ctor to
the cause of English learning. Lady Margaret professors commemorate
her name in both our ancient universities, and in their bidding prayers
she is to this day remembered. Two colleges at Cambridge revere her as
their foundress; Caxton, the greatest of English printers, owed much
to her munificence, and she herself translated into English books from
both Latin and French. Henry VII., though less accomplished that the
later Tudors, evinced an intelligent interest in art and letters, and
provided for his children efficient instructors; while his Queen,
Elizabeth of York, is described by Erasmus as possessing the soundest
judgment and as being remarkable for her prudence as well as for her
piety. Bernard Andre,[43] historian and poet, who had been tutor to
Prince Arthur, probably took no small part in the education of his
younger brother; to him he dedicated, after Arthur's death, two of the
annual summaries of events which he was in the habit of compiling.
Giles D'Ewes,[44] apparently a Frenchman and the author of a notable
French grammar, taught that language to Prince Henry, as many (p. 021)
years later he did to his daughter, Queen Mary; probably either D'Ewes
or Andre trained his handwriting, which is a curious compromise
between the clear and bold Italian style, soon to be adopted by
well-instructed Englishmen, and the old English hieroglyphics in which
more humbly educated individuals, including Shakespeare, concealed the
meaning of their words. But the most famous of Henry's teachers was
the poet Skelton, the greatest name in English verse from Lydgate down
to Surrey. Skelton was poet laureate to Henry VII. Court, and refers
in his poems to his wearing of the white and green of Tudor
liveries.[45] He celebrated in verse Arthur's creation as Prince of
Wales and Henry's as Duke of York;[46] and before the younger prince
was nine years old, this "incomparable light and ornament of British
Letters," as Erasmus styles him, was directing Henry's studies.
Skelton himself writes.--

The honor of England I learned to spell,
I gave him drink of the sugred well
Of Helicon's waters crystalline,
Acquainting him with the Muses nine.

[Footnote 40: This is an anonymous portrait of
Henry at the age of eighteen months or two years
belonging to Sir Edmund and Lady Verney.]

[Footnote 41: Erasmus, _Epist._, p. 1182; _L. and