and Margaret Beaufort, his countess, was born in the castle of Pembroke, in 1456. The small apartment in which Henry was born is represented to be near the chapel in the castle; but Leland, who lived near that time, states that the monarch first saw the light in one of the handsome rooms of the great gateway: "In the latter ward I saw the chambre where King Henry the Seventh was borne, in knowledge whereof a chymmeney is now made with the armes and badges of King Henry VII." His father dying in the following year, left his infant son Henry to the care of his brother, Jasper Earl of Pembroke. His mother was twice remarried: she was rich, pious, charitable, and generous; and to her bounty Christ's College, Cambridge, and St. John's College, Cambridge, owe their existence. The Countess also established a Professorship of Divinity in each university, the holders of which are called Lady Margaret's Professors: she likewise appointed a public preacher at Cambridge, whose duties are now confined to the delivery of one Latin sermon yearly. Henry was cradled in adversity, but found a protector in his uncle, the Earl of Pembroke, till the earl was attainted, and fled; when his castle and earldom were granted to Baron William Herbert, who coming to take possession, and finding there Margaret and her son Henry, then in his fifth year, he was carried by that nobleman to his residence, Raglan Castle, Monmouthshire, now an ivied ruin. Long afterward, Henry told the French historian, Comines, that he had either been in prison, or in strict surveillance, from the time he was five years of age. Sir William's family of four sons and six daughters afforded Henry companions in his own sphere of life, and gave him opportunities to acquire accomplishments and practice exercises that would have been wholly unattainable on account of the retired habits of the Countess of Richmond. Yet, Henry grew up sad, serious and circumspect; full of thought and secret observation; peaceable in disposition, just and merciful in action. From the old Flemish historians, and his biographer Lord Bacon, it further appears that Henry "was fair and well spoken, with singular sweetness and blandishment of words, rather studious than learned, with a devotional cast of countenance; for he was marvellously religious both in affection and observance.”—(Life of Henry VII.) He appears to have excited no common degree of interest in the hearts of his guardians in Pembroke Castle, and to have continued to win upon their love and affection, as he advanced in years, as it is asserted that by the Lady Herbert he was well and carefully educated, and that Sir William desired to see him wedded to his favorite daughter Maud. After the battle of Banbury, in which Sir Richard Herbert was taken prisoner, and beheaded, the youthful Earl of Richmond, though strictly watched, and considered in the light of a captive, in Pembroke Castle, was most courteously treated, and honorably brought up by the Lady Herbert. Andreas Scott, a priest of Oxford, is said to have been his preceptor; and Henry's cotemporary biographer, Sandford, in recording this fact, mentions also the eulogiums bestowed by Scott on his great capacity and aptitude for study. Nevertheless, as he was now fourteen years of age, his uncle, Jasper Tudor, took him from Wales, and carried him to London, where, after being presented to Henry VI., he was placed as a scholar at Eton. Such is the statement of Miss Halstead, quoting Sandford as her authority. Lord Bacon relates, that Henry VI. washing his hands at a great feast, at his newly-founded College at Eton, turned toward the boy Henry and said: "This is the lad which shall possess quietly that that we now strive for;" which vaticination has been thus beautifully rendered by Shakspeare: K. Henry. "My Lord of Somerset, what youth is that, His head by nature fram'd to wear a crown; His hand to wield a sceptre, and himself Henry VI., Scene VI., Act IV. This is a favorite tradition; but the only printed authority for it is that of Sandford, who, in his Genealogical History, says that "while he (Henry VII.) was a child and a scholar in Eton College, he was there by King Henry the Sixth, prophetically entitled the Decider of the then difference between that prince and King Edward the Fourth." Hall, the chronicler, himself an Etonian, does not, however, record among its students the sagacious founder of the dynasty of the Tudors; and Mr. Creasy has searched in vain the archives of the College for evidence. Miss Halstead relates, however (but without the authority), that the young Earl was subsequently withdrawn from Eton by his uncle, Jasper Tudor, and sent again, for greater security, to Pembroke Castle, where his mother continued to sojourn. After the battle of Tewkesbury, Henry was sent back to Raglan Castle, whence he was secretly carried off by his uncle to his own castle of Pembroke; whence they escaped the search of King Edward, and taking to sea, were driven on the coast of Britanny, where they long remained in a position between guests and prisoners. As Henry grew to manhood, his personal character for ability and courage caused him to be recognized, without any hereditary claim, as the head of the Lancastrian exiles. Philip de Comines, who knew Henry well, testifies that he was perfect in that courtly breeding, which so conciliates favor in princes who are ready of access, and plausible in speech. He had become master of the French language during his exile; and though, in consequence of his long imprisonment, and the trials which had saddened his early life, he was singularly cautious and timid, he had, nevertheless, gained wisdom from the same school of adversity-a wisdom that enabled him to profit by any favoring circumstance that might lead to more prosperous days.