ssential to the education
of the young nobility. She taught him to play on the harp and other
stringed instruments, to recite verses, sing many of the songs she had
herself learned from the minstrels in her father's halls, and, what was
of still more importance, she was about to teach him to read, which was
not a common accomplishment in those days, for there were no printed
books in England till some time afterwards. Printing was then a new
invention, and only practised in Germany at one or two of the principal
towns, so that the only means of learning to read was from manuscripts
written by the monks, generally on parchment or vellum, and beautifully
illuminated with a border round every page, in brilliant colours
intermixed with gold. In every monastery some of the monks were always
employed in making copies of the manuscripts their libraries contained,
and others in illuminating them; but these written books were so
expensive that none but very rich people could afford to buy them. Lady
Clifford, however, possessed a few of these valuable works, and was
intending that her son, who was now in his seventh year, should begin to
study them, when a heavy blow fell upon the house of De Clifford; and
the noble youth, who was born to be a great and wealthy lord, was
reduced to the humble condition of a shepherd's boy.

Henry was very desirous to know something about the war that kept his
father so much from home, and Lady Margaret took great pains to explain
to him how it had been occasioned, and why the English people should all
be fighting against each other. She told him it was the opinion of many
persons that the king, Henry the Sixth, who was then reigning, had no
right to the crown, which belonged properly to the Duke of York, who had
come over from Ireland and raised an army for the purpose of dethroning
the sovereign, and getting himself made king in his stead. She also
told him that King Henry, though a very good man, was neither very brave
nor very clever, so that he did not take an active part in the war
himself, but trusted everything to his queen, Margaret of Anjou, a
Frenchwoman, whose bold and daring spirit enabled her to support her
husband's cause.

"But which do you think is right, mother?" said Henry.

"It is a difficult question to answer, my child; your father takes the
part of the king, or rather of the queen, for the king is now a prisoner
in the hands of his enemies. But the claim of the Duk