Royal education in the Tudor Age

With the advent of humanism in England, native scholars were increasingly aware that if they were to be successful, the two distinct fields in which they had to inculcate humanistic ideas were the king’s court and the universities. In order gain authorisation to practise in the lecture rooms and to encourage their students to take an interest in the study of both Latin and Greek, and expose their listeners to uncorrupted and original classical texts, English humanists had to obtain royal approval of this new approach to teaching. In order to persuade the monarch around to their way of thinking, understanding the world, interpreting the Bible and teaching future generations, they had to prove that their capabilities and intellectual capacity outstripped those of their competitors- the old-fashioned lecturers from mediaeval monasteries. The prime sensitive area in which humanists could achieve their goals and make their influence felt was the education of the sovereign’s children