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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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| 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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| 65 | <HR width="100%">
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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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| 75 | </td>
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