Catherine Parr

Catherine Parr
Queen consort of England and Ireland
Tenure	12 July 1543 – 28 January 1547
Spouse	Edward Borough John Nevill Henry VIII of England Thomas Seymour
Issue
Mary Seymour
House	House of Tudor
Father	Sir Thomas Parr
Mother	Lady Maud Green
Born	November 11, 1512(1512-11-11) Kendal Castle
Died	September 5, 1548(1548-09-05) (aged 35) Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire
Signature

Catherine Parr (c.1512^[1] /11 November 1512 – 5 September 1548) was the last of the six wives of Henry VIII of England. During her third marriage, she was queen consort of England and Ireland. She was the most-married English queen, as she had four husbands.

Early life

Catherine Parr was born at Kendal Castle in Westmorland, North West England, where her ancestors had resided since the fourteenth century. She was the eldest child of Sir Thomas Parr, of Horton House, Northamptonshire, descendant of King Edward III, and the former Maud Green (6 April 1495 – 20 August 1529), daughter of Sir Thomas Green, of Greens Norton, Northamptonshire. She had a younger brother, William, later 1st Marquess of Northampton, and a sister, Anne, later Countess of Pembroke. Sir Thomas was Sheriff of Northamptonshire, Master of the Wards and Comptroller to King Henry VIII. Her mother, Lady Parr, was an attendant of Catherine of Aragon.

At the age of seventeen in 1529, she became the wife of Edward Borough. For many years it has been argued that she married the elderly Edward Borough, 2nd Baron Borough of Gainsborough who died in 1529. However, it is generally agreed by Catherine's recent biographers that she married the 2nd Baron's grandson, who shared his first name. The younger Edward Borough was in his twenties and may have been in poor health. He served as a feoffee for Thomas Kiddell and as a justice of the peace. His father, Sir Thomas Borough, Anne Boleyn's chamberlain, also secured a joint patent in survivorship with his son for the office of steward of the manor of the soke of Kirton-in-Lindsey. The younger Edward Borough died in the spring of 1533.^[2]

In the summer of 1534 she married John Neville, 3rd Baron Latymer, of Snape, North Yorkshire. In 1536, during the Pilgrimage of Grace, Catherine was held hostage by northern rebels, along with her two stepchildren, including John Neville, 4th Baron Latymer . John Neville died in 1543.

It was in the household of Henry's and Catherine of Aragon's daughter, the Lady Mary, that Catherine Parr caught the attention of the King. After the death of Parr's second husband, the rich widow began a relationship with Sir Thomas Seymour, the brother of the late Jane Seymour, but the King took a liking to her and she was obliged to accept his proposal instead.

Queen of England and Ireland

Catherine Parr's arms as queen consort^[3]

Catherine married Henry VIII on 12 July 1543 at Hampton Court Palace. She was the first Queen of England also to be 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 Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I. She also developed a good relationship with Henry's son Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VI. When she became Queen, her uncle Lord Parr of Horton became her Lord Chamberlain.

For three months, from July to September 1544, Catherine was appointed regent by Henry as he went on his last, unsuccessful, campaign in France. Thanks to her uncle having been appointed as member of her regency council, and to the sympathies of fellow appointed councilors Thomas Cranmer (the Archbishop of Canterbury) and Lord 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, Lord 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 Lady Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth I).

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 to and interested in the "New Faith." It has been hypothesised that she was actually a Protestant by the mid-1540s, as we would now understand the term. We can be sure that she held some strong reformed ideas after Henry's death, when her second book, Lamentacions of a synner (Lamentations of a Sinner), was published in late 1547. The book promoted the Protestant concept of justification by faith alone, something which the Catholic Church deemed to be heresy. It is extremely unlikely that she developed these views in the short time between Henry's death and the publication of the book. Her sympathy with Anne Askew, the Protestant martyr who fiercely opposed the Catholic belief of transubstantiation, also suggests that she was more than merely sympathetic to the new religion.

