As at the last-mentioned date Prince Henry was a mere infant, there can be no doubt that the care of his education had not yet been entrusted to our poet. It must have been several years after 1494 that Skelton was appointed tutor to that prince,—an appointment which affords a striking proof of the high opinion entertained of his talents and learning, as well as of the respectability of his character. He has himself recorded that he held this important situation: “The honor of Englond I lernyd to spelle, In dygnyte roialle that doth excelle: Note and marke wyl[50] thys parcele; I yaue hym drynke of the sugryd welle Of Eliconys waters crystallyne, Aqueintyng hym with the Musys nyne. Yt commyth thé wele me to remorde, That creaunser[51] was to thy sofre[yne] lorde: It plesyth that noble prince roialle Me as hys master for to calle In hys lernyng primordialle.”[52] And in another poem he informs us that he composed a treatise for the edification of his royal pupil: “The Duke of Yorkis creauncer whan Skelton was, Now Henry the viii. Kyng of Englonde, A tratyse he deuysid and browght it to pas, Callid _Speculum Principis_, to here in his honde, Therin to rede, and to vnderstande All the demenour of princely astate, To be our Kyng, of God preordinate.”[53] The _Speculum Principis_ has perished: we are unable to determine whether it was the same work as that entitled _Methodos Skeltonidis laureati_, sc. _Præcepta quædam moralia Henrico principi, postea Henr. viii, missa_. Dat. apud Eltham A.D. MDI., which in Tanner’s days[54] was extant (mutilated at the beginning) among the MSS. in the Lincoln-Cathedral Library, but which (like the Latin verses mentioned in a preceding page) has since been allowed to wander away from that ill-guarded collection. When Prince Henry was a boy of nine years old, Erasmus dedicated to him an ode _De Laudibus Britanniæ, Regisque Henrici Septimi ac Regiorum Liberorum_. The Dedication contains the following memorable encomium on Skelton; “Et hæc quidem interea tamquam ludicra munuscula tuæ pueritiæ dicavimus, uberiora largituri ubi tua virtus una cum ætate accrescens uberiorem carminum materiam suppeditabit. Ad quod equidem te adhortarer, nisi et ipse jamdudum sponte tua velis remisque (ut aiunt) eo tenderes, et _domi haberes Skeltonum, unum Britannicarum literarum lumen ac decus_, qui tua studia possit, non solum accendere, sed etiam consummare;” and in the Ode are these lines; “Jam puer Henricus, genitoris nomine lætus, _Monstrante fonteis vate Skeltono sacros_, Palladias teneris meditatur ab unguibus arteis.”[55]