ry VIII., lost her only son
in his teens. The appalling death-rate among Tudor infants cannot be
attributed solely to medical ignorance, for Yorkist babies clung to
life with a tenacity which was quite as inconvenient as the readiness
with which Tudor infants relinquished it; and Richard III., Henry VII.
and Henry VIII. all found it necessary to accelerate, by artificial
means, the exit from the world of the superfluous children of other
pretenders. This drastic process smoothed their path, but could not
completely solve the problem; and the characteristic Tudor infirmity
was already apparent in the reign of Henry VII. He had three sons; two
predeceased him, one at the age of fifteen years, the other at fifteen
months. Of his four daughters, two died in infancy, and the youngest
cost the mother her life.[28] The fruit of that union between the Red
Rose and the White, upon which so much store had been set,[29] seemed
doomed to fail.

[Footnote 27: There is no definite evidence that he
had more.]

[Footnote 28: _Ven. Cal._, i., 833.]

[Footnote 29: _Cf._ Skelton, _Works_, ed. Dyce.
vol. i., pp. ix-xi.]

The hopes built upon it had largely contributed to the success of
Henry's raid upon the English throne, and before he started on his
quest he had solemnly promised to marry Elizabeth, eldest daughter of
Edward IV., and heiress of the House of York. But he was resolute to
avoid all appearance of ruling in her right; his title had been
recognised by Parliament, and he had been five months _de facto_ king
before he wedded his Yorkist wife (18th January, 1486). Eight months
and two days later, the Queen gave birth, in the priory of St. Swithin's,
at Winchester, to her first-born son. Four days later, on Sunday, (p. 014)
24th September, the child was christened in the minster of the old
West Saxon capital, and given in baptism the name of Arthur, the old
British king. It was neither Yorkist nor Lancastrian, it evoked no
bitter memories of civil strife, and it recalled the fact that the
Tudors claimed a pedigree and boasted a title to British sovereignty,
beside the antiquity of which Yorkist pretentions were a mushroom
growth. Duke of Cornwall from his birth, Prince Arthur was, when three
years old, created Prince of Wales. Already negotiations had been
begun for his marriage with Catherine, the daughter of Ferdinand of
Aragon a