1655 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT 
 FUND GIVEN IN 189I BY 
 
 HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR 3404.03 1895 
 
 Of royal! educacion; a fragmentary treat! 
 
 3 1924 013 177 815 
 
Of 
 
 Royall Educacion 
 
 A Fragmentary Treatise 
 
 By Daniel Defoe 
 
 Edited for the First Time, with Introduction 
 Notes, and Index 
 
 By Karl D. Biilbring, M.A., Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of the English Language and 
 
 Literature in the University of 
 
 Grbningen, Netherlands 
 
 London: Published by David Nutt 
 
 MDCCCXCV 
 
BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 FROM THE 
 
 SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 itenrg M. Sage 
 
 1891 
 
 A. £J..9..Z^Z 
 
 rr y 
 
 ^f/Z/l£ 
 
Of 
 
 Royall Educacion 
 
B;i the same Author and Editor 
 
 The Compleat English Gentleman. Edited 
 for the first time from the Author's Autograph 
 MS. in the British Museum, with Introduction, 
 Notes, and Index. Ixxxiv. — 296 pp. Half 
 buckram. 12/- 
 
Of 
 
 Royall Educacion 
 
 A Fragmentary Treatise 
 
 By Daniel Defoe 
 
 Edited for the First Time, with Introduction 
 Notes, and Index 
 
 By Karl D. Biilbring, M.A., Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of the English Language and 
 
 Literature in the University of 
 
 Groningen, Netherlands 
 
 London : Published by David Nutt 
 
 MDCCtfXCV 
 
 © 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013177815 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction vii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of the reason g,nd necessity of good education, the importance 
 of it, as well to themselves as to their country, in the 
 children of princes and noblemen, as also of all persons 
 of rank, either for quallity or employment . . . . i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Some examples from history and from good informacion of 
 the want of care taken in the educacion of young princes 
 and the children of the nobillity, in former times, as well 
 in this nacion as in forreign countrys ; and how fatall the 
 effects of it have been in their future conduct ; with some 
 few examples of the contrary also 14 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Examples of the diffrent education of princes and persons of 
 rank from the beginning of the XVI. century, (viz.) from 
 the reign of King Henry VII. inclusive down to the 
 present time, with observations on the happyness of 
 
[ vi ] 
 
 those reigns in particular where the princes have been so 
 educated in principles of honour and virtue ; and some 
 thing of the contrary 38 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 [On the educacion of Edward VI.] 56 
 
 Notes . 65 
 
 Index 70 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ^HE treatise Of Royall Educacion, hy Tia.me\ 
 Defoe, contained in this volume, has never 
 been printed before. It is preserved in a 
 manuscript in Defoe's autograph, which 
 now belongs to the British Museum, and is marked 
 Additional MS., 32,555. The greater part of this 
 MS. is occupied by a similar, but more complete 
 work by Defoe, viz.. The Compleat English Gentleman, 
 which I edited for the first time in 1 890.' The present 
 volume is a supplement — and a necessary supplement — 
 to that book, and I need therefore only refer the 
 reader for fuller particulars regarding the MS. and its 
 history to pp. ix. seq. of the introduction of my former 
 publication.^ 
 
 ' London, David Nutt, 1890. 
 
 ' At present the MS. is exhibited in one of the show-cases of 
 the Manuscript Department of the British Museum. Here it 
 attracted my attention one day, and I induced Mr. Nutt to have it 
 transcribed for publication. This explanation will be weclome to 
 the writer of an attractive' review of my book in the Speaker ot 
 May 31, 1890, p. 602, who wondered " why it should be necessary 
 
[ viii ] 
 
 The first mention of the existence of the MS. was 
 made by Walter Wilson in his excellent Memoirs of 
 the Life and Times of Daniel Defoe (London, 1830), 
 vol. iii. p. 599 seq., not by John Forster (i860), as, 
 owing to an oversight, I stated in my introduction to 
 the Compleat English Gentleman} 
 
 At the date of the publication of Wilson's book, the 
 MS, was in the possession of the Rev. Henry De-Foe 
 Baker, a descendant of Defoe's son-in-law, Henry 
 Baker. 
 
 It does not, however, appear from Wilson's words 
 whether he inspected the manuscript himself, or relied 
 on information sent to him by its owner. At all 
 events, neither of them was aware that the manuscript 
 contained two distinct works. Nor was the fact dis- 
 covered when Dawson Turner, the next owner of the 
 MS., had it bound in its present binding ; nor later 
 on, when it was purchased by James Crossley, and 
 William Lee had an opportunity of examining it 
 if^p. his remarks on p. 451 seq. of his Life of Daniel 
 Defoe). 
 
 Indeed, only a close examination of the MS. reveals 
 the fact J for the shorter treatise, published in the 
 present volume, is inserted in the middle of thq larger 
 one, and begins without a fresh title. 
 
 to go as far as Voerde in Westphalia (whence my introduction 
 was dated) for an editor of an eighteenth-century English manu- 
 script." 
 
 ' The error has since been corrected, and other details added, 
 by Dr. Hermann Ullrich in his valuable review of my edition in 
 Messrs. Behaghel and Neumann's Literaturblati, fur Germanische 
 und Romanische Philologie, 1890, p. 404. 
 
[ ix ] 
 
 I need not here repeat the minute details which I 
 supplied to the Academy of October 13, 1894. They 
 prove beyond doubt that the leaves 67-100 of the 
 MS. contain an independent, though fragmentary, work 
 of Defoe's, which was to be entitled Of Royall Educa- 
 cioH} 
 
 Pefoe wrote the Compleat English GenUeman in 
 r728, or the earlier half of 1729.^ On the other 
 hand, he states on If. 99, printed on pp. 60 and 61 of 
 the present edition, that the preceding sheets were 
 written " many years ago, and were design'd to be 
 publish'd during the life of Her Late Majestic Queen 
 Ann and before Her Majestie's accession to the crown, 
 viz., while the Duke of Gloucester was aliv and for 
 whom the whole scheme was intended." The page on 
 which these words appear is superscribed Royall 
 Edticacion, and it is quite evident that they refer to a 
 treatise on that topic. Now, the Duke of Gloucester 
 died, at twelve years of age, in July 1699, ^^^ Princess 
 Anne ascended the throne in 1 702. Defoe's remarks 
 on the prince's education, which immediately follow 
 the words just quoted (see p. 6 1 of this edition), could 
 not have been penned long before the prince's death in 
 1 699 ; and it would seem that the fragment was 
 written some time between 1690 and 1699. How- 
 ever, there appears a passage on p. 1 7 of the present 
 
 ' On the back of If. 98 we find the note Royal Educacion, and 
 the next page (If. 99) begins with the heading Of Royall Educacion, 
 In my article in the Academy I have also corrected the errors 
 committed by Wilson and Lee in their analysis of the MS. 
 
 2 See the introduction to my edition, on pp. x. and xi. 
 
[ X ] 
 
 edition, which shows that this conclusion is wrong, and 
 that Defoe's own statement regarding the time of 
 composition is not to be trusted. For he refers to, 
 and quotes from. White Kennet's Complete History of 
 England, which he calls " our present CoUeccion of 
 English Historians " ; and the first edition of this work, 
 appeared only in 1 706. 
 
 On closer examination of Defoe's remarks we cannot 
 avoid the deplorable conclusion that his misrepresenta- 
 tion is not simply an error, but a deliberate falsehood, 
 devised in order to obviate the suspicion that his 
 treatise was intended for "a pointed satyr" (p. 6o).N 
 At whom this satire might have been assumed to be 
 aimed, I shall explain presently. Though, of course, 
 it would be possible for a man to err when giving the 
 date of a work which he wrote many years before, yet 
 {\X. is evident that Defoe must be purposely distorting 
 the truth when he feigns to remember that " the whole 
 scheme was intended for the Duke of Gloucester," or 
 makes such impossible statements as this, viz., that 
 he can "shew and prove, too, if need be, that these 
 sheets were written .... before Queen Ann's acces- 
 sion to the crown," etc. These and his subsequent 
 remarks (on p. 61), which have all the appearance of 
 being suggested by a faithful memory, do not allow of 
 a lenient interpretation.' \ 
 
 / ' The conclusion arrived at in this paragraph will not surprise 
 anybody who has studied Defoe's writings without prejudice. In 
 a letter to the Academy, published on March 14, 1891, I put forth 
 a similar but more serious charge against his character. It evoked 
 a reply from Mr. S. W. Carruthers, who, "being, as a Presbyterian, 
 interested in Defoe," tried to invalidate my arguments (^Academy, 
 
[ xi ] 
 
 There is no other indication in the text of leaves 
 67—98 that would help us to fix the date of composi- 
 tion more accurately. ( But leaves 99 and 1 00, which 
 Defoe professes to have written "many years" later, 
 contain allusions to contemporary events. First, he 
 refers to Queen Anne as " Her late Majestic." This 
 portion of the MS. must therefore be later than 
 August 10, 1714, which is the date of her death. 
 Next he refers to the " numerous royall isue " of the 
 House of Hanover (p. 61). As George I. had only 
 two children, Defoe can only mean the large family 
 of George H., who had married in 1705, and to 
 whom children were born in 1707, 1709, 17 10, 171 3, 
 17 17 (George William, who, however, died three 
 months later), 1721, 1722-3, and 1724.' These dates, 
 however, only corroborate the conclusion just arrived 
 at ; but another allusion, on p. 62, shows that Defoe 
 wrote even a good deal later than the birth of the last 
 child. " I freely grant," he says, " the wise conduct of 
 Their Majesties in the educacion of the princes of the 
 Blood, now properly call'd such, leaves no room for 
 
 March 28, 1891). If the present volume should come under his 
 notice, he will, perhaps, feel less confident in trusting an " express 
 denial " of Defoe's. It is true William Lee failed to draw many 
 necessary conclusions from the new materials which he had hunted 
 up. But the late Professor Minto, Defoe's next biographer, is 
 explicit enough, when he says on p. 2 of his excellent little book, 
 "We can hardly believe a word that Defoe says about himself 
 without independent confirmation ; " or, on p. 169, " Defoe was a 
 great, a truly great liar, perhaps the greatest liar that ever lived." 
 Cp. also my letter in the Academy for December 15, 1894. j 
 
 ' According to Mr. J. M. Rigg's article on George II. in the 
 Dictionary of National Biography. 
 
[ xii ] 
 
 any premonition of that kind." Now, as George I. 
 had already been divorced before his accession to the 
 English throne and contracted no new marriage, Defoe 
 can only have meant George II. and Queen Caroline 
 when he spoke of Their Majesties (in the plural), and 
 must have written the two leaves in question some 
 time after George I.'s death, which occurred on 
 June 12, 1727. Also the expression "princes of the 
 Blood, how properly call'd such," can only have been 
 used after that date. This conclusion enables us to 
 date the two leaves pretty accurately ; for, as will 
 soon appear, the Compleat English Gentleman, composed 
 m 1728 or the earlier half of 1729, is a later work. 
 The leaves 99 and 100 were therefore written in, or 
 immediately before or after, the year 1728. 
 
 Defoe wrote them, as I have already pointed out, in 
 order to remove the possible suspicion that his treatise 
 was intended for a " pointed satyr " at the " particular 
 conduct " of certain " families and persons . . . who 
 ought not to be mark't out by the undutifull hints of 
 any hand without doors," (p. 60). It seems we have 
 not far to seek for the reason of his apprehension. We 
 evidently find it in the fact that George II., while still 
 Prince of Wales, had been deprived by his father of 
 the custody of his children for nine years and a half, 
 in consequence of their quarrel at the baptism of the 
 Prince's fifth child on November 28, 1717, and only 
 recovered his parental rights after his father's death.) 
 
 It now remains to return to the preceding text, on 
 leaves 67-98. Was it all written at one and the same 
 time ? Several considerations seem rather to show that 
 
[ '^iii ] 
 
 Defoe interrupted his work after he had come as far as 
 If. g6d. For though Chapter III., according to its 
 heading, was to contain "examples of the diffrent 
 education of princes and persons of rank . . . from 
 the reign pf Henry VII. inclusive, down to the present 
 time" it treats only of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., 
 whilst Chapter IV. begins with Edward VI. (on If. 97). 
 This inaccuracy might, however, simply be due to for- 
 getfulness on the part of Defoe in the course of writing. 
 But the concluding sentence on If. 96 and the first one 
 on If. 97 do not read as though they had been written 
 immediately after one another ; for the expression "of 
 which we shall see farther in its course " (end of If 96), 
 seems to indicate that Defoe did not originally intend 
 to proceed at once to Edward VI. and his sister 
 Elizabeth. .This argument is strengthened by an 
 examination of the present material condition of the 
 MS. It is now bound in red paper covers ; but the 
 binding was only executed in or after the year 183 1, 
 when the MS. belonged to Dawson Turner.' Now, 
 down the middle of all the leaves signs of folds are 
 still visible, and the paper about a few of these folds is 
 soiled considerably, although in most cases the folds are 
 perfectly clean. From this condition of the leaves it 
 is quite clear that originally the manuscript existed in 
 detached fragments ; that the leaves of each fragment 
 which contained one or more chapters were doubled 
 together and folded up in a separate parcel. Leaves 
 1-66, containing the first four chapters of the Compleat 
 English Gentleman, formed the first parcel ; on the back 
 
 ' Cp, my introduction to the Compleat English Gentleman, p. xi. 
 
• 
 
 [ xit ] 
 
 of If. 66 it is accordingly marked The Gentleman. 
 Another parcel consisted of leaves 67—74, and con- 
 tained Chapter I. of the treatise on Roy all Educacion ; 
 a third parcel was formed by leaves 75-88 (= Chapter 
 II.), and a fourth one by leaves 89-96 ( = Chapter III.). 
 Now the last three parcels, which are marked Cap. I., 
 Cap. II., and Cap. III. respectively on the backs of 
 leaves 74, 88, and 96, appear to have been put 
 aside and kept in some moist and dusty place by 
 Defoe for some time, before he proceeded further with 
 the work ; for the lower half of the back of If. 74 and 
 the upper half of the back of If. 96 are very dirty, 
 whilst the two other halves are clean, the dirty parts 
 having evidently been ' on the outside of this entire 
 portion of the MS. This fact would not in itself allow 
 us to draw any conclusion as to the date or origin df 
 the treatise. But if we connect it with the arguments 
 already advanced, it seems to prove that the text on 
 leaves ^7-96 is much older than what follows on the 
 next four leaves, which at one time formed part of 
 another parcel of MS. The back of If. 98 has a fold 
 that is soiled only very slightly, whilst the fold on the 
 back of If 100 is very dirty.' 
 
 Thus we perceive that Defoe's original idea was to 
 compose a work on Royall Educacion. He most pro^ 
 bably began it some time before the year 1728, but 
 certainly not " while the Duke of Gloucester was aliv," 
 
 ' As for the rest of the MS., I may add that the backs of leaves 
 1 19, 132, and 142 have soiled folds in the middle of the pages. The 
 parcels concluding with those leaves contain the last three chapters 
 .pf the Compleat English Gentleman. 
 
[ *xv ] 
 
 He interrupted his work after finishing two entire 
 chapters and a considerable portion of the third, i.e., 
 leaves 67-96. The cause, of the interruption is not 
 known.^ It may have been one result of George I.'s 
 quarrel with his son at the end of the year 1 7 1 7, or of 
 George II.'s accession to the throne in 1727. (Two 
 facts would seem to indicate that the interval that 
 elapsed before Defoe resumed the work was brief. 
 First, the paper as well as the style of writing remains 
 the same ; and secondly, the expression " I am told at 
 the first setting out in this undertaking" that occurs at 
 the beginning of If. 99, suggests the idea that he had 
 recently begun his work., 
 
 When in or about the year 1728 Defoe took up his 
 work again, he did not complete the third chapter 
 according to his original plan, but began a fourth, 
 that he abandoned after he had written only two 
 pages and a half (leaves 97 and 98), because, according 
 to his own explanation, he was "told . . . that [his 
 undertaking] threatened a pointed satyr at [his] own 
 times." After some hesitation he wrote leaves 99 and 
 100, in order to explain the harmless aim of his book. 
 As this sheet begins with the heading Of Royall Educa- 
 cion, it seems that its contents were originally meant 
 for a preface ; but the two concluding sentences show 
 that Defoe subsequently intended to turn them to 
 other uses. 
 
 There is no reason to suppose that Defoe proceeded 
 any further in his undertaking or that any part of the 
 MS. is lost. All the accessible evidence tends to show 
 that he left his work in this unfinished state. The 
 
[ xvi ] 
 
 text on If. 96 b ends in the middle of the page. The 
 same is the case on If. 98*. On If. 100' a there remains 
 room for two more lines. In each case something is 
 wanting to the text, and the author must be held 
 responsible for the deficiency. 
 
 We may assume that the fear liiat his work was 
 suspected of a political purpose, caused him to abandon 
 his original plan and to adopt a new design, viz., the 
 compilation of a book on the general neglect of the 
 education of the English gentry. At all events, it is a 
 curious and significant coincidence that those words 
 occur both on the last page of our present treatise and 
 on the title-page of the Compleat English Gentleman. 
 In the latter work, which represents the result of his 
 second scheme, he incorporates some passages from the 
 earlier incomplete treatise — e.g., his remarks on the 
 Leslies (see p. 120 of the C. E. G., and pp. 10-13 of 
 R. E.) ; but he did not apparently intend at any 
 time simply to incorporate the four chapters on Royall 
 Educacion into his second treatise. No mention is 
 made of the subject of those chapters in the long title 
 on the first page of the MS., in which he has summed 
 up the contents of the Compleat English Gentleman} 
 It was only a later owner that put the two MSS. 
 together as though they were one work.^ 
 
 ' Cp. my letter in the Academy for Oct. 13, 1894. 
 
