Under the Influence: The Impact of Queenly Book Dedications on Princess Mary

Abstract

The six wives of Henry VIII received seventeen printed book dedications. They included a wide variety of subject matter, from marriage to religion to midwifery, and were written by a wide variety of men. Of these seventeen dedications, Mary was mentioned in four of them, three to Catherine of Aragon, and one to Katherine Parr. Additionally, one book dedicated to Anne Boleyn contained a separate dedication to Mary. This essay will analyze the dedications to Henry’s consorts that mention Mary and the perceptions of the dedicators of the influences of their dedicatees on Mary. This essay will operate chronologically, first discussing the perceived influence of Catherine of Aragon, which will be the bulk of the essay. Then I will discuss Anne Boleyn and Katherine Parr’s perceived influences on Mary. Altogether, I suggest that the dedications to Henry’s wives that mention Mary offer a unique perspective of perceptions of the influences of these queens on Mary before she ascended the throne.