mood of the sight-seer. Only malcontents, at odds with their
native land, like Bothwell, or the Earl of Arundel, or Leicester's
disinherited son, made prolonged residence in Italy. Aspiring youth,
seeking a social education, for the most part hurried to France.

For it was not only a sense of being surrounded by enemies which during
the seventeenth century somewhat weakened the Englishman's allegiance to
Italy, but the increasing attractiveness of another country. By 1616 it
was said of France that "Unto no other countrie, so much as unto this,
doth swarme and flow yearly from all Christian nations, such a
multitude, and concourse of young Gentlemen, Marchants, and other sorts
of men: some, drawen from their Parentes bosoms by desire of learning;
some, rare Science, or new conceites; some by pleasure; and others
allured by lucre and gain.... But among all other Nations, there cometh
not such a great multitude to Fraunce from any Country, as doth yearely
from this Isle (England), both of Gentlemen, Students, Marchants, and
others."[205]

Held in peace by Henry of Navarre, France began to be a happier place
than Italy for the Englishman abroad. Germany was impossible, because of
the Thirty Years' War; and Spain, for reasons which we shall see later
on, was not inviting. Though nominally Roman Catholic, France was in
fact half Protestant. Besides, the French Court was great and gay, far
outshining those of the impoverished Italian princes. It suited the
gallants of the Stuart period, who found the grave courtesy of the
Italians rather slow. Learning, for which men once had travelled into
Italy, was no longer confined there. Nor did the Cavaliers desire exact
classical learning. A knowledge of mythology, culled from French
translations, was sufficient. Accomplishments, such as riding, fencing,
and dancing, were what chiefly helped them, it appeared, to make their
way at Court or at camp. And the best instruction in these
accomplishments had shifted from Italy to France.

A change had come over the ideal of a gentleman--a reaction from the
Tudor enthusiasm for letters. A long time had gone by since Henry VIII.
tried to make his children as learned as Erasmus, and had the most
erudite scholars fetched from Oxford and Cambridge to direct the royal
nursery. The somewhat moderated esteem in which book-learning was held
in the household of Charles I. may be seen in a letter of the Earl of
Newcastle, governor to Prince Charles,[