 2 The note on the back of If. 100 (viz., Chap. IV.) is not by 
 Defoe ; for Defoe's own spelling invariably is " Cap.," not " Chap.," 
 and the word is written with a finer pen than the MS. generally. 
 Mr. Bickley has informed me that "comparison is decidedly 
 apinst the writing being Defoe's," 
 
[ xvii ] 
 
 Only a few words as to the subject, the aim, and the 
 value of the book seem necessary. Defoe wants to 
 show the " necessity of good education and the import- 
 ance of it, as well to themselves as to their country, in 
 the children of princes and noblemen, as also of all 
 persons of rank, either for quallity or employment." 
 But in its fragmentary form, his essay treats almost 
 exclusively of " examples from history and the best 
 informacion of the miserable consequences of the want 
 of education in princes and men of the first rank in 
 former tinies," beginning with William the Conqueror; 
 and at the same time also " noteing happy examples 
 of the contrary." He was a fairly competent master 
 of his subject, and in my notes, at the end of this 
 volume, I have pointed out at least the principal 
 sources of his historical knowledge. He had them 
 before his eyes on the table while he worked, and 
 frequently copied them verbally. ( Numerous quotations 
 prove that he mainly relied on John Speed's History of 
 Great Britain, and on White Kennet's Complete History 
 of England. \ In his quotations he is frequently in- 
 accurate, and deviates without necessity from his 
 authorities. As to the historical value of his essay, I 
 need only say that nobody will expect a very sound 
 historical criticism from the author of the Journal of 
 the Plague. ( One of the most interesting passages is 
 found on page 44, at the beginning of If. 92 of the 
 MS., where he reveals what he considers to be " the 
 best method of knowing things," and rather ingenuously 
 explains his mode of writing history.) It is to be 
 regretted that the time and space devoted to his 
 
[ xviii ] 
 
 account of royal education in early times prevented his 
 treatment of problems that were in closer relations with 
 his own generation. (But in its incomplete shape the 
 value of the treatise almost entirely depends on its 
 connection with the CompUat English Gentleman. Now 
 and then a passage occurs which deals with facts that 
 lay within Defoe's own experience. On p. 8 he 
 expresses a deep sympathy with the condition of the 
 untaught poor; or, on p. 41, he treats of the woollen 
 industry, and exultantly mentions that " in the manu- 
 facturing towns of England [there is] hardly a child 
 abov 5 year old but could get its own bread." * Defoe's 
 statement is no exaggeration, and his exultation was 
 shared by many other benevolent men. 
 
 In preparing the text for publication I have followed 
 the same principles as in my edition of Defoe's 
 Compleat English Gentleman, all such deviations from 
 the author's manuscript as seemed necessary being 
 accounted for on pp. xviii-xx of my introduction to 
 that book, Mr. Francis B. Bickley made the tran- 
 script of this portion of the MS., as of the portions 
 already published ; but all diiHcult, doubtful, or obscure 
 passages I myself collated with the MS. In a short 
 review of my former book, published in the Archiv 
 fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Litera- 
 turen, vol. Ixxxv. (1890) p. 325, Professor Zupitza 
 questioned the authenticity of the reading Itinerat or 
 Survey of England (see p. 210 of my edition) ; we 
 should, of course, expect Itinerary ; but he has since 
 
 * Cp. Macaulay's remarks on the labour of children in factories 
 that time History of England vol. i. chap. iii.). 
 
[ xix ] 
 
 convinced himself by personal examination of the MS» 
 that my text is correct. The word is written quite 
 distinctly in the MS. 
 
 Miss C. L. Cooper and Mr. W. Leo Thompson have 
 kindly read the proofs of the text with me. 
 
 KARL D. BULBRING. 
 
 Groningen, Netherlands. 
 
OF 
 
 Royall Educacion. 
 
 CAP. I. /67. 
 
 Of the reafon and necejjity of good education, the im- 
 portance of it, as well to themfelves as to their 
 country, in the children of princes and noblemen, as 
 alfo of all perfons of rank, either for quallity or 
 employment. 
 
 HE foul of man feems to be plac'd in him 
 by the author of Nature like a rough 
 diamond in the mine, where all its luftre 
 and its moft perfeft beauties are hid under 
 the cloudy furface which adheres to it, from the groffer 
 or earthy parts which it is found beded in from its 
 begining to be. 
 
 The Jewell has in it all the fliiriing glories of its 
 refin'd compofition, its inimitable brightnefs, its perfeft 
 water, its unperifhable duracion, its unmallable hardnefs, 
 by which it cuts every thing and is its felf wounded 
 onely by it felf. It has, in a word, an intrinfick, 
 unvaluable worth, known as well as unknown ; yet all 
 this, in its primitiv ftate, lyes conceal'd from common 
 view, and is onely difcern'd by the penetrating judge- 
 ment 
 
i 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 ment of an experienc'd lapidary or jeweller; and he 
 bringing it' to his engine or mill, by which he pares 
 off the gloomy furface, modells and rightly forms the 
 whole fully, at once diffplays the glories which were 
 before eclypfd and conceal'd, and makes it fhine with 
 its full luftre. 
 
 Thus the brighteft foul, while ecclypft and veil'd in 
 its infant clothing of corrupted or at leaft corruptible 
 flefh and blood, tho' it may have in it all the brighteft 
 capafcityes, thofe beauties of the mind which when 
 clear'd up and uninterrupted fhine out in fuch an inimit- 
 able brightnefs, yet can not fhow it felf, can not emit the 
 rayes of its nativ luftre and perfeccion, till polifh'd by 
 the Ikilfull applicacion of experienc'd inftruftors : then 
 it breaks out from thofe clouds, and recovering the proper 
 fpace of accion, has room to expand it felf and dart out 
 the rays of its divine original glory. 
 
 N.B. I faid abov the brighteft foul, becaufe, not 
 allowing that grofs and inconfiftent notion which fome 
 have entertain'd of a parity of fouls, I am clear in the 
 contrary opinion and muft infift that, as in the allegory 
 of an unpolifh'd Jewell there are fome diamonds of a 
 clearer and more perfeft water than others, tho' out of 
 the fame mine, fo there are fouls of differing glory and 
 furnifti'd by Nature with infinitely greater capafcityes 
 then fome others may be, tho' all iffuing from the fame 
 hand, emitting divine powers and influences to them ; 
 and that there are other and more conceal'd caufes of 
 /. 68. thofe differences in them than fuch as are meerly 
 accidents, from the imperfeccion of the organ by which 
 they are oblig'd to aft and to whofe opperations they 
 are confin'd. 
 
 What thofe more referv'd caufes are or may be, is 
 not to my prefent purpofe ; 'tis fufificient to me that 
 the fa£l is difcovr'd in its effefts ; nor does it feem 
 
 confiftent 
 ' ?■/ omitted in MS. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 confiftent with the divine wifdome that He who made 
 all men ftiould confine Himfelf fo in the ftrufture, that 
 He could not furnifh fuch particular men who He had 
 by His Providence' defign'd for eminent ftations, exalted 
 glory, and inimitable accions, with fouls apt to, and 
 capable of, the reall and intrinfick gallantry and 
 greatnefs, which fhould quallifye them to accquire that 
 glory and perform thofe accions in a manner infinitely 
 beyond the inferiour world, who are onely left to 
 admire, not imitate, them. 
 
 We read of this more particularly in Scripture, and 
 that in feverall inftances, efpecially of kings and leaders 
 of armyes and others, fuch as were deftined to great 
 aftions, as of Joftiua, of Saul, of David, of Solomon, of 
 Elifha, and others. 'Tis faid of SauP that God gave 
 him another fpirit, and of Solomon that God gave 
 him wifdome, and the like ; in which inftances the 
 feverall fouls were certainly furnifh'd with extraordinary 
 powers, whether originally by prefcient Providence' — 
 and fo they onely had the doors for exerting thofe 
 powers unlockt — or by imediate influence ; as we 
 are not able to determine, fo we need not enquire, it 
 being not at all material in our prefent queftion. 
 
 From thefe juft premifes I may moft reafonably in- 
 ferr that the fouls of princes, men of nobillity in birth 
 and blood, efpecially fuch as the divine prefcience has, 
 as above, defign'd and determin'd for great employment 
 and glorious accions in life, and as are, or are to be, 
 plac'd in high ftations, are often times furnifti'd thus in 
 an extraordinary manner from a fuperior hand with 
 powers fuitable to, and capable of, the great things 
 they are to do and the great figure they are to* make 
 in the world. Like the planets, as they are to fhine 
 with a particular glory, fo their diameters are made 
 
 larger, 
 
 1 The MS. has D with a dot in the middle. 
 
 2 Instead of SauL the MS. has a stroke. ' to omitted in MS. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 larger, their denfity greater, and the quantity of matter 
 more or lefs according to the orbit in which they are 
 to mov, and to the degree of light and heat which 
 they are to reciev from the sun which is the center of 
 all their reflex glory. 
 
 But now to bring all this down to my purpofe, and 
 that it may be appofite to the fubjeft I am entring 
 upon and for the occafion of which I have mencion'd 
 this difparity of fouls, this will farther inforce the 
 argument and prov the neceffity of polifhing thofe 
 rough diamonds, as I call them, and that with the 
 more and the greater fkill a^nd care ; by how much 
 thefe of the firft magnitude may be more beautifull 
 and perfeft in themfelves, and more capable of fhining 
 with a furprifing luftre in the world, when they are 
 thus carefully polifli'd, than others are ! 
 
 In a word, and the whole allegory leads me to it, 
 by how much the greater the nativ luftre, the reall 
 intrinfick beauty and excellence there may be fuggefted 
 in the fouls of men nobly born and of men deftin'd for 
 glory, than is found in others of inferior rank : by fo 
 much the greater fliould the Ikill and care be which 
 ought to be ufed in the educacion offuch perfons and 
 cultivating, polifhing, and improving thofe naturall 
 powers in their fouls, for the furthering the defigns of 
 Heaven and Nature and for enabling them to exert 
 thofe powers with the uttmoft vigour and refolution. 
 
 Thofe that think the educacion of princes needlefs, 
 and that the moft early polifhing and refining their 
 underftandings and genius by inftruccion and learning 
 is out of the way ; that they are above what we call 
 teaching and . tutqring in their infancy, or inftilling 
 principles of vertue and glory into their minds when 
 grown up to what we call youth : I fay, thofe who 
 think thus think in a manner too groffly almoft to 
 mencion. 
 
 The 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 The finer the Jewell, the more carefully fliould it be 
 fet, the more nicely fhould it be cut, and all the help 
 of art given it to illuftrate nature, and fet it off with _ 
 advantage. You feldome find that a beautiful! woman 
 thinks that, becaufe fhe is handfome, fhe has no occafion 
 to fet her felf off by drefs and decoracion ; on the 
 contrary, the handfomer the lady thinks her felf to be, 
 the more carefuU fhe generally is to giv her charms all 
 the advantages of fine cloths and of a proper difpofition 
 of them, too, which we call drefs, to render her felf the 
 more agreeable and the more charming to the eyes of 
 her admirers. 
 
 Educacion is the induccion of youth into the world. 
 'Tis a bringing them upon the ftage with what they 
 call a good grace ; 'tis fetting off their parts and 
 capafcities with the uttmoft advantage, like a man 
 that is to make a leap for a wager or reward and 
 retreats a little, that he may take a fhort run, by the 
 force of which he rifes with the more advantage. 
 
 It is true the educacion of princes and the children 
 of noble families ought to differ from that of other 
 people, efpecially the fons of noble perfons, who when 
 they are grown up are likely to mov in the higheft 
 fpheres of life, and who it is probable may have 
 opportunityes prefented them to fignalize themfelves 
 and to have their virtues fhine in a more particular 
 manner and from a higher ftacion than other people. 
 The education of fuch as thefe, I fay, ought not to be 
 of the fame kind or mannag'd in the fame manner as 
 the ordinary fchool teaching of other people ; and for 
 this reafon, it is ufuall to appoint governours, tutors, and 
 infpeftors, whofe whole care and employ for the time 
 being is or fhould be to form the mind, as it is well 
 call'd, of their pupill ; to direft his ftudyes ; to enure 
 and reconcile his temper to the praftife of virtue and 
 to the lov of ufefuU knowlege ; to temper his genius 
 
 and 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 and to moderate his youthful! paffions ; to initiate in a 
 due courfe juft and generous principles, proper and 
 well feafon'd apetites and affeccions ; to divide his 
 houres and govern his ftudyes in a well proporcion'd 
 manner between the Mufes and the Graces ; to prepare 
 the foul for heroic aftions, and yet to level his higheft 
 thoughts to the needful meafures as well of a Chriftian 
 as a hero : in a word, to make him not a man onely, 
 but a man truly noble and great, all he ought to be 
 and all that the world can expeft from a man of his 
 birth and fortune ; to exalt his foul above the meanefs 
 and bafenefs of the ordinary clafs of men, and yet to 
 temper it with that modefty and humillity which 
 becomes a man of honour and fits with the moft ad- 
 mirable grace upon the behaviour of the greateft men. 
 
 It was faid of that mofh incomparable king as well 
 as generall, the truly heroick Guftavus Adolpfius, that, 
 with the mofh fire in his temper and the moft invincible, 
 undaunted fpirit, which even his^ enemies acknowleg'd 
 to furpafs all the examples in moft ages of the world, 
 he hadyet the greateft modefty and humillity, fo that 
 if any man fpoke in his hearing of his conduft or of 
 any of his great accions, which even the whole world 
 acknowleg'd, and of his perfonall behaviour in them, 
 he would blufh like a maiden and imediately giv fome 
 checque to the difcourfe. 
 
 Humillity moft certainly is a grace to a man of 
 glory, and adds luftre to the greateft charafter. There 
 is a foundacion for it, no doubt, in a man of true honour 
 and who has a nativ greatnefs of foul ; but it is as 
 certainly to be cultivated by education, and requires 
 the greateft application and judgment poflible in a 
 tutor to preferv and increafe it. 
 
 Pride and felf-opinion are a dangerous weeds in this 
 young foil, and Ihould be moft carefully rooted out in 
 
 the 
 ^ MS. his even enemies, even being inserted in the wrong place. 
 
CyROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 the very firft breaking up the furface, if you can ;"but 
 plant a moderate fhare of humillity, and bring it up 
 to what we may call a growing, improving condition : 
 you giv hopes of the young gentleman that in time he 
 may be a great man ; otherwife, if opinion gets a-head 
 and he nouriflies it by his nativ warmth, which indeed 
 is pride in its embrio, it proceeds infenfibly, firft, to a 
 pofitivnefs that is hard to conquer, and thence, to 
 arrogance, which is incurable and of all things fatal to 
 the firft feeds of virtue and honour. But I ftiall have a 
 large feild to ftate this point in as I proceed ; I onely 
 name it here to prove the neceffity of a peculiar care 
 in the education of princes and noble perfons, the 
 danger of fuch a felf opinion being the greater in them 
 by how much they are but too apt to reciev the impref- 
 fions of their high birth and great ftacion in life, and 
 that thofe impreffions begin alfo too foon to take place 
 in their minds. But I fay I fliall come to this again. 
 I return to my fubjeft, namely that the education of 
 perfons of the higheft rank is a thing neceffary, and 
 that of the higheft confequence. 
 
 As it is neceffary, in order to form their minds and 
 fit them for the government of themfelves, fo indeed it 
 is more than ordinarily neceffary, as they are, or are 
 like to be, publick perfons and may come into offices 
 of great honour and dignity, fuch as kings and 
 foveraigns of what denomination foever, or fuch as 
 having government and employments, dignityes and 
 preferments, places of honour and truft in the admin- 
 iftration and executiv part of government under the 
 prince or king to whom they belong and to whom they 
 are, as we call the peers, counfellors and advifers, even 
 in right of blood his majeftie's hereditary counfellors. 
 
 No man will fay that educacipn is a flight and/ 71. 
 indifferent thing where it relates to fuch illuftrious 
 branches as are by their birth and blood to fucceed 
 
 to 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 to kings and to the thrones and governments of their 
 country, whether by apparent or prefumptiv heirfhip ; 
 or to fuch as are by a like right of birth and blood 
 likely to be, or capable of being, the hereditary 
 counfellors and advifers of their princes, or entrufted 
 with the miniftry and adminiftracion of the government 
 they are born under : on the other hand, thus educa- 
 cion is a matter of the higheft and laft importance, and 
 that on two accounts. 
 
 I. As it refpefts themfelves. All wife and prudent 
 educacion of children, of what degree foever they are, 
 is undeniably an advantage to the children themfelves ; 
 and indeed in the nature of the thing it is fo intended, 
 and with no other view even in the meaneft rank or 
 degree of then. How unhappily and wretchedly mean 
 does it render our poor, when, added to their nativ 
 mifery, we find them utterly untaught, ignorant, and,, as 
 it were, barbarous or wild, that they can neither read 
 or write, kno' nothing and are capable of learning 
 nothing any otherwife than the horfes they driv may 
 learn to kno' the names they giv them and which way 
 to: turn when they are call'd to ! 
 
 But how much more is this of importance to the 
 children of higheft rank, who by their birth are to be 
 ornaments not onely to their families, but to their 
 country, and are to raife their own fame upon the 
 proper merit of their own virtue ; fuch ought to be a ^ 
 fpeciall care of their families, and an early and a wife 
 educacion of fuch is of the laft importance to them^ 
 felves. It forms their minds to high and noble objefts ; 
 quallifyes them for high trufts and great employments ; 
 it recommends them early to their prince and to their 
 country, and gives them early opportunities to ftep into 
 buffinefs not onely before, but, as we may fay, over the 
 heads of, others lefs quallifyed, when to nobillity of 
 
 birth 
 ' a omitted in M.S. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 5 
 
 birth it may be added that fuch a lord or fuch a young 
 prince is a man of learning, a man of judgement, a 
 fchoUar, a man of virtue, he has been fo and fo 
 educated, and has made a furprifmg improvement in 
 his ftudyes ; that he is an excellent mathematiciap ; that 
 he has a head turn'd for buflinefs, a genius to the war, 
 either to the field or to naval affairs; or that he is 
 known to excell in any particular; that he is well read 
 in hiftory, has ftudyed the intreft and temper of all the 
 courts and governments in Europe, and the like. 
 
 Such a man is fmgl'd out by his prince to command 
 his armys or his fleet, he is plac'd at the head of fuch 
 or fuch an enterprife or expedition, or he is fent abroad 
 upon the moft important negotiations, an Ambaffador 
 to fuch a Court, a Plenipotentiary' to fuch a Con- 
 grefs, as a perfon of confummate wifdome and known 
 abillities, to mannage the intrefts of the prince that 
 fends him. 
 
