Englishmen joined him, and a good many Irish. But in a battle at Stoke, in the North of England, they were all driven away, and Lambert taken prisoner.

The king, who knew the poor young man had been forced to do what he did by other people, did not send him to prison, but made him a turnspit in his

kitchen; and as he behaved very well there, he afterwards gave him the care of his hawks.

The second disturbance was of more consequence. A young man, called Perkin Warbeck, was taught by one of King Henry's enemies, the Duchess of Burgundy, to call himself Richard Duke of York.

He said that he was the brother to the little king killed by Richard in the Tower, and that Dighton and Forrest could not bear to kill them both, and that he had hidden himself till he could get to the duchess, who, as he said, was his aunt.

Now King Henry knew this story was not true, yet it vexed him very much. For Perkin Warbeck pre

vailed on several noblemen in Ireland to take his part, and he went to Scotland, and got the king to believe him, and to let him marry a beautiful young lady, named Catherine Gordon, the king's own cousin, and to march into England with an army, where he did a great deal of mischief before King Henry's army could drive him away. Then he sailed to Cornwall, and collected a small army; but after doing just enough mischief to make everybody fear him and his people, he was taken prisoner by King Henry, who kept him some time in the Tower: at last he was hanged at Tyburn, and nobody was sorry for him but his poor wife Lady Catherine.

King Henry sent for that unfortunate lady, and took her to the queen, who treated her very kindly, and made her live with her, and did all she could to make her happy again.

England was quite quiet for the rest of King Henry's reign, and Wales, which had been ill-treated by the Kings of England ever since Edward I. conquered it, was made more happy by Henry. He made laws for treating the Welsh like the English,

and from that time they have been like one people with us.

As there was no fighting, the young men began to try to improve themselves in learning. Some years before that time some clever men in Germany had found out how to print books instead of writing them, so there were a great many more books, and more people could learn to read. The young men in Cambridge and Oxford began to read the good books that had been forgotten in the wars of the Roses, and they were ashamed to find that there were not half a dozen men in England who knew anything at all about Greek. I think one of those few was Grocyn, a teacher at Oxford.

But the English had soon a very good Greek teacher. A young man born at Canterbury, called Thomas Linacre, after learning all he could at the school in his own town, and at Oxford, went to travel in Italy, where the most learned men in the world lived at that time. These learned men soon found out that Thomas Linacre was very clever indeed, and so they helped him to learn everything that he desired, for the sake of improving his own country when he came back. He studied everything so carefully, that on his return to Oxford the greatest and wisest men went to him to be taught Greek, besides many other things he had learned in his travels. He was chosen to be tutor to the king's eldest son, Prince Arthur, and he was afterwards tutor to some of the next king's children. He was the greatest physician in England, and before he died he founded the same College of Physicians that we have now.

In the next chapter we shall have a great deal to read about several of Linacre's scholars; but I tell

you about him now, that you may know that it was

in this king's time that the gentlemen of England began to think of reading and studying, instead of doing nothing but fight.

About this time, sailors from Europe first found their way to America. Christopher Columbus went from Spain, Americus Vespucius from Italy, and Sebastian Cabot from England. They all arrived safe at the other side of the wide sea, and then it was first known that there was such a place as America. How surprised all their friends must have been, when they came home, and told of the strange things they had seen! The trees and the flowers were all different from ours. The birds were larger, and had more beautiful feathers; the butterflies had gayer colours than we had ever seen. Then they brought home turkeys, which they found in the woods, and potatoes, which they had eaten for the first time, to plant in our fields and gardens. But I should fill a whole book if I tried to tell you of all the things that were brought from the new countries found out in Henry VII.'s time.

We must now think of the king himself a little. His wife, Elizabeth of York, was dead. She left four children, Arthur and Henry, Mary and Margaret. Mary became Queen of France, and Margaret Queen of Scotland. Arthur, who was the eldest, was good and clever, but very sickly, and he died before his father; so Henry was the next king.

Henry VII. was a very wise man, and a severe king. His greatest fault was loving money, so that he took unjust ways to get it from his subjects. He was very unwilling to spend anything upon himself or other people. But yet he laid out a great deal of money in building a great palace at Richmond, in adding a beautiful chapel to Westminster Abbey, and in other

fine buildings. He sent to Italy for painters and sculptors, to make pictures and statues; and he was fond of encouraging learning and trade.

But though he did many good and useful things, nobody loved him; and when he died there were very few persons indeed sorry for him.

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CHAPTER XXXVII.

HENRY VIII.-1509 to 1547.

How Henry the Eighth made war upon Scotland and France, and gained the battle of Flodden and the battle of the Spurs; how he met the King of France in the Field of the Cloth of Gold; how Cardinal Wolsey fell into disgrace, and died.

I HAVE SO many things to tell you about Henry VIII., that I dare say I shall fill three chapters.

When he first became king, everybody liked him. He was very handsome, and generous, and goodhumoured. Besides all that, he was very clever, and very learned; he liked the company of wise men, and treated them all very kindly. One of his great amusements after dinner was to invite the greatest scholars and the cleverest men, such as clergymen, lawyers, physicians, and painters, to go and talk with him. And so he learned a great deal from hearing what they said.

But as Henry grew older, I am sorry to say that he changed very much, and became cruel and hardhearted, as you will read by-and-by.

The wise old king, Henry VII., had been very careful to keep peace with the French and Scotch all