Lady Elizabeth and Katharine Parr in Becoming Elizabeth
Although we are approaching the middle of the year, there will no doubt be some who are looking ahead and thinking of Christmas and gift ideas already. Some of us will often leave it too late as the mad rush of December approaches. Sixteenth century royalty, it appears, was no different.
On 31st December 1544, the then 11-year-old Lady Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I) wrote in her dedication to a New Year’s gift for her stepmother Katherine Parr that ‘I do trust…that the file of your most excellent wit and godly learning… shall rub out, polish and mend… the words or rather the order of my writing.’ (1)
Elizabeth had rushed the end of her gift and worked against time to get it finished. She had translated Margaret of Navarre’s religious poem Miroir de l’âme pécheresse (the Mirror or Glass of the Sinful Soul) from French into English, in humanist hand.
Although in Elizabeth’s dedication she presents herself as being unsure and almost shy of her work, Elizabeth’s gift is, I believe, strategic in several ways. For although Elizabeth asks Katherine to correct her work, with this gift Elizabeth is aware of her fragile and new position in the line of succession, and created it for Katherine to strengthen their relationship, thus solidifying her position with her father, Henry VIII. By understanding the importance of a New Year’s gift, the significance of the poem in reflecting their shared religion, and during one of the most important of her junior years, Elizabeth’s manuscript illustrates the politics of books as gifts in the Henrician court, even at the hands of a child.
First, Elizabeth would have understood the importance of the gift she was creating.
During the early modern period New Year’s was not only an appropriate time to give gifts, but also to receive them, with an established protocol of gift giving (2). The exchange of gifts of New Year at the Henrician court was therefore a highly significant social and political event, providing a ritualised and public context for gift giving. Gifts were recorded in a gift roll each year; however, gift rolls only survive for 1528, 1532, 1534 and 1539.
At age six Elizabeth had created for her brother a shirt of her own making, but from 1544 Elizabeth was harnessing the politics of books to solidify her familial relationships. Patricia Pender notes that ‘the exchange of gifts was a crucial mode of early modern networking—one in which relationships between peers and across power lines were initiated, brokered, celebrated, and cemented. Books—often beautifully designed and decorated books—played an instrumental role in this process’ (3). Created to curry favour or influence, by selecting a book as a gift for her stepmother Elizabeth was knowingly working within a tradition.
1544 was a year in which Elizabeth had reason to now assert herself, as she and her elder half-sister Mary were reinstated (though not legitimised) in the line of succession. Called the Third Succession Act, it was given royal assent on 29th March 1544. This year she was formally presented at her father’s court, the first surviving painting of her exists, and her first extant letter survives. As Elizabeth is for the first time in her life painted alongside Henry, this gift becomes a physical embodiment and representation of her new legal status.
The Family of Henry VIII, The Royal Collection Trust. Elizabeth is on the far right of the painting.
Whilst in 1544, her sister Mary presented their father with a plate costing forty pounds, Elizabeth’s choice of gift is far more strategic. The gift she presented to Henry that year has not survived, however it is likely that she also presented her father with a translation too. She created matching translations for her father and stepmother the following year, gifting Henry her triple translation of Katherine’s own newly published Prayers or Meditations, and for Katherine a translation of the first chapter of John Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion. It is possible that the missing gift for Henry of this quartet of matching bound books was Erasmus’ Diologus Fidei.
Elizabeth’s choice of a hand-made present illustrates an intimacy, loyalty and desire for favour which other gifts lack. Elizabeth is displaying to her stepmother (and by extension her father) that her new humanist education and reinstation is not being wasted on her, and is, in fact, a part of the formation of her own, bookish image. The first known surviving solo portrait of Elizabeth dates circa 1546 with Elizabeth seated in front of a bible, clasping a book. Portraits were an essential proponent of the Tudor propaganda machine and books were becoming incorporated into her own personal symbolism.
Elizabeth I when a Princess, c. 1546, Royal Collection Trust
The Reformed faith of which Elizabeth and Katherine were together exploring has often been called a religion ‘of the Book and of books’. David Starkey has stated in his biography of Elizabeth that ‘religion was one of the few areas where late-medieval women were allowed a high degree of autonomy and initiative’ (4). Whilst of course this was true, autonomy for women in this period was becoming increasingly dangerous. Katherine herself was nearly arrested in 1546 for her alleged ‘New Faith’ and harbouring of ‘illicit books’, however she managed to dissuade Henry from proceeding.
In 1544, the Lords, under the guidance of Bishop Gardiner, launched ‘a frontal attack on the whole new print culture.’ (5) The Act, ‘concerning printing of books,’ was drawn in the widest of terms, with limited texts in the vernacular prohibited. Part of the Bill included that only upper-class men could read these works, and that despite religion being previously a sphere of activity for women, they were now banned. As the debate developed a proviso was added which allowed noble ladies to read the English Bible, but to do so alone.