 If he is kept at home, the prince Angles him out, 
 perhaps, for his favourite, to have him near him for the 
 help of his councils and for the pleafure and benefit of 
 his exquifite parts. Here he advances to the higheft 
 civil employments, is made Lord High Admiral, Lord 
 Treafurer, Lord Keeper (or Privy Seal), and if not fo 
 high, perhaps, a Secretary of State and Privy Counfellor ; 
 and fo of lower degrees and ftations, according to his 
 degree and the figure he makes in the Court. 
 
 All this may be faid to depend purely and folely /. 72. 
 upon his educacion and the early flock of wifdome and 
 knowlege infufd into him by his tutors, and the juft 
 and due improvment which it may be faid he himfelf 
 has made under the tutelage I am fpeaking for : thofe 
 juft and due improvments are allways allow'd to require 
 his own applicacion, which may likewife be fpoken to 
 at large in its place. 
 
 2. But 
 ' MS. Plo with a horizontal stroke over it. 
 B 
 
lo 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 2. But this, of courfe, brings me to obferv that the 
 benefit of this early inftruccion of the children does not 
 onely refpeft themfelves when they come to recomend 
 themfelves to publick trufts, pofts, and employments, 
 but it refpefts their country too, which is highly con- 
 cern'd in their prince's choice on fuch occafions and 
 which is allwayes a deep fufferer when illiterate, un- 
 taught, ignorant, and unpolifh'd men without educacion, 
 without principles of honour and virtue, and without 
 accquir'd abillityes are employ'd. 
 
 Such, generally fpeaking, betray the truft repofd in 
 them, either wilfully by corrupcion and ill praftices, by 
 avarice and pride, partiallity and oppreffion, and, in a 
 word, being abandon'd to vice for want of an early edu- 
 cacion in better principles ; or, by ignorant and rafh 
 meafures for want of an early erudition in the rules and 
 meafures of juft government and for want of knowlege 
 in the true intrefts of their country ; for this will ever 
 be true, that ignorance is the firft ftep to tyranny in the 
 adminiftracion, and to cruelty and paffion in a miniftry. 
 A fool knows not the beauty and excellence of a juft, 
 mild, and mercifull government, and is allmoft made a 
 tyrant by the nature of the thing and becaufe he is a 
 fool. 
 
 I might enlarge here, greatly to the advantage of 
 fuch young gentlemen and noblemen as fhall ftoop to 
 admit this work to their view, upon th6 importance of 
 accquir'd knowlege to the office of a minifter of ftate, 
 and how mean a figure a man of the beft quality makes 
 in pofts of confequence in the government without 
 learning. 
 
 Hiftory tells us that thefe were two generalls of very 
 great fame in the army of the great Guftavus Adolphus 
 that could neither read or write ; they were both Scotf- 
 men and both of the name of Lefly, and they gain'd 
 the honour of the moft important commands without 
 
 the 
 
Of ROYALL EDUC ACION. 1 1 
 
 the advantage of letters ; and the faft I believ is true. 
 But as it merits to he taken and confidred in all its 
 circumftartces,' fo every one of thofe circumftances' 
 will convince us of two things. 
 
 1 . They did not obtain that fame and glory which 
 they were raif'd to and really deferv'd, by the merit of 
 their ignorance in letters ; they were advanc'd for being 
 gallant and brave, experienc'd in millitary knowlege, 
 intrepid and , moft terrible in the iield and capable of 
 council as well as accion, none of all which, indeed, do 
 depend wholly upon fchool learning; for arms and war 
 are not the beft friends in the world to Arts and Science. 
 But I fay want of learning was not the reafon of their 
 excelling or the caufe of their advancement, and the 
 very recording the thing is a proof of it, for that the 
 wonder of it makes it remarkable, and it is left us 
 in ftory as a furprifing novelty, that men fo perfectly 
 illiterate Ihould be capable of rifing to any hight of 
 glory or to any great ftacion in the world. 
 
 2. You mull not call thefe two great men — for they 
 were truly great — I fay, you muft not call them ignorant, 
 tho' illiterate. They were men really learned in their 
 proper buiTmefs ; they were bred to arms and raif'd by 
 their virtue, that is, by their unmatch'd and extraordi- 
 nary bravery, their long experience and exceeding 
 judgement in millitary affairs. One was faid to excell 
 in the art of choofing encampments, and the other in 
 martialling an army for battle, and both excell'd in"y. 73. 
 their moft exquifite mannagement of their troops in the 
 heat of a fight, their temper and prefence of mind 
 
 in the middle of the accion, their fending, fuitable 
 and timely fupplyes to every part that was pufh't or 
 prefT't by the enemy, their readynefs to pufh every 
 advantage and make the beft of the leaft miftake of a 
 lefs experienc'd enemy ; and they were equally famous 
 
 for 
 1 Abbreviation. " MS. omits in. 
 
12 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 for their care of, and fparing the lives of, their men 
 where it confifled with the fervice, and hazarding their 
 own where duty call'd them to the moft defp'rate 
 attempts. 
 
 They had been equally victorious on inumerable 
 occafions ; and as they ferv'd often under the eye and, 
 as it were, at the very elbow of a prince that was the 
 beft judge of merit as he was the greateft captain of 
 the age, fo he had been an eye-witnefs of their intrepid 
 gallantry and courage, as well as of their dextrous 
 mannaging their men as well to lead them on as to 
 bring them off in the greateft extremetys and in the 
 face of a fuperior enemy, on a thoufand occafions, and 
 fo advanc't them upon the foot of their meer proper 
 and perfonall merit. 
 
 Now I fay I muft deny that thefe were ignorant men 
 any more than a captain of a company is ignorant 
 becaufe he is not fit to be a captain of a fhip, or a 
 generall becaufe he can not be a good admiral. 
 
 But 3°. This want of letters was a defficiency and 
 a lofs even to thefe great men, and put them to the 
 neceffity of borrowing helps of feverall kinds ; for 
 example, one of them had the cipher of his name fixt 
 on a ftamp form'd like the types or letters uf'd in print- 
 ing, which being dipt on a bunch of cotton or on a peice 
 of fpung that had printer's ink on it, with the ftamp 
 he affixt his name when he fign'd any treatyes or capitu- 
 lacions, gave out commiffions, fign'd refolves of the 
 councils of war, orders or warrants, and the like. 
 
 On the Other hand, they were both oblig'd to keep 
 fpeciall fecretaries, whofe office it was to read all their 
 letters to them and to write all their anfwers, and which 
 in it felf was a very great truft ; for they were oblig'd 
 to depend entirely on the fidellity of thofe fecretaryes 
 in matters of the greateft importance, and even fome- 
 times when their being falfe to them might have been 
 
 of 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. i 
 
 of the moft fatall confequence : fo that they were far 
 from being infencible of the want of a liberall educacion 
 and the lofs they fuftain'd by that defeft : — fo that the/. 74. 
 neceflity of education of great men, even the millitary 
 great, fuch as foldiers and generalls, as well as others, 
 is not leffen'd but confirm'd and made the more 
 apparent by this celebrated example.' 
 
 ^ On folio 73 b is : — 
 
 When education does adorn 
 The minds of children nobly born, 
 They fern io/pring offome angelick race. 
 Of fame, offome angelic race. 
 But where good educacion wants 
 To be ingrafted in young plants , 
 Tho' fprung from gods, they grow extremely bafe : 
 Degenerate and extremely bafe. 
 
 Their royal birth and noble blood 
 
 Being not rightly underflood 
 Servs but to prompt young vices in the mind. 
 
 Dazl'd with their own brightnefs they 
 
 To Idol Self their homage pay, 
 To their own imperfeccions onely blind. 
 
 CAP. 
 
/■7S- 
 
 CAP. II. 
 
 Some examples from hijlory and from, good informacion 
 of the zuant of care taken in the educacion of young 
 
 princes and the children of the nobillity, in form.er 
 times, as well in this nacion as in forreign countrys ; 
 and how fatall the effeSls of it hav^ been in their 
 
 ftUnre conduSl ; with fome few examples of the con- 
 trary alfo. 
 
 ¥AVING, in the former cap., given fome brief 
 hints of the reafon and neceflity of an early 
 educacion of the children" of princes, in 
 i^^. order to introduce them early in the praffife 
 of virtue and to recomend things honourable and 
 religious , to their moft juvenil thoughts, I come, in 
 this cap., to illuftrate the argument by giving you 
 a colleccion of examples from hiftory and the beft in- 
 formacion of the miferable confequences of the want of 
 education in princes and men of the firft rank in former 
 times, whether occafion'd by the accident of warr and 
 civill outrage, or by any other negleft ; its fad effefts 
 to the country when govern'd by fuch princes, and 
 alfo to themfelves ; and how it has juftly diftinguifh'd 
 them in the world and left them as warnings to 
 us and the ages that are yet to come after us to avoid 
 the like, (till noteing, as I go, fuch happy examples of the 
 contrary as come within the compafs of the fame ages. 
 In the fearch after thefe extraordinary examples, 
 
 efpecially 
 ' MS. has. ^ Abbreviated. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 15 
 
 efpecially in this particular part of it, I fliall confine 
 my felf to the royal families of our princes, the kings 
 and queens of England and Scotland in the feverall 
 branches of them, tho' not imediately on the throne, 
 referring the examples of the nobillity according to 
 their rank to another clafs. 
 
 I purpofe to go no farther back in this enquiry than 
 to the Norman Conqueft, tho' it might be ufefull to 
 have look'd into former' reigns too ; but it would 
 have been too tedious. Certain it is that in the 
 feverall reigns from the Conqueft to the 1 5th century 
 they took very little care of the educacion of their 
 pofterity, at beft not fo much as the latter times have 
 done. For this it muft be confidred that allmoft all 
 the reigns from the Conqueft to that of Henry VII. 
 have been, as we may very properly call them, meerly 
 military ; as well the princes and nobillity as, in a 
 particular manner, the common people were generally 
 employ'd in carrying on their conquefts abroad or 
 miferably hataffd with civil wars and rebellions at 
 home, fo that indeed the drum and the trumpet have 
 drown'd the mufic of the Mufes ; Science and Arts /. 76. 
 made a much meaner figure and lefs progrefs in 400 
 years than they have made in one century of thefe 
 modern ages. They had either no foil to grow in or 
 no feafon to take root and thrive in ; the phylofopher 
 had been difcourg'd and thruft out of court by the 
 foldier, and our princes, inftead of the book in their 
 hands, have put the helmet upon their heads, allmoft as 
 foon as they were able to ftand under the weight of it. 
 
 I need not repeat the mellancholy particulars or 
 coppie the annals of our kings to" prove them : They 
 that kno' any thing of our hiftory of England kno' it 
 to be true. Take a brief Iketch of it from the Conqueft 
 in the following particulars. 
 
 William 
 ' The MS. has into from former. 
 
i6 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 William the Conqueror as he was himfelf a meer 
 foldier, fo his whole reign was taken up reducing the 
 nation he had conquer'd to a temper of fubjeccion and 
 to fubmit calmly to what they found it in vain to refift ; 
 as he rul'd them indeed with a rod of iron, fo he had 
 enough upon his hands to do, fo the many rebellions 
 of the people, as well the common people as the 
 nobillity, kept him in a conftant allarm ; and tho' he 
 obtain'd a full and compleat conqueft over them and 
 held them under with great feveritys,'""'' yet it can 
 not be faid he either Hv'd or dyed in peace. 
 
 William Rufus and Henry I., his brother, came both 
 to the crown by ufurpacion, their elder brother Robert 
 being aliv but abfent, and they taking a difhoneft ad- 
 vantage of that abfence and feizing the treafure and 
 ftrengths of the nation, by that means alfo feiz'd the 
 crown ; but the confequence was that this precarious 
 right brought them a continuall tribute of fear and 
 anxiety ; and as they allwayes held by an unjufl title, 
 fo they had but an unquiet, uneafie reign. 
 
 Their father beftow'd much the fame educacion upon 
 two of them which he had himfelf, that is to fay, bred 
 them up to nothing, let them run wild like trees 
 without pruning, fit for the wood, not the garden : fo 
 thefe were fitter for the field than the Court ; and being 
 men of the fword, not of the gown, they contended for 
 foveraignty by battle and blood, not by reafon and 
 
 right; 
 
 (*) Witnefs the Curfew or Cover-feu bell, which was a bell 
 order'd to be rung every night at 8 a clock, when the king by his 
 abfolute command forbid any fire or candle to be feen in the 
 houfes upon very fevere penaltyes. 
 
 (*) Witnefs also his generall furvey of all the lands in England, 
 which the people for the feverety of it call'd Doomf-day Book, in 
 which he cauf'd all the lands in England to be furyey'd and rated 
 in the king's books, fo to kno' the value and ftrenth, the ellates 
 and annuall rents, of all the great families in England and how to 
 tax them accordingly. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 17 
 
 right ; and fo the younger being the ftronger kept the 
 poffeiTion. But Henry, the third fon, being in the 
 courfe of nature out of any profpeft of the crown, 
 Hiftory tells us he was plac'd among the monks and 
 bred up to books fuch as they had at that time, and 
 fo had fome learning, a thing very rare in thofe days, 
 fayes our hiftorian Speed, efpecially in princes. 
 Another writer fayes he was bred up in learning even 
 from his child-hood, an honour very rare in thofe dayes. 
 What the learning was_^ or what courfes he went thro' 
 in his ftudyes, that author does not relate ; onely we 
 find that he was faid to be a fchollar and a phylofopher, 
 tho' the phylofophy of thofe days was, I fuppofe, pre- 
 fcrib'd into a much narrower compafs than we fee it 
 fmce improv'd to. 
 
 But to be more particular, the anotator upon the 
 hiftory of this king in our prefent Colleccion of Englifh 
 Hiftorians fayes he ftudyed at Cambridge (fee the Coll. 
 vol. I. fo. 119); and 'tis added , that the little taft of 
 learning which the king had, made books come into 
 fafhion, and many learned men flourifh'd in his time. 
 
 By this educacion, however narrow it might be, he 
 obtain'd the fir-name of Beau Clerk or Schollar ; and /. 77. 
 had his elder brother, as in right he ought, obtain'd 
 the crown, it is very probable he might have been 
 Arch-Bifhop of Canterbury ; for a fmall fhare of learn- 
 ing in thofe days with a large fhare of money was 
 fufficient to advance a man to the pall, efpecially with 
 the powerfull affiftance of a king to recommend. 
 
 But this prince, if he had not (with his learning) 
 grace enough to make a paftor of the Chriftian flock, 
 had craft enough to ftep into the throne of the king- 
 dome and fupplant the right heir, as many have done 
 both before and after him ; and being bred among a 
 fet of men not fam'd for mercy when they are cloth'd 
 with power, he treated his poor fupplanted and con- 
 
 quer'd 
 
i8 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 quer'd brother, and who (in juftice) ought to have been 
 his foyeraign, with much more cruelty and unnaturall 
 feverity than his other ufurping brother William had 
 done before, till the unhappy prince not able to bear 
 his mifffortunes ftarv'd himfelf to death in prifon. 
 Together with this cruelty, his learning being too little 
 to conquer his immorallityes, we find little eminent in 
 his charafter to bear a hiftory, except that he left behind 
 him one onely lawfuU child and fourteen baftards, his 
 eldeft fon William being fhipwreck'd and drown'd 
 coming over from France. 
 
 Yet fomething is to be faid in favour of the educa- 
 cion of princes from the little ftock of learning this 
 king had and notwithftanding the little ufe' he made of 
 it, (viz.) that it cauf'd him, while a king, to value and 
 encourage men of learning. It cauf d him to be very 
 bountifuU to the Church, by which it is fuppofd he 
 obtain'd abundance of eulogies arid praifes from the 
 hiftorians of thofe dayes, who were all of them to a 
 man monks or church-men of fom denomination or 
 other, who in particular fay he excell'd all the princes 
 of the world at that time ; whereas if we take the true 
 J hiftory of his reign and place the uncontefted matters 
 of faft in a true light, he was cruel, covetous, bloody, 
 and infatiably leud and vitious, an ufurper and a 
 murtherer of his brother. 
 
 Hiftory however tells us that he was learned and 
 that he left this eftablifti'd teftimony of it: (viz.) (i) 
 that he was the founder of feverall colleges and religious 
 houfes and particularly of the great abbey of Reading, 
 where he was buryed ; and (2) that he left this faying 
 behind him, which is faid to be his ufuall expreffion 
 when he obferv'd the ignorance and illiterate behaviour 
 
 of 
 
 The MS. has and from the little tife little u/e, the first little 
 being struck out and the shorthand note for notwithftanding 
 written over it. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 19 
 
 of feverall of the princes of that age, his neighbours, 
 namely, that he efteem'd an unlearned king to be but 
 a crown'd afs, a faying we may have an occafion to 
 quote upon fome other occafions in this work as we 
 go on. 
 
 N.B. Queen Maud, King Henry's firft wife was 
 more learned than the king himfelf, and fliow'd it in 
 her charity to the poor, lov of letters, and all difpofi- 
 tions to virtue and good litterature, which the king her / 78. 
 hufband did not. 
 
 N.B. She was educated in Scotland ; fo long ago 
 was Scotland eminent for the early introduccion of 
 princes and perfons of rank in piety and learning. 
 
 But we are now gotten too far back to make a ftri6l 
 fearch into particulars ; and befides, as abov, the char- 
 a6lers of princes and great perfons in thofe ages are fo 
 partially related by the church-writers and meafur'd 
 by their favouring or not favouring the clergy, that we 
 can not relye upon the accounts they giv. 
 
 The next reign was yet more embarraff't with tumult 
 and war than that of King Henry ; for Stephen, follow- 
 ing the example of his two predeceffors, ufurp'd the 
 crown againft the unqueflion'd right of Maud, the 
 Emprefs, the onely daughter and onely child of King 
 Henry, as Henry and William had before done againft 
 the right of their elder brother Robert. 
 
