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"ties to confent (as this of his was), than in "regard of any temporal refpect whatever. "That his choice was pleafing to himself, and "would be to his fubjects, he certainly knew, "whofe amity before all other nations he most preferred and defired; and neither could "he give them better occasion of love than "in this, that being their fovereign, he "difdained not to marry with their tribes: "and fo likewife for his iffue, there could not "be any Prince better beloved than he was, "their natural Prince, fo born of both parents. "That if foreign alliances were needful, he "had many of his kin to contract them, and "that with content of all parties; but for "himself to marry for poffeffions, or to please "others with difpleafing his own affections, "he faw in it no wifdom, having enough "of the one; and the other offended, plea"fure itself would become bitterness when the "choice was made by another perfon's eye. "As for poffibility of more inheritance by "new affinity in foreign land, it proves often "the occafion of more trouble than profit; "and we have already title by that means to "fo much as fufficeth to get and keep well "in one man's days. Lady Elizabeth is a "widow, and hath already children; I. by "God's Bleffed Lady, am a batchelor, and "have

D 3

"have fome too; fo each of us hath proof that "neither of us is like to be bare. And there"fore, Madam, I pray you be content; I "truft in God fhe fhall bring you a young "Prince, that shall play on your lap to your great pleasure, and you fhall blefs the womb "that bore fuch a babe."

HENRY THE SEVENTH,

KING OF ENGLAND.

ONE of the maxims of this politic Prince was, "Not to enter into any treaty till he was "in the field; and that with fuch a force as "was likely enough to carry his own con"ditions: Not to fuffer the leaft fign of his "secret willingness to peace, or inward doubt

of troubles at home, to creep out at any "crank or cranny of his carriage."

Speed, in enumerating the buildings erected by this Prince, adds, "Of his building alfo "was Richmond Palace, and that beautiful

place the Chapel of Westminster-the one "the place of his death, the other of his bu"rial which forms of moft curious and ex

"(as is reported) learned in France, and "thence brought with them into Eng"land *"

PRINCE ARTHUR,

ΕΙΔΗΤΗ.

SON OF HENRY THE EIGHTH.

"PRINCE ARTHUR," fays Speed, en"joyed his marriage but a very short time; " he was married at fifteen, and died a few "months after, being a Prince in whose youth "the lights of all noble virtues did begin to "fhine. His aptnefs to learn was almost in"credible; for (by the report of his Master†) "he had learned without book, or otherwise "ftudiously turned and revolved with his own "hands and eyes the Authors following: "In Grammar-Gavin, Perot, Sulpitius, Gel"lius, and Vella: In Poetry-Homer, Virgil, Lucan, Ovid, Silius, Plautus, and Te

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rence: In Oratory-Tullie's Offices, Epif"tles, Paradoxes; and Quintilian: In Hif

Henry the Seventh's Chapel was probably taken from that of Gallion, the palace of the Archbishop of Rouen. It is melancholy to fee in what a ftate of ruin and of dilapidation Henry the Seventh's Chapel is at prefent.

+ Bern. Andr. MS.

of Henry I

tory-Thucydides, Livy, Cæfar, Suetonius, "Tacitus, Plinius, Valerius Maximus, Saluft, "Eufebius. Wherein we have been par"ticular to fignify what Authors were then

thought fit to be elementary and rudi"mental unto Princes; and by their example "to all of noble or gentle birth, whose super"ficial baldnefs in books in these * frothy

days is become moft fcandalous and inju"rious to the honour and ufe of learning."

The death of Prince Arthur contributed very much to corrupt the difpofition of his younger brother, afterwards King Henry the Eighth, who was intended for the Archbishopric of Canterbury (an excellent appendage for a younger British Prince), and had taken great pains to qualify himself for that diftinguished situation.

LOUIS XII.

KING OF FRANCE.

THIS Prince early difcovering the extreme turn for expence which his heir, the Count

*Speed wrote in the reign of James' the Firft, most affuredly a learned age; but writers ever take a liberty with their own times-that of abufing them.

D'Angoulême,

D'Angoulême, afterwards Francis the Firft, discovered, faid, "Alas! we are taking all "this pains to no purpofe; that big Boy there "will deftroy every thing we have been "doing."

He faid of the celebrated Conftable of Bourbon, when he was very young, "I fhould "like him much better if he had a more open character, if he were gay, and not fo "fanciful.-Nothing is worse than stagnated

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"water."

This excellent Prince, at an advanced age, married the Princess Mary, fifter of Henry the Eighth of Ece. She made him alter his hours; and this change in his way of living deftroyed him very foon. "Befides," fays Fleuranges," he wished to appear a man of

gallantry in her eyes; but he was no longer

a man to act well that part, for he had been "fick a long while-Il avoit voulu faire gentil compagnon avec fa femme; mais il n'étoit plus " homme à le faire, car de long tems il étoit fort "malade."

CARDINAL