-Miss Halstead's Life of Margaret Beaufort, p. 101. Henry VII., though he was called "the Solomon of England,” did little for the spread of education beyond his works at Eton College. The sayings recorded of him show more weariness and cunning than knowledge of literature; and though he possessed great penetration, his mind was narrow. Arthur, son of Henry VII., we are told, was well instructed in grammar, poetry, oratory, and history. In this reign the purity of the Latin tongue was revived, the study of antiquity became fashionable, and the esteem for literature gradually propagated itself throughout Europe. The newly introduced art of Printing facilitated the progress of this amelioration; though some years elapsed before its beneficial effects were felt to any considerable extent. A custom of this date shows the zeal of the London scholars. Upon the eve of St. Bartholomew (September 5), they held disputations; and Stow tells us that the scholars of divers grammar-schools disputed beneath the trees in the churchyard of the priory of St. Bartholomew, in West Smithfield. These disputations ceased with the suppression of the priory, but were revived one year under Edward VI., when the best scholar is stated to have received a silver arrow for his prize; but in some cases, the prize was a silver pen. AN EMINENT GRAMMARIAN, AND POET LAUREATE. Early in the sixteenth century flourished Robert Whittington, the author of several grammatical treatises which were long used in the schools. He was born at Lichfield, about the year 1480, and was educated by the eminent grammarian John Stanbridge, in the school then attached to Magdalene College, Oxford; and having taken priest's orders, he set up a grammar-school of his own, about 1501, possibly in London. Besides school-books, he wrote also Latin verse with very superior elegance; and he is remembered in modern times principally as the last person who was made poet laureate (poeta laureatus) at Oxford. This honor he obtained in 1513, on his petition to the congregation of regents of the University, setting forth that he had spent fourteen years in studying, and twelve in teaching the art of grammar, (which was understood to include rhetoric and poetry, or versification), and praying that he might be laureated or graduated in the said art. These academical graduations in grammar, on occasion of which, as Warton states, a "wreath of laurel was presented to the new graduate, who was afterward styled poeta laureatus,” are supposed to have given rise to the appellation as applied to the King's poet, or versifier, who seems to have been merely a graduated grammarian or rhetorician employed in the service of the King. EARLY LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY VIII. Henry VIII., the second son of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York, was born in 1491, at his palace in his "manor of Pleazaunce," at Greenwich. son." Henry was from the first destined to the Archbishopric of Canterbury; "that prudent King, his father," observes Lord Herbert (in the History of his Life and Reign), "choosing this as the most cheap and glorious way of disposing of a younger He received, accordingly, a learned education; "so that,” continues this writer, "besides his being an able Latinist, philospher, and divine, he was (which one might wonder at in a King) a curious musician, as two entire masses, composed by him, and often sung in his chapel, did abundantly witness." But the death of Henry's elder brother Arthur, in 1502, made him heir to the crown before he had completed his eleventh year, and his clerical education was not further proceeded with. However, he was initiated into the learning of the ancients, and though he was so unfortunate as to be led into the study of the barren controversies of the schools, which was then fashionable, he still discovered, says Hume, "a capacity fitted for more useful and entertaining knowledge." He founded Trinity College, at Cambridge, and amply endowed it; and the countenance given to letters by the King and his ministers rendered learning fashionable. The Venetian Ambassador to England, Sebastian Giustinian, describes Henry at this period (1515), as "so gifted and adorned with mental accomplishments of every sort that we believe him to have few equals in the world. He speaks English, French, and Latin; understands Italian well; plays almost on every instrument; sings and composes fairly." One of the means which Cardinal Wolsey employed to please the capricious Henry was to converse with him on favorite topics of literature. Cavendish, who was gentleman-usher to Wolsey, and who wrote his life, tells us that "his sentences and witty persuasions in the council-chamber were always so pithy, that they, as occasion moved them, continually assigned him for his filed tongue and excellent eloquence to be expositor unto the King in all their proceedings." Education had done much for Henry; and of his intellectual ability we need not trust the suspicious panegyrics of his cotemporaries. His state papers and letters are as clear and powerful as those of Wolsey or of Cromwell. In addition to this, Henry had a fine musical taste, carefully cultivated; he spoke and wrote in four languages; and he possessed a knowledge of a multitude of subjects. He was among the first physicians of his age; he was his own engineer, inventing improvements in artillery, and new constructions in ship-building. His reading was vast, especially in theology, which could not have been acquired by a boy of twelve years of age, for he was no more when he became Prince of Wales. He must have studied theology with the full maturity of his understanding. In private he was goodhumored and good-natured. But, like all princes of the Plantagenet blood, he was a person of most intense and imperious will. His impulses, in general nobly directed, had never known. contradiction; and late in life, when his character was formed, he was forced into collision with difficulties with which the experience of discipline had not fitted him to contend.* ILL-EDUCATED NOBILITY. Some amongst the highest in rank affected to despise knowledge, especially when the invention of Printing had rendered the ability to read more common than in the days of precious manuscripts. Even as late as the first year of Edward VI. (1547), it was not only assumed that a Peer of the Realm might be convicted of felony, but that he might lack the ability to read, so as to claim Benefit of Clergy; for it is directed that any Lord of the Parliament claiming the benefit of this Act (1st Edward VI.), "though he cannot read, without any burning in the hand, loss of inheritance, or corruption of his blood, shall be judged, taken, and used, for the first time only, to all intents, constructions, and purposes, as a clerk convict." That the nobility were unfitted, through ignorance, for the discharge of high offices in the State, at the time of the Reformation, is shown by a remarkable passage in Latimer's "Sermon of the Plow," preached in 1548: Why are not the noblemen and young gentlemen of England so brought up in the knowledge of God, and in learning, that they may be able to execute offices in the commonweal? If the nobility be well trained in godly learning, the people would follow the same train; for truly such as the noblemen be, such will the people be. Therefore for the love of God appoint teachers and schoolmasters, you that have charge of youth, and give the teachers stipends worthy their pains. * Abridged from Froude's History of England. |