CHAPTER I. MARY, FIRST QUEEN-REGNANT OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND.
(A.D. 1516-1558).
Mary was the only child of Henry VIII. and Katherine of Arragon who lived to maturity. She was born at Greenwich Palace in 1516, and was placed under the care of her mother's beloved friend, Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury.
A.D. 1516. She was baptized the third day after her birth, and named for the king's favorite sister.
Mary's mother began her education as soon as she could speak, and when she was only three years old she sat up in state to receive some foreign visitors, and amused them by playing on the virginals, a musical instrument similar to a piano. It was in a box about four feet long, with an ivory key-board of two or three octaves, and was placed on a table when played upon.
At that time Mary was a bright, merry child, with rosy complexion and brown eyes, and such a pet with her parents that she remained with them at Greenwich until after her fourth birthday.
A.D. 1522. While Mary was yet in her cradle a marriage was spoken of for her with Francis I., but her mother was anxious to see her united to her own nephew, the Emperor Charles V., who paid a visit to the English court when he was about twenty-three years old. He was there nearly five weeks, during which the little princess became very fond of him, and, young as she was, learned to consider herself his empress.
He signed a solemn treaty at Windsor to marry her when she was twelve years old, but was desirous that she should be sent to Spain for her education. Her parents would not consent to the separation, but engaged the best instructors for her, and had a plan of study drawn up by a Spaniard of deep learning. His rules were rigid; he required the young princess to read religious works night and morning, to translate English into Latin frequently, and to converse in that language with her teacher. He implored her never to read books of chivalry or romance, condemned a long list of light works as injurious to morals, and recommended instead Plato, Cicero, Seneca's Maxims, Plutarch, the works of Erasmus, Sir Thomas More's "Utopia," some of the classic poets, and the tragedies of Seneca. He deemed card-playing and fine dressing as injurious as romances, and gave rules for the pronunciation of Greek and Latin, requiring that lessons in those languages should be committed to memory every day, and read over two or three times before the pupil went to bed.
No wonder the poor child's health and spirits suffered, for she was only six years old when this system of education was enforced.
The Emperor Charles still continued to desire her to spend part of her time in Spain, but Henry VIII. promised instead that she should be brought up in England like a Spanish lady, and should even wear the national dress of that country. He added, that nobody in all Christendom could be found to bring her up according to the customs of Spain better than her mother, who came of a noble house of that country, and, besides, that the princess was too young to undertake the voyage.