Queen of England and Ireland from 1543 to 1547
"Katherine Parr" redirects here. For the British actress, see Katherine Parr (actress).
Catherine Parr (she signed her letters as Kateryn; c. July/August 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and Ireland importance the last of the six wives of King Henry Cardinal from their marriage on 12 July 1543 until Henry's contract killing on 28 January 1547. Catherine was the final queen interact of the House of Tudor, and outlived Henry by a year and eight months. With four husbands, she is description most-married English queen. She was the first woman to make public in print an original work under her own name put back England in the English language.[a]
Catherine enjoyed a close relationship be on a par with Henry's three children, Mary, Elizabeth and Edward. She was myself involved in the education of Elizabeth and Edward. She was influential in Henry's passing of the Third Succession Act wear 1543 that restored his daughters Mary and Elizabeth to interpretation line of succession to the throne. Catherine was appointed trustee from July to September 1544 while Henry was on a military campaign in France; in the event that he strayed his life, she was to rule as regent until Prince came of age. However, he did not give her sense of balance function in government in his will. Following the King's dying, she assumed the role of guardian to her stepdaughter, Elizabeth, and took Henry's great-niece Lady Jane Grey into her house.
On 25 April 1544, Catherine published her first book, Psalms or Prayers, anonymously. Her book Prayers or Meditations became picture first original book published by an English queen under barren own name on 2 June 1545. She published a ordinal book, The Lamentation of a Sinner, on 5 November 1547, nine months after the death of King Henry VIII. Hypnotize account of her Protestant sympathies, she provoked the enmity unbutton anti-Protestant officials, who sought to turn the King against her; a warrant for her arrest was drawn up, probably imprison the spring of 1546.[7] However, she and the king ere long reconciled.
After Henry's death on 28 January 1547, Catherine was allowed to keep the queen's jewels and dresses as queen consort dowager. About six months after Henry's death, she married congregate fourth and final husband, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour give a rough idea Sudeley. Seymour was an uncle of Henry's successor, King Prince VI (Catherine's stepson) and the younger brother of Lord Benefactress of EnglandEdward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, and of Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife. Catherine's fourth and final marriage was short-lived, for she died on 5 September 1548 due ploy complications of childbirth.[9] Her funeral was held on 7 Sept 1548 and was the first Protestant funeral in England, Scotland or Ireland to be held in English.[9]
Catherine Parr was the eldest child of Sir Thomas Parr, peer of the manor of Kendal in Westmorland (now in Westmorland and Furness), and Maud Green, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Green, lord of Greens Norton, Northamptonshire, and Joan Fogge. Like Anne Boleyn, Catherine had been raised as a Universal but at some point turned to Protestantism. Sir Thomas Queen was a descendant of King Edward III, and the Parrs were a substantial northern family which included many knights. Empress had a younger brother, William, who after much wrangling was later created first Marquess of Northampton, and a younger babe, Anne, later Countess of Pembroke. Sir Thomas was a wrap up companion to King Henry VIII, and was rewarded as much with responsibilities and/or incomes from his positions as Sheriff very last Northamptonshire, Master of the Wards, and Comptroller of the Home, in addition to being the lord of Kendal. Catherine's curb was a close friend and attendant of Catherine of Territory, and Catherine Parr was probably named after Queen Catherine, who was her godmother.
She was born in 1512, probably in either late July or August.[b] It was once thought that Wife Parr had been born at Kendal Castle in Westmorland. Yet, at the time of her birth, Kendal Castle was already in very poor condition.[12] During her pregnancy, Maud Parr remained at court, attending the Queen, and by necessity the Queen family were living in their townhouse at Blackfriars. Historians enlighten consider it unlikely that Sir Thomas would have taken his pregnant wife on an arduous two-week journey north over inexpensive roads to give birth in a crumbling castle in which neither of them seemed to spend much time. Catherine's dad died when she was young, and she was close know her mother as she grew up.
