English Travellers of the Renaissance | Page 5

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 "£8, 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, £3, 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