 This and the frequent contefts with his barons 
 involv'd Stephen in continuall war, and his having no 
 ifue of whofe educacion he might have taken the charge, 
 we find no thing to our purpofe in his reign but a 
 martial, lyon-like king, full of fire and of invincible 
 courage, but otherwife had much of the crown'd afs, 
 which his predeceffor fpoke of, in him, and fhow'd it on 
 many occafions, and particularly in that of quarrelling 
 with his nobillity, when at the fame time he knew how 
 precarious a title he reigned by, and how willing the 
 
 mofl: 
 
20 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 moft potent of his lords were to let him fee they knew 
 it alfo. 
 
 Gervaife, a monk of Canterbury, writing of this 
 prince, fayes he was bold, brave and undaunted in the 
 greateft dangers, bred to arms from a child ; and as 
 he delighted in it, fo the fword was never out of his 
 hand, but he even flept in his armour, that is to fay, he 
 liv'd in the continuall alarms of war. Civil difcord 
 broke in upon him foon after he came to the crown, 
 and lafled allmoft to the final end of his reign to the 
 lamentable deftruccion of men and the land. 
 
 He is faid to have had all the naturall capafcities 
 fitted for government, but no erudition, except that of 
 ' a foldier. Had he been educated with care and caution, 
 had the principles of virtue and true honour, religion 
 and learning, been inftill'd early in his mind, he had 
 been one of the beft men and of the greateft princes 
 in the world, I mean, at that time. But then we muft 
 add that he had not been a king ; for had principles of 
 juftice and honour pofeff't his foul and a fence of 
 religion and virtue reign'd' in him, he had never been 
 a king, having not the leaft relation^ to the crown by 
 blood, fave onely that his mother was Adelicia or Alice, 
 the third daughter of William the Conqueror, fo that 
 all the Conqueror's fons and two of his daughters and 
 all their pofterity, of which many were living, were 
 before him in right of blood. 
 
 Add to all this, and what in my opinion is the worft 
 article in his ufurping the crown, viz., that he had before 
 fworn homage and obedience to Maud, the daughter of 
 his predeceffor, King Henry, fo that he added perjury 
 and treachery to his ufurpacion ; all which he could not 
 have done, had he, as I have faid, been virtuoufly and 
 religioufly educated. 
 
 Hence I infift upon it as an eftablifh'd maxim, that 
 
 a 
 ' MS. reign. " MS. relatition. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 21 
 
 a 'religious, virtuous education of princes would be a 
 means to prevent much of the fatal mifchiefs which the 
 world fuffers by the ufurpacions, violence, and rage of/. 79. 
 untaught brutall princes, whofe ambition pufhes them on 
 to oprefs, injure, and deftroy all thofe that ftand in their 
 way, and caufes them to fill the world with confufion 
 and diforder, rapin and blood, of which hiftory allmoft 
 in all ages is full of examples, particularly in this 
 reign of King Stephen. Gervaife, the monk mencion'd 
 before, tells us, fpeaking of his wars with Maud the 
 Emprefs : " Then began," fayes he, " dolour and labour, 
 which brought the whole realm to a moft grievous 
 divifion and, in a manner, to utter ruin. Thofe that 
 favour'd the King, what evill foever they could work 
 or immagine, they a6led againft thofe that took part 
 with the Emprefs : on the other hand Earl Robert, 
 whofe power for the Emprefs daily encreafed, tortur'd 
 with cruelties all thofe that flood for the King." 
 
 The next king of England, Henry II., was faid to be 
 bookifhly inclin'd ; but as he liv'd moft part of his youth 
 abroad and, as it were, in exile, we have no account of 
 his education nor of any extraordinary accquirements 
 in wifdome or in virtue ; and indeed his controverfies 
 with Thomas Becket, and afterwards with the reft of 
 the clergy about the death of the haughty Church tray- 
 tor, and his low fubmifTion to the Pope and popifh preifts 
 upon that occafion, which took up great part of his reign, 
 fhow no tokens of a princely educacion, which doubtlefs 
 would have inftill'd fuch heroick principles of gallantry 
 and fo becoming a foveraign and king of fo powerful! 
 a nacion as that of England, that he could never have 
 ftoopt to fuch a bafenefs and meanefs in his fubmiflions 
 as we learn from hiftory he did, and which the clergy 
 tryumpht over him in fo intollerable a manner. The 
 particulars are not to my purpofe here ; they are found 
 in all the hiftorys of thofe times, to which I referr. 
 
 War 
 
22 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 War abroad, rebellion of his uneducated children, 
 viftory and conqueft in Ireland, took up allmoft all 
 his reign ; and his children, for want of early and fuf- 
 ficient inftruccion in the juft principles of duty and 
 obedience to a fovereign as well as a father, embarraff't 
 him even to the lafh ; and as he had but a flender ftock 
 of principles himfelf, fo he too much neglefted the 
 furnifhing his children ; and the fad confequences he 
 felt in them all firfl and laft, for every one of them firft 
 or laft took up arms againft him, and fought to fnatch 
 the crown from his head, which they were not worthy 
 to wear nor very capable to bear the burthen of 
 
 Three fons fucceeded or reigned with Henry II. 
 alternately : his eldeft fon Henry made a partner-king 
 with his father, and dyed before him ; Richard and John 
 fucceeded in courfe. All three feem'd to tell us they 
 were fwallow'd up in ignorance and blind devocion. 
 Richard, in particular, vow'd himfelf a knight-errant to 
 the Pope, and really went at his bidding into the Holy 
 Land, from whence he came off but unluckily, being 
 made a prifoner by the Emperor, who would never part 
 /. £o. with him till the Englifh his fubjefts bought him out 
 at the price of ;£^i 00,000 fterling, a vaft fum in thofe 
 dayes and a great deal more than he was worth ; for, 
 except a vaft deal of brutal courage, we find nothing 
 faid of him that makes his name worth mencioning. 
 
 King John, having an elder branch living, namely 
 Arthur, the fon of his elder brother Geoffrey, Duke of 
 Britain, had no juft claim to the crown by defcent, and 
 was therefore firnam'd by his father Sans Terre as 
 having nothing to truft to, and, as to the crown, was 
 an ufurper. 
 
 The known avarice, perfidy, cruelty, and alfo the fm 
 of unnaturall aiming againft his father, not infifting on 
 his tyranny over his nobillity and fo often breaking his 
 folemn oaths taken to preferv their libertyes : yet all 
 
 together 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 23 
 
 together giv us no room to fuppofe he was better 
 taught ; for from a youth he was a rebell to his 
 foveraign, and in his age he forc'd allmoft all his 
 fubje6ls to turn rebells to him, till at laft, according to 
 our 1688, they were oblig'd to call in a forreign prince 
 to reduce and depofe him, which he prevented not by 
 abdicacion, but by a fliorter method, I mean death. 
 
 His fon Henry HI. came to the crown at ix year 
 old. His father's reign was all war with the hero 
 world and confufion with the Church ; and as he was 
 excomunicated and curfd by the Pope, he could not 
 expeft the priefts who curft the father would take any 
 care of his fon, or that while they doom'd the father to 
 the D . . 1, they fliould endeavour to prevent his fon 
 going after him. 
 
 In a word, we have not one word upon record that 
 he had any educacion becoming his high birth, or that 
 he did any thing that look'd like a man of letters ; 
 and tho' he reign'd the longeft of any prince that ever 
 fat upon the Englifh throne, for he was king fix and 
 fifty year, yet he did not, as I meet with, do any one 
 memorable thing either for learning or learned men 
 that the world thought fit to leav upon record. 
 
 On the other hand, he fhew'd himfelf one of the 
 creatures defcrib'd by his more learned and better 
 educated predeceffor, the firft Henry ; for that, as if 
 not quallifyed to hold the reins of government in his 
 own hands, he gave himfelf up wholly to the councils 
 and agency of his great favourite Hugo du Bourg, or 
 Hubert, who was not onely Lord Chief Juftice, but 
 Lord Chief Minifter as he might be call'd, for he 
 mannag'd not onely the realme for the King, but the 
 King too ; by which he foon puU'd upon himfelf, as 
 moft favourites do, the hatred of the people, and em- 
 broil'd the King in a war with his barons or nobillity, 
 who boldly took arms in defence of their libertyes, 
 
 which 
 
24 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 which the King had fworn to maintain, and the folly as 
 well as wickednefs of which perjury the King felt the 
 effe6ls of all his reign ; and fo did the nobillity alfo ; 
 and particularly the whole weight of their fury fell on 
 the favourite Hugo de Bourg, who the lords reproacht 
 the King with in plain language ; for they told him he 
 was onely to be call'd a king in name, his favrite run- 
 ing away with the wealth of the nation. 
 
 That this favrite brought a ftorm upon himfelf is not 
 to my purpofe ; for moft favrites do fo. The ill gotten 
 wealth he had fcrap'd together by the haughty and 
 unjuft mannagement of 25 yeares minifter, was juftly 
 fqueez'd from him, and enrich'd even the King him- 
 felf ; and fo he went off the ftage ; but I mencion him 
 here becaufe this uneducated king, fitted onely to walk 
 in leading firings and execute the office of a king by 
 proxy, or, as we fay, by a deputy, fhew'd that he was 
 not equall to the weight of a crown that he ought 
 to be. 
 
 The confequence of this was — Heavens grant we* may 
 never fee the like reign of favourites — I fay, the con- 
 /. 81. fequence, as it flands upon record in our hiftorys, was 
 that the treafures and ftrengths of the realm, and even 
 the King himfelf, was trufted in the hands of forreigners 
 and ftrangers. Judgment was committed to the unjufl, 
 the execution of the laws to out-laws, peace to wranglers, 
 and juflice to wrong-doers. 
 
 Thofe are upon record as an example for to kno' 
 weak princes, half taught and uneducated in their 
 youth.^ Matthaeus Weflmonafterienfis' tells us, the 
 Common Wealth, as well layety as clergy, were 
 brought to the brink of utter defolacion ; for the like 
 
 was 
 •we omitted in MS. 
 ' On the back of folio 80 is the following note : For the educa- 
 cion of women princejfes fee Speed fo, 613, col. 2, line 10, reign 
 Hen. III. ; but this reference is wrong. 
 2 MS. Matt. Wefhnonaft. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 25 
 
 was never heard of in any age, and it was a common 
 complaint among the people occafion'd by the King's 
 bounty to ftrangers, Our inheritance is given to aliens 
 and our houfes to Jlrangers. But I am not to enter 
 into the hiftory of this long and miferable reign ; it 
 ftands on record as a teftimony to the truth I am 
 illuftrating, viz., the unhappy effefts of an uneducated 
 prince in the reign of an old weak and foolifh king. 
 
 His fon Edward is faid to be much better inftrufted, 
 and in proporcion to the educacion he excell'd in all 
 princlye virtues as much as his father was empty of 
 them ; and, in a word, tho' his whole life from a youth 
 was a fcene of blood and war as well abroad as at 
 home, fo that there was no room or time for any long 
 applicacion to books and learning, yet as he had a 
 fober and religious educacion in childhood under his 
 mother, Queen Elenor, a woman of great piety and 
 prudence as well as knowlege, after the rate of thofe 
 times, fo he had early principles of virtue and honour 
 inftill'd into him when a child ; and being naturally of 
 a fweet, affable, and courteous difpofition, the foft part 
 of his chara6ter was improv'd and very much better by 
 the good inflruccion of his mother. 
 
 As for the more manly part, he receiv'd his inducc- 
 tion in arms under moft excellent tutures, fuch as the 
 great foldiers of that age indeed were, (viz.) Simon de 
 Montifort, Earl of Leicefter, who, tho' he afterwards 
 withdrew from his party, was for many yeares the 
 King's faft friend, and Hugo de Burge, Earle of Kent, 
 Richard, the invincible Earle of Pembrook, and others ; 
 and having a naturall inclinacion to the field, he became 
 not onely the moft valiant, but the moft fortunate and, 
 to his enemies, the moft dreadfull, king in Europe at 
 that time, and yet a moft juft and mercifuU prince to 
 his owne people ; this laft owing principally to the 
 good advices and early inftruccion of his mother, which 
 
 was 
 
26 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 was indeed all that we may call educacion which he 
 was ever bleft with, his father, as is faid, neither 
 meddling with his educacion nor underftanding it. 
 Thus ftill we fee that all the princes even of ages fo 
 remote appear'd worthy or worthlefs more or lefs, as 
 more or lefs care was taken and coft beftow'd on their 
 education, and as they were, or were not, well inftrufted 
 in principles fuited to their dignity and honour in their 
 /. 82. youth. 
 
 We come next, from a prince glorious and good, 
 I who fiU'd up every part of a long reign with heroic 
 accions and accumulated glory as well in peace as war, 
 to the extreme of a contrary example in the perfon of 
 his fon, a weak, untaught prince, diffolute in his moralls, 
 doating on favorites, early in vice and extravagance, 
 and unhappy in every part of his life as well prince as 
 king. 
 
 To all his immoderate and extravagant behaviour 
 we find it is added that he was untraflable, would 
 reciev no inftruccion, applye to no learning, or be 
 guided by any council, but early, even from a boy, 
 gave him felf up to the full gufl of his will, and was^ 
 fwallow'd up in his pleafures, fo that, as he grew up, he 
 foon foretold that he would be good for nothing ; nay, 
 that, as he was impacient of reflraint and contemn'd all 
 good advice when he was young, he would be much 
 more fo when' he came to reign. 
 
 He gave a taft of this temper very early in the perfon 
 of the good old Walter de Langton, Bifhop of Chefter, 
 who with an honefl freedome had fome times during 
 his father's reign adventur'd, tho' with gravity and 
 modefly, to reprov him in his extravagancyes, and once 
 or twice, being high Treafurer of England, had a little 
 reftrain'd his expences, when they were out of meafure 
 and without due bounds, alleaging his father's want of 
 
 money 
 ' was omitted in MS. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 27 
 
 money for the carrying on his warrs ; but, abov all, the 
 bifliop had ferioufly and gravely admonifh'd him, the 
 prince, not to be led away fo much by his favourite, 
 or minion, as it was then call'd,' Pierce Gavefton ; all 
 which, however juft, the prince, abhorring all reftraint, 
 took with the uttmoft difdain and refented to fuch a 
 degree as that he never forgave the biftiop, and tooke 
 fevere, tho' fcandalous, revenge for it when he came to 
 the crown. 
 
 The King faw the headftrong temper and the weak 
 head alfo of his fon, and as he was a prince of a great , 
 deal of fire in his temper as well as wifdome to 
 mannage it, gave the prince to underftand, firft mildly, 
 that he diflik'd his conduft ; finding thofe admonitions 
 not duly regarded, he commended him to alter his 
 vitious way of living and particularly to difmifs his 
 fool, as the King call'd Gavefton, and banifli him from 
 his company ; which the prince making fome excufes 
 to avoid, and indeed not obeying, the King cauf 'd him 
 to be imprifon'd and Gavefton to be fent out of the 
 kingdom''; nor would he releafe the prince till he had 
 promif'd not to fetch him back upon any condition 
 whatfoever. 
 
 All this the obftinate weak prince layd to the 
 bifhop's charge, as if it proceeded from his advice ; and 
 in revenge, as above, when he came to the crown he 
 arrefted the good bifliop, fent him prifoner to Walling- 
 ford Caftle, and feiz'd upon all his eftate, goods, debts, 
 and effe6ts whatfoever, without any apparent crime 
 lay'd to his charge but that he, the King, refolv'd 
 utterly to ruine him ; of which oppreffion and many 
 fuch our hiftoryes giv long accounts. 
 
 It would be endlefs to enter here into the detail of 
 this prince's follys or rather madneffes. It is enough 
 to fum it up all in this : that as his accions were in all 
 
 things 
 
 » MS. call. ' MS. a; as often. 
 
28 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 things weak, void of council, rafli, obftinate, fo was he 
 allmoft ■ in all things unfortunate, till at laft violence 
 being rewarded with violence, and -cruelty with cruelty, 
 his barons or nobillity, the Earl of Lancafter being their 
 chief, took arms ; in which conteft, for it lafted long, 
 the King was depofd and afterwards moft cruelly 
 murthered in prifon, as our hiftorys at large relate. 
 
 Her's a terrible example of the great mifffortune of 
 an uneducated prince, not a mifffortune to the king- 
 dom' onely but to himfelf alfo. For this king was' 
 /. 83. weak in parts ; and thofe parts or accomplifhments 
 which he had — for he was not a fool utterly un- 
 polifh'd and untaught, perfeftly void of. an early 
 education — rendred him, as abov, ynquallify'd to 
 reciev inftruccion afterwards. But coming to the 
 knowlege of what he was to be, namely a king, and 
 that he was confequently not to be under government 
 or be controU'd ; without the knowlege that in order 
 to be a good king it was neceffary to fubmitt to the 
 rules of virtue and to furnifli his head with knowlege : 
 I fay, being then utterly void of good government in 
 himfelf, and not having hearkn'd to his inftruftors in 
 his youth, he made himfelf rather like a monfter than 
 a king ; and giving a loofe to his vitious apetite, prov'd 
 not a father and guide to his people, but a tyrant and 
 a deftroyer ; and this brought mifery upon the people 
 at firfl, and finally mine and deftruccion upon himfelf. 
 
 And here it can not juftly be omitted to obferv that, 
 when ever a weak uneducated king came to reign, it 
 feldome happen'd but that fome wicked favourite 
 tyranniz'd under him to the great mifery and opreflion 
 of the whole kingdom ; to which we may add that as 
 by fuch favourites' the nation was generally brought to 
 fuffer great oppreffions, violence, loffes, and other 
 mifchiefs, fo it very rarely happen'd but that in the 
 
 end 
 ' MS. AT. » was omitted in MS. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 29 
 
 end the hands of juftice lay'd hold alfo of thofe 
 favourites and they generally came to their ends by 
 the hands of the excecutioner, or worfe, as this Gavefton 
 in particular did. 
 
 It is moft true that the nobillity even from the 
 begining fhew'd their deteftacion of the wicked ad- 
 miniftracion of this Gavefton ; that the King's father, as 
 abov, once baniftied him, and that the lords prevail'd 
 upon the King at another time to banifh him for ever, 
 and to take a follemn oath never to recall him ; which 
 however he broke and not recall'd him onely, but 
 marryed him to his owne fifter's daughter (viz., Joan 
 of Acres, daughter to the Countefs of Gloucefter, the 
 King's fifter). 
 
