160 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



afflicted towards the close of his life can have 

 been due to the cause assigned. Indeed in 

 one of these letters he directly attributes the 

 king's death to over-indulgence in hunting and 

 matrimony, either of which, as he says, is liable 

 to hasten dissolution in a man over sixty years 

 of age ! 



Not content with the very large and valuable 

 stud that he now possessed, Henry found it neces- 

 sary in 1518 to send "a Bolognese gentleman" 

 out to Italy to choose still more horses for him 

 there, special instructions being given to him that 

 the best animals he could find in Italy must be 

 bought at once, irrespective of cost, and shipped 

 across to England without undue delay — an order 

 that the Bolognese gentleman " obeyed implicitly 

 and to the king's great satisfaction as well as to 

 his own." There may well be a hidden meaning 

 in the last words ! 



We do not hear anything more that is of interest 

 and that has to do with Henry's stud until the 

 year 1526, when we read that "eighteen of the 

 finest of his horses were sent by King Henry 

 VIII. as a gift to Francis I." The reason he 

 sent so many is not stated, nor are we told if 

 these were chargers, race horses or great horses. 



After that the sending of gift horses apparently 

 became an established custom amongst men of 

 rank and of wealth, as well as amongst potentates, 

 so much so that persons of quality vied one with 



