SIR HENRY FANSHAWE AND TWO SETS OF EARLY SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PART-BOOKS AT CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD

Abstract

WHEN the eldest son of James I, Prince of Wales and heir to the English throne, died of typhoid fever at the age of eighteen, the whole nation mourned. Men of letters, whom he had always been ready to grace with his patronage, paid tribute to him by writing elegies. In the first year after his death a whole crop of publications honoured his memory, and these continued to appear in one form or another for many years.2 Whilst the sentiment of grief often received a stylised literary presentation, there is little reason to doubt that it was genuinely felt. To many his death was a personal loss which found national expression as the silencing of youthful promise by an unkind Fate. The underlying theme of many laments is the blow felt by 'Religion, Armes or Art'. To their supporting factions the young prince had been a prime hope: the champion of the Protestants against the Papist threat; a sportsman and active participant in the martial arts and tactics of war; the friend of artists and intellectuals. Henry had 'a passion for tourneys and all other chivalrous exercises far beyond the wont of other princes of his time, coupled with a no less genuine love of letters'., Prince Henry's early biographers stress his keen appreciation of music, but one wonders how far this went beyond an early love for drums and trumpets, instruments which he associated with his initial passion for the martial arts. When 'verie young he tooke great delight in the sound of Drummes and Trumpets, yea and of his Pieces both small and great, beeing shot neare to him'.4