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Letter of Katharine Parr to her
husband, King Henry VIII
July 1544
Background
Katharine Parr wed King Henry VIII on 12 July 1543 at Hampton
Court Palace. Henry was her third husband and not her personal choice.
She was in love with Thomas Seymour, the brother of Henry's third wife,
Jane; he eventually became her fourth husband just a few months after Henry's
death in 1547. Once the marriage to Henry was settled upon, Katharine
worked to make it successful. She was, in all respects, admirably suited
to the task. She had experience managing temperamental elderly men and
nursing their various ailments. She was very intelligent and committed
to scholarship, but she also participated fully in the life of Henry's
court. She grew as fond of finery as any of his wives and dressed magnificently.
She and Henry grew close. He refused to
allow anyone else to wrap his badly ulcered leg; he also made her Queen-Regent
while he attended the siege of Boulogne in 1544. This letter was written
during that six-week absence and its tone is loving and respectful. In
it, Katharine mentions the King of Scotland's widow, Marie de Guise, as
well as Henry's three children. In addition to her success as a sixth
wife, Katharine was an admirable stepmother who genuinely loved the Princesses
Mary and Elizabeth and Prince Edward.
Although the distance of time and account of days neither is
long nor many of your majesty's absence, yet the want of your presence, so
much desired and beloved by me, maketh me that I cannot quietly pleasure
in anything until I hear from your majesty. The time, therefore, seemeth
to me very long, with a great desire to know how your highness hath done
since your departing hence, whose prosperity and health I prefer and
desire more than mine own. And whereas I know your majesty's absence
is never without great need, yet love and affection compel me to desire
your presence.
Again, the same zeal and affection force me to be best content with
that which is your will and pleasure. Thus love maketh me in all things
to set apart mine own convenience and pleasure, and to embrace most joyfully
his will and pleasure whom I love. God, the knower of secrets, can
judge these words not to be written only with ink, but most truly impressed
on the heart. Much more I omit, lest it be thought I go about to praise
myself, or crave a thank; which thing to do I mind nothing less, but
a plain, simple relation of the love and zeal I bear your majesty, proceeding
from the abundance of the heart. Wherein I must confess I desire no
commendation, having such just occasion to do the same.
I make like account with your majesty as I do with God for his benefits
and gifts heaped upon me daily, acknowledging myself a great debtor
to him, not being able to recompense the least of his benefits; in which
state I am certain and sure to die, yet I hope in His gracious acceptation
of my goodwill. Even such confidence have I in your majesty's gentleness,
knowing myself never to have done my duty as were requisite and meet
for such a noble prince, at whose hands I have found and received so
much love and goodness, that with words I cannot express it. Lest I
should be too tedious to your majesty, I finish this my scribbled letter,
committing you to the governance of the Lord with long and prosperous
life here, and after this life to enjoy the kingdom of his elect.
From Greenwich, by your majesty's humble and obedient servant,
Katharine the Queen.
to Letters of the Six
Wives of Henry VIII
to Primary Sources
to
Tudor England
to Katharine
Parr website
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