Girlhood of Queen Elizabeth

GIRLHOOD OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.

IF the great Elizabeth was the most wary of sovereigns, it was because she grew from childhood to maturity with the headsman's axe always before her, glittering and terrible. Her first recollection must have been of her father's awful frown. Henry Vlll had put away his lawful wife, Catherine of Aragon, and married Anne Boleyn, hoping thereby to get an heir to his throne. He had longed for a son, and it was a daughter who came.

From that hour the heart of the king was dead to his wife, and this became more and more manifest from day to day. Elizabeth was born and lived the first three years of her life in the palace of Greenwich on the Thames, a few miles below London, a palace which is now the naval hospital. On the day of Anne Boleyn's arrest she made one last attempt to soften the heart of her husband. Seeing him standing at a window she approached as a suppliant, holding out to him with her hand their only child, the Princess Elizabeth, then a little more than three years old. He frowned upon them both, turned toward the window again, and with a menacing gesture ordered them away. Before the sun set the traitor's gate of the Tower opened to receive one of the royal barges, which contained this hapless queen, destined ere long to lay her beautiful head upon the block.

The little girl was sent to one of the king's houses at Hunsdon, thirty miles north of London, with her governess, Lady Bryan, a relation of her dead mother. The king appeared to have forgotten her and left her unprovided with many things that a child needs. Her governess, not daring to address the king, who was absorbed then in the pursuit of a new wife, wrote to a gentleman of the court, begging him to intercede and cause the child to be furnished with suitable clothing and other articles necessary to her comfort. Lady Bryan wrote:
She bath neither gown nor kirtle, nor peticoat nor no manner of linen, nor forsmocks (aprons), nor kerchiefs, nor rails, nor body stichets, nor handkerchiefs, nor sleeves, nor mufflers, nor biggens " (hoods).

She entreats her correspondent to use all his influence to get the king to supply these articles, and to soften his heart toward the family of Anne Boleyn, suddenly reduced from royal state to poverty and disgrace. The governess added that her "Lady Elizabeth " had much pain in getting her large teeth.

The biggins, the kerchiefs, and the body stichets arrived before long, and the child appears to have enjoyed some of the comfort and dignity appertaining to her rank. Meanwhile, Henry VIII married his third wife, Jane Seymour, who gave him the long desired heir, the prince who afterwards reigned as Edward VI. The Princess Elizabeth's first appearance in public was at the baptism of this child, born little more than a year after her ownmother's death. At the baptism her sister Mary, seven-teen years older than herself, led Elizabeth to the font, where she also held the infant in her arms. Elizabeth was then four years old, but she already showed a certain prudence and propriety of demeanor not usual in so young a child.

These two children, four years apart in age, spent much of their childhood together, having some of the same teachers, and pursuing the same studies. They appear to have been tenderly attached to one another. Once when they were parted, Elizabeth proposed a correspondence, and Edward's answer to the proposal has been pre-served. It is very much such a letter as an intelligent boy of ten might now write to a sister of fourteen who had gone into the country.

At length, that monstrous father of theirs died, and the little boy was styled king. They had an interview before Edward went away to London to be invested with royal state, and, strange to say, they both shed tears while conversing of their father's death. in their subsequent correspondence, too, they spoke of their father as if he had been an affectionate parent, and the young king even congratulates his sister upon the fortitude with which she had borne and was bearing their father's death.

We should suppose that the dangers which had surrounded the childhood of Elizabeth were now at an end. The brother with whom she had studied side by side, and who was strongly attached to her, was nominally King of England ; but he was only a boy ; studious indeed, and thoughtful beyond his years, but not robust in body or mind, and doomed to early death. The power of the realm was wielded by ambitious nobles, who endeavored in various ways to use the young Princess Elizabeth for their own ends. Her head was never quite safe upon her shoulders, and even her maidenly character was not spared.

the most learned of women ; perhaps the most learned woman of her clay. Among his writings is a treatise on the art of teaching, in which he explains his method ; a work which, I suppose, has had more effect in softening the modes of training the young than any other of the kind in the English language. The reader will be amused at its quaint, old-fashioned title-page, which I will here copy with its ancient spelling:

"The Scholemaster, or plaine and perfite way of teachynge children to understand, write and speak the Latin tongue, but specially purposed for the private brynging up of youth in Jentlemen and Noblemen's houses, and commodious also for all such as have forgot the Latin tongue, and would by themselves without a Scholemaster in short tyme, and with small paines recover a sufficient habilitie to understand write and speak Latin."

