User:Beejamjam/sandbox2

Establishment

The Guild of Saint George established the ceremony in 1385, giving Guild Day its namesake. Douglas Ezzy, Gary Easthope and Victor Morgan have suggested that Norwich likely drew on ideas from the mayor's pageant in London.^[1]

1585–1730 version

The Guild of St George was refounded as the Company of St George during the Reformation.^[2] In the Guild Day format that existed between 1585 and 1730,^[1] the ceremony took place on the Tuesday before midsummer-eve and a new Mayor of Norwich was inaugurated.^[1][2] This handover made the civic authority fragile, and so the pomp and ceremony was used to emphasize the authority of magistracy and the unity and continuity of the civic body.^[2] It included decoration of the town, several processions, a large feast for the elite, and entertainment of the masses with fireworks and sideshows. In preparation for the events, houses were newly painted. In some cases, plasterwork was marked out to resemble dressed stone and boughs of greenery were brought into the streets. Rushes were strewn about in Norwich Cathedral, and contemporary observers noted that streets were decorated with flags, portraits and tapestries. Cannons, bells, trumpets and fireworks were used.^[1] Citizens dressed in their best clothes for the occasion.^[2]

Citizens turned out in thousands to watch the procession to and from the cathedral.^[2] For the procession, a sword that had been presented to the city by Henry V was carried before the mayor. He was then inducted into office in a ceremony at the Guildhall, taking three oaths; one being his oath as Mayor which was a self-dedication to the city, and the other two directly to the monarch.^[1]

During the English Civil War, there was an attack on Guild Days and festivals,^[3] though the Guild Day feast and a scaled-down version of the procession continued through the 1640s and 1650s.^[2] During the Guild Day sermon on 22 June 1647, which was delivered by John Carter, the Presbyterian minister of St Peter Mancroft, Carter scolded the city magistrates for attempting to silence godly ministers and for having supported Bishop of Norwich Matthew Wren during the 1630s.^[3] Following the riot and explosion known as the Great Blow, The Rump Parliament passed an Act to regulate Norwich elections,^[4] which declared that those implicated in the riot were to be disenfranchised and debarred from office. In June 1649, the Company of St George resolved unanimously that those who had signed the petition in support of Mayor John Utting that had sparked the riot should still be able to bear the feast. They decided this because they found that the Act did not apply to the Company. Later under the reign of Charles II, dissenters to the Crown were allowed to serve as feast-makers.^[2]

In the early 1700s, the Company of St George organised the Guild Day procession and feast. On Guild Day in 1710, the picture of the High Church preacher Dr Sacheverell was displayed between the pictures of Charles I and Charles II, "with a very curious bower over his head, made of roses". On another Guild Day in 1715, the new mayor who was a strong Tory decorated his house with pictures of Sacheverell and Queen Anne on one side and William III and Oliver Cromwell on the other, displaying his preference for the former side.^[2]

Post-1730

At the 1780 Guild Day in Norwich, parson Woodforde attended and wrote in his diary that he "walked thro' St Giles's Street [...] the Street was full of People [...] The Market Place was also full of People and quite down to St Andrew's Hall".^[5]

Abolishment

Guild Day was formally abolished in 1835.^[1]

Post-abolishment parodies

Some elements of the ceremony survived as an anti-establishment parody until the early 20th century.^[1]

Present day

Many of the artefacts used in the ceremony survive and are now in the keeping of the Norfolk Museums Service. This includes emblematic trenchers that were likely used at the feast, speech-boys' cardboard shields, staves, and processional banners, a figure of Snap the Dragon, and civic regalia.^[1]