Katherine, however, much like Elizabeth’s mother Anne Boleyn, was a patroness of the Reformation. Katherine, also like Anne, was known to hold religious conferences in her apartments, with one of her chaplains preaching daily sermons in her privy chamber. In April of 1544, Katherine anonymously published her first book, Psalms or Prayers, only a year after Henry’s supervised book known as ‘King’s Book’ had been published, which reflected Henry’s traditionalist opinions on the Creed and outright rebuked Martin Luther’s theological interpretation of Justification by Faith. Thus, books in this period seemed to take on the life of those around them.
With religious turmoil that was rampant, book burnings mimicked burned martyrs, banned books those arrested for harbouring illicit books, and the creation of personalised books for personal aims. Elizabeth’s translation gift for Katherine is thus situated amongst this religiously politicised period of the book, and women’s relationship with the scriptures in English. The Justification by Faith was the principal article of faith of Luther, and indeed the whole Reformation. It was, as shown by Elizabeth’s choice of translation, a key article of their own joint faith.
It is not clear when Elizabeth encountered Margaret of Navarre’s text, although there are several options. Firstly, Elizabeth could have read a copy which belonged to her own mother, she could have received a copy from Katherine herself or from her French tutor Jean Belamin, also a Reformist. Anne had spent her own teenage years at the French court and visited Francis I with Henry in 1532 in Boulogne, when Margaret was their hostess.
It is possible a friendly relationship developed, and in return the exchange of this book. Starkey has argued that Katherine and Elizabeth were reading the text together during the summer of 1544 which Elizabeth spent with her at court whilst Katherine was Queen regent during Henry’s war with France. Valerie Schutte has outlined that ‘both Katherine and Elizabeth had an interest in an evangelical theology and that Elizabeth capitalised on that mutual interest to her own benefit’. Scholars have debated what influence Katherine had on the education of her stepchildren, and whilst there is no solid evidence to suggest Katherine and Elizabeth were reading this text together, it is certainly possible. Regardless of where the inspiration came from, the choice of text is evidently deliberate, as Elizabeth would have known that Katherine would have approved of the evangelical and reformist tone of the work, from a royal author she had certainly read and admired.
Margaret was also a leading patroness of the Reformation in the French court, a role Katherine now found herself emulating. Thus, Elizabeth would have been aware of how pleasing this gift would have been to her stepmother. Elizabeth was not only working within a tradition of New Year’s books as gifts but a tradition of female, royal books.
The title of Elizabeth’s translation is arguably deliberately similar to her paternal great-grandmother Margaret Beaufort’s translation, The Mirror of Gold for the Sinful Soul. Elizabeth clearly had an understanding of her place within a royal religious literary sphere, and her place within her own family. In the year she is reinstated as her father’s heir, she is writing herself into an established genealogy of Tudor women, and as Pender writes ‘Elizabeth brokered for an additional source of legitimacy via Katherine Parr-as a royal Tudor woman of demonstrated learning, letters, and piety.’ Elizabeth would have understood that Katherine could produce Henry an heir. Therefore, by strengthening her bond with Katherine through this work she is protecting her own role within her family and the line of succession.
Thematically, the text is a personal account of one woman’s search for and familiar relationship with God, focusing on the sinful nature of the writer. The original text is evangelical in nature in that it emphasises the reading of the scriptures and downplaying of the role of saints. The poem’s Pauline-Augustinian bent and biblical allusions are prominent, with its Reformist tone apparent throughout. It also has an unusual status in that the agencies of this work were female. In relation to God the speaker presents herself as having several familial relationships with God: as a daughter, mother, sister and wife. Each area of transgression is explored through an episode from the Bible. It is possible that the paradigm of Miriam as subordinate sister would have echoed with Elizabeth’s own role as an inferior to her brother Edward, despite her reinstation of status.
An area of particular interest within the text is Elizabeth’s dedication to Katherine. Schutte continues that typically, dedications were given by clients seeking patronage, and as a Princess, it was not the norm for Elizabeth to be writing one, however by choosing to ‘it is reflective of her precarious status as a second daughter who was bastardised through the annulment of her parents’ marriage.’
By writing one for Katherine, she is attempting to strengthen their relationship further. The book was clearly meant to be a special, and private gift for Katherine, as Elizabeth writes ‘But I hope, that after to have been in Your Grace’s hands there shall be nothing in it worthy of reprehension and that in the meanwhile no other (but Your Highness only) shall read it or see it, lest my faults be known to many.’ Elizabeth clearly did not want the text passed around. Katherine however had other ambitions, and within three years and some corrections John Bale had printed it. Thus, Elizabeth’s remarks illustrate she anticipated her stepmother not being a passive recipient but an editor and circulator of reforming religious works amongst her circle.
