PRINCESSES OF WALES.
(Vol. iii., p. 477.)
The statement of Hume, that Elizabeth and Mary were created Princesses of Wales, rests, I am disposed to think, on most insufficient authority; and I am surprised that so illustrious an author should have made an assertion on such slender grounds, which carries on the face of it a manifest absurdity, and which was afterwards retracted by the very author from whom he borrowed it.
Hume's authority is evidently Burnet's History of the Reformation; (indeed, in some editions your correspondent G. would have seen Burnet referred to) in which are the following passages (vol. i. p. 71., Oxford edition, 1829):
"The King, being out of hopes of more children, declared his daughter (Mary) Princess of Wales, and sent her to Ludlow to hold her court there, and projected divers matches for her."
Again, p. 271.:
"Elizabeth was soon after declared Princess of Wales; though lawyers thought that against law, for she was only heir presumptive, but not apparent, to the crown, since a son coming after he must be preferred. Yet the king would justify what he had done in his marriage with all possible respect; and having before declared the Lady Mary Princess of Wales, he did now the same in favour of the Lady Elizabeth."
Hume's statement is taken almost verbatim from this last passage of Burnet, who, however, it will be observed, does not say "created," but "declared" Princess of Wales; the distinction between which is obvious. He was evidently not aware that Burnet afterwards corrected this statement in an Appendix, entitled, "Some Mistakes in the first Portion of this History communicated to me by Mr. William Fulman, Rector of Hampton Meysey, in Gloucestershire." In this is the following note, in correction of the passages I have quoted (Burn. Hist. Ref., vol. iv. p. 578.):
"Here and in several other places it is supposed that the next heir apparent of the crown was Prince of Wales. The heir apparent of the crown is indeed prince, but not, strictly speaking, of Wales, unless he has it given him by creation; and it is said that there is nothing on record to prove that any of Henry's children were ever created Prince of Wales. There are indeed some hints of the Lady Mary's being styled Princess of Wales; for when a family was appointed for her, 1525, Veysey, bishop of Exeter, her tutor, was made president of Wales. She also is said to have kept her house at Ludlow; and Leland says, that Tekenhill, a house in those parts, built for Prince Arthur, was prepared for her. And Thomas Linacre dedicates his Rudiments of Grammar to her, by the title of Princess of Cornwall and Wales."
This is one of the many instances of the inaccuracy, carelessness, and (where his religious or political prejudices were not concerned) credulity of Burnet. Whatever he found written in any previous historian, unless it militated against his preconceived opinions, he received as true, without considering whether the writer was entitled to credit, and had good means of gaining information. Now, neither Hall, Holinshed, Polydore Virgil, nor (I think) Cardinal Pole, contemporary writers, say anything about Mary or Elizabeth being Princesses of Wales. The only writer I am acquainted with who does say any such thing, previous to Burnet, and whose authority I am therefore compelled to suppose the latter relied on, when he made the statement which he afterwards contradicted, is Pollini, an obscure Italian Dominican, who wrote a work entitled L'Historia Ecclesiastica della Rivoluzion d'Inghilterra; Racolta da Gravissimi Scrittori non meno di quella Nazione, che dell' altri, da F. Girolamo Pollini dell' ordine de Predicatori, della Provincio de Toscana: Roma, Facciotti, 1594. In book i. chapter ii. page 7. of this author is the following statement, which I translate, speaking of the Princess Mary:
"As the rightful heir of the throne she was declared by Henry, her father, Princess of Wales, which is the ordinary title borne by the first-born of the king; since the administration and government of this province is allowed to no other, except to that son or daughter of the king, to whom, by hereditary right, on the death of the king the government of the realm falls.... In the same way that the first-born of the French king is called the Dauphin, so the first-born of the English king is called Prince of Britain, or of Wales, which is a province of that large island, lying to the west, and containing four bishoprics. Which Mary, with the dignity and title of Princess, assisted by a most illustrious senate, and accompanied by a splendid establishment, administered with much prudence," &c.