HENRY FREDERICK, PRINCE OF WALES
Arms.—Quarterly; 1st and 4th grand quarters, France and England quarterly; 2nd grand quarter, Scotland; 3rd grand quarter, Ireland. All as used by James I. (q.v.); and over all a label arg. of three points.
A variety of this stamp has thistles instead of roses in the border.
[Apollonius Gallus. Exsuscitata Apollonii Pergaei ΠΕΡΙ ΕΠΛΦΩΝ Geometria. Parisiis, 1600.]
Variety.—Arms as before. Within the garter, and ensigned with a Princely coronet.
[Vittori. Tesoro de las tres lenguas Francesa, Italiana, ej Española. Geneve, 1609.]
A Prince of Wales's triple ostrich plume, commonly used as a corner stamp, all impressed in silver.
[Alunno. Della Fabrica del Mondo. Venetia, 1575.]
A Prince of Wales's triple ostrich plume; the coronet, ribs of feathers, and motto generally impressed in gold, the feathers in silver. Used mostly as a centre stamp.
[Lipsius. Admiranda. Antverpiae, 1599.]
A Badge of a lion rampant guardant, with princely coronet, always impressed entirely in gold.
[Reusnerus. ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΩΝ opus genealogicum Catholicum de praecipuis familiis Imperatorum. Francofurti, 1592.]
A Badge of a Tudor rose, with princely coronet.
[Boccaccio. I casi degl' Huomini Illustri. Fiorenza, 1598.]
A Badge of a fleur-de-lys.
[Baretus. An Alvearie, or triple Dictionarie. London, 1573.]
Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (born 19th February 1594, died 6th November 1612), was the eldest son of James I., and from his childhood showed studious and literary inclinations, as well as sporting tastes. In 1609 he purchased the library of John, Lord Lumley, a great part of which had previously belonged to his father-in-law, Henry Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, and another large proportion to Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. He also acquired a number of books which had belonged to a Welshman, John Maurice or Morris.
On the Prince's death his library became the property of James I., and it was added to the existing Royal Library, then under the care of Patrick Young.
Prince Henry had his books bound in calf, and probably destroyed numbers of valuable old bindings which were originally used. The new bindings were ornamented with stamps bearing the Prince's coat-of-arms, without supporters, and others showing a lion rampant, with princely coronet; a Tudor rose, with princely coronet; a fleur-de-lys, and two stamps, with slight variations, of the Prince of Wales's plume of three ostrich feathers. These latter stamps are normally used as corner-pieces, but they also show now and then as centres. Smaller corner stamps are found showing coroneted Tudor roses, coroneted thistles, coroneted fleurs-de-lys, and Prince of Wales's feathers in gold. On the panels of the backs of Prince Henry's books are found small stamps of a lion rampant, with princely coronet; a unicorn rampant; a Tudor rose; a portcullis, sometimes chained, and a Royal Crown. These are arranged in various combinations.
The greater number of Prince Henry's bindings are simple, having the coat-of-arms in the centre and the badges in the corners, but several are very handsomely ornamented with accessory gold tooling. The label shown on Prince Henry's coat-of-arms is the cadency mark of the eldest son; it is generally impressed in silver, as it ought always to be. The feathers in the Prince of Wales's plume are always impressed in silver, which has now oxidised black. Prince Henry's library came to the British Museum with the rest of the Old Royal Library of England in 1757.
