Henry VIII. | Page 8

other
sister of Henry VIII., lost her only son in his teens. The appalling
death-rate among Tudor infants cannot be attributed solely to medical
ignorance, for Yorkist babies clung to life with a tenacity which was
quite as inconvenient as the readiness with which Tudor infants
relinquished it; and Richard III., Henry VII. and Henry VIII. all found
it necessary to accelerate, by artificial means, the exit from the world of
the superfluous children of other pretenders. This drastic process
smoothed their path, but could not completely solve the problem; and

the characteristic Tudor infirmity was already apparent in the reign of
Henry VII. He had three sons; two predeceased him, one at the age of
fifteen years, the other at fifteen months. Of his four daughters, two
died in infancy, and the youngest cost the mother her life.[28] The fruit
of that union between the Red Rose and the White, upon which so
much store had been set,[29] seemed doomed to fail.
[Footnote 27: There is no definite evidence that he had more.]
[Footnote 28: Ven. Cal., i., 833.]
[Footnote 29: Cf. Skelton, Works, ed. Dyce. vol. i., pp. ix-xi.]
The hopes built upon it had largely contributed to the success of
Henry's raid upon the English throne, and before he started on his quest
he had solemnly promised to marry Elizabeth, eldest daughter of
Edward IV., and heiress of the House of York. But he was resolute to
avoid all appearance of ruling in her right; his title had been recognised
by Parliament, and he had been five months de facto king before he
wedded his Yorkist wife (18th January, 1486). Eight months and two
days later, the Queen gave birth, in the priory of St. Swithin's, at
Winchester, to her first-born son. Four days later, on Sunday, (p. 014)
24th September, the child was christened in the minster of the old West
Saxon capital, and given in baptism the name of Arthur, the old British
king. It was neither Yorkist nor Lancastrian, it evoked no bitter
memories of civil strife, and it recalled the fact that the Tudors claimed
a pedigree and boasted a title to British sovereignty, beside the
antiquity of which Yorkist pretentions were a mushroom growth. Duke
of Cornwall from his birth, Prince Arthur was, when three years old,
created Prince of Wales. Already negotiations had been begun for his
marriage with Catherine, the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and
Isabella of Castile. Both were cautious sovereigns, and many a
rebellion had to be put down and many a pretender put away, before
they would consent to entrust their daughter to the care of an English
king. It was not till 2nd October, 1501, that Catherine landed at
Plymouth. At her formal reception into England, and at her marriage,
six weeks later, in St. Paul's, she was led by the hand of her little
brother-in-law, Prince Henry, then ten years old.[30] Against the advice

of his council, Henry VII. sent the youthful bride and bridegroom to
live as man and wife at Ludlow Castle, and there, five and a half
months later, their married life came to a sudden end. Prince Arthur
died on 2nd April, 1502, and was buried in princely state in Worcester
Cathedral.
[Footnote 30: L. and P., Henry VII., i., 413-415; L. and P., Henry VIII.,
iv., 5791.]
CHAPTER II.
(p. 015)
PRINCE HENRY AND HIS ENVIRONMENT.
The Prince, who now succeeded to the position of heir-apparent, was
nearly five years younger than his brother. The third child and second
son of his parents, he was born on 28th June, 1491, at Greenwich, a
palace henceforth intimately associated with the history of Tudor
sovereigns. The manor of Greenwich had belonged to the alien priory
of Lewisham, and, on the dissolution of those houses, had passed into
the hands of Henry IV. Then it was granted to Humphrey, Duke of
Gloucester, who began to enclose the palace grounds; on his death it
reverted to the Crown; and Edward IV., many of whose tastes and
characteristics were inherited by his grandson, Henry VIII., took great
delight in beautifying and extending the palace. He gave it to his Queen,
Elizabeth, and in her possession it remained until her sympathy with
Yorkist plots was punished by the forfeiture of her lands. Henry VII.
then bestowed it on his wife, the dowager's daughter, and thus it
became the birthplace of her younger children. Here was the scene of
many a joust and tournament, of many a masque and revel; here the
young Henry, as soon as he came to the throne, was wedded to
Catherine of Aragon; here Henry's sister was married to the Duke of
Suffolk; and here were born all future Tudor sovereigns, Edward VI.,
Mary, (p. 016) and Elizabeth. At Greenwich, then, through the