CNN —Toward the end of his life, England’s King Henry VIII left a series of doodles in a prayer book, revealing his anguish over his health and his past actions, new research shows.
The Trustees of The Wormsley FundWhite told CNN Tuesday that she found the marginalia “totally unexpectedly” while looking at the book, and recognized them from her previous work on Henry VIII.
The manicules have a distinctive shape that matches others known to have been drawn by Henry.
Parr gave the book, which is currently housed in the Wormsley Library in Stokenchurch, England, to Henry as a gift.
One passage in the prayer book says that God’s punishment has left the narrator “feeble,” and Henry was himself in bad health at the time.
Persons:
England’s King Henry VIII, Henry, Katherine Parr, Micheline White, White, Henry VIII, “, ”, ” Henry, doodles, Parr, King, Anne Boleyn, “ He’s, —, He’s
Organizations:
CNN, College of, Humanities, Department of, Carleton University
Locations:
Canada, Wormsley, Stokenchurch, England, France