nomically. Its trade, which remained very considerable until the
latter part of the fourteenth century, chiefly owing to its wool and
cloth, was, however, slowly declining, and politically the history of
the city becomes a mere series of incidents, among the more splendid of
which were the marriage of Henry IV. with Joan of Navarre in 1403; the
reception of the French ambassadors by Henry V. before Agincourt in
1415; the rejoicings for the birth in Winchester of Arthur Tudor the
son of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York in 1457; the meeting of the
Emperor Charles V. and Henry VIII. in 1522; and the marriage of Mary
Tudor to Philip of Spain in 1554. At that great ceremony, the last
Catholic rite the old Cathedral was to witness, there were present,
according to the Venetian Envoy, "the ambassadors from the Emperor,
from the Kings of the Romans and Bohemia, from your Serenity, from
Savoy, Florence, and Ferrara and many agents of sovereign princes. The
proclamation was entitled thus: Philip and Mary, by the grace of God,
King and Queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, Ireland, Defender
of the Faith, Prince of Spain, Archduke of Austria, etc."

But when Queen Elizabeth visited the city in 1560 (she was there four
times during her reign), she said to the mayor, "Yours Mr Mayor is a
very ancient city"; and he answered, "It has abeen, your Majesty, it
has abeen," and in spite of bad grammar he spoke but the truth,
Winchester's great days were over. Yet it saw the trial of Sir Walter
Raleigh in 1603, and the town having been taken by Waller in 1644 the
Castle was besieged by Cromwell himself in 1645. "I came to
Winchester," he writes, "on the Lord's Day the 28th of September. After
some disputes with the Governour we entered the town. I summoned the
Castle; was denied; whereupon we fell to prepare batteries, which we
could not perfect until Friday following. Our battery was six guns;
which being finished, after firing one round, I sent in a second
summons for a treaty; which they refused, whereupon we went on with our
work and made a breach in the wall near the Black Tower; which after
about two hundred shot we thought stormable; and purposed on Monday
morning to attempt it. On Sunday morning about ten of the clock the
Governour beat a parley, desiring to treat, I agreed unto it, and sent
Colonel Hammond and Major Harrison in to him, who agreed upon these
enclosed articles."

Cromwell presently departed and the city caught