Before the appearance of this wise and good little book, the modes of education were almost universally barbarous, and had been so from ancient times. In the buried city of Pompeii, the common sign of a school was a picture or carving which represented the master whipping a boy upon his naked back. Luther speaks of his school as a purgatory, and mentions that in the course of one morning he was whipped fifteen times. In Shakespeare there are thirteen allusions to going to school, all of which are in harmony with the well-known passage which represents " the school-boy creeping like a. snail unwillingly to school." Children had to learn most things by rote, with little explanation, or none, and for every offence and every infirmity there was only one remedy, bodily torment. Roger Ascham rose against this barbarous system, and denounced it with quaint but eloquent indignation. Over and over again, he says that a kind and gentle manlier, accompanied by just praise for good conduct, would pro-duce better results than keeping the pupils in perpetual fear.

"If ten gentlemen," he remarks, " be asked why they forgot so soon in court that which they were learning so long in school, eight of them, or let me be blamed, will lay the fault on their ill handling by their schoolmasters."

A school, he says, should be " a sanctuary against fear," and nothing should be learned unless the mind of the pupil grasps it and goes along with it. lie enforces his doctrine by two illustrious examples, Lady Grey and Queen Elizabeth. It is from Roger Ascham's " School-master " that we have those agreeable glimpses of Lady Jane Grey which have made her name so interesting to posterity. Ascham visited her at her father's seat when she was a girl of fourteen, and found her reading Plato, while all the rest of the family were out hunting in the park. He asked her why she did not join in the hunt. She answered with a smile :
"I wist all their sport is but a shadow to that pleasure that I find in Plato. Alas, good folk ! they never felt what true pleasure meant."

He asked her how she acquired this taste for learning. Her answer shows the barbarous manners of the period, and illustrates in the most striking manner Roger Ascham's doctrine. She told him that she had been blessed with severe parents and a gentle schoolmaster. When she was in presence either of father or mother, she was always in trouble or disgrace.
"Whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go ; eat, drink, be merry, or sad ; be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it, as it were, in such weight, measure, or number, and even so perfectly as God made the world, or else 1 am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea, presently, sometimes with pinches, nips, and bobs (or in other ways which I will not name for the honor I bear them), so without measure disordered, that I think myself in hell."

But then, she added, would come the summons to her tutor, Mr. Elmer, who taught so gently and so pleasantly that time passed without her knowing it, and she cried when obliged to leave him. Thus it was, she said, that she became so fond of learning.

Ascham dwells fondly upon this noble, ill-starred lady, and claims her as a bright proof of the excellence of this gentle system. Not less does he extol his own pupil, who was Queen when he wrote this book. While she was still under his care he was full of enthusiasm for her talents and learning. "She shone like a star among all the ladies of England." She had " the genius of a man, without the weakness of a woman." She was not only a deep and sound theologian, but she spoke Latin and Greek so well that she could defend her opinions so as to be victorious over the most learned doctors. When she was queen, she still kept up her habits of daily study with her old tutor.

"Point forth," he says, " six of the best given gentle-men of this court, and they altogether show not so much good will, spend not so much time, bestow not so many hours, daily, orderly, and constantly, for the increase of learning and knowledge, as doth the Queen's majesty herself."

He declared that, besides her familiarity with Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish, all of which she had occasion to use frequently in public business, she read more Greek every day than some dignitaries of the Church read of Latin in a whole week. Seldom has a work been written more adroitly than this Schoolmaster of Roger Ascham. The great examples which he adduces, and the skillful manner in which he introduces them, greatly contributed to its influence. He is certainly entitled to the gratitude of the whole world of scholars and students.

