Despite the uncertainty over Elizabeth’s status after Anne Boleyn’s execution, Henry VIII ensured that his daughter received a fine education. Together with her brother Edward, she learned to write in the Italic hand which had been developed during the early Renaissance period, an example of which can be seen in this psalter. Henry’s last wife, Katherine Parr, took an active interest in the education and welfare of Henry’s three children, and was influential in the restoration of Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession in 1544. After Elizabeth’s accession in 1558 she invariably signed her name Elizabeth R, suggesting that this poem must date from before that time.