Regardless of whether she formally converted, which is unlikely, the Queen was reformed enough to be viewed with suspicion by Catholic and anti-Protestant officials such as Stephen Gardiner (the Bishop of Winchester) and Lord Wriothesley (the Lord Chancellor), who tried to turn the king against her in 1546. An arrest warrant was drawn up for her and rumours abounded across Europe that the King was attracted to her close friend, the Duchess of Suffolk.^[4] However, 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.

Final marriage, childbirth and death

Following Henry's death on 28 January 1547, he had secured her with an allowance of ₤7,000 per year befitting her station. He further ordered, after his death, though a queen dowager, she be given the respect of a Queen of England, as if he was still alive. Catherine was able to marry her old love, Lord Seymour of Sudeley (as Sir Thomas Seymour had become). As they married within six months of the old king's death, they had to obtain the king's permission for the match. When their union became public knowledge, it caused a small scandal. Catherine became pregnant for the first time, by Seymour, at age thirty-five. This pregnancy was a surprise as Catherine had not conceived a child during her first three marriages (however, two of her husbands had been much older than she). During this time, a rivalry developed between Catherine and the Duchess of Somerset, the wife of her husband's brother, the Duke of Somerset (as Lord Hertford had become), which became particularly acute over the matter of Catherine's jewels. The duchess argued that the jewels belonged to the Queen of England, and that as queen dowager, Catherine was no longer entitled to them. Instead she, as the wife of the protector, should be the one to wear them. She invoked the Act of Succession which clearly stated that Catherine had precedence over all ladies in the realm; in point of fact, as regards precedence, the Duchess of Somerset came after the Ladies Mary and Elizabeth, and Anne of Cleves, styled the King's Sister. Eventually, the duchess won the argument, which left her relationship with Catherine permanently damaged; the relationship between the two Seymour brothers also worsened as a result, since Lord Seymour saw the whole dispute as a personal attack by his brother on his social standing. Catherine's marriage also came under strain. Sex during pregnancy was frowned upon during the sixteenth century and Seymour began to take a possibly unhealthy interest in the Lady Elizabeth (Catherine's teenage step-daughter, and future Queen Elizabeth I), who was living in their household. He had reputedly plotted to marry her before marrying Catherine, and it was reported later that Catherine discovered the two in an embrace. On a few occasions before the situation risked getting completely out of hand, Catherine appears not only to have acquiesced in episodes of sexually charged horseplay, but actually to have assisted her husband.^[5] Whatever actually happened, Elizabeth was sent away in May 1548 to stay with Sir Anthony Denny's household at Cheshunt and never saw her beloved stepmother again, although the two corresponded.

The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Catherine of Aragon(Annulled)
Anne Boleyn(Beheaded)
Jane Seymour(Died)
Anne of Cleves(Annulled)
Catherine Howard(Beheaded)
Catherine Parr(Outlived)

Catherine gave birth to her only child — a daughter, Mary Seymour, named after her stepdaughter who would go on to become Queen Mary I of England— on 30 August 1548, and died only six days later, on 5 September 1548, at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire, from what is thought to be puerperal fever or puerperal sepsis, also called childbed fever. Coincidentally, this was also the illness that killed Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour. It was not uncommon, due to the lack of hygiene around childbirth. It has been suspected that Catherine's husband, Sir Thomas Seymour, may have poisoned her in order to carry out his plan to marry Lady Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth I).

Lord Seymour of Sudeley was beheaded for treason less than a year later, and Mary was taken to live with the Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, a close friend of Catherine. 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.

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.

In film and on stage

Portrait of Catherine Parr, formerly thought to be of Lady Jane Grey ^[6]

Catherine first appeared in cinemas in 1933, in Alexander Korda's film The Private Life of Henry VIII. Charles Laughton played the king, with actress Everley Gregg appearing as Catherine Parr. The film makes no attempt to depict the historical Parr's character, instead portraying the Queen for comic effect as an over-protective nag.

