Catherine Parr

Katherine Parr
Queen Consort of England
Catherine Parr
Born	ca. 1512
	Kendal Castle
Died	5 September 1548
	Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire
Consort	1543 - 1547
Consort to	Henry VIII
Issue	Mary Seymour
Father	Sir Thomas Parr
Mother	Maud Green

Catherine Parr (c. 1512 – September 5, 1548), also known as Katherine or Katharine Parr(e), was the last of the six wives of Henry VIII of England. She was queen consort of England during 1543–1547, then dowager queen of England. She was the most married English queen, with four husbands.

Early life and marriages

Catherine was the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal and Maud Greene; she was the eldest of three children, probably born in 1512, followed by a brother, William and a sister, Anne. Thomas and Maud were courtiers during the early years of Henry VIII's reign. Thomas was knighted at the king's coronation in 1509 and Maud was a lady-in-waiting to his first queen, Katharine of Aragon after who, Catherine was named. Her father died in 1517 and she was sent to live with her uncle, Sir William Parr in Northamptonshire where she received a good education.

At the age of fifteen, she became the second wife of Edward Borough, 2nd Baron Borough of Gainsborough, in 1529. Not of good health, he died in early 1533.

In the summer of 1534, she married John Nevill, 3rd Baron Latymer of Snape, North Yorkshire, who died in March 1543 after the stress of being held hostage in 1536, during the Pilgrimage of Grace, due to the northern rebels who fought against King Henry's religious policies. Catherine and her two stepchildren were also held hostage at that time. Her husband had to report to the king as to his imprisonment and soon after died.

As Catherine nursed her second ailing husband she spent more time at court where she saw many new things, foremost, vital young men her own age. She was a wealthy young widow when she began a relationship with Thomas Seymour, the brother of the late queen Jane Seymour and uncle to the future king, Edward VI.

But it was in the household of Henry's daughter by Catherine of Aragon, Mary, that Catherine caught the attention of the king. The king took a liking to her and she was obliged to accept his proposal instead of Thomas Seymour.

Catharine Parr, a dutiful woman, entered into her third marriage with an older, sickly husband. It wasn't easy for her, and she wrote to Seymour, 'As truly as God is God, my mind was fully bent.... to marry you before any man I know. But the will of God was different' than her own. She struggled greatly, but she had no choice but to obey. And now another family began to ascend in court, the Parr's.

Queen consort of England and Ireland

Catherine was the last and final Queen of King Henry VIII.

The Six Wives of King Henry VIII
Catherine of Aragon
Anne Boleyn
Jane Seymour
Anne of Cleves
Catherine Howard
Catherine Parr

She married Henry VIII on July 12, 1543 at Hampton Court Palace. She was the first English queen consort to enjoy the new title Queen of Ireland following Henry's adoption of the title King of Ireland. As queen, Catherine was partially responsible for reconciling Henry with his daughters from his first two marriages, who would later become Queens regnant, Mary and Elizabeth. She also developed a good relationship with Henry's son Edward, later Edward VI. When she became Queen, her uncle Baron Parr of Horton became her Lord Chamberlain.

Their marriage was consummated, and although Henry was occasionally impotent, Catharine was known to order black satin nightdresses. She would often sit holding the king's sore leg in her lap, or sit in his lap herself. They both loved music and she would dance for him. Their marriage seemed a happy one.

For three months, from July to September 1544, Catherine was appointed queen regent by Henry as he went on his last, unsuccessful, campaign in France. Thanks to her uncle having been appointed as a member of her regency council, and to the sympathies of fellow appointed councilors Thomas Cranmer and Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford, Catherine obtained effective control and was able to rule as she saw fit. She handled provision, finances and musters for Henry's French campaign, signed five royal proclamations, and maintained constant contact with her lieutenant in the northern Marches, the Earl of Shrewsbury, over the complex and unstable situation with Scotland. It is thought that her actions as regent, together with her strength of character and noted dignity, and later religious convictions, greatly influenced her stepdaughter Elizabeth I.

