine, and there he was seated in a corner that he might
see all the expensive provisions. The queen sat down on a golden stool