That King Henry VIII. took a deep interest in archery as necessary for the safety and glory of his kingdom is quite certain, and the various Acts of Parliament passed in the course of his reign (3 Henry VIII. ch. 3, 4, 13; 6 Henry VIII. ch. 2, 11, 13; 14 & 15 Henry VIII. ch. 7; 25 Henry VIII. ch. 17; and 33 Henry VIII. 6 & 9) sufficiently prove his determination to stimulate the more frequent use of the long bow. But, apart from his public encouragement of archery, he took personal interest in it himself, and, being a famous athlete, he was no doubt as successful with his bow as his natural impatience would allow. The following extracts from the accounts of his privy purse for the year 1531, when he was forty-one years of age, may be taken as the nearest approach to his actual scores that can be reached. The late Lord Dudley's score at 60 yards, when shooting with one of the best shots at that distance, at one guinea per arrow, must have shown an equally unfavourable balance:—
'20 March.—Paied to George Coton for vij shottes loste by the Kinges Grace unto him at Totehill at vjs. viijd. the shotte xlvjs. viijd.
'29 March.—Paied to George Gifford for so moche money he wanne of the Kinges Grace unto him at Totehill at shoting xijs. vjd.
'13 May.—Paied to George Coton for that he wanne of the Kinges Grace at the Roundes the laste day of April iijl.
'3 June.—Paied to George Coton for so moche money by him wonne of the Kinges Grace at bettes in shoting vijl. iis.'
And again on the last day of June there were 'paied to the iii Cotons for three settes which the King had lost to them in Greenwich Park xxl. and vjs. viijd. more to one of them for one up shotte.'
This George Coton (Cotton) is probably the same person who was governor to the Duke of Richmond, the King's natural son.
On January 31, 1531, 'paied to Byrde Yoeman of the Kinges bowes for making the Roundes at Totehill by the Kinges commandment xijs. viijd.'
The musters, or what we should now call reviews, were at this time held in the Tothill Fields.
Sir W. Cavendish, the historian of Cardinal Wolsey, thus speaks of his interview with the King in 1530, when he was the bearer of the news of the death[8] of Wolsey to the King, then staying at Hampton Court. (See Cavendish's 'Wolsey,' 1827, p. 396.)