Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu/277

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OF PROPHECIES

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was slain, that a golden head was growing out of the nape of his neck: and indeed the succession that followed him, for many years, made golden times.^[1] Henry the Sixth^[2] of England said of Henry the Seventh, when he was a lad, and gave him water, This is the lad that shall enjoy the crown for which we strive. When I was in France^[3] I heard from one Dr. Pena, that the Queen Mother, who was given to curious arts, caused the King her husband's nativity to be calculated, under a false name; and the astrologer gave a judgment, that he should be killed in a duel; at which the Queen laughed, thinking her husband to be above challenges and duels: but he was slain upon a course of tilt, the splinters of the staff of Montgomery going in at his beaver.^[4] The trivial prophecy, which I heard when I was a child, and queen Elizabeth was in the flower of her years, was,

↑ C. Suetoni Tranquilli De XII Caesaribus Liber VIII. Titus Flavius Domitianus. Caput 23.
↑ Henry VI., 1421–1471, King of England, 1422–1461. The strife he alludes to was the Wars of the Roses, 1455 to 1485, between the house of Lancaster (red rose) and house of York (white rose). At the close of Bacon's History of King Henry VII, he relates this story: "One day when King Henry the Sixth (whose innocency gave him holiness) was washing his hands at a great feast and cast his eye upon King Henry, then a young youth, he said; 'This is the lad that shall possess quietly that that we now strive for." Henry VII. united the warring factions by defeating Richard III. at Bosworth Field, Aug. 22, 1485, and marrying, January 18, 1486, Elizabeth of York, thus establishing his right to the crown, as Bacon says, by "three several titles"—by birth, by conquest, and by marriage.
↑ When Bacon was in France as a youth Henry III., 1551–1589, was King. The Queen Mother was Catharine de' Medici, 1519–1589. Henry II., 1519–1559, husband of Catharine de' Medici and father of Henry III., was killed at a tournament held in honor of the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth with Philip II. of Spain. Montgomery was the captain of his Scottish guard.
↑ Beaver. The movable part of a helmet which covered the face, and was raised or let down to enable the wearer to eat or drink.

[1] C. Suetoni Tranquilli De XII Caesaribus Liber VIII. Titus Flavius Domitianus. Caput 23.

[2] Henry VI., 1421–1471, King of England, 1422–1461. The strife he alludes to was the Wars of the Roses, 1455 to 1485, between the house of Lancaster (red rose) and house of York (white rose). At the close of Bacon's History of King Henry VII, he relates this story: "One day when King Henry the Sixth (whose innocency gave him holiness) was washing his hands at a great feast and cast his eye upon King Henry, then a young youth, he said; 'This is the lad that shall possess quietly that that we now strive for." Henry VII. united the warring factions by defeating Richard III. at Bosworth Field, Aug. 22, 1485, and marrying, January 18, 1486, Elizabeth of York, thus establishing his right to the crown, as Bacon says, by "three several titles"—by birth, by conquest, and by marriage.

[3] When Bacon was in France as a youth Henry III., 1551–1589, was King. The Queen Mother was Catharine de' Medici, 1519–1589. Henry II., 1519–1559, husband of Catharine de' Medici and father of Henry III., was killed at a tournament held in honor of the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth with Philip II. of Spain. Montgomery was the captain of his Scottish guard.

[4] Beaver. The movable part of a helmet which covered the face, and was raised or let down to enable the wearer to eat or drink.

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