These Academies Were One Of The Chief Attractions Which France Had For
The Gentry Of England In The Seventeenth Century.
The first one was
founded by Pluvinel, the grand ecuyer of Henri IV.
Pluvinel, returning
from a long apprenticeship to Pignatelli in Naples, made his own
riding-school the best in the world, so that the French no longer had to
journey to Italian masters. He obtained from the king the basement of
the great gallery of the Louvre, and there taught Louis XIII. and other
young nobles of the Court - amongst them the Marquis du Chillon,
afterwards Cardinal Richelieu - to ride the great horse.[249] Such was
the success of his manege that he annexed masters to teach his pupils
dancing, vaulting, and swordsmanship, as well as drawing and
mathematics, till he had rounded out what was considered a complete
education for a chevalier. In imitation of his establishment, many other
riding-masters, such as Benjamin, Potrincourt, and Nesmond, set up
others of the same sort, which drew pupils from other nations during all
the seventeenth century.[250] In the suburb of Pre-aux-clercs, says
Malingre in 1640, "are several academies where the nobility learn to
ride. The most frequented is that of M. de Mesmon, where there is a
prince of Denmark and one of the princes palatine of the Rhine, and a
quantity of other foreign gentlemen."[251]
Englishmen found the academies very useful retreats where a boy could
learn French accomplishments without incurring the dangers of foreign
travel and make the acquaintance of young nobles of his own age. Mr
Thomas Lorkin writing from Paris in 1610, outlines to the tutor of the
Prince of Wales the routine of his pupil Mr Puckering[252] at such an
establishment. The morning began with two hours on horseback, followed
by two hours at the French tongue, and one hour in "learning to handle
his weapon." Dinner was at twelve o'clock, where the company continued
together till two, "either passing the time in discourse or in some
honest recreation perteyning to armes." At two the bell rang for
dancing, and at three another gong sent the pupil to his own room with
his tutor, to study Latin and French for two hours. "After supper a
brief survey of all."[253]
It will be seen that there was an exact balance between physical and
mental exercise - four hours of each. All in all, academies seemed to be
the solution of preparing for life those who were destined to shine at
Court. The problem had been felt in England, as well as in France. In
1561, Sir Nicholas Bacon had devised "Articles for the bringing up in
virtue and learning of the Queens Majesties Wardes."[254] Lord Burghley
is said to have propounded the creation of a school of arms and
exercises.[255] In 1570, Sir Humphrey Gilbert drew up an elaborate
proposal for an "Academy of philosophy and chivalry,"[256] but none of
these plans was carried out. Nor was that of Prince Henry, who had also
wanted to establish a Royal Academy or School of Arms, in which all the
king's wards and others should be educated and exercised.[257] A certain
Sir Francis Kinaston, esquire of the body to Charles I., "more addicted
to the superficiall parts of learning - poetry and oratory (wherein he
excell'd) - than to logic and philosophy," Wood says, did get a licence
to erect an academy in his house in Covent Garden, "which should be for
ever a college for the education of the young nobility and others, sons
of gentlemen, and should be styled the Musaeum Minervae."[258] But
whatever start was made in that direction ended with the Civil War.
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