CHAP. ness of his temper, and his proficiency in learning, had gained him the affection of all who knew him and his bride by her beauty, modesty, and accomplishments, became the object of general admiration. The castle of Ludlow in Shropshire was assigned for their residence: their court represented in miniature the court of their royal parent: and the prince amidst his ⚫ vassals was instructed by his council in the rudiHis death, ments of government. But the weakness of his April 2. constitution sank under the rigour of the winter: and the hopes of the nation were unexpectedly blighted by his premature death in the fourth month after his marriage.108 The intelligence of 1502. あ amusements of our ancestors, may read the account of the festivivities on this occasion, added by Hearn to Leland's Collectanea, v. 356-373. 107 Besides the most eminent grammarians he had studied " in "poetrie Homer, Virgil, Lucan, Ovid, Silius, Plautus, and Terence : "In oratorie Tullies offices, epistles, paradoxes, and Quintilian : "in historie, Thucydides, Livie, Cæsar's Commentaries, Suetonius, "Tacitus, Plinius, Valerius Maximus, Salust, and Eusebius. "Wherein we have been particular, to signifie what authors were "then thought fit to be elementary and rudimentall unto princes." Speed (p. 988), who quotes the manuscript of André, the preceptor of Arthur. 66 109 The intelligence was first opened to the king by his confessor. He sent for the queen, who seeing him oppressed with sorrow, besought his grace that he would first after God remember the "weale of his owne noble person, the comfort of his realme and "of her. She then saied, that my ladie his mother had never no "more children but him onely, and that God by his grace had 66 ever preserved him, and brought him where that he was. Over "that, howe that God had left him yet a fayre prince, two fayie princesses; and that God is where he was, and we are both young 66 VI. of mar this event alarmed Ferdinand and Isabella, the CHAP. parents of the young widow. Anxious to preserve the friendship of England as a counter- Contract! poise to the enmity of France, they hastened to riage bepropose a marriage between their daughter and Henry and her brother-in-law, Henry, now apparent heir Catharine. to the throne. The English monarch affected to receive the communication with indifference; and suspended his assent, that he might ascer- . tain whether a more profitable bargain might not be made with some other court: while, on the other hand, the Spaniard, to quicken the determination, sought to alarm the avarice of his ally, by requiring the immediate return of Catharine, with the restoration of the one hundred thousand crowns, the half of her marriage 66 "ynoughe: and that the prudence and wisdom of his grace spronge over all christendome, so that it should please him to take this "according thereunto. Then the king thanked her of her good "comfort: After that she was departed and come to her owne "chamber, natural and motherly remembrance of that great losse "smote her so sorrowfull to the hart, that those that were about “her, were faine to send for the king to comfort her. Then his grace of true gentle and faithfull love in good hast came and "relieved her, and showed her how wise counsell she had given "him before: and he for his parte would thanke God for his sonn, "and would she should doe in like wise." I have transcribed this account of Henry's conduct on so interesting an occasion, as it appears to me to do away the charge which has been brought against him, of treating Elizabeth with indifference and neglect. I shall add, that I have not met with any good proof of Henry's dislike of Elizabeth so often mentioned by later writers. In the MS. of André, and the journals of the herald, they appear as if they entertained a real affection for each other. VI. 1503. June 23. CHAP. portion, which had already been paid. The negociation at length was opened: but it proved as difficult to wring money from Ferdinand, as to satisfy the expectations of Henry; and a year elapsed, before it was finally agreed, that the marriage should be contracted within two months after the arrival of a dispensation from the pope; that it should be solemnized when the young prince had completed his fifteenth year; and that Ferdinand should previously transmit to London another sum of one hundred thousand crowns, the remaining half of the portion of Catharine. The dispensation was obtained the parties were contracted to each other: 109 but the Spanish monarch either could not or would not advance the money; and his English brother cared little for the delay. The princess a widow, and in his custody, was an hostage for the good will of her father and by retaining this hold on the hopes and fears of the Spaniard, he expected to extort from him concessions of still greater importance. On the day before the young Henry completed his fifteenth year, the canonical age of puberty, and the time fixed for the solemnization of the marriage, he was compelled to protest in due form, that he had neither done, nor meant to do any thing which could render the contract made during his nonage binding in law. It might be 1505. June 28. 109 Rymer, xiii. 81. 83, 89. 114. 110 VI. thought that this protestation was equivalent to CHAP. a refusal: but the king assured Ferdinand that his only object was to free his son from all previous obligation: he still wished to marry Catharine; but was also free to marry any other woman. Thus while he awakened the fears, he was careful to nourish the hopes of the Spaniard an expedient by which he flattered himself that he should compel that monarch to submit to his pleasure in two other projects which he had now formed. grave. Soon after the death of the English prince, his mother Elizabeth had been carried to the Henry's mourning might be sincere: but it was short, and he quickly consoled himself for his loss by calculating the pecuniary advantages, which he might derive from a second marriage. The late king of Naples had bequeathed an immense property to his widow: her presumed riches offered irresistible attractions to the heart of the English monarch; and three private gentlemen were commissioned to procure an introduction to the queen under the pretext of delivering to her a letter from the dowager princess of Wales. In their report to the king they praised her person, her disposition, and her acquirements, but added the unwelcome intelligence that the reigning king had refused to 110 El se tenia por libre para casarse con quien quisiese. Zurita vi. 193. En Zaragoza, 1610. The contract is in Collier, ii. rec. VI. CHAP. fulfil the testament of his predecessor. Henry's passion was instantly extinguished: he cast his eyes on another rich widow, Margaret, the dutchess of Savoy, and from an accident, which he attributed to his good fortune, he derived a strong hope of succeeding in his suit. The king and queen of Castile in England. 1506. Jan. 10. March 20. On the death of Isabella queen of Castile, which crown she held in her own right, her husband Ferdinand had retired to his kingdom of Arragon, and surrendered the sceptre of Castile to his daughter Juana, the wife of the archduke Philip. The new king and queen in the beginning of 1506 left the Netherlands to take possession of the Castilian throne: but the weather was unfavourable; and, after struggling with adverse winds for more than a fortnight, they sought shelter in the harbour of Falmouth. It was in vain that their council objected. They went on shore in search of refreshment: and Henry grasped at the opportunity of deriving advantage from their indiscretion. In terms which admitted of no refusal, he invited them to his court; detained them during three months in splendid captivity; and extorted from them several valuable concessions as the price of their enlargement. 1°. Margaret was the sister of Philip, and that prince was compelled to agree to a marriage between her and Henry, and to fix the amount of her portion at the sum of three hundred thousand crowns.111 2o. Henry Rymer, xiii. 126–157. ; |