Religious views and controversy

Her religious views were complex, and the issue is clouded by the lack of evidence. Although she must have been brought up as a Catholic, given her birth before the Protestant Reformation, she later became sympathetic and interested in the "New Faith." She and her younger friends had grown up after Martin Luther's triumph in Germany. Evangelical Protestantism was dangerously attractive to her with the emphasis on an individual's reading of the Bible. She drew young thinkers to her, like Mile Coverdale, John Parkhurst, Anthony Cope and others. She also became close friends with Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, and Catherine Willoughby, the duchess of Suffolk, another young, educated woman with an elderly husband.

We can be sure that she held some strong reformed ideas after Henry's death, when the Lamentacions of a synner (Lamentations of a Sinner) were published in late 1547. However, her commissioning of the translation of Desiderius Erasmus' Paraphrases shows her more as a MacConica-style Erasmian Pietist.

The individual reading of the Bible in English, surcumventing the clergy, was thought by conservatives to foster heresy.

She was reformist enough to be viewed with suspicion by Catholic and anti-Protestant officials such as Bishop Stephen Gardiner and Chancellor Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton who tried to turn the king against her in 1546. Angered, she wrote, 'Is it not extreme wickedness to charge the holy sanctified word of God with the offenses of man? To allege the Scriptures to be perilous learning because certain readers thereof fall into heresies?'

The king's council became alarmed by the permissive religious climate and passed the Act for the Advancement of the True Religion. It disallowed the 'lower sort' from studying the Bible in English but was later amended to allow noblewomen the right to read the Bible but alone and they should not engage in religious debate. Catherine, feeling secure in her position at court, ignored the law and continued to debate religious doctrine. Her friend Anne Askew was arrested and horribly tortured, but refused to implicate the queen. When Anne was executed, Catherine through out her most evangelical books. But as the king still showed much affection towards her she felt she was safe. But her Catholic enemies conspired to have her removed and punished, like Thomas Cromwell.

An arrest warrant was drawn up for her. A copy of it was left by her door and she realized her dangerous situation. When the king confronted her about her religious arguments with him, she managed to reconcile with the King after vowing that she had only argued about religion with him to take his mind off the suffering caused by his ulcerous leg. This won his heart. "Then Kate, we are friends again."

But the king's council had not heard of their reconciliation. When Wriothesley and forty guards came with the warrant to arrest Catharine the next day, the king himself defended her by beating them, and cursing them. Catharine was saved and Henry gave her more jewels in reunion.

She had humbly appealed to his vanity which saved her life and it also allowed the king to remind everyone who was actually in control. Conservative Wriothesley had wanted to utilize the king's temper to destroy a woman he considered a heretic. But Henry VIII was of another mind. He had long lamented the loss of Cromwell and Sir Thomas More and he disliked any manipulation by his councilors. By saving Catharine in such a public way he exhibited his omnipotence and mutability.

Scholarship

Catherine, and her brother and sister were educated at their mother's direction after the death of their father in the hope of securing good marriages. Catherine was fluent in French, Italian, and Latin, and began learning Greek, and some sources say Spanish, when she was Queen. She was also a patron of the arts and music. Catherine’s education was good but not comprehensive. In 1545, she was the first English queen to publish a book under her own name: “Prayers or Meditations.” Her other book, “The Lamentation of a Sinner”, was published after the death of Henry VIII during the last year of her life.

Catharine Parr encouraged Elizabeth I's education, which allowed the later Queen Elizabeth to be the most learned monarch in English history. She also brought the scholars, John Cheke and Roger Ascham, to be tutors to young Prince Edward. Thus bringing the influence of the reformers from Cambridge to the royal children.

