ABSTRACT
In 1584, the much-travelled Pomeranian aristocrat Lupold von Wedel sailed fromFlushing (Vlissingen) to England. Arriving in London on 17 August, he travelled throughout England and Scotland until the following April. One of the highlights of his visit was his witnessing of the opening of Parliament on 23 November 1584. Wedel watched as the streets near Westminster were prepared for an impressive royal procession from the Palace of Whitehall to the Palace of Westminster where both houses of parliament would meet with the monarch. He saw row upon row of sumptuously dressed knights, lords, royal officials and guards, heralds, trumpeters and servants. Elizabeth wore a crown and her long red velvet parliament robes trimmed with ermine; she rode in a half-canopied litter upholstered with gold and silver cloth. Before her was carried the royal regalia, beside her were the royal bodyguard in tabards of red cloth trimmed with gold, and behind her rode twentyfour gorgeously attired women. Wedel was also present at the opening ceremony in the Parliament Chamber within Westminster. The room was dominated by a dais on which stood the royal throne with its canopy and embroideries of gold, silver and pearls. At the centre of the chamber were four woolsacks, covered in red cloth, on which the lord chancellor, judges, secretaries and clerks sat. On the benches covered in red satin that surrounded the woolsacks were the bishops and noblemen of the realm. ‘In this manner’, Wedel tells us, ‘did this present Parliament commence. They sat every day till Christmas, but not the Queen who . . . is present only on the first and last days’.1