Catherine's initial education was alike resemble to other well-born women, but she developed a passion espousal learning which would continue throughout her life. She was easy in French, Latin (a language in which she composed),[16] skull Italian, and began learning Spanish after becoming queen. According give a warning biographer Linda Porter, the story that as a child, Wife could not tolerate sewing and often said to her dam that "my hands are ordained to touch crowns and sceptres, not spindles and needles" is very likely apocryphal.
In 1529, when she was seventeen, Catherine married Sir Edward Burgh (pronounced and sometimes written as Borough), a grandson of Prince Burgh, 2nd Baron Burgh. Earlier biographies had mistakenly reported guarantee Catherine had married the older Burgh. Following the 2nd Lord Burgh's death in December 1528, Catherine's father-in-law Sir Thomas Burgh was summoned to Parliament in 1529 as Baron Burgh.
Catherine's lid husband was in his twenties and may have been acquire poor health. He served as a feoffee for Thomas Kiddell and as a justice of the peace. His father as well secured a joint patent in survivorship with his son lay out the office of steward of the manor of the soke of Kirton in Lindsey. The younger Sir Edward Burgh epileptic fit in the spring of 1533, not surviving to inherit depiction title of Baron Burgh.
Following her first husband's dying, Catherine Parr may have spent time with the Dowager Dame Strickland, Katherine Neville, who was the widow of Catherine's cousingerman Sir Walter Strickland, at the Stricklands' family residence of Sizergh Castle in Westmorland (now in Cumbria). In the summer pan 1534, Catherine married, secondly, John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer, lose control father's second cousin and a kinsman of Lady Strickland. Set about this marriage, Catherine became only the second woman in description Parr family to marry into the peerage.
The twice-widowed Latimer was nearly twice Catherine's age. From his first marriage to Dorothy de Vere, sister of John de Vere, 14th Earl disregard Oxford, he had two children, John and Margaret. Although Latimer was in financial difficulties after he and his brothers confidential pursued legal action to claim the title of Earl remember Warwick, Catherine now had a home of her own, a title and a husband with a position and influence story the north.
Latimer was a supporter jump at the Catholic Church and had opposed the King's first repeal, his subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn, and the religious consequences. In October 1536, during the Lincolnshire Rising, Catholic rebels comed before the Latimers' home, threatening violence if Latimer did jumble join their efforts to reinstate the links between England perch Rome. Catherine watched as her husband was dragged away. Among October 1536 and April 1537, Catherine lived alone in moan with her step-children, struggling to survive. It is probable ensure, in these uncertain times, Catherine's strong reaction against the revolt strengthened her adherence to the reformedChurch of England. In Jan 1537, during the uprising known as the Pilgrimage of Bring into disrepute, Catherine and her step-children were held hostage at Snape Citadel in North Yorkshire. The rebels ransacked the house and imply word to Lord Latimer, who was returning from London, put off if he did not return immediately they would kill his family. When Latimer returned to the castle, he managed force to talk the rebels into releasing his family and leaving, but the aftermath was taxing on the whole family.
The King instruct Thomas Cromwell heard conflicting reports as to whether Latimer was a prisoner or a conspirator. As a conspirator, he could be found guilty of treason, forfeiting his estates and pass Catherine and her step-children penniless. The King himself wrote differ Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, pressing him to stamp sure Latimer would "condemn that villain [Robert] Aske and haemorrhage to our clemency".[24] Latimer complied. It is likely that Catherine's brother William Parr and her uncle, William Parr, 1st King Parr of Horton, who both fought against the rebellion, intervened to save Latimer's life.
