For To Scholarship They Joined A Native Force Of Character
Which Gave A Most Felicitous Introduction To England Of The Fine Things
Of The Mind Which They Brought Home With Them.
By their example they
gave an impetus to travel for education's sake which lesser men could
never have done.
Though through Grocyn, Linacre and Tunstall, Greek was better taught in
England than in Italy, according to Erasmus,[15] at the time Henry VIII.
came to the throne, the idea of Italy as the goal of scholars persisted.
Rich churchmen, patrons of letters, launched promising students on to
the Continent to give them a complete education; as Richard Fox, Founder
of Corpus Christi, sent Edward Wotton to Padua, "to improve his learning
and chiefly to learn Greek,"[16] or Thomas Langton, Bishop of
Winchester, supported Richard Pace at the same university.[17] To
Reginald Pole, the scholar's life in Italy made so strong an appeal that
he could never be reclaimed by Henry VIII. Shunning all implication in
the tumult of the political world, he slipped back to Padua, and there
surrounded himself with friends, - "singular fellows, such as ever
absented themselves from the court, desiring to live holily."[18] To his
household at Padua gravitated other English students fond of "good
company and the love of learned men"; Thomas Lupset,[19] the confidant
of Erasmus and Richard Pace; Thomas Winter,[20] Wolsey's reputed natural
son; Thomas Starkey,[21] the historian; George Lily,[22] son of the
grammarian; Michael Throgmorton, and Richard Morison,[23]
ambassador-to-be.
There were other elements that contributed to the growth of travel
besides the desire to become exquisitely learned. The ambition of Henry
VIII. to be a power in European politics opened the liveliest
intercourse with the Continent. It was soon found that a special
combination of qualities was needed in the ambassadors to carry out his
aspirations. Churchmen, like the ungrateful Pole, for whose education he
had generously subscribed, were often unpliable to his views of the
Pope; a good old English gentleman, though devoted, might be like Sir
Robert Wingfield, simple, unsophisticated, and the laughingstock of
foreigners.[24] A courtier, such as Lord Rochford, who could play
tennis, make verses, and become "intime" at the court of Francis I.,
could not hold his own in disputes of papal authority with highly
educated ecclesiastics.[25] Hence it came about that the choice of an
ambassador fell more and more upon men of sound education who also knew
something of foreign countries: such as Sir Thomas Wyatt, or Sir Richard
Wingfield, of Cambridge and Gray's Inn, who had studied at Ferrara[26];
Sir Nicholas Wotton, who had lived in Perugia, and graduated doctor of
civil and canon law[27]; or Anthony St Lieger, who, according to Lloyd,
"when twelve years of age was sent for his grammar learning with his
tutor into France, for his carriage into Italy, for his philosophy to
Cambridge, for his law to Gray's Inn: and for that which completed all,
the government of himself, to court; where his debonairness and freedom
took with the king, as his solidity and wisdom with the Cardinal."[28]
Sometimes Henry was even at pains to pick out and send abroad promising
university students with a view to training them especially for
diplomacy. On one of his visits to Oxford he was impressed with the
comely presence and flowing expression of John Mason, who, though the
son of a cowherd, was notable at the university for his "polite and
majestick speaking."
King Henry disposed of him in foreign parts, to add practical experience
to his speculative studies, and paid for his education out of the king's
Privy Purse, as we see by the royal expenses for September 1530. Among
such items as "L8, 18s. to Hanybell Zinzano, for drinks and other
medicines for the King's Horses"; and, "20s. to the fellow with the
dancing dog," is the entry of "a year's exhibition to Mason, the King's
scholar at Paris, L3, 6s. 8d."[29]
Another educational investment of the King's was Thomas Smith,
afterwards as excellent an ambassador as Mason, whom he supported at
Cambridge, and according to Camden, at riper years made choice of to be
sent into Italy. "For even till our days," says Camden under the year
1577, "certain young men of promising hopes, out of both Universities,
have been maintained in foreign countries, at the King's charge, for the
more complete polishing of their Parts and Studies."[30] The diplomatic
career thus opened to young courtiers, if they proved themselves fit for
service by experience in foreign countries, was therefore as strong a
motive for travel as the desire to reach the source of humanism.
This again merged into the pursuit of a still more informal
education - the sort which comes from "seeing the world." The marriage of
Mary Tudor to Louis XII., and later the subtle bond of humanism and high
spirits which existed between Francis I. and his "very dear and
well-beloved good brother, cousin and gossip, perpetual ally and perfect
friend," Henry the Eighth, led a good many of Henry's courtiers to
attend the French court at one time or another - particularly the most
dashing favourites, and leaders of fashion, the "friskers," as Andrew
Boorde calls them,[31] such as Charles Brandon, George Boleyn, Francis
Bryan, Nicholas Carew, or Henry Fitzroy. With any ambassador went a bevy
of young gentlemen, who on their return diffused a certain mysterious
sophistication which was the envy of home-keeping youth. According to
Hall, when they came back to England they were "all French in eating and
drinking and apparel, yea, and in the French vices and brags: so that
all the estates of England were by them laughed at, the ladies and
gentlewomen were dispraised, and nothing by them was praised, but if it
were after the French turn."[32] From this time on young courtiers
pressed into the train of an ambassador in order to see the world and
become like Ann Boleyn's captivating brother, or Elizabeth's favourite,
the Earl of Oxford, or whatever gallant was conspicuous at court for
foreign graces.
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