Cal._, i., No.

249; see below, p.

179.] But all his statecraft, his patience and labour would have been writ in water without children to succeed him and carry on the work which he had begun; and at times it seemed probable that this necessary condition would remain unfulfilled.

For the Tudors were singularly luckless in the matter of children.

They were scarcely a sterile race, but their offspring had an unfortunate habit of dying in childhood.