Fairy Tale Queens: Representations of Early Modern Queenship by Jo Eldridge Carney
Authors: Jo Eldridge Carney
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prayer, but the enumeration of attributes with which the eventual child will ideally be endowed is also reminiscent of the fairies’ catalogue of blessings at the christening of a fairy-tale child.
In addition to the special prayers, Te Deums were ordered to be sung throughout the entire country and ballads were published. One ballad exulted: “Now sing, now spring, our care is exiled/ Our virtuous queen is quickened with child.” 73 The enthusiastic public response to the queen’s pregnancy was noted by John Foxe: “Of this child great talk began at this time to rise in every man’s mouth, with busy preparation, and much ado, especially amongst such as seemed in England to carry Spanish hearts in English bodies.” 74 As Gelis pointed out, a royal pregnancy “involved the kingdom as a whole.”
With the pregnancy seeming more certain, official measures were taken to plan for the future. Given the high rate of maternal mortality in childbirth, contingency plans for the monarchy were necessary. In the event of Mary’s death and the child’s survival, it was important for Parliament to clarify Philip’s status. After much wrangling, the “final act ensured that should a child be born to Mary, and should her own death follow, sixteenth-century understandings of God’s law and English law about paternal rights ensured that Philip would become de facto ruler of England.” 75
As the queen approached her confinement, her attendants tried to allay her fears about the impending childbirth. On April 1 the Venetian ambassador Michiel reported to the Doge that an older woman who had recently given birth to triplets was brought before Mary: “To comfort the Queen and give her heart and courage, three most beautiful infants were brought last week for Her Majesty to see, they having been born a few days previously at one birth, of a woman of low stature and great age like the Queen, and who, after the delivery, found herself strong and out of all danger, and the sight of this woman and her infants greatly rejoiced Her Majesty.” 76
In mid-April, Mary and Philip retired to Hampton Court, which had been carefully readied for the queen’s lying-in. All the lavish rituals appropriate to high and particularly royal births were put in order: “About Whitsundtide, the time was thought to be nigh that this young master should come into the world, and that midwives, rockers, nurses, with the cradle and all, were prepared, and in a readiness... Among many other great preparations made for the queen’s deliverance of child, there was a cradle very sumptuously and gorgeously trimmed.” 77 Catherine Mann explains that “in a culture that emphasized the importance of materiality, the ritual of childbirth was no exception and the quantity of goods and clothing required could be enormous.” Specific garments were made both for the mother and the child and the windows and doors of her private chamber were covered to create the “womb-like safety of a warm, darkened room.” 78
In spite of the elaborate preparations, weeks went by with no signs of development. Mary’s doctors continued to maintain that she was pregnant but had merely miscalculated the date. There was such excitement over the impending birth that a false report erupted: “Suddenly, upon what cause or occasion it is uncertain, a certain vain rumour was blown in London of the prosperous deliverance of the queen, and the birth of the child; insomuch that the bells were rung, bonfires and processions made, not only in the city of London, and in most other parts of the realm, but also in the town of Antwerp.” 79 Even in the midst of the widespread anticipation and public jubilation, there were skeptics, though Foxe claims that “divers were punished for saying the contrary.” Foxe describes a man from Berwich who commented on the public celebrations: “Here is a joyful triumph, but at length all will not prove worth a mess of potage.” 80 The doubting man
In addition to the special prayers, Te Deums were ordered to be sung throughout the entire country and ballads were published. One ballad exulted: “Now sing, now spring, our care is exiled/ Our virtuous queen is quickened with child.” 73 The enthusiastic public response to the queen’s pregnancy was noted by John Foxe: “Of this child great talk began at this time to rise in every man’s mouth, with busy preparation, and much ado, especially amongst such as seemed in England to carry Spanish hearts in English bodies.” 74 As Gelis pointed out, a royal pregnancy “involved the kingdom as a whole.”
With the pregnancy seeming more certain, official measures were taken to plan for the future. Given the high rate of maternal mortality in childbirth, contingency plans for the monarchy were necessary. In the event of Mary’s death and the child’s survival, it was important for Parliament to clarify Philip’s status. After much wrangling, the “final act ensured that should a child be born to Mary, and should her own death follow, sixteenth-century understandings of God’s law and English law about paternal rights ensured that Philip would become de facto ruler of England.” 75
As the queen approached her confinement, her attendants tried to allay her fears about the impending childbirth. On April 1 the Venetian ambassador Michiel reported to the Doge that an older woman who had recently given birth to triplets was brought before Mary: “To comfort the Queen and give her heart and courage, three most beautiful infants were brought last week for Her Majesty to see, they having been born a few days previously at one birth, of a woman of low stature and great age like the Queen, and who, after the delivery, found herself strong and out of all danger, and the sight of this woman and her infants greatly rejoiced Her Majesty.” 76
In mid-April, Mary and Philip retired to Hampton Court, which had been carefully readied for the queen’s lying-in. All the lavish rituals appropriate to high and particularly royal births were put in order: “About Whitsundtide, the time was thought to be nigh that this young master should come into the world, and that midwives, rockers, nurses, with the cradle and all, were prepared, and in a readiness... Among many other great preparations made for the queen’s deliverance of child, there was a cradle very sumptuously and gorgeously trimmed.” 77 Catherine Mann explains that “in a culture that emphasized the importance of materiality, the ritual of childbirth was no exception and the quantity of goods and clothing required could be enormous.” Specific garments were made both for the mother and the child and the windows and doors of her private chamber were covered to create the “womb-like safety of a warm, darkened room.” 78
In spite of the elaborate preparations, weeks went by with no signs of development. Mary’s doctors continued to maintain that she was pregnant but had merely miscalculated the date. There was such excitement over the impending birth that a false report erupted: “Suddenly, upon what cause or occasion it is uncertain, a certain vain rumour was blown in London of the prosperous deliverance of the queen, and the birth of the child; insomuch that the bells were rung, bonfires and processions made, not only in the city of London, and in most other parts of the realm, but also in the town of Antwerp.” 79 Even in the midst of the widespread anticipation and public jubilation, there were skeptics, though Foxe claims that “divers were punished for saying the contrary.” Foxe describes a man from Berwich who commented on the public celebrations: “Here is a joyful triumph, but at length all will not prove worth a mess of potage.” 80 The doubting man
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