William Ross King

“Frederick William also banned French, the official language of his father’s court, and when he drank heavily - which was often - he toasted perdition to “the damned French,” whom he called a “bunch of rabble.” He despised the French so much that to persuade his people not to follow their fashions, he had convicted criminals dressed in French costumes before they were hanged.””

“The English diplomat Andrew Holes had returned to England in 1444, following a dozen years in Italy. During his sojourn he had put together a manuscript collection so large that, according to Vespasiano, he was forced to send the books to England on board a ship. His successor as King Henry VI’s representative at the Roman Curia was the other expatriate English bibliophile, William Grey. Following his visit to Florence in 1442, Grey had pursued his humanistic studies in Padua, receiving his doctorate in divinity in September 1445, a few weeks before his appointment as the king’s proctor. He then left Padua for Rome, to which Pope Eugenius had at last returned in 1443 after having finally judged it safe to chance his presence among the unruly Roman mob. But first of all, Grey stopped in Florence on important business.””