Chapter 5 Summary

The Saturday before Elizabeth's Coronation, she rides through London to Westminster in a chariot draped with crimson velvet for her recognition procession. Crowds line the streets. She stops to speak to individual subjects. Elizabeth is a straight and narrow figure in a golden dress with red-gold hair framing her delicate, oval, smiling face. Both she and her subjects are extremely happy and enthusiastic. The Catholic bishops restored by Mary still hold their positions. The Privy Council has forbidden public preaching but sanctioned Gospel reading and the Litany in English. No bishop is willing to crown Elizabeth until Bishop Oglethorpe of Carlisle consents.

Elizabeth, wearing a crimson velvet robe, is first anointed in the Abbey. She changes to gold robes worn the day before and is crowned with the Crown of St. Edward, the State Crown and the crown specially made for her late...