He died in 1568, in his fifty-fourth year, Queen Elizabeth being then thirty-five years of age. When the queen heard of his death she exclaimed that she would rather have lost ten thousand pounds than her tutor Ascham. Nevertheless, she did not, in his lifetime, compensate him too liberally. His salary was twenty pounds per annum ; but I think that sum was fully equal to ten times the amount in the money of to-day.

There can be no doubt that the praises which Ascham bestowed upon the queen were in some degree deserved. She was in truth a highly educated lady, with all her foibles and faults. At Oxford you may see her copy of St. Paul's Epistles, with the binding ornamented with designs by her own hand, and with her thoughts written in Latin that were suggested by reading the epistles. We have also some verses of her composition which are not wanting in force and fluency. She did credit to her schoolmaster.

This renowned princess in some particulars lived with extreme simplicity, for even kings in that age enjoyed few of the comforts and decencies of civilization. The housekeeping books of some of the great families of that period have been published, from which we learn that few houses then had the luxury of a chimney, and that only princes' beds were provided with two sheets. Carpets were unknown, and floors were strewn with rushes.

The household of the Princess Elizabeth were called at six in the morning, and the whole of them, perhaps sixty in number, repaired at once to the chapel, where Mass was said, as the Church of England prayers were still frequently called. At seven o'clock the Princess and her ladies sat down to breakfast. And what did they have for breakfast ? Not coffee, tea, chocolate, or cocoa. Before each person was placed a pewter pot of beer, and another of wine. On fast days the breakfast chiefly consisted of salt fish, and on other days a great joint of mutton or beef, with bread. Vegetables were few in number, and only of the coarser kinds, such as cabbages and turnips. The potato was unknown, to say nothing of the more delicate vegetables, of which the poorest family now has a share.

It is really surprising to read of the way in which people in good circumstances were then accommodated. The Princess Elizabeth, when she was eighteen years of age, may have had sheets upon her bed, but probably she had no garment similar to the modern nightgown. Her bed was probably stuffed with coarse wool, and if she had a pillow at all, it was filled with bran, or chaff. Prosperous farmers in that age slept upon straw beds, and had " a good round log under their head for a pillow." As for servants, they lay upon the straw without any intermediate fabric to protect what an old writer styles their hardened hydes."

The Princess Elizabeth may have had one or two silver spoons for her own use, though most of her household had spoons only of pewter or wood. And yet at that time people wrote of the prevalence of luxury, and of the consequent degeneracy of the race, just as we do in these days. The historian flume quotes a curious passage from an author of Queen Elizabeth's day :

" In times past men were contented to dwell in houses budded of sallow, willow, etc. ; so that the use of the oak was in a manner dedicated wholly unto churches, religious houses, princes' palaces, navigation, etc. ; but now willow, etc. are rejected, and nothing but oak anywhere regarded. And yet see the change ; for when our houses were builded of willow, then had we oaken men ; but now that our houses are come to be made of oak, our men are not only become willow, but a great many altogether of straw, which is a sore alteration. Now we have many chimneys; and yet our tenderlines complain of rheum, catarrh, and poses" (colds).

This fine old conservative lamented that the houses were no longer filled with smoke, which, he said, not only hardened the timber of a house, but kept the good man and his family from taking cold and catching disease.

The Princess Elizabeth was twenty years of age when the death of her brother Edward VI raised to the throne her sister Mary. Her conduct at this terrible crisis was equally prudent and right. The ambitious Northumberland offered her money and lands if she would consent to the setting aside of Mary, and the elevation to the throne of Lady Jane Gray. She simply and firmly replied that, so long as her sister Mary was alive, she had no rights to the throne either to claim or to surrender.

During the reign of Mary she was frequently in the most imminent and deadly peril ; not from any hostility borne her by her sister, but through the intrigues of corrupt and ill-disposed men who wished to use her intense popularity for their own advantage. In her twenty-fifth year, after a series of vicissitudes and escapes, Elizabeth reigned. On hearing the news of her sister's death, she appeared stunned. Drawing a deep sigh, she knelt down and said :

This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."

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