ABSTRACT
NOWE as touchyng you (no doubt but this my sodaine chaunce molesteth your heartes and disquieteth your senses, and not without a cause, you lament the calamitie and mischaunce that is like to fall on your countrey because that I in this troublous worlde and tempestious season leve you destitute of a governour and ruler .... I require you to consult, study and take paine to come to the ende of the jorney whiche I in my tyme have begon and entered in, & chiefly because I have ever loved and trusted you above all other persons, I require and desire you nowe to shewe like love and be as trusty to my sonne that shalbe your soveraigne lord, so that whatsoever duetie, allegiance or favor for my liberalitie or kindnes to you shewed, was to me either of hones tie or civilitie due or owyng: let the same for my sake be extended, shewed and recompensed to mine heyre &
successor !itle prince Henry. Some persons have hated the father & yet have loved the child and some have loved the father and murthered the child, of which sort I neither reken nor accompt you, but this I say, if you love me, you ought to love my child, not for his desert, but for myne, and sith now I shalbe taken from you before satisfaction or recompence made to me for my manyfolde goodnes and ample benefites to you shewed in my life I say & affirme that after my death (excepte you be noted with the blot of ingratitude, I will not say untrueth) you ought to render the same to my child your nephue or kynsman, I pray God that you do not defraud me of the good expectacion that I have ever had of you. And because I will not charge you, I wyl frendly exhort you to bryng up my lytle infant in vertuous livyng, moral doctrine, and prudent pollicye to thentent that by your paine he may prove wise, by your instruccion, he may prove pollitike and by your educacion he may be able to rule a kingdome, and not to be ruled of other: by the which devoier you shall not onely do your dutie to your prince and soveraigne lorde, but also merite and deserve thankes of your native countrey to the which you be both bound and obliged. Beside this my peticion is not onely to comfort my most derest and welbeloved quene and espouse now beyng (as I thinke, the most dolorus and pensive woman livyng) but also to love her and honor her as I have both loved and honored you.
