Katherine Parr: Prayer book written by queen goes on display

Three rare books are to be displayed at a museum in Kent, including one written by Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII.

They were recently rediscovered by a volunteer who was tidying archives at the Fleur de Lis museum in Faversham.

The books had been concealed in a chimney for about 300 years when they were first discovered by local builder George Johnson in 1881.

They were donated to the museum by Mr Johnson's descendants and rediscovered.

Prayers or Meditations was the first book published by an English woman under her own name and by an English queen, said Justin Croft, a specialist in antiquarian books.

A letter found with the books suggests they were hidden during the reign of Mary I, often nicknamed "Bloody Mary" for her persecution of Protestants in an attempt to restore Catholicism in England.

Possession of such items could have been a "death sentence", said the Faversham Society, which runs the Fleur de Lis Museum.

The prayer books are in English rather than Latin when it was "new and contentious", said Mr Croft, adding they could have been "dangerous".

"Just a few miles away in Canterbury, Protestants were being burned at the stake for their beliefs, which included the conviction that praying in their mother tongue was part of their faith.

"Whoever owned the Faversham prayer books in the 1550s wouldn't want to advertise the fact - and probably had good reason to hide them."

The other books include a primer by Thomas Cranmer and a prayer book, partly the work of Parr.

They will go on display at the Fleur de Lis Museum on Saturday.

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