Within the dedication Elizabeth also touches on their shared faith, particularly to the Justification by Faith. Emphasising the inadequacy of the human soul, she writes how the speaker ‘doth perceive how, of herself, and of her own strength, she can do nothing good is, or prevaileth for her salvation – unless it be through the grace of God, whose mother, daughter, sister, and wife, by the scriptures she proveth herself to be’. Trusting also that through his incomprehensible love, grace and mercy she (being called from sin to repentance) doth faithfully hope to be saved’. Here, Elizabeth is able to condense the complexities of the poem and Justification by Faith into a few sentences, demonstrating her precocious theological grasp, which would have impressed Katherine.
Elizabeth did not only harness her literary and language talents in this gift, but also more traditionally feminine ones. It is accepted that Elizabeth bound the volume in canvas and embroidered the cover, in blue and silver silk, herself. The ‘KP’ on the cover is not a slight against Katherine but quite the opposite, in that she is unique amongst Henry’s wives to incorporate her maiden name into her signature, always signing off with ‘Catherine the Queen: KP’, with the style identified as Gobelin stich. By including ‘KP’ Elizabeth is incorporating Katherine’s own preferences. The flowers down the spine in silver and gold thread have been identified as pansies (6), which Margaret Swain (7) states could be a play on the French word pensée (meaning a thought or reflection put into literary form).
Elizabeth’s handstitched cover – note the ‘KP’. Oxford: Bodleian, MS. Cherry 36
Historically, needlework has been viewed by some as an oppressive or confining activity for women, but here Elizabeth is utilising it for her own means. Women connected with each other through domestic settings and here Elizabeth is constructing her gift, a book, as a whole, with each piece carefully crafted to please Katherine. The private feminine spheres and newly public ones are combining, which would have appealed to Katherine. She is asserting herself through its construction, as Maureen Quilligan writes that with cotton batting used to raise cord-marks on the book’s spine, as if the embroidered cover were part of the manuscripts binding, this allows the book to mimic authorship of a bound manuscript (8). Thus, in Elizabeth’s first surviving book the masculine and feminine traditions combine, pen and needle.
It’s clear that by using all her talents, Elizabeth succeeded in creating a gift which was sentimental to Katherine. We know this because upon Katherine’s death, the book was acquired directly from Francis Cherry, whose widow then gave the book to the Bodleian Library. Katherine therefore kept this book in her possession after Henry’s death, her subsequent marriage to Thomas Seymour (during which time Elizabeth lived with her) and after Elizabeth’s departure from her home (suggested at the time and subsequently due to abuse on Seymour’s part). That Katherine kept this book with her until she died illustrates that the book succeeded in everything Elizabeth had hoped it would.
Katherine Parr, c. 1540s
References:
Oxford: Bodleian, MS. Cherry 36, folio 3, verso – folio 4, recto. https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/f50de7e8-87bb-4cbe-9b14-4622f127e8e4/surfaces/b326ba58-29c6-4273-851a-d51fb4f1eaf9/
Heal, Felicity, The Power of Gifts: Gift-exchange in Early Modern England, Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2014)
Pender, Patricia, Gifts That Matter: Katherine Parr, Princess Elizabeth and the Prayers or Meditations (1545) in The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Women’s Writing, (2022)
Starkey, David, Apprenticeship, Vintage Books, (2001)
Starkey, David, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII, Vintage Books, (2004)
Schutte, Valerie, Princesses Mary and Elizabeth Tudor and the Gift Book Exchange, Amsterdam University Press, June, (2021)
Swain, Margaret H., "A New Year's Gift from the Princess Elizabeth," in The Connoisseur 36, (1973)
Quilligan, Maureen, Elizabeth’s Embroidery, Shakespeare Studies, New York, Vol. 28, (2000)
Secondary reading:
Ames, Percy W., The Mirror of the Sinful Soul, Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom, ed. Asher and Co, London, (1890)
Doran, Susan, British Library, Elizabeth and Mary: Royal Cousins, Rival Queens, (2021)
Ellis, Roger, The Juvenile Translations of Elizabeth Tudor, Translation and Literature, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Autumn, 2009)
Janel Mueller, Katherine Parr and Her Circle, in The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Literature: 1485-1603, edited by Mike Pincombe and Cathy Shrank, (2012)
Norton, Elizabeth, The Lives of Tudor Women, Head of Zeus, (2017)
Pollnitz, Aysha, Religion and Translation at the Court of Henry VIII: Princess Mary, Katherine Parr, and the Paraphrases of Erasmus, in Mary Tudor: Old and New Perspectives, ed. by Susan Doran and Thomas Freeman, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, (2011)
Snyder, Susan, Guilty Sisters: Marguerite de Navarre, Elizabeth of England, and the Miroir de l'âme Pécheresse, in Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 50, No.2, (Summer, 1997)
Sommers, Paula, "Le Miroir de l'âme pécheresse" Revisited: Ordered Reflections in a Biblical Mirror, Modern Language Studies, Vo. 16, No. 3 (Summer, 1986)
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