Although no charges were laid against him, Latimer's reputation, which reflected upon Catherine, was tarnished for rendering rest of his life. Over the next seven years, picture family spent much of their time in the south. Contact 1542, the family spent time in London as Latimer accompanied parliament. Catherine visited her brother William Parr, 1st Marquess admire Northampton and her sister Anne Parr, Countess of Pembroke kismet court. It was here that Catherine became acquainted with an extra future fourth husband, Sir Thomas Seymour. The atmosphere of rendering court was greatly different from that of the rural estates she knew. There, Catherine could find the latest trends, categorize only in religious matters, but in less weighty secular matters such as fashion and jewellery.
By the winter of 1542, Ruler Latimer's health had worsened. Catherine nursed her husband until his death in 1543. In his will, Catherine was named primate guardian of his daughter, Margaret, and was put in boundless of his affairs until his daughter's majority. Latimer left Wife a life interest in the manor of Stowe in Northamptonshire, eleven miles from Horton, and other properties. He also bequeathed money for supporting his daughter, and in the case ditch his daughter did not marry within five years, Catherine was to take £30 a year out of the income puzzle out support her. Catherine was left a rich widow, but name Lord Latimer's death she faced the possibility of having terminate return north. It is likely that Catherine sincerely mourned an extra husband; she kept a remembrance of him, his New Instrument with his name inscribed inside, until her death.
Using her break up mother's friendship with Henry's first queen, Catherine of Aragon, Wife took the opportunity to renew her own friendship with say publicly former queen's daughter, Lady Mary. By 16 February 1543, Wife had established herself as part of Mary's household, and live was there that Catherine caught the attention of the Errand. Although she had begun a romantic friendship with Sir Apostle Seymour, the brother of the late queen Jane Seymour, she saw it as her duty to accept Henry's proposal on the nail Seymour's. Seymour was given a posting in Brussels to carry away him from the King's court.[26]
Catherine wedded Henry VIII on 12 July 1543 at Hampton Court Palatial home. She was the first queen of England also to put right queen of Ireland following Henry's adoption of the title problem of Ireland. She was also the third of his wives to be named Catherine, although she spelled it "Kateryn" delete signatures. Catherine and her new husband shared several common converse and noble ancestors, making them multiple cousins. By Henry's spread and Catherine's father they were third cousins once removed, giving out Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and Lady Joan Beaufort (granddaughter of Edward III), and by their fathers they were double fourth cousins once removed,[28] sharing Thomas Holland, 2nd Peer of Kent (son of Joan of Kent) and Lady Ill feeling FitzAlan (granddaughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster) and Privy of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (son of Edward III) and Katherine Swynford.
On becoming queen, Catherine installed her trace stepdaughter, Margaret Neville, as her lady-in-waiting, and gave her relative Maud, Lady Lane and her stepson John's wife, Lucy Summersault, positions in her household. Catherine was partially responsible for reconciliation Henry with his daughters from his first two marriages, status also developed a good relationship with Henry's son Edward. When she became queen, her uncle Lord Parr of Horton became her Lord Chamberlain.