In 1952, a romanticised version of Thomas Seymour's obsession with Elizabeth I saw Stewart Granger as Seymour, Jean Simmons as the young Elizabeth and screen legend Deborah Kerr as Parr in the popular film Young Bess.

In 1970, in "Catherine Parr", a 90-minute BBC television drama (the last in a 6-part series, entitled The Six Wives of Henry VIII) Catherine was played by Rosalie Crutchley opposite Keith Michell's Henry. In this, Catherine's love of religion and intellectual capabilities were highlighted. Crutchley reprised her role as Catherine Parr in Part 1 of a 6-part series on the life of Elizabeth I in 1971, called Elizabeth R with Glenda Jackson in the title role.

In 1973, Barbara Leigh-Hunt played a matronly Catherine in Henry VIII and his Six Wives, with Keith Michell once again playing Henry. In 2000, Jennifer Wigmore played Catherine Parr in the American television drama aimed at teenagers, Elizabeth: Red Rose of the House of Tudor. A year later, Caroline Lintott played Catherine in Professor David Starkey's documentary series on Henry's queens.

In October 2003, in a two-part British television series on Henry VIII, Catherine was played by Clare Holman. The part was relatively small, given that the drama's second part focused more on the stories of Jane Seymour and Catherine Howard.

In March 2007, Washington University in St. Louis performed the A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Competition winner "Highness" which documents the life of Catherine Parr and her relationships with King Henry and his daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I, to whom she was a stepmother.^[7]

She has been the subject of several novels, including two entitled The Sixth Wife, and she is a supporting character in the fourth Matthew Shardlake mystery, Revelation.

She was portrayed by actress Joely Richardson on the fourth and final season of Showtime’s The Tudors, which debuted in Spring 2010.^[8]

Catherine features in The Dark Rose, Volume 2 of The Morland Dynasty a series of historical novels by author Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. The lead female character, Nanette Morland, is educated alongside Catherine and is later re-acquainted with her when she becomes Queen.

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. Parr is usually portrayed in cinema and television by actresses who are much older than the queen, who was in her early 30s when she was Henry's wife and was about 36 years old at the time of her death.

Catherine's good sense, moral rectitude, compassion, firm 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, Alison Plowden and Susan James and Linda Porter. Biographers have described her as strong-willed and outspoken, physically desirable, susceptible (like Queen Elizabeth) to roguish charm, and even willing to resort to quite obscene language if the occasion suited.^[9]

Historical Fiction

• Catherine Parr's life as Henry VIII's queen is told in Jean Plaidy's novel The Sixth Wife (1953)
• Catherine Parr is the subject of Mary Luke's biographical novel The Ivy Crown published 1984
• Cartherine Parr's life story is also told in The Last Wife of Henry VIII by Carolly Erickson

Titles and styles

• Mistress Catherine Parr (1512–1529)
• Mistress Burgh (1529–1533)
• The Dowager Mistress Burgh (1533–1534)
• The Lady Latymer (1534–1543)
• The Dowager Lady Latymer (1543)
• Her Majesty The Queen (1543–1547)
• Her Majesty Queen Catherine, The Lady Seymour of Sudeley (1547–1548)

Ancestry

References

marnienealeBold text

Further reading

• Norton, Elizabeth (2009) Catherine Parr (Amberley)
• James, Susan (2008). Catherine Parr: Henry VIII's Last Love. Gloucestershire: The History Press. ISBN 075244591X. 
• Martienssen, Anthony (1973). Queen Catherine Parr. London: Secker & Warburg. ISBN 0436273284. 
• Porter, Linda (2010). Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr. London: Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-74955-9. 
• Withrow, Brandon (2009). Katherine Parr: The Life and Thought of a Reformation Queen. Phillipsburg: NJ: P&R. ISBN 1596381175. 

External links

• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6942094 - Find A Grave
• A more detailed story of Catherine Parr's life
• Sudeley Castle - One time home, and burial place of Catherine Parr
• A quick look at Catherine's life
• Catherine Parr [1]