The innocence of youth

IWAS interested to read the first article about Queens’ College, Cambridge (February 2). Henry VI’S queen, Margaret of Anjou, was a powerful and forceful woman who would, today, be psychologically classified as a sociopath. Her hen-pecked husband, who founded Eton College, was an entirely different kettle of fish. A mild-mannered man, he would occasionally meet Eton scholars and give them money, saying: ‘Be good boys, be gentle and docile, and servants of the Lord.’ The King’s biographer recorded that Henry actually sought to discourage Eton students from visiting his Court, ‘lest his young lambs should come to relish the corrupt deeds and habits of his courtiers, or lose partly or altogether their own good characters’.

Andrew Tucker, Berkshire