Henry Percy, 8th earl of Northumberland, an…
September 1582 CE
Henry Percy, 8th earl of Northumberland, an English Protestant member of the predominantly Roman Catholic Percy family, has served both Mary I and Elizabeth I in several capacities.
During the northern rebellion, in which his brother had been a leading agent, he was on the royal side, vigorously attacking the rebels.
After his brother's execution in 1572, Elizabeth had permitted him to assume the title of earl of Northumberland.
Family persuasions eventually had overcome his loyalty, and he had begun intriguing for the escape of Mary, Queen of Scots, from imprisonment.
Under suspicion, he had been seized and lodged in the Tower of London for eighteen months (1571–73), then released and gradually returned to favor.
Associated with the conspiracies of Francis Throckmorton and other Catholic agents in September 1582, he is again sent to the Tower to be released after a few weeks.
The company of actors known as Lord Strange’s Men, a household troupe of Lord Strange, had toured the provinces before appearing in 1582 at court.
The fame of English schoolmaster educator Richard Mulcaster, who has served as headmaster of the Merchant Taylors' School in London from 1561 and taught in his own private schools, rests mainly upon his two books: Positions Concerning the Training Up of Children (1581) and The First Part of the Elementarie (1582).
He recommends special university training for teachers, comparable to that for doctors or lawyers, careful selection of teachers and adequate salaries, assignment of the best teachers to the lowest grades, and close association between teachers and parents.
He emphasizes the importance of individual differences in children, the adjustment of the curriculum to these differences, and the use of readiness rather than age in determining progress.
Unlike Thomas Elyot and Roger Ascham, Mulcaster is not specifically concerned with the education of gentlemen.
Many of his pedagogical theories will not be generally accepted until at least two hundred and fifty years after his death.