Final marriage, childbirth and death

Henry VIII died in January 1547, leaving Catherine one of the wealthiest women in England. Thomas Seymour had been made Master-General of the Ordnance in 1544 and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1545. He returned to court a few months before Henry's death and saw his brother Edward become Lord Protector of England and, in effect, ruler of the realm as Regent for his nephew, Henry VIII's minor son and successor, the short-lived Edward VI. As part of a 'unfulfilled gifts clause' left unmentioned in Henry's will, Thomas was granted the title Baron Seymour of Sudeley. However, Thomas' fervent desire was to unseat and replace his brother as Lord Protector.

When Henry VIII died there was probable expectation for Catherine to play the role of dowager queen for the new nine-year-old king, Edward VI, instead, just a few months after Henry’s death, Catherine secretly married her former love, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley Lord High Admiral. The secrecy of her marriage and the short mourning period caused a scandal. Yet Catherine was still able to take guardianship of Princess Elizabeth and her husband Thomas purchased the wardship of the king’s cousin, Lady Jane Grey.

Having had no children from her first three marriages, Catherine became pregnant for the first time, by Seymour, at age thirty-five. But her happiness was short-lived.

She had a rivalry over precedence with Anne Stanhope , the wife of her husband's brother, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and other arguments over Catherine's possessions, especially the jewelry Henry VIII had given her. Thomas Seymour was alleged to have taken liberties with the teen aged Princess Elizabeth (Catherine's step-daughter and future Elizabeth I), who was living in their household, and had reputedly plotted to marry her. To protect Elisabeth, Catherine had to send her to live in another household which caused a permanent rift between the women.

Sudeley Castle gatehouse

Catherine gave birth to her only child - a daughter, Mary Seymour - on August 30, 1548, but Catherine died only six days later, on September 5, 1548, at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire, from puerperal fever like Jane Seymour before her.

Thomas Seymour, an ambitious and jealous man, was eager to either replace his brother or kidnap the king, but was caught breaking into the young king's palace. He was sent to the Tower of London, charged with thirty-three counts of treason and later beheaded, less than a year later. Their daughter, Mary, was taken to live with Catherine (Brandon) Willoughby, dowager Duchess of Suffolk, a close friend of Catherine's. After a year and a half, Mary's property was restored to her by an Act of Parliament, easing the burden of the infant's household on the Duchess. The last mention of Mary Seymour on record is on her second birthday, and although stories circulated that she eventually married and had children, most historians believe she died as a child.

Legacy

Catherine Parr was the final and sixth wife of King Henry VIII. Twice widowed by sickly men, after much consideration and during a time in Henry VIII's court when the wife of the king could die at any moment by the king's whim or by the betrayal of other — usually jealous, courtiers — Catherine followed her conscience and wed yet another, older, sickly man. Although she loved Thomas Seymour, she sacrificed her own desires and entered into a marriage with the king with dignity, patience, kindness and moral fortitude. This example of loyalty to the crown kept her in good reputation throughout English history.

Favoring education, and culture she also helped reconcile her three step-children to Henry VIII. Her desire to aid the children allowed Elizabeth and Edward a very good and liberal education which would benefit the future of England when Elizabeth I took the throne. Her support of the 'new religion' encouraged the translation of religious works into English so that others could read them for themselves and furthered the protestant reformation.

She stands out as the first English queen to publish books in her own name, encouraging others toward religious dialog and contemplation. She stands as a pioneer for women.

Remains

In 1782, a gentleman by the name of John Locust discovered the coffin of Queen Catherine at the ruins of the Sudeley Castle chapel. He opened the coffin and observed that the body, after 234 years, was in a surprisingly good condition. Reportedly the flesh on one of her arms was still white and moist. After taking a few locks of her hair, he closed the coffin and returned it to the grave.

The coffin was opened a few more times in the next ten years and in 1792 some drunken men buried it upside down and in a rough way. When the coffin was officially reopened in 1817, nothing but a skeleton remained. Her remains were then moved to the tomb of Lord Chandos whose family owned the castle at that time. In later years the chapel was rebuilt by Sir John Scott and a proper altar-tomb was erected for Queen Catherine.

Some of Catherine Parr's writings are available from the Women Writers Project at Brown University .

