Six Wives by David Starkey

that the pageant series would show her how Virtue led to Honour. Then it was the turn of St Ursula, who told her that in this quest Arthur would be her helpmeet and companion. But thereafter things became complicated. For Arthur, according to Ursula, not only represented his namesake and ancestor, King Arthur, but also the star Arcturus and the constellation of Ursa Major. Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern hemisphere and Ursa Major the most recognisable constellation. They are allegorised in the Book of Job and the allegory in turn is elaborated into one of the setpieces of Christian cosmology by Gregory the Great. All this would be woven into Catherine's pageant-journey across London. Partly, it was a mere excuse to display some of the astrological imagery of which Henry VII was known to be fond. More importantly, it disguised the fact that Arthur of Camelot, the obvious pageant-theme for Catherine's future husband, was an unsuitable subject for an epithalamium or celebration of marriage. For Arthur was incestuous and childless, while his wife, Guinevere, was an adulteress, who cuckolded her husband with his favourite knight, Lancelot. Arcturus and his constellation threw a pleasing cloud of stardust over such unpleasantness. 4
        Catherine's procession continued over the bridge and entered Gracechurch Street. The street, like the rest of Catherine's route, was lined with rails. The leading citizens, the liverymen of the City Companies or Guilds, stood inside the rails in their hoods and gowns, while the ordinary folk crowded behind the rails. They also hung out of windows and perched on rooftops and gutters. It was, the herald remarked, a sign of God's blessing on the marriage that no one fell or was crushed. Half way up Gracechurch Street, at its widest point, was the next pageant, which introduced Virtue herself. At the top of Gracechurch Street, by the corner of Leadenhall Market, Catherine turned left into Cornhill which in turn led to Cheapside.
        Cheapside was the principal thoroughfare of the City and its main shopping street. Even Venetian observers were impressed at the goods on sale in the goldsmiths' shops. Catherine, however, had to be content with the increasingly precious words of the pageant-figures. For the next three pageants developed the cosmological theme of the series. The first, in Cornhill, was the Pageant of the Moon. It featured the moving circuit of the Moon (a treadmill, turned by three panting boys in armour) and a performer impersonating Catherine's ancestor, the astronomer-king Alfonso of Aragon, who prognosticated Catherine's future bliss with Arthur. Next, at the beginning of Cheapside, was the Pageant of the Sun. Here, inside his orbit (another revolving treadmill), sat a figure representing Arcturus/Arthur in his embodiment of the Sun. He gravely welcomed Catherine as his bride. This section of the series culminated in the next pageant at the Standard, the elaborate conduit-structure in the widest part of Cheapside. This was the Pageant of the Temple of God. Here sat the godhead himself, surrounded by burning candles and singing angels. He addressed Catherine. 'Love me, and my Church, your spiritual mother,' he enjoined. 'For ye despising that one despise the other.'
        There stepped forward a second performer, dressed as a bishop. When he spoke to Catherine he had half an eye to another auditor, who watched and listened at the window of an adjacent merchant's house. It was the King. Henry VII had come 'somewhat privy and secretly', though his incognito was rather blown by the guards, who occupied every vantage point on the roof, and the crowd of hangers-on, who crammed both sides of the street below. The bishop's speech removed any remaining shreds of anonymity. He began by recalling the parable in St Matthew's Gospel, in which the Kingdom of Heaven is compared 'unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son'. Just as, he continued, Henry VII was