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9 | <title>Primary Sources - Letter of Katharine of Aragon to her husband, King
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10 | Henry VIII, 7 January 1536 </title>
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30 | <td valign="top" width="70%" height="610" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
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31 | <p align="center"><b><FONT size=+1>Letter of Katharine of Aragon to her husband, King
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32 | Henry VIII<br>7 January 1536</FONT> </b> </p>
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33 | <p><FONT size=-1><b>Background </b> <br>This is the last letter Katharine wrote to
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34 | Henry. Its magnanimity is proof that the queen's much-vaunted piety was
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35 | sincere. However, she was not averse to a few rebukes. Henry had
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36 | treated her horribly and she had not seen their daughter for years. But
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37 | Katharine's capacity for forgiveness was great, as was her self-delusion; in
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38 | this letter, she again attributes his love for Anne Boleyn to mere physical
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39 | desire.</FONT> </p>
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40 | <p><FONT size=-1>Henry openly celebrated her death and she was
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41 | buried as Dowager Princess of Wales in Peterborough Cathedral.</FONT>
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42 | <FONT size=-1>In light of this, the last line of her letter becomes especially
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43 | tragic. While she may have desired a visit with him above all else,
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44 | Henry was only too happy to learn of her death. It is probable, too,
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45 | that his harsh treatment of Katharine hastened her decline.</FONT> </p>
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46 | <hr>
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47 | <p>My most dear lord, king and husband, <BR>The hour of my
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48 | death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forceth me, my case being
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49 | such, to commend myself to you, and to put you in remembrance with a few
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50 | words of the health and safeguard of your soul which you ought to prefer
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51 | before all worldly matters, and before the care and pampering of your body,
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52 | for the which you have cast me into many calamities and yourself into many
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53 | troubles. For my part, I pardon you everything, and I wish to devoutly
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54 | pray God that He will pardon you also. For the rest, I commend unto
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55 | you our daughter Mary, beseeching you to be a good father unto her, as I
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56 | have heretofore desired. I entreat you also, on behalf of my maids, to
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57 | give them marriage portions, which is not much, they being but three.
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58 | For all my other servants I solicit the wages due them, and a year more,
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59 | lest they be unprovided for. Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes
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60 | desire you above all things. <BR>Katharine the Quene.</p>
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61 | <p> </p>
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62 |
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63 | <BLOCKQUOTE>
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64 | <P>
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66 | </BLOCKQUOTE>
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67 | <p align="center"><FONT size=-1><A
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68 | href="letters.html">to Letters of the Six Wives
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69 | of Henry VIII</A></FONT></p>
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70 | <p align="center"><FONT size=-1><A href="primary.html">to
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71 | Primary Sources</A></FONT><BR><FONT size=-1><A
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72 | href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor.html">to Tudor England</A></FONT><BR><FONT size=-1><A
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73 | href="monarchs/aragon.html">to Katharine of
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74 | Aragon website</A></FONT></p>
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