Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/75

 The Eton bulls and charters are printed in, Correspondence, ii. 270–311, and in and, Statutes of King's College, Cambridge, and Eton College. Correspondence fully illustrates every side of Henry's interest in the universities).

 HENRY VII (1457–1509), king of England, was the son of Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, by his marriage with [q. v.], only daughter of John, duke of Somerset, and undoubted heiress of [q. v.] His grandfather, Sir Owen Tudor, was a Welsh knight, who married Catherine, widow of Henry V, and traced back his descent to Cadwallader and the old British kings. Henry was born at Pembroke Castle on the feast of St. Agnes the Second (28 Jan. 1457). His father had died more than two months before, and his mother was not quite fourteen years old when she gave birth to him. Being an only son he was Earl of Richmond from his birth. He was brought up in Wales under the care of his uncle, Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke; for though Edward IV obtained the crown when Henry was four years old, the Lancastrian party still held possession of various Welsh castles until the surrender of Harlech in 1468. Young Henry seems to have been taken prisoner in that fortress when it was won by, lord Herbert, who was created Earl of Pembroke (d. 1469) [q. v.] Pembroke became Henry's guardian, and desired to marry him to his daughter Maud. In 1470 Edward IV was driven from his throne, and Henry VI restored. Henry was now reclaimed by his uncle Jasper, who took him up to London and presented him to King Henry. According to a tradition preserved in Shakespeare, the king, struck with his intelligent looks, remarked: ‘Lo, surely this is he to whom both we and our adversaries shall hereafter give place.’

He was now in his fourteenth year. His childhood had been delicate, and he had been moved about in Wales a good deal for the sake of his health. Great care, however, had been taken with his education, and one of his tutors, Andreas Scotus, reported in after years to [q. v.] that he had never seen a boy of so much quickness in learning.

In 1471 Edward IV recovered his throne. It was no longer safe for Henry to remain in Wales, and his uncle Jasper took him across the sea, meaning to convey him to France. The wind, however, compelled them to land in Brittany, where they found an asylum with Duke Francis II. The death of Henry VI and of his son Prince Edward had made Henry the head of the house of Lancaster, and an object of jealousy to Edward IV. Edward applied for him to the Duke of Brittany, professing that he did not intend to keep him as a prisoner, but to marry him to one of his own daughters. The duke at one time had actually delivered him up to an English embassy, when he was persuaded to revoke the order, and Henry was released. He remained in Brittany during the whole of Edward's reign. But Edward's death in 1483, and the murder of his two sons by the usurper Richard, removed from the field almost every rival