According to a recent study, the late English King Henry VIII left a series of doodles in a prayer book that illustrate his agony about his condition and his past deeds.
A copy of “Psalms or Prayers,” translated by Henry’s sixth and final wife, Katherine Parr, in 1544, contains the annotations made by Henry, who ruled from 1509 until his death in 1547. They were discovered by chance by Micheline White, an associate professor at Carleton University in Canada’s College of the Humanities and Department of English.
White told CNN that she had “totally unexpectedly” come upon the marginalia while reading the book and had recognised them from her earlier research on Henry VIII.
“I was just astounded,” said White. “I didn’t know there were marginalia in the book.”
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Henry left behind two unique markings. The first, called “manicules,” is a representation of a hand with a pointed index finger, and the second, called “trefoils,” is a grouping of three dots with a squiggle.
Because of their size, form, and design, particularly the fact that the manicules have a distinctive cuff, White determined that the prayer book doodles were also created by the King after comparing the marginalia with known markings produced by Henry in other books.