his life, but the young king liked the thoughts of gaining a little glory by fighting: so very soon after he became king, he had a war with France, and another with Scotland.

The war with Scotland ended sadly for the Scotch. The English army was commanded by a very brave and clever nobleman, named the Earl of Surrey, and he had with him several brave lords and knights. The Scotch army was almost all made up of the boldest and best men in Scotland, with their own King, James the Fourth, to command them. The two armies met at a place called Flodden Field. They fought all day; sometimes one side got the better, and sometimes the other; so when night came, nobody knew which had beaten the other. But in the morning, the Scots found that they had lost their king, whom they all loved very much, and that with him the best and bravest of the Scottish nobles had been killed.

After this there was peace between Scotland and England.

not

so,

As to King Henry's war in France, it did last very long. I told you Henry was young, and wished for the kind of glory that princes gain by fighting. But he forgot, that, besides the glory, there must be a great deal of fatigue and suffering: after one battle, he was very glad to have peace again. That one battle was called the BATTLE OF THE SPURS, because the French made more use of their spurs, to make their horses run away, than of their swords to fight with.

Not long after this battle, the old French king died. The new king was called Francis I. He was almost as young as Henry VIII. He was handsome, and very fond of gaiety, and dancing, and riding, and

too,

feasting, and playing at fighting, which is called jousting. So the two young kings agreed that they would meet together, and have some merry days. And so they did.

They met near a place called Ardres, in France. The richest noblemen, and their wives and daughters, both of France and England, were there. The tents they

feasted in were made of silk, with gold flowers; their dresses were covered over with gold and jewels; even their very horses were dressed up with silk and golden fringes; and there was feasting, and dancing, and jousting, and music every day.

The two kings amused themselves with dancing, and all sorts of games, till at last they found it was time to go home, and mind the affairs of their own kingdoms.

This meeting was called the FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD, because there was so much gold in the dresses and tents, and the ornaments used by the kings and their lords and ladies.

Besides the two kings who were at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, there was a great man that you must know something about. His name was Wolsey. He was a clergyman, and in the time of King Henry VII. he was known to be very clever indeed. But Henry VIII. first made him a bishop, and then the Pope (who you know is the bishop of Rome) gave him the name of Cardinal.

In those days a cardinal was thought to be almost as great a man as a king. He dressed in long fine silk robes, trimmed with fur, and when he went out he wore a scarlet hat, with a broad brim, and fine red cords and tassels.

This Cardinal Wolsey was very clever, as I told you, and very learned; he was one of the scholars at Oxford when Thomas Linacre taught Greek there; and with a part of the great riches that he got from the king he built the great college, called Christ Church, at Oxford, and another at Ipswich, the town where he was born: he also built the great palace of Hampton Court, and made a present of it to the king. And these you know were all useful things.

But Cardinal Wolsey was proud and insolent to all

the nobles, and cruel to the poor; so most people hated him. And some persons told the king that the cardinal spoke ill of the king, and that he boasted of being richer and more powerful than the king. So Henry, who was very passionate, ordered all his riches to be taken away from him suddenly, and sent for him to London, where I am almost sure he intended to order his head to be cut off. But the cardinal fell ill and died on the road. His last words were- "If I had served God as faithfully as I have served the king, he would not have forsaken me in my last days."

Now I must end this chapter. In the next I shall tell you about King Henry's six wives.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

HENRY VIII.-continued.

How King Henry married six times; and how he got rid of his wives when he was tired of them.

HENRY VIII.'s first wife was Catherine of Arragon. She was a princess from Spain, who came to England to be married to Prince Arthur, King Henry's brother. But, as you read in the chapter before the last, Prince Arthur died when he was very young, and Catherine was married to Henry.

They had only one daughter, the Princess Mary, who came to be Queen of England, as you will read. Now, though Henry was very fond of his wife for a great many years, he grew tired of her at last, and wished very much to marry a beautiful young lady who lived with Queen Catherine.

He determined to get some of those people who are

always willing to do as their king pleases, instead of being honest, and doing only what is right, to find out some excuses for sending away good Queen Catherine, for indeed she was very good, and loved the king very dearly. So at last they found some, which. you could not understand if I told you; and they divorced Queen Catherine, that is, they sent her away from the king, and said he might marry anybody else that he pleased.

The good queen lived about three years afterwards, sometimes at Ampthill, sometimes at other country places, and died at Kimbolton.

The second wife of Henry was the beautiful young lady, Anne Boleyn, whose daughter, Elizabeth, became Queen of England after her sister Mary. But now King Henry, who had found out that he could make excuses for sending away one wife, began to wish for another change.

I told you Anne Boleyn was young and beautiful. She was also clever and pleasant, and I believe really good. But the king and some of his wicked friends pretended that she had done several bad things; and as Henry had become very cruel as well as changeable, he ordered poor Anne's head to be cut off.

On the day she was to suffer death she sent to beg the king to be kind to her little daughter Elizabeth. She said to the last moment that she was innocent; she prayed God to bless the king and the people, and then she knelt down, and her head was cut off.

I ought to have told you, that, before she was brought out of her room to be beheaded, she said to the gentleman who went to call her, “I hear the executioner is very skilful; my neck is very small;" and she put her hands round it and smiled, and made ready to go to die.