 Hiftory well obfervs that it was not eafie to 
 determine which fhew'd lefs prudence and difcretion ; 
 the King to heap fuch honours and favours upon this 
 mean, but obnoxious wretch, or he, Gavefton, in 
 recieving them, fince he could but kno' it brought 
 along with it the implacable averfion of all the nobillity 
 and muft end in his ruine. But ignorance and am- 
 bition fee no dangers, and kno' no bounds ; and the 
 ruine that attended fhew'd it moft plainly : for the 
 barons having brought the King to confent to a third 
 banifhment of Gavefton, with a particular claufe that 
 he fhould never return on pain of death ; and he, not- 
 withftanding' all this, venturing to return a third time, 
 they, in fhort, took him, and without any more afking / 84. 
 the King's leav or fo much as a legal tryal, chopt off 
 his head. 
 
 What follow'd on this and how the King fell in with 
 two new favourites, namely the Spencers ; how weakly 
 and foolifhly he afted, reigning but, as it were, under 
 them, and at laft they, both father and fon, came to 
 the gallows, tho' both made earles ; and how, in 
 
 confequence 
 
30 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 confequence of all, the poor unhappy, untaught King, 
 never prefent to himfelf, ever at a lofs how to a6t and 
 perfe6lly helplefs in diftrefs, loft his own life alfo — is 
 at large to be feen in our hiftories. At prefent the 
 whole ftory ferves to inform us what a crown'd afs (as 
 King Henry I. faid), an uneducated king, will, of courfe, 
 prove, as well to himfelf as to the kingdom' which he 
 governs. Lofs and affliccion, fays on of our hiftorians, 
 are the ordinary effe6l of children's government, whether 
 their governors are children in age or in difcretion. 
 
 The next reign was as fortunate and glorious, as 
 this of Edward II. was inglorious and unhappy. 
 Edward III., brought up by his mother, Queen Ifabel, 
 a lady as politick and well verf't in all the arts 
 of government as moft of the princes of that age, 
 pirov'd a wife, prudent, and cautious prince. He had 
 been early inftru6led by his mother and the two 
 prelates, the Bifhop of Canterbury and of Excefter, who 
 had the tuition of him. What efifeft their teaching 
 had, and what encouragement the example has given 
 to pofterity to ftudy the early educacion of princes and 
 heirs apparent, let the glories of his long and profprous 
 reign bear witnefs for us. 
 
 But as if good and evill were to be the alternatives 
 of the crown, the next reign was to be as miferable as 
 that of Edward III. was happy ; and Richard, void of 
 education, left, an infant, to the crown, and with an 
 infant genius having no advantages of inftruccion but 
 from his flattering courtiers, whofe diftates were all- 
 wayes direfted to pleafe and gratifye his vices and 
 make their fortunes out of his eftate, by this meer want 
 of judgment and that occafion'd by want of an early 
 inftruccion, he precipitated himfelf and his whole 
 kingdom into inevitable ruine, in the confequence of 
 which he was, juft as his predeceffor Edward II. was 
 
 before 
 1 MS. K. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 31 
 
 before him, firft depof'd, then murther'd, his crown and 
 government being ufurp'd by the Duke of Lancafter, 
 who fucceeded by the title of Henry IV. 
 
 Here began the reign of the houfe of Lancafter, be- 
 tween whome and the royal lyne of York, known and 
 diftinguifh'd by the Red Rose and the White, thofe 
 cruel warrs which follow'd for two fucceffiv kings, took 
 their firft rife. 
 
 The kings of all this ufurpacion were fuch as giv little 
 teftimony of their being religioufly educated, or that they 
 were taken care of for their learning. Henry IV., the 
 iirft of them, was a meer foldier, a man of blood, as he /. 85. 
 was a man of fortune. He had power and popularity, 
 and for depofing his near kinfman, who for his ignor- 
 ance and weak uncultivated genius the people hated, 
 was accepted for king. Yet had he not one good qual- 
 lity to recomend him ; he was not educated for a 
 king, nor do we read that he underftood any thing 
 in the world but his fword, by which he raifd himfelf 
 to the crown and by which he kept what he had un- 
 juftly got. 
 
 But let him be as he would, his fon, who was after- 
 ward the great Henry V. and was taken more care of, 
 being committed to the charge of the Earle of Worcef- 
 ter ; who, however he rebell'd againft the father, yet 
 took a great deal of care of his fon ; and this fon, how- 
 ever by the greatnefs of his fpirit and his youthful! 
 extravagant humours he did many wild things in his 
 youth, as the ftory of him and Sir John Fallftaf makes' 
 appear, yet he appeares educated like a prince and 
 very early taught how to reign. 
 
 In the firft of his age he was plac't in the Univer- 
 fity of Oxford, where he went thro' his ftudyes with 
 applaufe, as our hiftorians record it in Queene's Col- 
 lep-e ; and his uncle Henry Beaufort, afterwards Bifliop 
 
 of 
 ' MS. make. 
 
32 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 of WJnchefter and cardinal,' and being at that time 
 Chancellor of the Univerfity, is faid to have taken 
 efpeciall care of his education. 
 
 Without entring into the glorious reign of this 
 prince, whofe character fhines in hiftory abov all that 
 ever went before him, let us onely note from it the 
 manifeft difference between a well inftrufted and 
 thoro'Iy educated manly youth, whofe mind was early 
 fiU'd with principles of vertue and honour, who was 
 taught how to reign before he came to a crown, and 
 who, after he was king, never deviated from the 
 praftife of that virtue in which he had been fo well 
 inftrufted ; I fay, let us learn and obferv the difference 
 between fuch a prince, who was at once a fchollar, 
 a Chriftian and a hero, and his two predeceffors, 
 Edward II. and Richard the II., who, as they came 
 to the crown untaught and uninftrufted, fo they 
 reign'd unguided, run into all manner of unfufferable^ 
 follyes ; befotted with their own falfe nocions of power 
 and dazl'd with the luftre of their own fancyed gloryes, 
 they grew ftupid and blind to the duty and ofifice of 
 a king, who ought to be the father, proteftor, and vigi- 
 lant defender, as well as the governor and monarch, of 
 his people and kingdom ; whereas, on the contrary, 
 they prov'd the wafter and deflroyer of their people, 
 tyrannizing over their very lives as well as the rights, 
 libertyes, and eftates, and oppreffing them with heavy 
 and infupportable taxes, fines, exorbitant forfeitures, 
 and penaltyes, and, in a word, as they came to the 
 crown children, left the crown fools and came both to 
 untimely, tho' expefled, ends, such as their follyes 
 /. 86. might have all along predifted to them would be the 
 confequence of cruelty, injuftice, and blood. 
 
 King Henry afted upon quite diffring nocions, and if 
 hiftory does not flatter his memory, was not onely a 
 
 wife 
 1 MS. Cd. ' MS. unfufferably. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 33 
 
 wife man, but a good man, as well as a great and 
 good king. His glorious viftorys, his heroik courage 
 and bravery, I mean his perfonal bravery, his very 
 enemies confefs to this day ; and his wifdom and 
 moderation in the ufe of viflory is as confpicuous as 
 his fortune in gaining it ; and his piety and religion is 
 teftifyed in the account we have of the end he made 
 in the middle of all his conqueft. 
 
 This is the patern which I am recomending of a 
 well inflrufted prince ; for King Henry was in himfelf 
 of a mild and courteous difpofition, tho' full of the 
 uttmoft warmth in his temper when embark'd in a war, 
 and all fire and flame in battle, being ever with the 
 formofl in danger, and irrefiftible in fight as well for 
 his great ftrength of body as the fury of his courage, 
 defpifmg the extremeft hazard. But I fay all our 
 hiftorys agree that he was of mighty calm, fedate 
 temper in him felf, full of a pleafant fweetnefs, eafie 
 of accefs, ready to hear the meaneft of his fubjefts 
 complaining, and judging with a cool impartiall mind 
 according to right ; all which was owing to the inftruc- 
 cion of his excellent tutor. Nature taught him to be 
 brave, magnificent, warlike, fierc, and undaunted ; educa- 
 tion taught him to be wife, juft, prudent, beneficent, 
 and every thing that was gracious and good ; Nature 
 fitted him for the field, learning fitted him for the 
 throne ; in a word. Nature made him great, education 
 made him good ; Nature fram'd his genius, education 
 form'd it ; Nature furnifh'd the Jewell, education polifh'd 
 it ; Nature fitted him for the field, inftruccion fitted 
 him for the throne ; Nature made him a good generall, 
 educacion made him a good king ; and his character 
 is greatly illuflrated by the wretched fate of the unedu- 
 cated race of kings, which, as I have given an account 
 of them, one or two excepted, rul'd or rather diftrefTd 
 this unhappy kingdom before him. 
 
 For 
 
34 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 For near loo yeares after the fhort reign of this 
 flourifhing prince, England fuffred the terrible convul- 
 fions of a civill war, the moft raging and bloody, and of 
 the longeft continuance of any that were ever known 
 in it fince the Saxon Heptarchy, when its warrs were 
 not inteftine, tho' within the ifland, the feverall king- 
 domes being as diftinft nations ; except onely the wars 
 of the Danes, which were properly the effe6l of forreign 
 /. 87. invafion, not of civill contention. In this confufion it 
 can hardly be expefted we fhould fee any thing of an 
 applicacion to fcience and knowlege, to learning or 
 phylofophy, in any of the nobillity much lefs in the 
 princes of that age. The allarms of war reacht the 
 ears of the royall youths and of the children of the 
 nobles even in their cradles ; and many of them found 
 the murthering knife, as we may fay, at their throats 
 before they could take the fword into their hands. 
 Thus fell Prince Edward, the onely fon of Henry VI. 
 and the onely heir of the houfe of Lancafter, rather 
 by murther than fight, after the great battle of Tewk- 
 bury. And thus fell the two young princes, fons of 
 Edward IV., in the Tower of London, murther'd by 
 the fande cruel hand or by his order, and whofe bones 
 were in but our time found at the foot of a ftair cafe 
 in the White Tower, where they were fecretly lay'd. 
 
 In this war fell three kings, five heirs apparent, 
 befides fourteen other princes of royall blood, about 
 300 of the principal nobillity, and if we may believ 
 hiftory, abov two hundred and fifty thoufand common 
 foldiers, whereof near 40,000 fell in one battle, the moft 
 bloody that was ever known in Chriftian times in 
 England fince the great fight in Suffex between the 
 Conqueror and King Harold ; in fhort, all the male 
 line of princes as well of the houfe of Lancafter as of 
 York fell in this war. 
 
 What room was here for the foft influences of the 
 
 Mufes 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 35 
 
 Mufes, the gentle mild inftruccions of parents and 
 tutors, and for the calm applicacions of the royall or 
 noble youths to the ftudy of letters and to reciev the 
 impreflion of learning and virtue ? 
 
 As were the times, fo were the plants which grew up 
 under the rough and unpolifli'd cultivacion of the day ; 
 the greenefl heads were unhappily train'd in the field, 
 not in the college, and learn'd the exercife and know- 
 lege, not of arts but of arms ; the lyon's heart was 
 the chief accomplifhment, not the wife and fagacious 
 head ; and ftrength of hand, not ftrength of brain, 
 recommended a youth to the popular efteem ; the 
 young princes, as I have faid above, had their heads 
 caf'd in fteel, before they were well able to carry the 
 wight (!) of it ; and a helmet, not a book, chiefly 
 affefted the brain. 
 
 It might indeed be call'd a martial age, but could 
 not well be call'd a learned age ; and the noife of war 
 drown'd the harmony of the fciences : in a word, 
 cutting of throats was the firft phylofophy the royal 
 pupils learn 't ; and he was the greateft and the beft 
 prince that recommended himfelf mofl: to the people 
 by fhowing them their enemy and leading them on 
 fooneft to the combat. 
 
 Under this unhappy conjunccion of our bad ftarrs 
 fell the reigns, firfb, of King Henry VI., a weak, in- 
 dolent, unlearn'd prince, devout as ignorant, a bigot to 
 the clergy, of a quiet, good-for-nothing temper, bred 
 up, not educated, among the nuns rather than the / ss. 
 priefts,^ mighty religious, but fpiritlefs and with-out 
 courage for the field or zeal in the cabinet either for 
 Church or the State, to innocent to be a foldier, too 
 much a fool to be a king, and too religious to be a 
 ftatef-man. 
 
 His fate brought him out into the field, when he had 
 
 neither 
 
 1 MS. Priejl. 
 
36 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 neither ufe for his hands or room for his feet ; for he 
 could neither fight or run away ; and fo, as he was 
 always beaten, he was allwayes taken, for he could 
 never get away. Had he had the courage and fpirit 
 of his father or grandfather, he had often viftorys 
 fufficient to have made him bold ; but rifmg faccion 
 allways oppreffed him. He liv'd unfortunate and dyed 
 unhappy. 
 
 Edward IV., who fupplanted and depof'd King 
 Henry VI., was handfome, brave, and fortunate ; but 
 we read of nothing of educacion beftow'd on him but 
 that of a foldier, nor did his reign giv any proofs of a 
 civiliz'd introduccion ; but, being inur'd to the fword he 
 was in war bloody, and in peace vitious. He broke 
 promifes, nay, paths, in the openeft manner, witnefs 
 more particularly the oath to King Henry by which 
 he got admittance into the city of York and made a 
 treacherous ufe of it imediately. 
 
 His whores were too many, efpecially that of Jane 
 Shore, to allow us to call him a man of virtue ; and all 
 Hiftorys allow he neither had any learning himfelf, or 
 valued thofe that had. 
 
 He is a royall witnefs to this truth, which I lay down 
 as a principle in all this difcourfe, that an uneducated 
 man never made a good king in England. I wifh I 
 could affirm the alternativ, that a well educated man 
 never made a bad one ; but let that be as it will,, the 
 firft, I think, is clear from hiftory paft contradiccion. 
 
 After Edward IV. his brother Richard, commonly 
 call'd Crbokback, took the crown. Learning or educa- 
 cion he had none, except in the politicks of an ufurper. 
 Hiflory records him fierce, ambitious, bloody, and even 
 a cruel, cold-blood murtherer, having, as is faid, run 
 Prince Edward thro' with his fword, and ftab'd his 
 father King Henry VI. to the heart with his dagger, 
 both by the fame murthering hand, and after that 
 
 caufed 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 37 
 
 caufed King Edward V. and his brother Richard to be 
 murthr'd in the Tower by his exprefs direccion and 
 command. Behold the pifture of an untaught, unedu- / 88 *. 
 cated prince. 
 
 Edward V., his nephew, and murther'd, as abov, in 
 his child-hood, being not full twelve year old, and his 
 brother Richard with him, dyed too foon to ieav us any 
 knowlege of their education ; fo we pafs them by, and 
 clofe this part of the account with tha.t of Henry VII. 
 
 This prince was early difciplin'd by his adverfity, 
 and educated in the fchool of affliccion ; for he was not 
 onely an exile from his youth, but continually in 
 hazard of his life from the confliant endeavours of two 
 kings, Edward IV. and Richard III., to get him into 
 their hands in order to deftroy him, I fhall fay more 
 of him in our next chapter ; for with him begins our 
 roll of another kind, and from hence began the happy 
 cuftome of giving our princes a prince-like educacion ; 
 and we fhall fee how well it anfwer'd the coft. 
 
 CAP. 
 
y.sg. 
 
 CAP. III. 
 
 Examples of the diffrent education of princes and perfons 
 of rank from the begining of the X VI. century, (viz.) 
 from the reign of King Henry VII} inclujive down 
 to the prefent time, with obfervaiions^ on the happynefs 
 of thofe reigns in particular where the princes have 
 been fo educated in principles of honour and virtue; 
 and fome thing of the contrary. 
 
 f-N the former cap. I have mencion'd the 
 condicion of King Henry VII. as being 
 every way an advantage to his educacion, 
 or that indeed it was to him inftead of 
 a liberal educacion a ftate of exile or flight ; being 
 banifh'd from the crown to which he has a right, muft 
 be efteem'd to any prince a ftate of affliccion, and 
 affliccion may be efteem'd one of the beft fchools for 
 education of a prince. 
 
 Thus, Queen Elizabeth might be faid to be educated 
 in a prifon and in conftant expeftacion of a fcaffold ; 
 and what infinite advantage it was to her educacion 
 we fhall hear in its place. 
 
 The Duke of Richmond, afterwards King Henry VII., 
 had for feverall yeares no home or habitacion but what 
 the fanftuary of the Duke of Brittany's Court afforded 
 him. He fled thither from the viftorious power of 
 King Edward IV., who was his enemy, as he (Edward) 
 
 was 
 
 MS. Henry VIII. 
 
 obfervation in MS. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 39 
 
 was the head of the Houfe of York, whofe intreft was 
 oppofite to that of Lancafter, of whom Richmond was 
 the head and onely furviving heir male. 
 
 During all the reign the Duke was taken up in 
 fliifting and avoiding the fecret and politick meafures 
 ufed by King Edward IV. to circumvent him and, if 
 poffible, to get him into his (Edward's) power, which 
 however he was never able to do. 
 
 During the proteflorfhip and afterwards thro' out the 
 Ihort reign of Richard III., the Duke was under the 
 like apprehenfions, not onely of being circumvented and 
 trepan'd by the agents and inftruments of Richard, but 
 with the additionall fear alfo of being affaffinated and 
 murther'd by the wicked contrivance of that tyrant, who 
 he knew would ftick at nothing that might work his de- 
 ftruccion, who after the murther of the two young princes 
 (nephews) in the Tower was become the onely perfon 
 whofe power the ufurper dreaded, and who flood fair to 
 call him to an account for his tyrany and ufurpacion. 
 