Historiography

The popular myth that Catherine acted more as her husband's nurse than his wife was born in the 19th century from the work of Victorian moralist and proto-feminist, Agnes Strickland. This assumption has been challenged by David Starkey in his book Six Wives in which he points out that such a situation would have been vaguely obscene to the Tudors, given that Henry had a huge staff of physicians waiting on him hand and foot, and Catherine was a woman expected to live up to the heavy expectations of queenly dignity.

Catherine's good sense, moral rectitude, passionate religious commitment and strong sense of loyalty and devotion have earned her many admirers among historians. These include David Starkey, feminist activist Karen Lindsey, Lady Antonia Fraser, Alison Weir, Carolly Erickson, and Alison Plowden.

Notes

All retrieved May 20, 2008.

Titles

• Miss Catherine Parr (1512-1529)
• Lady Borough (1529-1534)
• Lady Latymer (1534-1543)
• HM Queen Catherine (1543-1547)
• Lady Seymour (1547-1548)

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Fraser, Antonia. The Wives of Henry VIII, Vintage 1993. ISBN 978-0679730019
• James, Susan E. Kateryn Parr: The Making of a Queen (Women and Gender in Early Modern England, 1500-1750), Ashgate Publishers, 1999. ISBN 978-1840146837
• Lindsey, Karen. Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation Of The Wives Of Henry VIII, Da Capo Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0201408232
• Plowden, Allison. Tudor Women, Sutton Publishing, 1998. ISBN 978-0750928809
• ________________. The House of Tudor, Sutton Publishing, 2003. ISBN 978-0750932400
• Starkey, David. Six Wives : The Queens of Henry VIII, 2004. ISBN 978-0060005504
• Strong, Roy. Artists of the Tudor Court: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620, Victoria & Albert Museum exhibit catalog, 1983. ISBN 0905209346
• Weir, Alison. The Six Wives of Henry VIII, 1993. ISBN 0-8021-3683-4

External links

Retrieved May 20, 2008.

• A detailed story of Catherine Parr's life englishhistory.net
• Sudeley Castle - One time home, and burial place of Catherine Parr. www.sudeleycastle.co.uk
• A quick look at Catherine's life with some great pictures in the gallery. tudorhistory.org
• Performing Arts Department to debut Highness by Carolyn Kras, publisher: The Record, describing the relationship between Elizabeth and Catherine Parr news-info.wustl.edu

English royalty
Preceded by: Catherine Howard	Queen Consort of England 12 July, 1543 - 28 January, 1547	Succeeded by: Lord Guildford Dudley

English Royal Consorts

George, Duke of Cumberland (1702-1707) · Mary of Modena (1685-1688) · Catherine of Braganza (1662-1685) · Henrietta Maria of France (1625-1649) · Anne of Denmark (1603-1619) · Philip II of Spain (1554-1558) · Lord Guildford Dudley (1553) · Catherine Parr (1543-1547) · Catherine Howard (1540-1542) · Anne of Cleves (1540) · Jane Seymour (1536-1537) · Anne Boleyn (1533-1536) · Catherine of Aragon (1509-1533) · Elizabeth of York (1486-1503) · Anne Neville (1483-1485) · Elizabeth Woodville (1464-1483) · Margaret of Anjou (1445-1471) · Catherine of Valois (1420-1422) · Joanna of Navarre (1403-1413) · Isabella of Valois (1396-1399) · Anne of Bohemia (1383-1394) · Philippa of Hainault (1328-1369) · Isabella of France (1308-1327) · Marguerite of France (1299-1307) · Eleanor of Castile (1272-1290) · Eleanor of Provence (1236-1272) · Isabella of Angoulême (1200-1216) · Berengaria of Navarre (1191-1199) · Eleanor of Aquitaine (1154-1189) · Matilda of Boulogne (1135-1152) · Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou (1141) · Adeliza of Louvain (1121-1135) · Matilda of Scotland (1100-1118) · Matilda of Flanders (1066-1083)

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