Princely Education in Early Modern Britain

Abstract

In the sixteenth century, Erasmus of Rotterdam led a humanist campaign to deter European princes from vainglorious warfare by giving them liberal educations. His prescriptions for the study of classical authors and scripture transformed the upbringing of Tudor and Stuart royal children. Rather than emphasising the sword, the educations of Henry VIII, James VI and I, and their successors prioritised the pen. In a period of succession crises, female sovereignty, and minority rulers, liberal education played a hitherto unappreciated role in reshaping the political and religious thought and culture of early modern Britain. This book explores how a humanist curriculum gave princes the rhetorical skills, biblical knowledge, and political impetus to assert the royal supremacy over their subjects' souls. Liberal education was meant to prevent over-mighty monarchy but in practice it taught kings and queens how to extend their authority over church and state.

Educating the Christian Prince for Learning and Peace

“…118 They may also have prepared their own lists of phrases and words, like Edward VI did, but no such notebooks survived, only neat copies of their exercise books. 119 Alongside the writings of these key authors, the archdukes also touched on the works of Plato, Xenophon, Aesop, Cato, Varro, Virgil, Isocrates, etc., but they did not consult books by late medieval and Renaissance grammarians or other contemporaries. In addition to Latin, which they began to speak only after long delays, 120 they needed to learn Spanish (they were soon to translate from Spanish into Latin 121 ), and they also had to improve their written German, which was rudimentary upon their arrival.…”

‘God's hangman’: James VI, the divine right of kings, and the Devil

“…However, James's views on the divine right of kings were the product of a long and considered intellectual process that Pollnitz has clearly established was well underway by the late 1580s when the king first penned his Ane Meditatioun upon … the Chronicles in manuscript. 59 This process had likely began even earlier: Buchanan's De jure regni was not only dedicated to James, but also appeared in the library list made for the young king by his younger tutor Peter Young (1544Young ( -1628. 60 There is little doubt that his senior tutor had required the young king to familiarize himself with the work, and that subsequently James labored very hard to refute both its popular account of the origins of kingship, and its comparatively restricted vision of monarchical power, particularly in the sphere of ecclesiastical governance.…”

“…60 There is little doubt that his senior tutor had required the young king to familiarize himself with the work, and that subsequently James labored very hard to refute both its popular account of the origins of kingship, and its comparatively restricted vision of monarchical power, particularly in the sphere of ecclesiastical governance. 61 Furthermore, while the Trew Law may have been immediately intended as a refutation Persons, it also served as Mason has argued to defend and legitimize James's rule over and against the iure divino claims of presbyterians on behalf of the General Assembly of the Kirk. Our contention here is that the essentially defensive purpose that Burgess has identified with divine-right kingship concerned not only Jesuits and presbyterians, but also extended to the realm of the supernatural.…”

“…Goodare, 'Scottish Witch Panic',[63][64][65][66] Daemonologie,61, sig. E7r; Levack,[46][47] Mason, Kingship and the Commonweal, Wormald, 'Witches', more generally see MacDonald, Jacobean Kirk, 50-100.38 Daemonologie, 49, sig E1r.39 Daemonologie, 72-73, sig.…”

Erasmus and the Politics of Translation in Tudor England

“…7 It was Grocyn, Lily, Linacre and More who encouraged Erasmus in his study of Greek, which was to have such momentous consequences. 8 When in 1527 he drew up his will and arranged for bequests of his complete works, the first six beneficiaries in his list were English, namely Warham, Tunstall, More, Longland, Fisher and Queens' College Cambridge. 9 In turn, these friends connived in his energetic self-aggrandizement and encouraged and defended his publications.…”