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Princess Mary to the Dauphin of France in 1518. The splendidly attired little Mary, whose marriageability was to become a staple of Henry VIII’s diplomacy throughout his reign (though he never did find a husband for her) apparently sat through the ceremony with remarkable patience for one so young. Tunstall had, however, anticipated a degree of fidgeting, even in a princess, for he had shrewdly built into his speech the observation: ‘See how catching sight of her father she springs forward from her nurse’s lap.’ 7 This allowed gave Mary’s grateful nurse to breathe a sigh of relief whilst also flattering the king’s ego.
    There is, however, no evidence that Katherine Parr was educated with Mary Tudor, as has been suggested in the past. 8 She was four years older than the princess, her requirements were much more modest in terms of her expectations and future role, and, tellingly, neither she nor anyone else in her family ever made mention of such a connection. But the two girls may well have benefited individually from Cuthbert Tunstall’s enthusiasm for mathematics. In 1522, shortly before he was consecrated as bishop of London, Tunstall published a treatise on arithmetic, De arte supputandi , which enhanced his reputation among the leading thinkers of Europe.
    In a letter to Thomas More, Tunstall explained that he had begun the work some years earlier, after he suspected that he was being swindled by money-changers: ‘I was forced to look rather more closely into methods of ready reckoning and to apply myself again to the art of arithmetic with which as a youth I had made some acquaintance.’ He had, he said, struggled to complete his treatise over several years – it had not come easily – and he had more than once thought of abandoning his efforts all together. Now, the responsibilities he would face as bishop of London had spurred him on to consider what to do with ‘the labours of so many nights’, and, in the hope that ‘something not without value might be found in these writings for those intending to study arithmetic’, he dedicated the work to his friend More, ‘you who can also pass the book on to your children for them to read . . .for them it might be most specially beneficial . . . since by nothing are the abilities of young folk more invigorated than by the study of mathematics’. 9 Here Tunstall revealed that the De arte supputandi was intended above all to be a practical aid to young people. He believed that facility with arithmetic helped train the mind, and his book was the first that dealt with the subject in the modern sense, in contrast to earlier, more abstract studies of the properties, rather than the applications, of numbers. The uses of such guidance in the real world were obvious. In the running of a household, a good grasp of arithmetic played an important part. Later, both Mary Tudor as princess and Katherine Parr as queen would sign their own accounts.
    Like their fellow humanists, Tunstall and More shared a keen interest in education, and the wider influence of both men can be seen in the schoolroom of Katherine Parr. Anne Parr, Katherine’s younger sister, herself later said that the children’s education was based on the approach used in the family of Thomas More. 10 Here boys and girls were educated together, as was the case with the Parrs until William left home in 1525 to join the household of Henry VIII’s bastard son, the duke of Richmond. By that time he was twelve years old and the foundation of his education was already laid.
    More’s views on the education of women were eloquently expressed to his children’s tutor:

Though I prefer learning joined with virtue to all the treasures of kings, yet renown for learning, when it is not united with the good life, is nothing else than splendid and notorious ignominy; this would be especially the case in a woman. Since erudition in a woman is a new thing and a reproach to the sloth of men, many will gladly assail it,