Henry VIII. | Page 9

forfeit
of his grandmother, Henry was born; he was baptised in the Church of
the Observant Friars, an Order, the object first of his special favour,[31]

and then of an equally marked dislike; the ceremony was performed by
Richard Fox,[32] then Bishop of Exeter, and afterwards one of the
child's chief advisers. His nurse was named Ann Luke, and years
afterwards, when Henry was King, he allowed her the annual pension
of twenty pounds, equivalent to about three hundred in modern
currency. The details of his early life are few and far between. Lord
Herbert, who wrote his Life and Reign a century later, records that the
young Prince was destined by his father for the see of Canterbury,[33]
and provided with an education more suited to a clerical than to a lay
career. The motive ascribed to Henry VII. is typical of his character; it
was more economical to provide for younger sons out of ecclesiastical,
than royal, revenues. But the story is probably a mere inference from
the excellence of the boy's education, and from his father's thrift. If the
idea of an ecclesiastical career for young Henry was ever entertained, it
was soon abandoned for secular preferment. On 5th April, 1492, before
the child was ten months old, he was appointed to the ancient and
important posts of Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover
Castle.[34] A little later he received the still more honourable office of
Earl Marshal; the duties were performed by deputy, but a goodly
portion of the fees was doubtless (p. 017) appropriated for the expenses
of the boy's establishment, or found its way into the royal coffers.
Further promotion awaited him at the mature age of three. On 12th
September, 1494, he became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland;[35] six weeks
later he was created Duke of York, and dubbed, with the usual quaint
and formal ceremonies,[36] a Knight of the Bath. In December, he was
made Warden of the Scottish Marches, and he was invested with the
Garter in the following May.[37]
[Footnote 31: L. and P., i., 4871.]
[Footnote 32: Fox's own statement, L. and P., iv., 5791.]
[Footnote 33: Herbert gives Paolo Sarpi as his authority.]
[Footnote 34: G.E.C [okayne], Complete Peerage, s.v. Cornwall.]
[Footnote 35: L. and P., Henry VII., Rolls Ser., ii., 374.]

[Footnote 36: Ib., i., 388-404; Paston Letters, iii., 384-85.]
[Footnote 37: L. and P., Henry VII., ii., 57.]
The accumulation of these great offices of State, any one of which
might have taxed the powers of a tried administrator, in the feeble
hands of a child appears at first sight a trifle irrational; but there was
always method in Henry's madness. In bestowing these administrative
posts upon his children he was really concentrating them in his own
person and bringing them directly under his own supervision. It was the
policy whereby the early Roman Emperors imposed upon Republican
Rome the substance, without the form, of despotism. It limited the
powers of mischief which Henry's nobles might otherwise have
enjoyed, and provided incomes for his children without increasing
taxation or diminishing the privy purse. The work of administration
could be done at least as effectively, much more economically, and
with far less danger to internal peace by deputies of lower rank than the
dukes and earls and barons who had been wont to abuse these high
positions for the furtherance of private ends, and often for the levying
of (p. 018) private war. Nowhere were the advantages of Henry's policy
more conspicuous than in his arrangements for the government of
Ireland. Ever since Richard, Duke of York, and George, Duke of
Clarence, had ruled as Irish viceroys, Ireland had been a Yorkist
stronghold. There Simnel had been crowned king, and there peers and
peasants had fought for Perkin Warbeck. Something must be done to
heal the running sore. Possibly Henry thought that some of Ireland's
loyalty might be diverted from Yorkist channels by the selection of a
Tudor prince as its viceroy; but he put his trust in more solid measures.
As deputy to his infant son he nominated one who, though but a knight,
was perhaps the ablest man among his privy council. It was in this
capacity that Sir Edward Poynings[38] crossed to Ireland about the
close of 1494, and called the Parliament of Drogheda. Judged by the
durability of its legislation, it was one of the most memorable of
parliaments; and for nearly three hundred years Poynings' laws
remained the foundation upon which rested the constitutional relations
between the sister kingdoms. Even more lasting was the precedent set
by Prince Henry's creation as Duke of York; from that day to this, from

Henry VIII. to the present Prince of Wales, the second son of the
sovereign or of the heir-apparent has almost invariably been invested
with