MARY,

FIRST QUEEN-REGNANT OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND.

MARY, our first queen-regnant, was the only child of Henry VIII. and Katharine of Arragon who reached maturity; she first saw the light on the banks of the Thames, at Greenwich Palace, on Monday, at four in the morning, February 18, 1516. As she was a healthy babe, her birth consoled her parents for the loss of the two heirs male, who had preceded her, nor in her childhood was her father ever heard to regret her sex.

Mary was reared, till she was weaned, in the apartments of the queen her mother, and the first rudiments of her education were commenced by that tender parent as soon as she could speak.

It was the wish of queen Katharine that the Emperor Charles V., her nephew, might become her son-in-law, and all the political arrangements between her and her husband seemed to favor that wish.

By a solemn matrimonial treaty, signed at Windsor, the emperor engaged to marry the princess Mary when she attained her twelfth year; he was in the mean time exceedingly desirous that she should be sent to Spain, that she might be educated as his wife. But the doting affection of her parents could not endure the separation. The care of Mary's excellent mother was now sedulously directed to give her child an education that would render her a fitting companion to the greatest sovereign of modern history, not only in regard to extent of dominions, but in character and attainments.

The young princess was certainly educated according to the rigorous

directions of Vives, and she is an historical example of the noxious effect that over-education has at a very tender age. Her precocious studies probably laid the foundation for her melancholy temperament and deli cate health.

In the course of the summer of 1525, rumors reached the court of England that the emperor meant to forsake the princess Mary, and was privately engaged to Isabel of Portugal. This was probably the first sorrow experienced by Mary, who was observed to grow pale, with apprehension and jealousy, when the change of the emperor's intentions was discussed. The little creature had been persuaded by her maids that she was in love with Charles V., for about this time she sent a pretty message to him, through her father's ambassadors resident in Spain.

Mary, if not actually declared princess of Wales, as some authors have affirmed, assuredly received honors and distinctions which have never, either before or since, been offered to any one but the heirapparent of England. A court was formed for her at Ludlow Castle, on a grander scale than those established either for her uncle Arthur, or Edward of York, both acknowledged princes of Wales, and heirsapparent of England.

Mary took leave of her parents at the palace of Langley, in Hert fordshire, in September, 1525, previously to her departure for Ludlow Castle. Dr. Sampson gives a pleasing description of her person and qualities at this epoch. "My lady princess," he says in a letter to Wolsey, "came hither on Saturday; surely, sir, of her age, as goodly a child as ever I have seen, and of as good gesture and countenance. Few persons o her age blend sweetness better with seriousness, or quickness with deference; she is at the same time joyous and decorous in manners." In fact, contemporaries and all portraiture represent Mary at this period of her life as a lovely child. But if human ingenuity had been taxed to the utmost in order to contrive the most cruel contrast between her present and future prospects, it could not have been more thoroughly effected, than by first placing her in vice-regal pomp and state, as princess of Wales, at Ludlow Castle, and then afterwards blighting her young mind by hurling her undeservedly into poverty and contempt.