The early death of Prince Arthur, on 2nd April, 1502, in the sixteenth year of his age, disappointed the high hopes that were entertained of his future career, and terminated the engagement of Linacre within a year of his accepting it The loss he thus sustained, however, afforded him greater leisure for the renewal of his own studies, and allowed him to enter upon the practice of his medical profession without interruption from his official duties at Court.
The death of King Henry VII., on 21st April, 1509, and the accession of Henry VIII., which was hailed with joy by the nation, brought with it a change in Linacre's life. His immediate connection with the Court had probably ceased from the death of Prince Arthur, in 1502; for his office of physician to King Henry VII., if he ever really held it, could have been little more than a nominal one, and he had subsequently fallen in that King's estimation on account of the insinuations of Bernard André, an Augustine friar, his rival to the post of tutor to the young prince, who accused him of piracy from an earlier translation of Proclus. At the commencement of the new reign Linacre had returned to Oxford, where he read a shagling lecture.[1] His talents, and the valuable services he had rendered to the University were now fully recognised, and a laudatory address was made to him, by members of the University, apologising for their past remissness, and thanking him for all he had done for them. The young King Henry VIII., who extended his patronage to the most eminent scholars of the age, and in forming a new Court was not unmindful of those who had held office in the former reign, paid Linacre the compliment of appointing him Physician to His Majesty. In this capacity he enjoyed the King's favour and
- ↑ ' Dr. Bliss, in a note in the Athen. Oxon. vol i. p. 43, says that these lectures were "such as were extraordinary, or temporary, allowed either by public authority, common consent, or recommendations." It was a favourite word with Ant. à Wood (the Author of the Athenæ and Fasti Oxon.), who again uses it of Edmund Crispyne of Oriel College, "lately a shagling lecturer of physic, now (1547) one of the proctors of the University." Fasti Oxon., vol i. p. 126.
