During the Christmas festival (1558) preparations went on for the coronation of Elizabeth, which was to take place on the 15th of January. On the 12th of that month she proceeded to the Tower by water, attended by the lord mayor and citizens, and greeted with peals of ordnance, with music and gorgeous pageantry--a marked contrast to her previous entrance there as a suspected traitor in imminent peril of her life. Two days later the Queen rode in state from the Tower to Westminster, "most honourably accompanied, as well with gentlemen, barons, and other the nobility of this realm, as also with a notable train of godly and beautiful ladies, richly appointed," and all riding on horseback. The streets through which the procession passed were adorned with stately pageants, costly decorations, and various artistic devices, and were crowded with enthusiastic spectators, eager to welcome their new sovereign, and to applaud "the signs they noticed in her of a most prince-like courage, and great readiness of wit." On the following day (Sunday, the 15th of January) Elizabeth was crowned in Westminster Abbey, by Dr. Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle, "Queen of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith." The ceremonials of the coronation were regulated according to ancient custom, and the entertainment in Westminster Hall was on a scale of great magnificence.
[Illustration: A DUMB SHOW IN THE TIME OF ELIZABETH. (_From Messrs Cassell & Co.'s "English Plays," by permission_)]
Elizabeth was particularly fond of dramatic displays, and her first Royal Christmas was celebrated with plays and pageants of a most costly description. Complaints, however, being made of the expense of these entertainments, she determined to control them, and directed an estimate to be made in the second year of her reign for the masques and pastimes to be shown before her at Christmas and Shrovetide. Sir Thomas Cawarden was then, as he had for some time previous been, Master of the Revels. According to Collier, the estimate amounted to £227 11s. 2d., being nearly £200 less than the expenses in the former year. The control over the expenses, however, must soon have ceased, for in subsequent years the sums were greatly enlarged.