King Henry IV

Famous quotes containing the words king henry and/or king:

    An illiterate king is a crowned ass.
    —Medieval English proverb.

    Said by the chronicler William of Malmesbury to have been much used by King Henry I of England (1068-1135)

    When Prince William [later King William IV] was at Cork in 1787, an old officer ... dined with him, and happened to say he had been forty years in the service. The Prince with a sneer asked what he had learnt in those forty years. The old gentleman justly offended, said, “Sir, I have learnt, when I am no longer fit to fight, to make as good a retreat as I can” —and walked out of the room.
    Horace Walpole (1717–1797)