 To avoid the fnares lay'd for him by this royal fury, 
 the Duke was frequently oblig'd to flye from the Duke /. go- 
 of Brittany's Court to that of the King of France, and 
 then back again to the firft, and fo alternatly from 
 place to place, as fate and his fortunes led him ; and 
 this held at leaft 1 2 or 1 4 yeares, during which time he 
 had many and long intervals of retreat wherin to 
 improv his firft yeares by the help of books and 
 efpecially by converfation in forreign courts ; where, if 
 he did not lay up a ftore of learning and phylofophy — 
 for we do not read much of his improvement that way 
 — yet he apparently furnifhed himfelf with the know- 
 lege of things, form'd juft principles in his mind and 
 lay'd in a fund of wifdome and prudence in his younger 
 yeares, which joyn'd, as abov, to the experience of no 
 lefs than 1 2 yeares' exercife, quallifyed him to be after- 
 wards the moft politic prince of his time, perfe£lly 
 
 knowing 
 
40 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 knowing the intrefts of all the neighbouring powers 
 and a compleat mafter of his own. 
 
 One great teftimony of this fagacity and prudence 
 was exemplify'd in the private obfervations he made of 
 the induftry and applicacion of the Flemings, their 
 wealth, opulence, and exceeding numbers of people, all 
 being the effefts of the woollen manufafture,' of which 
 the whole fkaple, as well the working as the felling 
 part, was their own, and from which they drew fuch an 
 immenfe wealth as that the Duke of Burgundy, who 
 was alfo Lord of thofe provinces, was a match for 
 kings, and frequently made war as will (!) with England 
 . as with France itfelf. 
 
 It was he who form'd the original thought in his 
 mind which, however naturall and apparent, never 
 entred into the heads of his lefs polifh'd fighting pre- 
 deceffors, viz., that, the wooU being fetch't all from 
 England, the people of England might alfo be employ'd 
 in the manufafburing^ it ; that if the working part 
 made the Flemings fo rich, fo populous, fo powerfull, 
 the Englilh might in confequence be made as rich and 
 as populous, if they applyed them felves to the fame 
 labour with the fame induftry; and that, in a word, it 
 was in their power to engrofs the whole manufaflure 
 into their own hands. 
 
 He juftly inferr'd that Heaven having been fo 
 bountifuU to England as to giv them the wooll, as it 
 were, in a peculiar grant, exclufiv of the whole world, 
 it was a meer rebellion againft His providence' and 
 particularly ungratefull to His bounty that the Englifh 
 nation fhould rejeft the offer, giv away the bleffing, and 
 by an unaccountable negleft fend their wooll abroad 
 to be manufaftured,^ and even buy their own clothing 
 of the Flemings with ready money. 
 
 It 
 
 1 MS. M. ' MS. Ming. 
 
 ' D with a dot in the middle. * Med. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 41 
 
 It affedled him deeply, when he came to be King of 
 England, that he faw his own fubjefls poor and without/ 9°*- 
 employment, not for want of will to work, not for want 
 of ability or ingenuity to undertake a manufafture, far 
 lefs for want of materialls, the wooll and the fuller's 
 earth, which are the foundacion principles of the whole 
 manufafture, being all their own, but meerly for want 
 of encouragement and afliftance, knowlege of the art, 
 and flocks to carry it on. 
 
 That the people of his kingdome, indolent and 
 miferably poor, fhould be idle and flarv or beg, lying 
 at the doores of the barons, their lords, and of the 
 knights, their mailers, or at the doors of the religious 
 houfes, to be fed of meer charity ; whereas among the 
 Flemings he had feen whole towns and cityes bufy and 
 employ'd, working, combing, weaving, winding, wafhing, 
 milling, dying, fcouring, dreffing their manufadlures,' 
 and, in a word, fully engag'd in buffinefs and well fup- 
 ported by their wages. 
 
 At the fame time, in the villages and open country 
 the women and even the little children fpining and 
 carding ; fo that, as we fee it now in the manufafturing' 
 towns of England, hardly a child abov 5 year old but 
 could get its own bread ; and, as the naturall confe- 
 quence of induflry and dilligence, no beggars, no 
 vagabonds, no robbers or thievs, or but very few to 
 be found among them. 
 
 Thefe obfervations, efpecially the firft of them, were 
 the produdl of his prudence and wifdome in his time of 
 exile ; and the confequence was that he refolv'd, if 
 ever he came to the pofeffion of his right, that is to fay, 
 the Englifh throne, to trye if he could not rouze a fpirit 
 of induflry and applicacion among his own fubje6ts 
 and bring them to improv themfelves in the knowleg, 
 as they had a fair pofeffion of the principles of the 
 
 woollen 
 " .M, as in several other places. ' Ming, as in a few other places. 
 
 D 
 
42 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 woollen manufa6lures' and, by that means, keep that 
 wealth at home which he then faw with regret was 
 made the inheritance of ftrangers. 
 
 See here the felicity of a nation under the reign of 
 a well inftrufted, wife, and prudent prince, and fee 
 here the difference between a prince whofe head and 
 heart is ftor'd with knowlege in his youth and furnifh'd 
 with early prudence to exert in age for the profperity 
 of his people. 
 
 It was the early obfervations of thefe things, joyn'd 
 to the opportunity of obferving them, which hit the 
 genious of this prince, and which furnifh'd him with 
 the means of judging what vaft advantages might 
 acrue to England by bringing over the manufaftures 
 from Flanders hither and by fetting the poor of England 
 to work, by which they might in time become as dilli- 
 gent ai^d induftrious and, by confequence, as wealthy 
 and opulent as other nacions were. 
 
 From this begining our woollen manufafture, the 
 glory and flirength of the whole Britifh nacion, deriv'd ; 
 here it dates not its birth onely, but its very concepcion: 
 /gi- The firft thought was form'd in the fagacious breaft 
 of this young prince. There he digefted the infant 
 refleccion, and view'd the future profperity of his coun- 
 try at a diftance and, as it may be faid, in the morall 
 capafcity of things onely, tho' infinitely diftant and dark. 
 
 How long and how often had the fame profpeft been 
 prefented by the nature of things to the eyes of the^ 
 moft powerfull and moft politic kings of England that 
 had gone before him, and yet made no impreffions. 
 They knew no glory but of their arms, no advantage 
 but that of conquefts and pofeffions. They had no 
 notions of the wealth and opulence of a nacion by the 
 advantages of commerce and by the improvements of 
 trade and manufaflures. They gloried in the courage 
 
 of 
 > M. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 43 
 
 of their people, not in their induftty ; in the numbers of 
 their bow men, in the fkill in fhooting their fhafts, not 
 in the numbers of workmen and their Ikill in fhooting 
 the fhuttle. Short fighted and ignorant in the true 
 greathefs of a nation and the true power of a prince, 
 they did not fee that the ftrength of a kingdom ' confifted 
 in the wealth of the fubjefls, as well as in their numbers, 
 and that a king of beggars was fitt for nothing but to 
 be a king of thievs and plunderers. They did not look 
 into, or at leaft did not fee, that the longeft purfe is the 
 fund of viftory, not the longeft fword, and a wife king 
 of "wealthy cowards would be more potent than a weak 
 king of the moft martial nacion in the world ; that the 
 nation that has money will allways find men, and that all 
 the nations round them will fight for them that hav 
 money to pay them. 
 
 This he learnt from his long experience and from 
 the circumftances''' of his own family and affaires at 
 that time, which were indeed low and diftreff'd : his 
 friends murther'd, and himfelf forc'd to take fhelter for 
 his life in a foreign land and in a very mean condicion. 
 This ftate of affliccion was, as abov, a teaching to him, 
 and that not of the worft kind. It was fuch a teaching 
 that went beyond the beft accademick educacion in 
 this particular, that it furnifli'd his mind to make a 
 right judgement of things, and efpecially of fuch things 
 as were fuitable to a prince, an education that fitted 
 him for a crown, that led him to applye his thoughts 
 to what might or might not be for the good of his 
 people. It taught him to kno' that the wealth of the 
 fubjefts is the ftrength of a king, and that therefore a 
 prince, even for his own fake, ought to ftudy what 
 might moft conduce to the profperity of the people 
 who he was to govern, knowing that, while he by fuch 
 a care for their benefit engag'd their affeccions, they 
 
 would 
 1 MS. K. ' Abbreviation in MS. 
 
44 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 would allways make a double return in fidellity and 
 love ; that a king allways commands the purfes in pro- 
 porcion as he commanded the hearts of his fubjefts, 
 fo that to make them wealthy would be to make him- 
 felf ftrong, a prince's glory being truly infeperable 
 from his people's good. 
 /. 92- (if any man alk me how I kno' or can prov this 
 prmce had thefe early notions of improvment inftill'd 
 into his mind and made thefe juft inferences from 
 them, I anfwer I kno' it by the beft method of know- 
 ing fuch things that can poffibly be had, namely by 
 the confequences which fo glorioufly difcovred it in 
 his future government, in which he lay'd the foundation 
 of all the wealth and greatnefs which England now 
 enjoys by the advantage of commerce,) having been 
 the firft mover in that great undertaking of fetting up 
 the woollen manufafture in England and employing 
 our own people to work their wool, inftead of carrying 
 it abroad to enrich our neighbours. 
 
 It is to the wifdome and policy of this prince that 
 we ow the whole art it felf He was the firft that fent 
 over to the Flemings for manufafturers to teach and 
 inftruft the Englifli in the clothing trade, how to 
 mannage, fort, and prepare the wool in the fleece, how 
 to comb, card, and fpin it into yarn for the loom, how 
 to dye and mix and match the colours, how to weav 
 and work it into the feverall fpecies of manufaftures, 
 fuch as cloths, broad and narrow ferges, druggets, 
 fluffs, bays, fays, flannells, and all the numberlefs kinds 
 of goods adopted for the trade, and for as well the 
 clothing as houfe furniture, etc., of all the nations 
 round, as we fee it arriv'd to at this day. 
 
 As this prince brought over mafter workmen to 
 teach and inftru6t the people, fo he by all poffible 
 means encourag'd and allmoft forced the poor, back- 
 ward, indolent people to learn. It would indeed be 
 
 worth 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 45 
 
 worth obferving here how backward the people were 
 at firfl to take the hints ; how ignorant and willing to 
 remain _ fo ; how awkward in, and allmoft obftinate 
 againft, being perfwaded to accept the advantages 
 offred, however great, however vifible ; in a word, how 
 loth to be made dilligent and confequently rich : but 
 that part is not to the prefent purpofe, we may fpeak 
 to it again as we go on. 
 
 The King, without putting any force upon the in- 
 clinacion, carry'd on his defign by the gentleft methods 
 poffible, tempting the work by the goodnefs of the 
 wages and encouraging thofe who had fubftance for the 
 undertaking by aflifting them with additions of his, till 
 at length the profits of the work prov'd its own en- 
 couragement, and the mafter clothiers growing rich by 
 the induftry of the workmen, others thro' the meer 
 defire of the like fuccefs adventur'd and grew rich like- 
 wife : and thus began the woollen manufa6lure, which 
 by degrees became our own, and is now manumif'd and 
 made free, and is denominated our own, being call'd the 
 Englifh woollen manufafture by way of diftinccion ; 
 and the Flemings being deny'd the wooU are oblig'd 
 not onely to lay it down as a manufafture, but even to 
 buy the needful! part which they want for their own 
 clothing from England. 
 
 I muft bring this all down to my fubjeft, namely, 
 that this is all owing to the firfl inflruccion and 
 educacion of this wife prince, and fhews the manifeft 
 difference between him and the untaught race of kings 
 which went before, of whom our former chapter has 
 made mencion. Some of whom notwithflanding^ were 
 efteem'd glorious, martial, and magnanimous perfons, 
 but had little or no taft of the intrefts and advantages 
 of the people they governed. They could never elce 
 have been fo eafie to have fuffred, or fo blind as not to 
 
 have 
 
46 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 have feen fo manifeft an opportunity to have enrich'd 
 their country by prompting the induftry of their 
 fubjefts and by encouraging their commerce, the 
 onely way to make them ftrong and powerfull, and 
 that more than any of their neighbours. 
 
 I have been the longer upon this fubjeft, becaufe 
 this wife and prudent monarch, as he fet the firft 
 example of enriching and ftrengthening his kingdome 
 /•93- by commerce and carryed it on with a furprifing 
 fuccefs, fo he lay'd thereby fuch a foundation as not 
 onely fucceeding princes have built upon with vaft 
 advantage to the reall advancement of this nacion in 
 trade and ftrength and in riches gain'd by trade abov 
 all the other nacions in Europe ; but has left it ftill in 
 fuch a ftate of encreafe and improvement by the like 
 method of trade, that there is room for our prefent and 
 even future princes alfo to go on encreafing and im- 
 proving the kingdom in commerce to a hight of ^vealth 
 and greatnefs inconcievable and beyond all the reft of 
 the world put together. 
 
 It is faid of Ferdinand, King of Spain,* that tho' he 
 was unlearned as to the knowlege of letters and fcience, 
 yet, that by converfacion with wife men he became wife. 
 This is that inftruccion of King Henry which I call his 
 educacion. He learnt wifdome and experience by his 
 long refidence in Britanie, in Flanders, and in France : 
 he learnt wifdome by obfervacion of the wife conduft 
 and mannagement of thofe wife princes ; for all thofe 
 three countryes were at that time govern'd by prudent, 
 great, and excellent princes ; and he learnt experience 
 by carrying on fo long and needfull correfpondencies 
 with the nobleft and moft politick of his own country, 
 in which it was worth remark that they fay none of hi? 
 councils and correfpondents were ever betraid, none of 
 his friends ever difcovred. 
 
 But 
 ' MS. S. 
 
O/ROYALL EDUCACION. 47 
 
 But I mufi: dwell no longer here ; I have onely one 
 thing to mencion, which recommends the memory of 
 this great king to his pofterity in the very cafe now 
 before me ; and this is the efpeciall care which he took, 
 more than was ordinarily known in any of his pre- 
 deceffors, of the educacion and particular inftruccion of 
 the princes, his fons, as if he had been fo fencible of 
 the want of it in himfelf, and how ignorant and un- 
 polifh'd he had been, if he had not feen the world 
 abroad, but had been left in the untaught condition in 
 which he was at firft brought up here, that is to fay, in 
 Wales under the Countefs, his mother, and how ill that 
 illiterate ftate would have fuited the dignity of a throne,' 
 and was therefore more particularly anxious and con- 
 cern'd to avoid the like inconvenience in his fons. 
 
 To this end he educated them both under the mod 
 learned men of that age, and particularly the eldeft, 
 (viz.) Prince Arthur, Prince of Wales, and marry'd to 
 the Lady Catherine, Infanta of Spain, daughter of 
 Ferdinand and Ifabella, the firft king and queen who 
 united the kingdoms of Arragon and Caftile and after- 
 wards all the other kingdoms of Spain, a match at 
 that time the moft glorious of any that could have 
 been found in all Europe. 
 
 This prince, who, had he liv'd, would have been one 
 of the greateft monarchs in Europe, was yet thought 
 by his father fo far from being abov the benefit of a 
 liberal education, that on the contrary the King, his 
 father, took a more than ordinary care of his education, 
 and particularly of his being well indufted in all kind /. 94. 
 of polite learning, and fingl'd out the mofl learned 
 men in both the Univerfities to comitt to them the 
 high truft of teaching the prince his grammar learning, 
 others at the fame time being employ'd to inftruft him 
 in phylofophy, the mathematicks, aftronomy, etc., and 
 
 others 
 ' MS. ihone. 
 
48 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 others again to introduce him in the knowlege of 
 martial and millitary exercifes, and the like. 
 
 On the other hand the prince gave fuch an extra- 
 ordinary proof as well of his lov of letters and his 
 application to books as of his proficiency and advance- 
 ing in learning, and efpecially in that we call claffic 
 learning, that they giv us a long lift of the books 
 which he had not onely read, but made himfelf mafter 
 of in the Humanity clafs, as follows. 
 
 In Grammar: — Garin, Perot, Sulpicius, Gellius, and 
 Valla. 
 
 In Poetry : — Homer, Virgil, Lucan, Ovid, Silius, 
 Plautus, and Terence. 
 
 In Oratorie : — Tully and QuintilHan. 
 
 In Hiftory : — Thucydides, Livie, Csefar's Commen- 
 taries," Suetonius, Tacitus, Plini, Valerius Maximus, 
 Saluft, and Eufebius. 
 
 Thefe, it feems, were the authours which in thofe 
 dayes were thought proper for the reading of the 
 youth of the firft rank, as containing the elements of 
 erudition and able to finifli the greateft genius and 
 furnifh the greateft head with ftores of learning fuffi- 
 cient to the higheft ftation in life. 
 
 But death cut this prince off in the prime and 
 bloffom of his age, (viz.) between 15 and 16 yeares ; 
 He dyed at Ludlow in Wales, leaving his crown, his 
 countrye's hopes, and his wife to his brother, who 
 we are to kno' as king by the name and ftile of 
 Henry VIII. 
 
 As the educacion of Prince Arthur was mannag'd 
 with fuch exceeding care by the direccion of the King, 
 his father, to' fit him for the crown, fo was that of his 
 brother Prince Henry to fitt him for the mitre ; for as 
 the Lord Herbert, who wrote his particular hiftory, fayes 
 and quotes it from the Hiftory of the Council of Trent, 
 
 lib. 
 • MS. Com. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 49 
 
 lib. I., his father, the King, had deftined him to the 
 Archbifhoprick of Canterbury ; This, he fayes, the King 
 did in his abundant prudence, deeming it the cheapeft 
 as well as the moft glorious way of difpofing of' a 
 younger fon, for that, as he at once difburden'd the pub- 
 lick revenues from the charge neceffarily^ attending the 
 houfehold of fo great a prince, fo he left the door open 
 to his ambition, the dignity of a cardinal^ being at 
 that time efteem'd the higheft and fuperior honour of 
 the Church, the papal chair onely excepted. 
 
 On this alccount, fayes the fame noble author, his 
 educacion was accurate, and he had not onely infuf'd 
 into his mind the more neceffary parts of learning, 
 fuch as the learned languages and claflicks, a courfe of 
 phylofophy and of the mathematicks, and alfo of pneu- 
 maticks and Divinity, but he was alfo well fkill'd in 
 ornamentall learning, was a good aftronomer, a curious 
 mufitian and poet, a good orator, and in all a criticall 
 examiner of the work of other men of learning, and / 94 6. 
 particularly of the difputed points in religion, which 
 happened in his time, in which, if he was a little fubjeft 
 to dogmatizing and being pofitiv, it muft be plac'd to 
 the account of the petulent clergye with whome he 
 had to do, and to a little impatience in his temper, not 
 being able to bear contradiccion, efpecially as a king ; 
 and add to that its being a little towards the latter end 
 of his time, when his yeares and being often croirt by 
 the clergy made him a little more willfuU and pofitiv 
 than he was before. 
 
