KATHERINE PARR
BORN: 1512 w MARRIED: JULY 12 1543 w WIDOWED: JANUARY 28 1547
DIED: SEPTEMBER 5 1548
After the Katherine Howard debacle, it was accepted that Henry would stay a widower to the end of his days. He was in poor health, and seemed to have little further interest in a stable succession to the throne.
Katherine Parr was a scholarly woman who had been twice married to aging men with half grown children. She had never had children of her own, and had acted as companion/nurse to both of her husbands. Her second marriage, to Sir John Neville, Lord Latimer, brought her to Court, where she joined the growing circle of scholarly women who were interested in the Protestant faith. She did not take part in the more frivolous Court activities during Katherine Howard's queenship, but became a friend of Henry's daughters and lived quietly and modestly on the outer fringes of the Court social circles.
After the death of her second husband in 1542, Katherine was pursued by Thomas Seymour, the brother of Jane Seymour. He cut quite a dashing figure at Court, and was well known as a ladies' man, but he was captivated by Katherine's quiet, caring manner. She was said to be considering his offer of marriage when Henry's marriage proposal came.
Katherine had been appointed caretaker of Prince Edward during a recent disbanding of the Court during an outbreak of plague. He had been taken to Wolf Hall, his mother's ancestral home in hope that he would avoid the disease. Katherine had overseen his care and studies, during what must have been a welcome break in the usually highly structured life of the little boy. Henry had spent some time at Wolf Hall as well, and it is possible that his marriage proposal was made there. On July 12, 1543, Katherine Parr married yet another ailing elderly man -- but this time, he was also a man who had the power of life and death over every subject of his realm -- wife notwithstanding.
Like Jane Seymour, Katherine sought to reunite Henry's estranged family, and had Mary and Elizabeth brought to Court. She arranged for an excellent tutor, Roger Ascham, to take over the educations of Edward and Elizabeth, and herself became a companion and friend to Mary, who was nearing thirty and was still unmarried because of her doubtful legitimacy and unofficial Catholicism. Though Katherine was openly Protestant, Mary was very fond of her.
The years of their father's marriage to Katherine Parr was probably the only time that the Tudor children experienced any sort of family life. They had formerly been sent to live in isolated houses, and at times Mary and Elizabeth were in disgrace, and not permitted to come to Court. Edward had been so isolated and protected for fear that he would contract a disease or be injured that he had no childhood to speak of. All three children were intelligent and loved learning, and Katherine encouraged them, particularly the youngest, in this. Elizabeth, starved all her life for a mother's love, was devoted to Katherine, and began to imitate her in studying Scripture and making her own translations of religious writings from Latin and Greek.
Katherine was also an intellectual companion to Henry. He had always had a lively interest in theological matters, as his early training as a churchman had made him more cognisant of such things than the average European monarch. The changes and upheavals that had come about in the English church since had sharpened his interest, and he greatly enjoyed theological discussions. He tolerated Katherine's Protestantism, and engaged her in many spirited conversations about religious forms and subjects.
Katherine may have become too free with her opinions on Protestantism, or more likely, factions at Court who wished to limit or end her influence over the King came into play, seeking to remove yet another one of Henry's Queens. Henry became angry during one of their religious discussions one day after she pled for the lives of several condemned Protestants to be spared, and sent her from the room. Later, she was brought news by one of the members of her household, and then by her step-daughter, Mary that the King had been heard shouting in rage that she was linked with some of the more radical Protestant "reformers" of the day. Katherine was terrified, but she thought quickly.
She rapidly took to her bed, and began to weep -- at first showily, but then genuine tears came. Every day of her marriage to the unstable Henry had to be a tightrope walk, and she permitted herself to lose the control that was so characteristic of her personality.
Henry had indeed ordered Katherine's arrest, and had demanded the stamp of his signature that had been made when his hands had swollen beyond the point of use. Luckily for Katherine, the stamp could not be found (though it was to reappear mysteriously after the King's death in a drawer that had been searched many times before), and her death warrant had not been made official. Then the news came to Henry that the Queen was abed and very ill, weeping and calling for him.
