Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/21

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE EXECUTION OF THE DUKE OF SOMERSET.

FRANCE and England having completed 1551.
May.their private understanding, special embassies on both sides paraded the friendship before the world. The Marshal St André came to London in splendour, with a retinue of lords; Northampton, Goodrick,^[1] Sir Philip Hoby, and others, carried powers to Paris to arrange a marriage between Edward and the Princess Elizabeth. Though France had quarrelled with the Pope, though Henry was disclaiming an allegiance to the Council of Trent, it was remarked that the English ambassadors were received with processions, masses, and litanies in approved Catholic form. In England, such decorations of altars and churches as had escaped the mint or the hands of the grandees, were employed to decorate the royal tables on the reception of St André.^[2] The

1. Bishop of Ely, afterwards Chancellor.
2. 'It was appointed that I should receive the Frenchmen that come hither at Westminster, when was made preparations for the purpose, and for garnish, of new vessels taken out of Church stuff, mitres, golden