At the end of his life, King Henry VIII of England left behind several sketches in a prayer book, revealing his serious illness and thoughts about his past.
King Henry VIII, who ruled England from 1509 until his death in 1547, recorded several sketches in the Psalms or Prayers. This book was translated by his sixth and final wife, Katherine Parr, in 1544. Micheline White, an associate professor in the English Department at Carleton University in Canada, accidentally discovered these sketches.
Ms. White discovered many drawings by King Henry VIII in the Psalms or Prayers book. (Photo: CNN).
Ms. White shared with CNN on June 27 that she found the sketches entirely by chance while examining the book and recognized them because she had previously researched King Henry VIII.
White said: “I was very surprised. I didn’t know there were drawings in the margins of the book.”
King Henry often left two distinctive types of sketches in his books. The first type consists of hand drawings with a pointed index finger, while the second type features three rows of wavy dots.
White compared the margins of the Psalms or Prayers with other books that King Henry had marked and concluded that the drawings in Psalms or Prayers were indeed made by King Henry. They share similarities in size and shape, particularly the finger drawing often adorned with a special ring, according to research published in the journal Renaissance Quarterly.
Historically, Mrs. Parr gifted this book—now preserved in the Wormsley Library in Stokenchurch, England—to King Henry as a present. Printed in 1544, the book contains “prayers for repentance in life, for wisdom, the destruction of enemies, and prayers for the King and the army,” Ms. White noted.
Faint hand drawing in the left margin. (Photo: CNN).
Ms. White also added: “It’s clear that when the King read them, he was thinking about certain things.” She found a total of 14 hand drawings in the margins of four psalms.
King Henry is known for initiating a notorious schism in the church to marry his second wife, Anne Boleyn. A passage in the prayer book states that God’s punishment makes people “weak”, and King Henry’s health at that time was very poor.
Ms. White assessed: “The King may have worried that God was punishing him with illness.”
At that time, King Henry was also engaged in war with France, and several other copies of this book, distributed to selected courtiers, played a role in rallying support for the war.
Ms. White remarked: “He was thinking a lot. By the end of his reign, he certainly had many concerns.”