 But I am not writing his hiftory, nor talking of what 
 he might do when he was a king, but of what was 
 direfted for him when he was a youth and a fubjeft. 
 
 He had, fayes another, an excellent genius for 
 recieving the impreflions of his inftruftors, a head 
 form'd for bright concepcions, a vaft capacious 
 
 memory, 
 
 > 0/ omitted in MS. " MS. neceffarly. = MS. Cd. 
 
so 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 memory, and a moft vigrous, fprightly fancy ; all 
 which meeting with the beft mafters for inftruccion 
 and the great opportunityes of converfing with learned 
 men of all nations, made him the moft admir'd prince 
 of his age, and efpecially when after his brother's ill ' 
 health the eyes of the world were fix'd upon him as 
 the heir apparent of the crown. 
 
 A prince thus educated muft have a vaft advantage 
 in his firft fteps in government, and muft unaccountably 
 degenerate in fome of his morall principles or of his 
 religious, or of both, if he did not Ihine in fuch an 
 exalted fphere with an uncommon fplendor. 
 
 And. indeed, take him with all his failings of which 
 /. 95. it muft be confeffd he had fome, he was notwith- 
 ftanding,^ in himfelf, and abftrafted from fome mif- 
 takes which were as accidents to his reign — I fay he 
 was a moft glorious prince ; he was perfeftly mafter 
 of all the arts and politicks of government, daring and 
 enterprizing in the field, and yet cool and fedate in the 
 council, and knew perfeftly well how to govern himfelf 
 in his treatyes as well as to guide himfelf in his camp. 
 We never read he was beaten in battle' or out- 
 witted in treaty. If he was rafh and pofitiv, it was at 
 home, not abroad ; there he weigh'd every propofall, 
 digefted every fcheme, difputed every demand ; and in 
 ftead of having need of a Council for direfting him, he 
 generally direfted his Council, and that in the moft 
 difficult and delicate affairs. Even all his Minifters 
 abroad, as well at the Court of Rome as at other Courts, 
 received all their inftruccions and direccions chiefly 
 from his own hand ; and none knew better how to 
 mannage that nice, cunning, avaritious, and warlike 
 Pope Julius, whom he had to do with, than himfelf. 
 Hiftory will let us kno' that he was contemporary of 
 
 three 
 
 ^ ?■// omitted in MS. ^ o. 
 
 ' MS. in the field, the last word being struck out and battle put 
 instead. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 51 
 
 three of the moft powerful! and politick princes, his 
 neighbours, that ever were known' to liv in this part of 
 the world, and all reigning together, (viz.) Pope Julius 
 the Second, fpoken of allready, the Emperor Charles V., 
 and the truly great Francis I., King of France ; and 
 yet it is very obfervable that, tho' he was both in and 
 out with them all at one time or other, yet none of 
 them got any thing by him either by power or policy ; 
 none of them were too hard for him any more in the 
 cabinet than in the field ; and he had this particular 
 felicity in his condudl, that he made them all court 
 him in their turn and fear him too ; and tho' the Pope 
 feem'd by fituacion to be out of his reach, yet he found 
 means to let the Holy Father kno' by experience that 
 either by principal or by proxy the King was allways 
 too many for him and could allwayes make himfelf 
 a terror to him ; and indeed by his admirable policy he 
 was fo to all the reft of his neighbours, the ballance of 
 Europe lying very often in his hands, thofe two power- 
 full princes, Francis I. and Charles V., being allmoft 
 continual! antagonifts and one way or other influencing 
 all the princes and powers of Europe to take part in 
 the quarrell on one fide or other, except King Henry, 
 who kept himfelf allways in arms and ready for war, 
 that he might joyn on this fide or on that, as he faw 
 his advantage. This fhew'd him to be a prince of 
 confummate knowlege in the true intrefts, not of the 
 feverall powers of Europ then contending, but of the 
 intrefts of his own dominions in efpeciall manner, 
 which by this means he kept allwayes in a perfe6l 
 tranquillity as to any invafions from without, I mean a 
 few treacherous inroades from the Scots onely excepted, /. 95 1. 
 in which he generally made them pay dear for their 
 attachment to France, and that twice with the blood 
 of their kings in this one reign ; fpr King James IV., 
 
 tho' 
 
 ^ know in MS. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 tho' the King's brother-in-law, invading England with 
 a great army, was flain at Flodden Field on the bank 
 of the river Till between Kelfo and Woller, in the year 
 1513. with no lefs than 8000 kill'd and 8000 taken 
 prifoner^ ; and James V., the fon of the other James, 
 having attempted a like invafion, and his army firft 
 declining to fight and afterwards being defeated, broke 
 his h^art with the aflflicdon of it, and dyed of grief juft 
 30 year after, viz. in the year 1 543. 
 
 All thefe inftances of this king's happy reign I place 
 to the account of his exquifite mannagement of his 
 affairs and much of that to the extraordinary embellifli- 
 ments of his underftanding by a polite education, by 
 which he was mofl certainly fitted to be what we call 
 a great man as well as a great king ; nay, he became a 
 great king in the meer confequence of his being a 
 great man. 
 
 Befides what I have faid above of his educacion, 
 take it in the words of an other writer : thus he was in 
 his youth fo train'd up in litterature by the particular 
 direccion of the wife king his father and the care and 
 dilligence of his tutors, that he was defervedly efteemed 
 the mofl: learned prince in Chriftendome ; and befides 
 that he had a mofl: excellent naturall genius to learning, 
 he had the mofl: learned infl:ru6tors that the age could 
 produce. 
 
 If any ill natur'd reader fliall fummon hiftory in 
 evedence againfl: King Henry VIII. and range his 
 faults and mifcarriages in battle againft his charafter; 
 tell us he was cruell and inexorable to his wives, 
 morofe, terrible in his family and houfhold and to his 
 minifters and fervants, bloody and tyranical in his 
 government and to his nobillity in efpeciall, furious 
 and perfecuting in matters of religion, voracious and 
 infatiable in plundering the Church, and the like : my 
 anfwer is ftiort, It is not at all to the purpofe here ; and 
 
 tho' 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 53 
 
 tho' much might be faid in abatement of the charge, 
 my anfwer as to the fubje£l before me is that if I 
 Ihould grant the worft, and much worfe than was truth, 
 it might be for want of grace, but it could not be for 
 want of wit ; it might be for want of temper, but could 
 not be for want of knowlege or learning, nor for want 
 of a princely and virtuous education ; nor can educacion / g6. 
 in any cafe be chargeable with the accidents of a 
 perfon's temper, circumftances, or even vices and errors. 
 Since as on one hand being well educated often times 
 gives check to the vices of the temper and prevails in 
 the' minds of princes, perfwading their reafon and even 
 working upon their fences fo as to regulate and govern 
 their exorbitances, and reftrains their otherwife pro- 
 voking and alluring appetites — for tyrrany in princes 
 is a certain kind of appetite and luft in the foul, as well 
 as the ordinary corrupt inclinacions of other men — fo, 
 on the other hand, a good educacion is at worft no 
 part of the caufe when the prince gives himfelf a loos 
 and lets go the government of himfelf; but rather it 
 may be faid that the good which was infuf'd and 
 which receiv'd life in the early inftruccions of his 
 teachers is overpowred and, as it were, fmother'd by 
 the rage of his paffions, and he is hurryed down the 
 ftream of his vitiated affeccions to do what he knows 
 is wrong. 
 
 In a word, the credit of a good educacion fuffers 
 nothing by the ill ufe any one may make of it ; nor 
 will any man argue fo abfurdly as to fay that becaufe 
 fome may make an ill ufe of it, that therefore it had 
 been better they had never been well taught Nor will 
 I make any queftion but that, bad as he was, take it 
 with the worft that any authors have written of him, I 
 mean King Henry VIII., he would have been far worfe, 
 had he not been taught at all. 
 
 What 
 ' Originally the MS. had upon thefenfe, which is scored through 
 and altered to in mind, leaving no the. 
 
54 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 What may we not fuppofe that haughty, fiery 
 temper, thofe furious paffions, and that tyrannical 
 difpofition which hurryed this prince into fo many 
 irregular accions, fo much oppreflion, fo many crueltyes, 
 and fo much robery and blood, would have done, if he 
 had not been taught fome government of himfelf (for 
 'tis evedent no body elce could have governed him) ? 
 He would certainly have been a Nero to his nobillity 
 and gentry, a Dioclefian (!), to the poor infant reformers, 
 a Caligula to the commons ; in a word, he would have 
 been a monfter, not a man, the worft of tyrants, and 
 the moft voracious robber of the Church and Common 
 Wealth that ever reign'd. 
 
 So that ftill his learning, his good fence, and his 
 being well educated, each affifted one another to govern 
 his temper, and produc'd this good effeft, namely, that 
 with his natural fiercenefs and with all his impetuous 
 pafllons and out of the way inclinations, he had yet the 
 exercife of a found judgement and would bring himfelf 
 to temper many times by the meer force of his own 
 reafoning, when all the endeavours of others to perfwade 
 had little or no influence upon him; nay, and fometimes 
 when thofe about him, direfting their councils rather, as 
 they thought, to pleafe him, rather than to ferv him, fed 
 the fire of his paflions rather than afwag'd them, and 
 ftrove to kindle the flame rather than to extinguifh it, 
 /. 96 b. as was the cafe very remarkably of the Lady Katherine 
 Parr, his lafl queen, who taking a little too much 
 liberty to argue with the King in a tender point, namely 
 that of his Six Articles, of which the King was very fond, 
 the King took offence, and thofe courtiers who were about 
 him blowing the coals, becaufe they thought it pleaf'd 
 the King's humour. Her Majefl;ie had like to have been 
 fent to the Tower ; but the King hearing how exceed- 
 ingly the Queen was furprif'd at it and what paffions 
 it threw her into, his own cooler thoughts prevail'd 
 
 over 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 55 
 
 over the flattery of his courtiers and over the prompters 
 of cruelty ; and he comforted her and reconcil'd him- 
 felf to her immediately ; fo that, as I have faid, his 
 education and his phylofophy, which early taught him 
 to govern his paffions by his reafon, had fome times a 
 very good effedt, and influenc'd him for the better.' 
 
 This alfo may be added to the charafter of King 
 Henry and juftly plac'd to the credit of his being well 
 educated, (viz.) that it put him upon taking an efpeciall 
 care, in the education of his own children and efpecially 
 of his two youngeft, that is to fay, his fon King Edward 
 and the princefs Elizabeth, his filler, who were indeed — 
 and I may fay it without the leaft of fufpicion of flattery 
 — the wonders of the age for their early learning and 
 vaft capafcityes ; of which wee fhall fee farther in its 
 cburfe. 
 
 ^ Here the MS. has the note : I/ere a jujl imparlial charaller. 
 
 CAP. 
 
/.97. CAP. IV. 
 
 > E are now come to fome of the ^ brighteft 
 examples for educacion of princes that 
 England has, or perhaps ever can produce ; 
 and as they are the glory of the age they 
 liv'd in, fo they are indeed the glory of our country. 
 They are all three to be remembred to the honour of 
 this one reign of King Henry VIII. ; for tho' they 
 fhone in the yeares after his death, yet they were all 
 initiated and receiv'd their education in the King's 
 time, from whence I may obferv that the King himfelf 
 being learned and educated, as has been faid, had 
 brought an accurate educacion into repute, and it was, 
 as I may fay, not the fafhion to be ignorant. Even 
 the ladyes as well as the noble-men were taught 
 languages, fciences, and, in a word, the firft were as 
 learned as the laft in proporcion to their numbers, of 
 which mencion fhall be made as we go on ; nor fhall 
 it be omitted to take notice what a diftinccion it made 
 even in ladyes of quallity themfelves, princeffes, and 
 even queens ; how it made them admir'd in the world, 
 and how it ftands upon record to their honour in our 
 hiftoryes to this day. 
 
 Withall it is worth remark, and for the honour of 
 learning it felf as well as of the particular princeffes 
 and ladyes fo eminent for their improvements in letters, 
 that fuch were alfo allwayes religious, virtuous, and 
 
 more 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 57 
 
 more than^ ordinarily examplar for pyety, modefty, 
 humillity, charity, and all the graces that adorn a 
 Chriftian life ; were paterns for all the princeffes and 
 ladyes of the time ; and were admir'd for thofe rare 
 accomplifhments thro' all the nacions round them. 
 
 The imediate fucceffor to Henry VIII. was Edward 
 the VI., a prince who, when he came to the crown and 
 confequently to fhine among the learned world, was 
 the wonder and furprize of all the men of learning 
 in that age, as well popifh as proteftant. Even thofe 
 who abhorr'd his principles as a reformer, and as he 
 was attach'd to the errors and herefies, as they call'd 
 them, of Luther, Bucer, Peter Martir, and others, yet 
 they thought him a miracle of a youth for his rare 
 parts, his proficiency in learning, and the excellent 
 endowments of his mind, and ufually, fpeaking of him 
 in forreign and popilh countryes among themfelves, 
 would exprefs them felves thus, viz., what pity it was 
 that fttch a rare genius, a prince of fuch vajl powers 
 and capafcities of foul, Jhould not be brought within the 
 pale of the Catholic Church. 
 
 If this was the judgement of the irreconcilable 
 oppofers of the Reformacion and by confequence his 
 enemies, as he was a zealous reformer, what a glory 
 muft that genius bring to the reformacion it felf ! and 
 what a patern was there mark'd out by the great 
 Diredlor of Nature for all the Chriftian princes of 
 Europe to walk by ! Let me take his charafter in /■ 98- 
 the feverall particulars of it, from the beft judges and 
 from the moft impartiall writers of that age, and I 
 fliall leav little room for any modern writer to enlarge 
 upon it. 
 
 Hiftory tells us he was taken from the women, that 
 is to fay, governelTes, nurfes, and fuch neceffary attend- 
 ants as had the care of his infancy, at fix yeares of 
 
 age, 
 ' MS.y. 
 
 E 
 
58 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 age, which was full early to begin the cultivating his 
 mind, but occafion'd by the difcoveries he gave even 
 at thofe yeares of fuch a greatnefs of foul and fuch 
 a vaft capacious mind as appear'd fitted to reciev 
 impreffions of things fuperiour to the common under- 
 ftanding of children at thofe yeares. 
 
 His firft preceptors were Sir Anthony Cook and Dr. 
 Cox, men of unfpotted chara6lers for virtue, piety and 
 polite manners as well as for learning, and who were 
 perfectly well quallifyed by the fweetnefs of their dif- 
 pofition, their gravity, and yet taking affabillity, ta 
 infmuate not onely their perfons into a due revrence 
 and efleem with the young prince, but alfo to make 
 way by an imperceptible art into his affeccions, and 
 prepofefs his mind in favour of every thing they faid 
 to him. 
 
 By this means their inftruccions came recommended 
 to him with an infinite advantage, and found their way 
 into the inmoft receffes of his thought, fo that it might 
 be faid he lov'd the teaching, becaufe he lov'd the 
 teachers ; and it may be added that they were toucht 
 with an equall affeccion to him. It was the greateft 
 pleafure in the world to teach him ; for he reciev'd 
 their inftruccions with fuch a prefft attention, and what 
 ever they faid to him came with fuch force and made 
 fuch impreffion that he very rarely forgot any thing- 
 they faid ; he liften'd to them as if he was feeding on 
 their words and as if he fwallow'd their di6lates with 
 the fame appetite as he did his meat. 
 
 There was no need to fay any thing twice over to 
 him ; on the contrary, he would bring things to their 
 minds which they had forgot, by alking' queftions upon 
 paft difcourfes^ and enquiring into what they by fuch 
 omiffion had not fully explain'd to him. 
 
 Under thefe two learned men he receiv'd the firft 
 
 knowlege 
 1 MS. ajk. 2 MS. difcourfed. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 59 
 
 knowlege of naturall as well as of experimental phylo- 
 fophy, and in particular a generall underftanding in 
 aftronomy and of the mocions and influences of the 
 heavenly bodys, a fludy which he afterwards greatly 
 improv'd and wonderfully delighted in. 
 
 The carefull inflruftors abov forgot not in every 
 branch of fcience, efpecially of naturall knowlege, as 
 they went on, to giv a ferious and religious turn to all 
 the exalted difcoveries of Nature, fo to giv his moft 
 early thoughts awfuU concepcions of the glory and 
 majeftie of God and of the aftonifliing wonders of 
 creation and Providence' ; and it was a moft delightfuU 
 thing to them to fee what a ready affent he allways 
 gave to thofe juft refleccions and with what due 
 reverence and regard he mencion'd them himfelf. 
 
 In a word, they had the particular pleafure to fee 
 very early that they were inftrufting a prince who 
 would be a true Chriftian phylofopher, and that he 
 would be as bright a prince for religion as he would 
 be ftiining for learning and knowlege. 
 
 With this introduccion they brought him up to the 
 gate of languages and then Mr. Cheek was added to 
 their number, of whom Dr. Wylfon, Secretary of State 
 to Queen Elizabeth, left this charafter on record, that 
 he was a man of moft rare learning and a fmgular 
 ornament to the land. 
 
 Thefe three divided the work of the prince's educa- 
 tion equally, duly proporcioning his time and their 
 inftruccions ; and as they agreed perfe6lly well in the 
 main end of their labours, namely the prince's improve- 
 ment, fo they took care never to opprefs his mind with 
 the over-weight of their teachings, fo as not to giv 
 proper intervalls for his recreation or converfation. On 
 the contrary(they made his learning fuite fo well with / 98 ^•■ 
 every other part of life that he rather call'd upon them 
 
 to 
 
 ' MS. a i? with a dot in it. 
 
6o 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 to teach than they upon him to learn ; and they found 
 themfelves frequently oblig'cf td igove him to giv over 
 and divert himfelf. 
 
