KNAPP

(1533-1603)

[Illustration: Elizabeth I. [TN]]

If the question respecting the equality of the sexes was to be
determined by an appeal to the characters of sovereign princes, the
comparison is, in proportion, manifestly in favor of woman, and that
without having recourse to the trite and flippant observation, proved to
have been ill-founded, of male and female influence. Elizabeth of
England affords a glorious example in truth of this position.

Daughter of Henry VIII., a capricious tyrant, and of the imprudent and
unfortunate Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth was born at Greenwich, on the banks
of the Thames, September 7, 1533. Her infancy was unfortunate through
the unhappy fate of her mother, but she was nevertheless educated with
care and attention; in her yet infant faculties her father had the
discernment to perceive uncommon strength and promise. Lady Champernoun,
an accomplished and excellent woman, was appointed by Henry governess
to the young princess. It appears to have been the custom of the times
to instruct young women in the learned languages, an admirable
substitute for fashionable and frivolous acquisitions; habits of real
study and application have a tendency to strengthen the faculties and
discipline the imagination. Mr. William Grindal was Elizabeth's first
classical tutor; with him she made a rapid progress. From other masters
she received the rudiments of modern languages; at eleven years of age
she translated out of French verse into English prose "The Mirror of the
Sinful Soul," which she dedicated to Catherine Parr, sixth wife to Henry
VIII. At twelve years of age she translated from the English into Latin,
French, and Italian, prayers and meditations, etc., collected from
different authors by Catherine, Queen of England. These she dedicated to
her father, December 30, 1545; MS. in the royal library at Westminster.
She also, about the same period, translated from the French "The
Meditations of Margaret, Queen of Navarre, etc.," published by Bale,
1548.

Mr. Ascham thus speaks of Elizabeth in a letter to Sir John Cheke: "It
can scarcely be credited to what degree of skill in the Latin and Greek
she might arrive, if she should proceed in that course of study wherein
she hath begun by the guidance of Grindal." In 1548 she had the
misfortune to lose her tutor, who died of the plague. At this time, it
is observed by Camden, that she was versed in the Latin, French,
Spanish, and Italian tongues, h