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| 8 | <title>Primary Sources: Letter of Princess Mary to King Henry VIII, 1536</title>
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| 20 | <p align="center"> <br>
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| 30 | <td valign="top" width="48%" bgcolor="#FFFFE8"><font size=-1>This letter
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| 31 | was written on 22 June 1536. In it, Princess Mary acknowledges the
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| 32 | annulment of her parents' marriage, her own illegitimacy, and her father's
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| 33 | position as head of a new English church.</font><p><font size="-1">Mary
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| 34 | refused to write this letter for several years, throughout the drama of
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| 35 | the annulment and her father's remarriage to Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII
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| 36 | suspected her behavior was encouraged by her mother; he deliberately
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| 37 | separated Mary and Katharine of Aragon, banishing both from court.</font></p>
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| 38 | <p><font size="-1"> In the summer of 1536, on the advice of the
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| 39 | Spanish ambassador, Mary succumbed and wrote this letter. She always
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| 40 | regretted it.</font></p>
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| 41 | <p><font size="-1">It did, however, serve its purpose. The death of
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| 42 | Katharine of Aragon in January of that year, Anne Boleyn's execution in
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| 43 | May, and Henry's third marriage to Jane Seymour encouraged a rapprochement
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| 44 | between father and daughter.</font></p>
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| 45 | <p> </td>
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| 46 | <td width="4%"></td>
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| 47 | <td valign="top" width="48%">
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| 48 | <p>'Most
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| 49 | humbly prostrate before the feet of your most excellent majesty, your most
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| 50 | humble, so faithful and obedient subject, who has so extremely offended
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| 51 | your most gracious highness that my heavy and fearful heart dare not presume
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| 52 | to call you father, deserving of nothing from your majesty, save that the
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| 53 | kindness of your most blessed nature does surmount all evils, offences
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| 54 | and trespasses, and is ever merciful and ready to accept the penitent calling
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| 55 | for grace, at any fitting time. Having received this Thursday, at
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| 56 | night, certain letters from Mr Secretary to whom I had lately written advising
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| 57 | me to make my humble submission immediately to your self, which I dared
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| 58 | not, without your gracious licence, presume to do before, and signifying
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| 59 | that your most merciful heart and fatherly pity had granted me your blessing,
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| 60 | with the condition that I should persevere in which I had commenced and
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| 61 | begun; and that I should not again offend your majesty by the denial or
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| 62 | refusal of any such articles and commandments as it may please your highness
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| 63 | to address to me, for the perfect trial of my heart and inward affection,
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| 64 | for the perfect declaration of the depths of my heart.
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| 65 | <p>First, I acknowledge myself to have most unkindly and unnaturally offended
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| 66 | your most excellent highness, in that I have not submitted myself to your
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| 67 | most just and virtuous laws; and for my offence therein, which I must confess
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| 68 | was in me a thousandfold more grievous than it could be in any other living
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| 69 | creature, I put myself wholly and entirely at your gracious mercy; at whose
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| 70 | hands I cannot receive that punishment for the same which I have deserved.
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| 71 | <p>Secondly, to open my heart to your grace, in these things which I have
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| 72 | before refused to condescend to, and have now written with my own hand,
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| 73 | sending them to your highness herewith, I shall never beseech your grace
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| 74 | to have pity and compassion on me if ever you shall perceive that I shall,
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| 75 | secretly or openly, vary or alter from one piece of that which I have written
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| 76 | and subscribed, or refuse to confirm, ratify or declare the same, wherever
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| 77 | your majesty shall appoint me.
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| 78 | <p>Thirdly, as I have and will, knowing your excellent learning, virtue,
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| 79 | wisdom and knowledge, put my soul under your direction, and by the same
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| 80 | have and will in all things henceforth direct my conscience, so I wholly
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| 81 | commit my body to your mercy and fatherly pity; desiring no state, no condition,
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| 82 | nor no manner or degree of living but such as your grace shall appoint
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| 83 | unto me; knowing and confessing that my state cannot be so vile as either
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| 84 | the extremity of justice would appoint to me, or as my offences have required
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| 85 | and deserved. And whatsoever your grace shall command me to do, touching
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| 86 | any of these points, either for things past, present or to come, I shall
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| 87 | gladly do the same as your majesty can command me.
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| 88 | <br>
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| 89 | <ul>
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| 90 | <p>Your Grace's most humble and obedient daughter and handmaid, Mary.'</p>
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| 91 | <p> </p>
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| 92 | </ul>
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| 93 | <p align="center"><i><b>The following document accompanied the above
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| 94 | letter:</b></i></p>
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| 95 |
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| 96 | <p>'The confession of me, Lady Mary, made upon certain points and articles
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| 97 | written below; in which I do now plainly and with all my heart confess
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| 98 | and
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| 99 | declare my inward sentence, belief and judgement, with due conformity of
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| 100 | obedience to the laws of the realm; so, minding for ever to persist and
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| 101 | continue in this determination without change, alteration or variance,
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| 102 | I do most humbly beseech the king's highness, my father, whom I have obstinately
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| 103 | and disobediently offended in the denial of the same up to now, to forgive
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| 104 | my offences therein, and to take me to his most gracious mercy.
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| 105 | <p>First I confess and acknowledge the king's majesty to be my sovereign
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| 106 | lord and king, in the imperial crown of this realm of England; and do submit
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| 107 | myself to his highness and to each and every law and statute of this realm,
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| 108 | as it becomes a true and faithful subject to do; which I shall also obey,
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| 109 | keep, observe, advance and maintain according to my bounden duty with all
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| 110 | the power, force and qualities with which God had endued me, during my
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| 111 | life.
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| 112 | <p>I do recognize, accept, take, repute and acknowledge the king's highness
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| 113 | to be supreme head on earth, under Christ, of the church of England; and
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| 114 | do utterly refuse the bishop of Rome's pretended authority, power and jurisdiction
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| 115 | within this realm, formerly usurped, according to the laws and statutes
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| 116 | made on that behalf, and by all the king's true subjects humbly received,
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| 117 | admitted, obeyed, kept and observed.
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| 118 | <p>And I do also utterly renounce and forsake all manner of remedy, interest
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| 119 | and advantage which I may by any means claim by the bishop of Rome's laws,
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| 120 | processes, jurisdiction or sentence, at this time or in any way hereafter,
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| 121 | by any manner of title, colour, means or cause that is, shall or can be
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| 122 | devised for that purpose.
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| 123 | <p>I do freely, frankly and for the discharge of my duty towards God, the
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| 124 | king's highness and his laws, without other respect, recognize and acknowledge
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| 125 | that the marriage formerly had between his majesty and my mother, the late
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| 126 | princess dowager, was by God's law and man's law incestuous and unlawful.'
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| 127 | <p align="center">
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| 128 | </p>
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| 129 | <p align="center"><a href="primary.html">
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| 130 | <font size="2">to Primary Sources</font></a></td>
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| 131 | </tr>
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