And because I fear the secret tyrany of some of those into whose power you have abandoned me, I beg you not to permit me to be executed without your knowledge--not from fear of the pain, which I am ready to suffer, but on account of the rumours which would be spread concerning my death if it were not seen by reliable witnesses; how it was done, I am persuaded, in the case of others of different rank. It is for this reason that in another place I require that my attendants remain to be spectators and witnesses of my end in the faith of my Saviour, and in the obedience of His Church, and that afterwards they shall all together withdraw quickly, taking my body with them as secretly as you wish, and so that the furniture and other things which I may be able to leave them in dying, be not taken from them, which will be, indeed, a very small reward for their good services. Would you wish me to return a jewel which you gave me to you with my last words, or would it please you to receive it sooner? I implore of you anew to permit me to send a jewel and a last adieu to my son, together with my blessing, of which he has been deprived, owing to what you informed me of his refusal to enter into a treaty in which I was included,--by the unhappy advice of whom? This last point I leave to your conscience and favourable consideration. For the others, I demand of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, and in consideration of our relationship, in remembrance of King Henry VII., your [great]grandfather and mine, and in honour of the dignity we have both held, and of our common sex, that my request be granted.
For the rest, I think you will have certainly heard that they pulled down my dais, by your order, as they said, and that afterwards they told me that it was not done by your command, but by that of some of the council. I praise God that such cruelty, which could only show malice and afflict me after I had made up my mind to die, came not from you. I fear it has been like this in many other things, and that this is the reason why they would not permit me to write to you until they had, as far as they could, taken from me all external mark of dignity and power, telling me I was simply a dead woman, stripped of all dignity.