Tudor historians and literary scholars have long examined the various ways in which Henry VIII and his advisors used the psalms and King David's life to represent Henry's political and religious power. This article examines Katherine Parr's translation of John Fisher's Psalms or Prayers, a book that has not figured in studies of Henrician iconography, but that was one of the most influential acts of royal representation produced in the last years of Henry's reign. Parr's book was printed at a time of military conflict, and as I will argue, it served to represent Henry as an exemplary wartime Davidic monarch – one who was repentant, in need of divine assistance, and thankful for God's help. Parr's book also included an innovative ‘A Prayer for the King,' a translation of a Latin prayer for Henry that was itself derived from a prayer for the Holy Roman Emperor. This prayer explicitly aligns Henry with David and Solomon as it draws on verses from Psalm 2, Psalm 20, and the Book of Proverbs. Importantly, Parr made timely alterations as she translated the Latin prayer into English, alterations that underscore Henry's religious authority, his obedience, and his military prowess. Finally, resonances between Parr's book and the annotations that Henry made in his manuscript Psalter point to political collaboration between king and queen on this important wartime crown production.
This article offers new evidence of Katherine Parr’s activities as a translator by demonstrating that she translated two prayers from Erasmus’s Precationes aliquot novæ in 1544. The first, “A Prayer for Men to Say Entering into Battle,” appeared in all the editions of Parr’s Psalms or Prayers; the second, “A Prayer for Forgiveness of Sins,” was included only in sextodecimo editions. These newly recovered translations have important implications for our understanding of Parr’s involvement in Henry VIII’s war effort and for the history of the dissemination of Erasmus’s ideas in England. This study argues that Parr’s translations provide new evidence that she collaborated with Thomas Cranmer and Henry VIII in producing wartime propaganda but also that Parr reframed, edited, and distorted Erasmus’s prayers to promote Henry’s wartime needs. This data has additional repercussions because Parr was also the sponsor of the translation of Erasmus’s Paraphrases on the New Testament, a text that exhorted Henry and other princes to avoid war and embrace peace. Parr, then, was at the heart of two translation projects that were fundamentally at odds with one another, and her translations can be described as important interventions into Erasmus’s legacy in England.
This essay examines deluxe copies of Katherine Parr's “Psalms or Prayers” (1544) distributed as gifts as part of Henry VIII's wartime campaign. The book promoted supplication for the king, and Parr used hand illumination to amplify its aesthetic and sacred character and to elicit political loyalty. I discuss two copies annotated by Henry, one previously unknown. I argue that the volumes shed new light on Parr's role as queen/author, on Henry's final illness, and on their transactional relationship: Parr's giftbooks advanced Henry's cause and enabled him to display exemplary piety; Henry's marginalia activated Parr's text and thanked her for her labor.
I would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding this project through a Standard Research Grant. I would also like to thank Francis and Kishanda Fulford of Great Fulford House for allowing me to consult their family papers. I am grateful to Shane Hawkins for translating the Latin poems discussed in this article and to the anonymous reviewer at Modern Philology for providing very helpful suggestions.
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