The Wives of Henry the Eighth and the Parts They Played in History
David Hume · en
After four days' stay of Chapuys, Katharine seemed better, and the
apothecary, De la Sá, gave it as his opinion that she was out of immediate
danger. She even laughed a little at the antics of Chapuys' fool, who was
called in to amuse her; and, reassured by the apparent improvement, the
ambassador started on his leisurely return to London.[135] On the second
day after his departure, soon after midnight, the Queen asked if it was
near day, and repeated the question several times at short intervals
afterwards. When at length the watchers asked her the reason for her
impatience for the dawn, she replied that it was because she wished to
hear Mass and receive the Holy Sacrament. The aged Dominican Bishop of
Llandaff (Jorge de Ateca) volunteered to celebrate at four o'clock in the
morning, but Katharine refused, and quoted the Latin authorities to prove
that it should not be done before dawn. With the first struggling of the
grey light of morning the offices of the Church for the dying were
solemnly performed, whilst Katharine prayed fervently for herself, for
England, and for the man who had so cruelly wronged her. When all was done
but the administration of extreme unction, she bade her physician write a
short memorandum of a few gifts she craved for her faithful servants; for
she knew, and said, that by the law of England a married woman could make
no valid will. The testament is in the form of a supplication to Henry,
and is remarkable as the dictation of a woman within a few hours of her
death. Each of her servants is remembered: a hundred pounds to her
principal Spanish lady, Blanche de Vargas, "twenty pounds to Mistress
Darrel for her marriage"; his wages and forty pounds were to be paid to
Francisco Felipe, the Groom of the Chambers, twenty pounds to each of the
three lackeys, including the Burgundian Bastian, and like bequests, one by
one, to each of the little household. Not even the sum she owed for a gown
was forgotten. For her daughter she craved her furs and the gold chain and
cross she had brought from Spain, all that was left of her treasures after
Anne's greed had been satisfied;[136] and for the Convent of Observant
Franciscans, where she begged for sepulture, "my gowns which he (the King)
holdeth." It is a sad little document, compliance with which was for the
most part meanly evaded by Henry; even Francisco Felipe "getting nothing
and returning poor to his own country."