 The part of Mr. Cheek was that of Humanity or 
 grammer learning ; and the prince was fuch a pro- 
 ficient under his care that he was mafter of the Latin 
 and Greek before he was 1 1 year old, and not onely 
 underftood them but fpoke them fluently and with a 
 furprizing eloquence. ^ 
 
 / 99- I am told at the firft fetting out in this under- 
 taking that it threatens a pointed fatyr at our own 
 times, and that I am preparing to fall upon the par- 
 ticular conduft of familyes and perfons, fome of whom 
 are too much abov me, and who ought not to be 
 mark't out by the undutifull hints of any hand with- 
 out doors. 
 
 This they infift upon from an old maxim among 
 authors, namely that the extraordinary recomendacion 
 of any particular virtue in praftife is in its naturall 
 confequence a fatyr upon the omiffion of the praftife 
 which is its contrary. 
 
 This might be effeftually anfwer'd by faying that 
 the very queftion is a more pointed fatyr, and at the 
 fame perfons it fpeaks of too, becaufe it evedently 
 inferrs there is fuch an omiffion ; which I' am fo far 
 from granting, that^ I no where fo much as fuggeft it' 
 in the whole work. 
 
 But it will be yet more directly anfwer'd by Ihewing 
 and proving, too, if need be, that thefe fheets have 
 been written many yeares ago, and were defign'd to be 
 publifh'd during the life of her late Majeftie Queen 
 
 Ann 
 
 1 /omitted in MS. 
 
 2 The words am fo far from granting that, are a later addition 
 in different ink ; this explains the omission of / and it. 
 
 3 it omitted in MS. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 6i 
 
 Ann and before Her Majeftie's' acceflion to the crown, 
 viz., while the Duke of Gloucefter was aliv and for 
 whom the whole fcheme was intended. 
 
 Nor was it even then intended for a fatyr, or was 
 there any room for it as fuck. Her Majeftie (then 
 princefs) taking a more than ordinary care of the moft 
 early introduccion of that prince and (notwithftanding,' 
 or over and abov, the care of his governors and tutors) 
 taking the infpeccion of it wholy upon her felf, and 
 that in fuch a manner as that the Duke was very 
 likely, at leafh if he had receiv'd thofe inftruccions with 
 a due impreflion, as it was believ'd by all about him 
 he would, to be a pattern to the ages to come and a 
 recommendacion of thofe paft. 
 
 But Providence,' who in its infinite prefcience knew 
 what was determin'd for thefe nations, remov'd that 
 prolpeft, and taking our eyes off from the royal 
 family as then feemingly eftablifh'd, gave us a new, 
 and we hope a more fettl'd, view of a proteftant fuccef- 
 fion from Germany. I fay more fettled becaufe of a 
 numerous royall ifue for the handing on the blefling to 
 pofterity, the hopefuU beginings of which we have fo 
 firm a fatiffaftion'' in and fuch an affurance of felicity 
 from, that it muft be rather a fatyr upon us all to fup- 
 pofe they fland in need of any reprehenfion of this /. loo. 
 kind, than it can be fuppofd this work was intended 
 as fuch. 
 
 But as no fuch writing as this can be jufHy confin'd 
 to fuch a prive (! ) interpretacion and* conftruccion, fo 
 there may be in the prefent age many noble and even 
 princely familyes to whom the admonitions in this 
 work, if they muft be call'd by that name, may be 
 appofite and be with juftice direfted, without the leaft 
 
 fuggeftion 
 
 ^ MS. Ma"', ^ o. ' D with a dot in it. * Abbreviation. 
 
 " The little stroke which is used as abbreviation of flwrf is left out, 
 because interpretacion is a later addition (in different ink). 
 
62 0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 
 
 fuggeftion that our intention looks higher than it 
 ought to do. 
 
 Nor is it the leafh difregard even to the royal family 
 to fay that, altho' I freely grant the wife condu6l of 
 Their Majefties in the educacion of the princes of the 
 Blood now properly call'd fuch leaves no room for any 
 premonition of that kind — tho' it were' to be perform'd 
 with the greateft defference and duty to their perfons — 
 yet it does not implye but in times yet to come there may 
 be conditions and circumftances^ in which we may fay 
 without breach of refpeft this work may not be thought 
 unprofitable ; and he that writes fuch a work as this 
 ought to be fuppofd to hope that it may be fervicable 
 at leaft as much in ages to come as now ; or"" elce he 
 mufl have a better opinion of pofterity and a worfe of 
 this undertaking than I think he needs to have of 
 either. 
 
 I believ I may fay without any deviation from 
 
 , truth or breach of good manners that a generall ne- 
 
 gleft of the educacion of their children has been too 
 
 much the difafter of our great familyes for fome yeares 
 
 paft. 
 
 By great families here I muft be underftood to mean 
 the familyes of our nobillity and principal gentry. As 
 for princes, England for 60 yeares paft has not been 
 bleft with many upon whom the remark can be made. 
 The prefent royall family I hope we may fay are under 
 an impreffion fo differing from what I am fpeaking of 
 that there can be no room to name them. 
 
 The royall family in England has been under fuch 
 
 1 Thd is erroneously struck out in the MS., and the words of 
 that kind are a later addition ; both alterations are made with 
 brownish ink, different from the usual one. 
 
 ^ Abbreviated. 
 
 ' The rest of the text, beginning with or, is written with different 
 ink, which has become brown. 
 
0/ROYALL EDUCACION. 63 
 
 a variety of circumftances' as to the cafe of education 
 of children, that we have few examples to bring upon 
 the ftage that will bear relating. 
 
 King James the Firfl had two fons : the firft, prince 
 Henry the Eldefl, you have here as a happy patern ; 
 the fecond, afterward King Charles.^ 
 
 1 Abbreviated. ^ g^^ gf the MS. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Page i. — The soul of man seems to be pladd in him by the 
 author of Nature like a rough diamond in the mine. Defoe 
 has used the same simile in his Essay on Projects, where he 
 says, on page 165 of John Morley's edition (1887) : "The soul 
 is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be 
 polished, or the lustre will never appear." The latter part of 
 the comparison is also found on page 2 of the present 
 
 work: " Thus the brightest soul can not emit the 
 
 rayes of its nativ lustre and perfeccion, till polish'd by the 
 , skilfull application of experienc'd instructors." 
 
 Page 6. — Gustavus Adolphus is mentioned as "the Fountain 
 of Glory " and as " that true Heroe " in the Compleat English 
 Gentleman, p. 14. 
 
 Page 10. — As to the two Leslys, see my note to p. 120 of 
 the Compleat English Gentleman. 
 
 Page 17. — Sayes our historian Speed. The passage in/John 
 Speed's History of Great Britaine^ runs thus : " Henry was 
 brought vp in learning even from his child-hood, whereby he 
 gained to himselfe the high honour, very rare in those dayes, 
 especially in princes, to be, and to be stiled the Beau-clerk." 
 (Third edition, 1632, p. 450.) 
 
 Page 17. — Another writer. This is an error of Defoe's; for 
 the quotation " he was bred up in learning even from his child- 
 hood, an honour very rare in those dayes " is almost verbally 
 taken from the passage in Speed's History cited above. 
 
66 NOTES. 
 
 Page 17. — A schollar and phylosopher. This, too, Defoe 
 seems to have taken from Speed, who says, on p. 467 : " What- 
 soever was wisely or vertuously performed in his government, 
 is chiefly ascribed to his younger yeares institution in true 
 learning and philosophy P 
 
 Page 17. — Our present Collection of English Historians. 
 The work referred to is(.White Kennet's Complete History of 
 England: With the Lives of all the Kings and Queens thereof 
 (3 volumes, fol., London, 1706).) Here, too, Defoe is not 
 accurate in what he says ; for the only information derived from 
 the notes of the "anotator" is that Henry I. "study'd at 
 Cambridge " (note c on page 119), whilst the rest stands in the 
 text of the work itself, viz., on page 123, col. 2 : " Henry had 
 a taste of learning in his youth, yet not much ; but the very 
 reputation of it made books come in fashion, and many learned 
 men flourished in his time." 
 
 Page 18. — It cauid him to be very bountiful to the Church 
 
 ..... The historians of those days who in particular 
 
 say he excell'd all the princes of the world at that time. Cp. 
 Speed's History, p. 467: "By the report of most writers, he 
 excelled all the princes of the world in his time, in mercy, 
 wealth, and bounty, unto monasteries." 
 
 Page 18. — Founder of severall colleges, &'c. Cp. Speed 
 p. 464. 
 
 Page 19. — He esteem' d an unlearned king to be but a crown' d 
 ass. Taken from Speed, p. 464 : " The King being often heard 
 to say that he esteemed an vnlearned king but a crowned asse." 
 
 Page 19. — Queen Maud, di^c. See Speed, 464 : "Shee was 
 famous for her learning, loue to learning, charitie to the poore 
 and all virtuous dispositions." 
 
 Page 20. — Gervaise, a monk of Canterbury. This is Gervasius 
 Dorobornensis, also called Gervase of Canterbury, who was a 
 contemporary of Thomas Becket. He is frequently quoted 
 
NOTES. 67 
 
 by Speed, but I cannot find the passage cited by Defoe in 
 Speed's work, nor in Kennet's Collection. Cp. the note to 
 p. 21. 
 
 Page 20. — Adelicia, or Alice, the third daughter of William 
 the Conqueror, &'c. This should be " the/ourth daughter " ; 
 and instead of "tmo of his daughters," Defoe should have 
 said " three of his daughters." 
 
 Page 21. — The quotation commencing " Then began dolour 
 and labour " is transcribed almost word by word from Speed, 
 P- 473) where it runs thus : " Then beganne (saith he, i.e., 
 Gervasius) both labour and dolour which brought the whole 
 Realme to a most grieuous diuision, and in a manner to an 
 vtter ruine : for those that fauoured the King, what euill soeuer 
 could be wrought or imagined, they did against them that 
 tooke part with the Empresse : and contrariwise, Earle Robert, 
 whose power daily encreased, tortured with cruelties all those 
 that stood for the King." 
 
 Page 40-46. — Henry VII. and the woollen industry. Defoe 
 is mistaken in attributing to Henry VII. the merit of having 
 been the first to introduce the woollen industry into England. 
 Mr. James Burnley, in his History of Wool and Woolcombing 
 (1889), p. 60, says that the woollen industries of England 
 had already made "no small progress" during the reigns of 
 Henry I., Stephen, and Henry II., and that a partial revival 
 took place under Edward II. ; " but it was the third Edward 
 who adopted measures to secure their further development." 
 During his reign the first great immigration of weavers from 
 the Low Countries took place. (See W. J. Ashley, An Intro- 
 duction to English Economic History and Theory (1893), 
 ii. 218 j and W.Cunningham, The Growth of English Industry 
 and Commerce (1890), i. 282.) In 1496, Henry VII. secured 
 the free entry of English cloth into the Netherlands by the 
 Intercursus Magnus. The result, hastened by the renewed 
 emigration of weavers during the administration of Alva, was 
 the destruction of the Flemish industry and the rise of the 
 English cloth trade to its unique importance in the i6th and 
 
68 NOTES. 
 
 17th centuries (Ashley, p. 218). It seems Defoe simply ^ 
 mixed up what he had read about Edward III. and 
 Henry VII. ; for I have not been able to discover an older 
 authority for his erroneous account. In an anonymous book 
 called The Golden Fleece (1599), and quoted by Mr. Burnley, 
 which Defoe may have known, Edward III. is praised as the 
 founder of the woollen industry of England. 
 
 Page 46. — Ferdinand, King of Spain. This sentence; too, 
 is taken from Speed (p. 972): " Although hee was unlearned 
 as being brought vp among armes and soldiers, yet by vsing 
 the familiantie of wise men, hee also became very wise." 
 
 Page 48. — ^The list of authors is taken from Speed's 
 History, p. 972, col. 2, together with some of the subsequent 
 remarks. \.^ 
 
 Page /^^.^-The Life and Reign of King Henry the Eighth, 
 by the Right Honourable Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury 
 (1581-1648), from ,which Defoe here derives his information, 
 was printed in 1649, 1672, and 1682, and is also contained 
 in the second volume of Kennet's Collection (1706), already 
 mentioned by Defoe on page 17. To those wishing to see 
 how Defoe used Lord Herbert's account, the following passage, 
 I think, will be welcome. I have italicized the expressions 
 adopted by Defoe : " His education was accurate, being 
 destined (as a credible Author aflSrms) to the Archbishoprick of 
 Canterbury^ during the Life of his elder brother Arthur ; that 
 prudent king his father chusing this as the most cheap and 
 glorious way for disposing of a younger son. For as he at once 
 disburdened his Revenues, and the publick from the charge 
 incident to so great a person, so he left a passage open to 
 Ambition; especially ever since Eugenius IV. had declared 
 the place of a cardinal above all other in the Church. Besides, 
 he consider'd it would be no little security to his posterity, 
 that this dignity was conferr'd on one who had interest in the 
 
 ' ConciL Trid. 1. i.' {,note in the margin). 
 
NOTES. 69 
 
 conservation of the Crown. By these means not only the 
 more necessary parts of learning were infu^d into him, but even 
 those ol ornament ; so that, besides his being an able Latinist, 
 Philosopher, and Divine, he was (which one might wonder 
 at, in a king) a curious musician." 
 
 Page 49 — Sayes another. Who this other author was, I 
 have not been able to ascertain. 
 
 Page 52. — In the words of an other writer. The writer 
 from whose history Defoe quotes here is Speed, page 982, 
 2nd col. : " His youth [was] so trained vp in literature 
 that he was accounted the most learned prince of all 
 Christendome." 
 
 Page 54. — Katherine Parr. The story is reported at length 
 by Lord Herbert, on page 262 seq. 
 
 Page 57 w^.-+-Defoe's account of the careful education of 
 Edward VI. is derived from Sir John Hayward's Life of 
 Edward VI. in Rennet's Collection, ii. 274. \ 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Adelicia, or Alice, daughter of William I., 20 
 
 Anne, Queen, 60 seq. 
 
 Arthur, son of Henry VII., ^^ seq. 
 
 Arthur, son of Geoffrey, Duke of Britain (z-e., Bretagne), 22 
 
 Beaufort, Henry, Bishop of Winchester, 31 
 Britain (z>., Bretagne), 22 
 Brittany, 38, 39 
 
 Cambridge, 17 
 
 Catharine, Infanta of Spain, 47 
 
 Charles I., King of England, 63 
 
 Charles V., 51 
 
 Cheek, Mr., 59, 60 
 
 Cook, Sir Anthony, 58 
 
 Cox, Dr., 58 
 
 Education : The necessity of, 2, 4, 7, 8. The education of 
 princes and the children of noble families ought to differ 
 from that of other people, 5. Miserable condition of the 
 untaught poor, 8. Advantages of education, 8, 9. Advan- 
 tages to the country, 10 
 
 Edward I., 25 seq. 
 
 Edward II., 26 seq. 
 
 Edward III., 30 
 
 Edward, son of Henry VII., 34 
 
 Edward IV., 36 
 
 Edward V., 37 
 
 Edward, VI., SS^^?. 
 
 Elenor, mother of Edward I., 25 
 
 Elisha, 3 
 
INDEX. 71 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 38, 55 
 
 Essay on Projects, by Defoe, see editorial note to p. i 
 
 Falstaff, Sir John, 31 
 Ferdinand, King of Spain, 46 
 Francis I., King of France, 51 
 
 Geoffrey, Duke of Britain {i.e., Bretagne), 22 
 
 Gervaise of Canterbury, 20, 21 
 
 Gloucester, Duke of, nephew and heir-apparent to William III., 
 
 61 
 Gustavus Adolphus, 6, 10 {,see the note) 
 
 Hanover, House of, 61 
 
 Hayward's Life of Edward VI., editorial note to p. 57 
 
 Henry I., \bseq., 23, 30 
 
 Henry II., 21 
 
 Henry, eldest son of Henry II., 22 
 
 Henry III., 23 
 
 Henry IV., 31 
 
 Henry V., "the pattern of a well instructed prince," 31 seq. 
 
 Henry VI., 34 seq. 
 
 Henry VIII,, d^iseq. 
 
 Henry, eldest son of James I., 63 
 
 Herbert, Lord, of Cherbury, 48 {see the editor's notes to pp. 48 
 
 and 54) 
 Hugo du Bourg, 2^seq., 25 
 
 Ireland, 22 
 
 Isabel, mother of Edward III., 30 
 
 James IV., King of Scotland, 51 seq. 
 
 James V., King of Scotland, 52 
 
 James I., King of England," 63 
 
 Joan of Acres, 29 
 
 John, King of England, 22 seq. 
 
 Joshua, 3 
 
 Julius II., Pope, Soj^y. 
 
 Rennet's Collection of English Historians, 17 {see also the 
 editor's notes to pp. 17, 48 and 57) 
 
72 INDEX. 
 
 Lesly : Two illiterate generals of that name in the army of 
 Gustavus Adolphus, lose^. (see the note of the editor) 
 
 MATTHiEUS WESTMONASTERIENSIS, 24 
 
 Maud, King Henry I.'s wife, 19 
 Maud, daughter of Henry I., 19, 20, 21 
 
 Parr, Lady Katharine, 55 
 Pierce Gaveston, 27, 29 
 
 Richard I., 22 
 
 Richard II., 30 
 
 Richard, Earl of Pembroke, 25 
 
 Richard Crookback, 36 
 
 Robert, elder brother of William Rufus, 16, 18 
 
 Robert, Earl of Gloucester, illegitimate son of Henry I., 21 
 
 Saul, 3 
 
 Scotland, eminent for good education, 19 
 
 Shore, Jane, 36 
 
 Simon de Montfort, 25 
 
 Solomon, 3 
 
 Speed, the historian, 17, 24 footnote. See also the editorial 
 
 notes to pp. 17, 18, 19, 21, 46, 48, 52 
 Spencers, the, 29 seq. 
 Stephen, King of England, 19^1?^. 
 
 Thomas Becket, 21 
 
 Wallingpord Castle, 27 
 Walter de Langton, Bishop of Chester, 26 
 William the Conqueror, 16 
 William Rufus, 16 
 William, eldest son of Henry I., 18 
 
 Woollen manufacture introduced into England, 40 ;«^. Employ- 
 ment of children in that industry, 41 
 Wylson, Dr., 59 
 
 Printed hy Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. 
 l^pndpn ^ Edinburgh,