[Henry VIII. by A. F. Pollard]@TWC D-Link book
Henry VIII.

CHAPTER II
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Without the childish lips and nose, the face might well be that of a man of fifty; and with the addition of a beard, the portrait would be an unmistakable likeness of Henry himself in his later years.

When the Prince was no more than a child, says Erasmus, he was set to study.[41] He had, we are told, a vivid and active mind, above measure able to execute whatever tasks he undertook; and he never attempted anything in which he did not succeed.[42] The Tudors had no modern dread of educational over-pressure when applied to their children, and the young Henry was probably as forward a pupil as his son, Edward VI., his daughter, Elizabeth, or his grand-niece, Lady Jane Grey.

But, fortunately for Henry, a physical exuberance corrected his mental precocity; and, (p.

020) as he grew older, any excessive devotion to the Muses was checked by an unwearied pursuit of bodily culture.

He was the first of English sovereigns to be educated under the new influence of the Renaissance.
Scholars, divines and poets thronged the Court of Henry VII.


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