History,
Not
Football.

Educating
the Rulers of a
Hierarchal Society

Dr. Ronald Fritze
October 24, 2004

All noble authors do conclude and also common experience proveth that where the governors of realms and cities be found adorned with virtues and do employ their study and mind to the public weal . . . there a public weal must needs be both honourable and wealthy.

Sir Thomas Elyot,
The Book Named the Governor

In the present, Americans tend to look back on England as a reasonably progressive society, particularly when compared to other European countries.

England was the land of Magna Carta, the fountainhead of modern freedoms - freedoms that presumably include a certain degree of egalitarianism.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Early modern English society was a hierarchal society where the elite minority ruled over a great majority of common people and was very similar in that aspect to other societies on the European continent.

In 1531 Sir Thomas Elyot (c1490-1546) wrote The Book Named the Governor. It was composed during the early stages of the Henrician Reformation and basically presented a theory of monarchial government and how those responsible for governing should be educated. Elyot felt it was the elite's role and duty to rule society and that God ordained that things should be that way. As Elyot asked rhetorically, "Hath not He [God] set degrees and estates in all His glorious works?" He advocated a government of one ruler, an absolutist sort of king, who was to have authority over all of society. The king was to be assisted by inferior magistrates, who were Elyot's governors.

From that premise Elyot went on to describe how these governors should be educated and what virtues that they should exhibit. Education of the elite was to include the learning of Greek and Latin and the study of various Greek and Latin authors including Aesop, Homer, Virgil, and Ovid. History, geography, and philosophy were also prescribed for the edification of the future rulers. But Elyot did not believe that education consisted solely of book learning. He also urged that the youth of the ruling elite engage in physical education. Elyot thought that almost all forms of physical activity were good for youth, but he particularly recommended hunting, dancing, and archery.

Not all forms of physical activity found favor with Elyot, who never would have made the grade as a Southeast Conference university president (ASIDE: For my readers from the Continent and the British Isles, the Southeast Conference is a union of twelve universities located in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina, whose chancellors and presidents devote great amounts of public and private treasure to the pursuit of championships and vainglory on the football field and other athletic venues) because he did not approve of football, which, he wrote, was "nothing but beastly fury and extreme violence, whereof proceedeth hurt, and consequently rancour and malice to remain with them that be wounded." Of course, Elyot, by football, meant what Americans call soccer, but his basic objection would remain the same for both games.

Whether or not one agrees with Elyot on football, few can deny that he was a wise man when it came to choosing the subject he thought was most important for future governors: history. As Elyot so eloquently put it, "Surely if a nobleman do thus seriously and diligently read histories, I dare affirm there is no study or science for him of equal commodity and pleasure, having regard to every time and age." That is a lasting and insightful insight, one that does not just apply to noblemen, nor only to the sixteenth century!

PLANET CLIO is ruled by Dr. Ronald Fritze,
Professor of History at the University of Central Arkansas.
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