Book IL] WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN SILVER. 75 



good will towards you. And farewell, with prosperity and 

 happiness ! 



From our Palace of Eltham, i6th day of July, 15 14, 



Henry.* 



Another draft of four horses and two jennets 

 appear to have been received by the king from the 

 marquis in the autumn of this year ; more were 

 promised, as soon as they were trained (? broken), 

 for which " innumerable thanks " were tendered in 

 advance, as they could not fail to be excellent " coming 

 from such a stud," — the regard in which those already 

 received were held by Henry is exemplified, — they 

 were probably at the stud, and only ridden by him " on 

 state occasions. 



On the 1 8th of August, the king wrote from 

 Greenwich, again thanking the marquis for " his very 

 noble present," announcing the departure of " our 

 intimate friend and knight Griffith," with some English 

 horses " saddled and harnessed in their full trappings," 

 partly for his Excellency, and partly for " his illustrious 

 consort." f 



There are many historical references to the 

 thoroughbred horses Henry VIII. obtained from the 

 Marquis of Mantua. Sebastian Giustinian, Venetian 



* The friendship between the king and the Duke of Mantua was 

 curiously illustrated at a later period. He had been cited by the Pope 

 to appear before a general council, to be held at Mantua, to answer 

 certain accusations to be there laid against him. It is supposed Mantua 

 was selected as the most likely place to entrap the king, who, it was 

 presumed, might be attracted thither by the duke's stud, which Henry 

 was anxious to visit. The duke, however, defied the Pope, and would not 

 allow the council to assemble there, and so the plot fell through. 



t Harl. MS., 3462 (Latin). 



