Gorgeous books and royal annotations at the National Library

Katherine Parr’s handwriting and signature in a copy of A Sermon of Saint Chrysostom (1542). Image: by permission of Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe.

What did Katherine Parr and Henry VIII write in their books? Step into the private libraries of one of history’s most infamous royal couples and discover how ink, margins, and manuscript flourishes reveal more than meets the eye.

In this illuminating lecture at the National Library, renowned scholar Professor Micheline White delves into the marginalia left by King Henry VIII and his last wife, Katherine Parr, in their personal books. These deluxe volumes, often adorned with handwritten notes, decorative trefoils, and curious little pointing hands called manicules, tell a compelling story of public image-making and personal survival in the Tudor court.

Were these annotations simply personal reflections, or were they calculated messages written for a watchful audience of courtiers? Professor White will guide us through a close reading of these royal markings to reveal how Henry and Katherine used their books not just for learning or devotion, but as tools of self-fashion in crafting images of piety, wisdom, and authority. For Katherine in particular, this wasn’t merely academic: her very survival may have depended on how successfully she performed the role of the ideal Tudor queen.

Attend in person

Entry to this event is free but bookings are essential.

Watch online

The conversation will also be available online. Please make a booking and we will send you a direct link to the livestream event via email. Or you can join through the Library’s YouTube channel.

About Micheline White

Micheline White is Professor in the College of the Humanities and the Departments of English and History at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Her research focuses on women writers, religious history, book history, and social networks in early modern England. She and Jaime Goodrich have co-edited a volume on women and communal worship which is forthcoming from the Delaware University press in 2025.

In 2018, she co-edited (with Leah Knight and Elizabeth Sauer) Women’s Bookscapes in Early Modern Britain: Reading, Ownership, Circulation (University of Michigan Press). She is the editor of English Women, Religion, and Textual Production, 1500–1625 (Ashgate, 2011) and Secondary Work on Early Modern Women Writers (Ashgate, 2009). In 2024, she was awarded the Sixteenth Century Society’s Raymond B. Waddington Prize for the best English-language article on the literature of the Early Modern period. Her work on Katherine Parr and Henry VIII has been featured in interviews with the London Times, CNN, Berliner Morgenpost, the Canadian Globe and Mail, among others.

This event is presented in partnership with the ANU Centre for Early Modern Studies.

The Details

What: Gorgeous books and royal annotations at the National Library
When: Thursday 7 August from 6 pm to 7 pm
Where: National Library of Australia
Cost: Free. Registrations essential.