King Henry's Primer (The King's Primer of 1545)
The Primer, set foorth by the Kynges maiestie and his Clergie
O Lorde our heavenly father, almighty and everlasting God, whiche hast safely brought us to the beginning of this daie…
Our renderingO Lord our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day…
What it is
Proclaimed on 29 May 1545 as the sole authorized primer in England, this was the English Reformation's official replacement for the Catholic Book of Hours. It included the reformed litany Cranmer had already published in 1544, prayers for the king, the Lord's Prayer, Creed, Ten Commandments, and daily offices—stripped of saints' veneration and prayers for the dead. A royal proclamation forbade all competing primers, making it the universal devotional text for the court household, schools, and laity alike. Its Cranmerian collects and litany fed directly into the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, giving it a formative role in Anglican devotional tradition.
Why it still matters
The English morning and evening collects and the Cranmerian litany remain directly usable for daily prayer today; anyone praying the Book of Common Prayer is already drawing on this text's lineage.
Kept alongside
Psalter of Henry VIII
Psalterium Henrici VIII (Royal MS 2 A XVI)
An illuminated psalter commissioned by Henry VIII from the French court orator and artist Jean Mallard, now British Library Royal MS 2 A XVI, this manuscript is unique in being the most heavily annotated book to survive from Henry's library, with numerous marginal notes in his own hand made in pen, pencil, and red crayon. The miniatures present Henry as a new King David — a typological identification that is simultaneously a devotional image and a piece of royal propaganda justifying his headship of the Church of England. His annotations cluster around psalms of divine judgement, the contrast of the righteous and wicked, kingship under God, and the vanity of worldly power, making this the most intimate surviving window into the private prayer life of an English Reformation monarch.
Christian Prayers and Meditations (1569 — Elizabeth I's Protestant Book of Hours)
Christian prayers and meditations in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Greeke, and Latine
Published by the Protestant printer John Day in London in 1569 under the patronage of Archbishop Matthew Parker, this work has been described as 'a Protestant Book of Hours.' The sole complete copy at Lambeth Palace Library, which came from Whitehall Palace and was colored in Parker's Lambeth workshop, contains a litany in the first person indicating it was a presentation copy for Elizabeth I's personal use. Seventeen multilingual prayers are attributed to Elizabeth herself, presenting her as a sovereign who converses with God in five languages. Richard Day republished an adaptation as A Book of Christian Prayers in 1578, reprinted 1581 and 1590, giving the text a wider Protestant readership beyond the court.
Anne Boleyn's Book of Hours (Hever Castle, c. 1527–28 Paris)
Horae ad usum Romanum (Paris, Germain Hardouin, c. 1527–28)
A Book of Hours printed in Paris by Germain Hardouin c. 1527–28, now at Hever Castle, inscribed in Anne Boleyn's own hand: 'remember me when you do pray / that hope dothe led from day to day / anne Boleyn.' Tradition holds that Anne carried this book to her execution in 1536, though this claim is unverified. Ultraviolet imaging has since revealed erased names—Elizabeth Hill, Elizabeth Shirley, Mary Cheke, Philippa Gage, and Mary West—identifying a network of Kentish women who preserved the book after Anne's death; scholars have inferred, though not confirmed, that the book may have eventually reached Elizabeth I through this network. A matching copy of the same Hardouin edition was owned by Catherine of Aragon and is now at the Morgan Library.