Royalty’s holy treasures unveiled in new exhibition

Tired of his older wife and keen to replace her with a younger model, Henry VIII was determined to exchange Catherine of Aragon for Anne Boleyn, whatever the cost.

The Prayer Book of Elizabeth

So advice from royal clerics that divorce was out of the question was not gratefully received by the king.

Now, a new exhibition exploring the relationship between royalty and religion will reveal how Henry’s churlish reaction to the message was more worthy of a petulant schoolboy than one of Britain’s greatest monarchs.

The exhibition at Lambeth Palace Library in London will feature some of the most treasured and personal artefacts from Britain’s monarchs, many of them on display for the first time.

They include Henry’s personal copy of the Invicta Veritas (victory of truth) written in 1532 by Thomas Abel, a priest and chaplain to Catherine of Aragon, Henry’s first wife, who he divorced to marry Anne Boleyn, leading to the Church of England’s break with Rome and the Reformation in England.

On its title page, the book declares that “ ... by no manner of law it may be lawful for the most noble king of england, King Henry the eighth, to be divorced from the queens grace his lawful and very wife”.

Henry crossed out the sentence in black ink, and wrote in Latin underneath: “Fundament[um]] huius libri omnino vanum” - “the grounds of this book are wholly worthless”.

Abel was imprisoned shortly after the book’s publication and executed in 1540.

A happier royal marriage is featured in another exhibit, a handwritten letter from the Queen’s father, Prince Albert, later George VI, shortly after his wedding to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, on April 26, 1923, thanking Archbishop Randall Davidson for the service at Westminster Abbey.

Prince Albert admits to feeling “nervous” during the ceremony and thanks the Archbishop for putting the couple at ease: “My dear Archbishop, I should have written to you before this to thank you from my wife and myself for your great kindness in performing the ceremony of our wedding last Thursday.

"I hope you did not think we were too nervous, but we were soon reassured by your kindly words which gave us much confidence ...”.

Royal Devotion: Monarchy and the Book of Common Prayer opens next month to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the 350th anniversary of the Book of Common Prayer, first devised by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop to Henry VIII during the Reformation.

Among the highlights will be a prayer book that belonged to Queen Elizabeth I, which appears to have inspired her famous Armada speech.

Printed in 1569 by London printers John Day, the book of private devotions features intricately hand-painted illustrations, including a depiction of Elizabeth at prayer in her private quarters surrounded by her crown and sceptre.

Several of the prayers are written in the first person, and are believed to have been written by court clerics and approved by the queen for her personal use.

They include “A Prayer for Wisdom to Govern the Realm” where Elizabeth is compared to King Solomon, before praying: “how much less shall I thy handmaid, being by kind a weak woman, have sufficient ability to rule these kingdoms of England & Ireland.”

The language is similar to that used by Elizabeth 19 years later in her speech to her troops ahead of the Spanish Armada, in which she declared “I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart of a king, and a king of England too.”

The exhibition will also include the silk and silver-thread gloves worn by Charles I at his execution in 1649, following accusations sparked by his marriage to a Roman Catholic princess, Henrietta Maria of France, that Charles had Catholic sympathies.

An ornate ivory chalice belonging to his close friend and Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, will also be on display. Laud, a controversial figure with links to the Roman Catholic church, was deeply mistrusted by many of Charles’s subjects and his appointment was seen by many as bringing the Church of England too close to Rome.

Laud is believed to have taken his final communion from the chalice at the Tower of London on the morning of his execution in January 1645.

Because of their fragility, most of the items are normally kept in high-security rooms at Lambeth Palace Library and are rarely, if ever, on public display.

The Prince of Wales, who will open the exhibition on May 1, will loan his personal copy of the Book of Common Prayer, given to him by his godfather, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who was killed by an IRA bomb in 1979.

The book features the inscription “Broadlands Pew, Mountbatten of Burma” referring to the ancestral home of Lord Mountbatten in Hampshire where the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, and Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales spent part of their honeymoon.

The book is usually kept at Highgrove, the Prince’s country residence in Gloucestershire, where he is believed to use it for his private prayer.

Prince Charles, who is patron of the Prayer Book Society, has paid tribute to the “power and majesty” of the Prayer Book, which he has described as “a most glorious part of our heritage”.

A book of private devotions given to the Queen in 1953 by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher to prepare her for the Coronation. and Richard III’s prayer book recovered from his tent after his death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, will also be on display.

Hugh Cahill, the deputy librarian at Lambeth Palace Library, and co-curator of the exhibition, said: “These extraordinary items highlight the verbal and visual riches of the relationship between royalty and religion over the centuries.

"They also show this history to have been controversial and sometimes violent.

“From the genuine emotion felt by a future king at his wedding to the relics of an executed monarch, the exhibition traces the religious life of the country through royal eyes.”