About this time, sailors from Europe first found their way to America. Christopher Columbus went from Spain, Americo Vespucci from Italy, and Sebastian Cabot from England. They all arrived safe at the other side of the wide ocean, and then it was first known for certain that there was such a place as America. How surprised all their friends must have been, when they came home, and told of the strange things they had seen! The trees and the flowers were all different from ours. The birds were larger, and had more beautiful feathers; the butterflies had gayer colours than we had ever seen. Then they brought home turkeys, which their found in the woods, and potatoes, which they had eaten for the first time, to plant in our fields and gardens. But I should fill a whole book if I tried to tell you of all the things that were brought from the new countries found out in Henry the Seventh’s time. We must now speak of the king himself. His wife, Elizabeth of York, was dead. She had four children, Arthur and Henry, Mary and Margaret. Mary became Queen of France, and Margaret Queen of Scotland. Arthur, who was the eldest, was good and clever, but very sickly, and he died before his father; so Henry was the next king. Henry the Seventh was a very wise man, and a severe king. His greatest fault was loving money, so that he took unjust ways to get it from his subjects. He was very unwilling to spend anything upon himself or other people. But yet he laid out a great deal of money in building a great palace at Richmond, and in adding a beautiful chapel to Westminster Abbey, and in other fine buildings. He sent to Italy for painters and sculptors, to make pictures and statues; and he was fond of encouraging learning and trade. But though he did many good and useful things, nobody loved him; and when he died there were very few persons indeed sorry for him. CHAPTER XXXVII. HENRY VIII.—1509 to 1547. How Henry the Eighth made war upon Scotland and France, and gained the battle of Flodden and the battle of the Spurs; how he met the King of France in the Field of the Cloth of Gold; how Cardinal Wolsey fell into disgrace and died. I have so many things to tell you about Henry the Eighth, that I dare say I shall fill three chapters. When he first became king, everybody liked him. He was very handsome, and generous, and good-humoured. Besides all that, he was very clever, and very learned; he liked the company of wise men, and treated them all very kindly. One of his great amusements after dinner was to invite the greatest scholars and the cleverest men, such as clergymen, lawyers, physicians, and painters, to go and talk with him. And so he learned a great deal from hearing what they said. But as Henry grew older, I am sorry to say that he changed very much, and became cruel and hard-hearted, as you will read by-and-by.