“And because I dread the tyranny of those to whose power you have abandoned me, I entreat you not to permit execution to be done on me without your own knowledge, not for fear of the torments which I am most ready to suffer, but on account of the reports which will be raised concerning my death unsuspected, and without other witnesses than those who would inflict it, who I am persuaded would be of very different qualities from those parties whom I require (being my servants) to stay spectators and with witnesses of my end in the faith of our Sacrament of my Saviour and in obedience to his Church. And after all is over that they together may carry away my poor body (as secretly as you please) and speedily withdraw without taking with them any of my goods except those which in dying I may leave to them ... which are little enough for their long and faithful services. One jewel that I received of you I shall return to you with my last words, or sooner if you please.
“Once more I supplicate you to permit me to send a jewel and a last adieu to my son with my dying benediction, for of my blessing he has been deprived since you sent me his refusal to enter into the treaty whence I was excluded by his wicked Council; this last point I refer to your favourable consideration and conscience as the others; but I ask them in the name of Jesus Christ, and in respect of our consanguinity, and for the sake of King Henry VII. your grandfather and mine, and by the honour of the dignity we both held and of our sex in common do I implore you to grant these requests.
“As to the rest, I think you know that in your name they have taken down my daïs (canopy and raised seat) but afterwards they owned to me that it was not by your command but by the intimation of some of your Privy Council. I thank God that this wickedness came not from you, and that it serves rather to vent their malice than to afflict me, having made up my mind to die. It is on account of this and some other things that they debarred me from writing to you, and after they had done all in their power to degrade me from my rank they told me 'that I was but a mere dead woman, incapable of dignity'—God be praised for all.
“I would wish that all my papers were brought to you without reserve, that at last it may be manifest to you that the sole care of your safety was not confined to those who are so prompt to persecute me. If you will accord this my last request, I would wish that you would write for them, otherwise they do with them as they choose. And, moreover, I wish that to this my last request you will let me know your last reply. To conclude, I pray God the just judge of his mercy that He will enlighten you with His Holy Spirit, and that He will give me His grace to die in the perfect charity I am disposed to do and to pardon all those who have caused or who have co-operated in my death. Such will be my last prayer to my end, which I esteem myself happy will precede the persecution which I foresee menaces this isle, where God is no longer seriously feared and revered, but vanity and worldly policy rule and govern all—yet will I accuse no one nor give way to presumption—yet while abandoning this world and preparing myself for a better, I must remind you that one day you will have to answer for your charge, and for all those whom you condemn, and that I desire that my blood and my country may be remembered in that time. For why? From the first days of our capacity to comprehend our duties we ought to bend our minds to make the things of this world yield to those of eternity.