Note 36 — Chapter II · 1553-1554

As showing the excited condition of the public mind even yet with regard to the marriage, it may be mentioned that the day before this scene was passing, on the 6th March, two bands of about 300 London urchins collected in a field—probably Moorfields—and engaged in strenuous combat against each other; one band representing the Queen’s and Philip’s forces, and the other those of the King of France and Wyatt’s. Noailles, in his account of the affair—though Renard does not mention the detail—says that the unfortunate boy who was made to represent the Prince of Spain was captured and hanged, very nearly fatally. The leaders of the fight on both sides were well whipped and imprisoned by the Queen’s orders.—Ambassades de Noailles, iii. 130. Renard’s Letter, 9th March. Record Office, Brussels Transcripts, and Queen Jane and Queen Mary.