WHILE ELIZABETH'S JUVENILE translations have been the subject of much scholarship, those by Mary have not received the same attention. There are two extant translations credited to Mary before she became queen, and neither exists in her own handwriting. One, she undertook as an eleven-year-old princess, the same age as Elizabeth when she offered her first translation to Katherine Parr. The other, she translated sometime between 1545 and 1547, the time in which Elizabeth gave Henry VIII and Katherine Parr her New Year's gift translations. What makes these translations noteworthy, is that neither had an accompanying dedication. Mary wrote these translations as part of her schooling or at the behest of her stepmother. She did not include a dedication for either because they simply were not necessary to convey a political message. However, as will be seen, both ended up serving a political purpose, quite possibly without Mary's knowledge or consent.

Mary's Translation of St. Thomas Aquinas

In the British Library there is held a medieval illuminated Book of Hours previously owned by Mary Wotton, Lady Guildford, a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon, containing marginalia and inscriptions in at least fifteen different hands. Among the fifteen hands, there are signatures by Henry VII, Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon, and Princess Mary. On the final folios of the manuscript, there is a prayer titled “The prayer of Sainte Thomas of Aquine translatyd oute of latin vnto Englysshe by y moste exselent Princesse Mary doughter to the moste hygh and myghty Prynce and Prynces kyng henry the. viii and Quene Kateryn hys wyfe In the yere of oure lorde god y ccccc.xxvii: And the xi. yere of here age.” The prayer spans four pages. Aysha Pollnitz suggests that Mary “probably worked from a medieval Latin rendering, printed in a 1514 Salisbury Book of Hours.”

Whether she intended or not, Mary's translation represented her lineage as the daughter and granddaughter of kings and reinforced her legitimacy as Henry's daughter, as her translation appears alongside the signatures of her royal relatives.