Henry, bloated and crippled by his ulcerated leg, was hauled from his chair either by the device he had had constructed for the purpose, or by several of his servants, took his two canes and stumped his way to the Queen's bedchamber, where Katherine's noisy wailing could be heard by everyone clustered outside in the hallway.
"How now, sweetheart!" he said. "What is all this bother?"
Katherine roused herself and sat up.
"I feared that I had angered you," she answered. "I sought to engage you in religious talk to take your mind from the leg that pains you, and to learn from you, but I offended you in my stupidity. To have grieved you so, my Lord, causes me to weep."
Henry must have remembered the many services she did for him each day without quailing, down to cradling and massaging his painful, swollen and oozing leg when the pain became so great that he cried out. She had been very kind, to him and to his children. He was old and ill, and lonely, as only Kings can be.
"That is only a disagreement as all married people have," he told her. "Dry your tears and rise and dress yourself, and we shall walk together and make our apologies."
a portrait thought to be Katherine Parr
Katherine continued as nurse and companion to Henry throughout his final illness until his death on January 28, 1547. She was punctilious in all her duties toward him and the settling of his household.
Henry's son, Edward, was now King, and his uncle, Edward Seymour, was now the Protector, as Edward was only nine years old. Thomas Seymour, his brother, once again proposed to Katherine, and this time she accepted immediately, marrying the dashing man so quickly that she earned an official reprimand from King Edward. "You re-married so quickly," the little King told her, "that had you been with child soon, there would have been doubt whether it was Seymour's or the late King's".
One could hardly blame Katherine. She had been married three times, and each time to an elderly man whom she nursed until their deaths. She had probably been in love with Seymour, and she finally had the chance for a normal and happy marriage, and children of her own. She returned to Sudeley Castle, her own property, and settled there with her husband, with Elizabeth and Jane Grey, cousin to the Tudor children, as her charges. She was soon pregnant.
Unfortunately, long term happiness was not to be Katherine's. Firstly her marriage was rocked by rumors that Thomas Seymour was trying to seduce or had already seduced young Elizabeth, who was abruptly sent away from Sudeley to live with her sister Mary. Then Katherine gave birth to a baby girl on August 30, 1548, but died a week later on September 5, of puerperal fever. She was buried at St. Mary's Church at Sudeley.
Katherine Parr's influence over the two younger royal children was probably the strongest influence her marriage to Henry had on England. Edward and Elizabeth had both been, unbeknownst to their father, raised as Protestants, rather than in the Anglican Church that he had defined. Their relationships with Katherine strengthened their knowledge and adherence to the reformed Protestant church rather than the more Catholic forms of their father's Anglican Church.
Edward's reign was noted for Protestant reform, proposed by his Protector, Edward Seymour and his Council, but strongly supported by the well educated and devout boy king. The basic groundwork of the modern Anglican Church (as opposed to the purely Catholic form of Henry's Anglican Church) was laid during his reign, and further defined during the reign of his sister, Elizabeth.
Additionally, Katherine had been a sponsor of Edward and Elizabeth's cousin, Lady Jane Grey, and had influenced her as well. Katherine was something rare during Henry VIII's time -- she was a highly educated woman. She spoke, read and wrote English, French, Latin and Greek. She encouraged both Elizabeth and Jane Grey in furthering their educations and procured excellent tutors for them. They became known as 'nonpareils', young girls of outstanding intellect and scholarly aptitude. Katherine did not know it, but she was directing the educations of two girls who would be called Queen of England -- Jane Grey for her tragic reign of nine days, and Elizabeth who would reign for more than forty years.
The increasing trend toward a "reformed" Protestant Church during Edward's reign was countered by his sister Mary, who believed that it was her duty to return England to the Catholic faith. Her reign was marked by oppression of those Protestants who refused to accept the Pope as the head of the Church, leading to Mary being branded "Bloody Mary" by her detractors. By the time Elizabeth inherited the throne from her sister, the need for religious balance in England was obvious, and this was the line that she would adopt throughout her own reign.
The continuing development of the English Renaissance, which began in Henry VIII's reign, reached its height during Elizabeth's years as Queen, and was strongly influenced by the fact that the monarch was educated, cultured and a patron of the arts. Elizabeth's early grounding in scholarship and culture can be at least partially attributed to the intervention and direction of Katherine Parr.
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