ABSTRACT
In 1534 Polydore Vergil’s Anglicae Historiae Libri xxv’t was published. Its author, born at Urbino, educated at Padua and Bologna, and for some years in the service of the Duke of Urbino and of Alexander VI, came to England about 1501. With the accession of Henry VII the prophecies of Cadwallader, last of the Briton kings, were fulfilled and the realm returned to its rightful and ancient possessors. The battle of the books passes to the bards. Druid-like they sang the fulfillment of Merlin’s prophecies—Warner, Churchyard, Drayton. In Spenser, past, present, and future were united. Drawing inspiration from “Briton moniments”, confirming in Elizabeth Tudor the return of Arthur’s line, moralizing chivalry as a model for the new age, visioning the expansion of Britain to world empire like Arthur’s—the Faerie Queene is intimately connected with the matter of the Battle in spirit as well as content.
