he English gained a decided victory, but the youthful Queen, instead
of giving her hand to young King Edward, left the country and married
the son of the King of France. She will appear with melancholy
prominence in the reign of Elizabeth. Had Mary Queen of Scots married
Edward, we should perhaps have been spared that tragedy in which she
was called to play both the leading and the losing part (SS394-397).

364. Renewed Confiscation of Church Property; Schools founded.

The confiscation of such Roman Catholic church property as had been
spared was now renewed (S352). The result of this confiscation and of
the abandonment of Catholicism as the established form of worship was
in certain respects disastrous to the country. In the general
break-up, many who had been held in restraint by the old form of faith
now went to the other extreme, and rejected all religion.

Part of the money obtained from the sale of church property was
devoted, mainly through Edward's influence, to the endowment of
upwards of forty grammar schools, besides a number of hospitals, in
different sections of the country. But for a long time the
destruction of the monastic schools (SS45, 60), poor as many of them
had become, was a serious blow to the education of the common people.

365. Edward's London Charities; Christ's Hospital.

Just before his death Edward established Christ's Hospital, or home
for the support and education of fatherless children, and refounded
and renewed the St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew hospitals for the sick
in London. Thus "he was the founder," says Burnet, "of those houses
which, by many great additions since that time, have risen to be
amongst the noblest of Europe."

Christ's Hospital was, perhaps, the first Protestant charity school
opened in England; many more were patterned on it. It, and others
like it, are known as "Blue-Coat Schools," from the costume of the
boys,--a relic of the days of Edward VI. This consists of a long,
blue coat, like a monk's gown, reaching to the ankles, girded with a
broad leather belt, long, bright yellow stockings, and buckle shoes.
Most of the boys go bareheaded winter and summer.

An exciting game of football, played in the schoolyard in this
peculiar medieval dress, used to seem strangely in contrast with the
sights of modern London streets. It was as though the spectator, by
passing through a gateway, had gone back over three centuries of
time. Coleridge, Lamb, and othe