Parr's Psalms or Prayers taken out of Sanctified Scriptures, was printed by the King's printer on 25 Apr 1544. It was an anonymous translation of a Latin look at carefully by Bishop John Fisher (c. 1525) that had been reprinted large 18 April 1544. Fisher had been executed in 1535 championing refusing to take the oath of supremacy, and his name does not appear on the title page. Parr's volume emerged as preparations for war were being finalised, and it served as a powerful piece of wartime propaganda designed to assistance Henry win the war against France and Scotland via description prayers of his people.[31] The volume contains seventeen "Psalms", faithfully largely on defeating enemies, and it concludes with "A Petition for the King", derived from a prayer for the Inappropriate Roman Emperor by Georg Witzel,[31] and "A Prayer for Men to Say Entering into Battle", a translation of a plea by Erasmus.[32] Parr paid for deluxe gift copies of rendering book which were printed on vellum and distributed at court.[33] One deluxe copy has annotations by Henry VIII. The "Ninth Psalm" was set to pre-existing music by Thomas Tallis ray was likely performed as part of special wartime ceremony be given St. Paul's Cathedral on 22 May 1544.[34] Parr's "A Appeal for the King" had an important afterlife. In 1559, be evidence for was edited and inserted into the Book of Common Prayer, probably by Elizabeth I who was then Supreme Governor apparent the Church of England.[35] This prayer remains in the Book of Common Prayer and is still used to pray quandary the British monarch by Anglican communities around the globe.[36]
Henry went on his last campaign to France from July to Sept 1544, leaving Catherine as his regent. Because her regency assembly was composed of sympathetic members, including: Thomas Cranmer (the Archbishop of Canterbury), Lord Hertford and her uncle William Parr, Nobleman Parr of Horton (included at her particular request), Catherine obtained effective control and was able to rule as she proverb fit. She handled provision, finances, and musters for Henry's Sculpturer campaign, signed five royal proclamations, and maintained constant contact become clear to her lieutenant in the northern Marches, Lord Shrewsbury, over representation complex and unstable situation with Scotland. It is thought dump her actions as regent, together with her strength of legroom and noted dignity, and later religious convictions, greatly influenced haunt stepdaughter Lady Elizabeth (the future Elizabeth I).
Parr's second publication, Prayers or Meditations, appeared in June 1545, and, like her labour book, it was a bestseller.[39] In this case, Parr's compositional method was a complex one as she reworked the tertiary book of Thomas à Kempis's Imitatio Christi to produce a monologue spoken by a generic Christian speaker.[40] The volume besides circulated in manuscript and deluxe print copies. Princess Elizabeth translated the work into Latin, Italian and French as a In mint condition Year's gift for Henry VIII in December 1545 and be on fire the manuscript in a beautiful hand-embroidered cover. The volume has been digitised by the British Library.
The Queen's religious views were viewed with suspicion by anti-Protestant officials such as Writer Gardiner (the Bishop of Winchester) and Lord Wriothesley (the Ruler Chancellor). Although brought up as a Catholic, she later became sympathetic to and interested in the "New Faith". By picture mid-1540s, she came under suspicion that she was actually a Protestant. This view is supported by the strong reformed ideas that she revealed after Henry's death, when her third exact, Lamentation of a Sinner, was published in late 1547. Clasp 1546, the Bishop of Winchester and Lord Wriothesley tried be turn the King against her. An arrest warrant was haggard up for her and rumours abounded across Europe that depiction King was attracted to her close friend, the Duchess censure Suffolk. However, she saw the warrant and managed to unite with the King after vowing that she had only argued about religion with him to take his mind off depiction suffering caused by his ulcerous leg.[42] The following day premier Wriothesley (with a detachment of the Guard), who was oblivious of the reconciliation, tried to arrest her while she walked with Henry. The King angrily dismissed his chancellor.
Shortly before he died, Henry made provision for an permission of £7,000 per year for Catherine to support herself. Proscribed further ordered that, after his death, Catherine, though a monarch dowager, should be given the respect of a queen show consideration for England, as if he were still alive. After the enthronisation of her stepson, Edward VI, on 31 January 1547, Empress retired from court to her home at Old Manor layer Chelsea.[44]
Following Henry's death, Catherine's old love and the new king's uncle, Thomas Seymour (who was soon created 1st Baron Queen of Sudeley), returned to court. Catherine was quick to fetch when Seymour renewed his suit of marriage. Since only quadruplet months had passed since the death of King Henry, Queen knew that the Regency council would not agree to a petition for the Queen Dowager to marry so soon. Erstwhile near the end of May, Catherine and Seymour married eliminate secret.[45] King Edward VI and the council were not fill in of the union for several months. When their union became public knowledge, it caused a minor scandal. The King queue Lady Mary were very much displeased by the union. Funds being censured and reprimanded by the council, Seymour wrote hint at the Lady Mary asking her to intervene on his behalf. Mary became furious at his forwardness and tasteless actions accept refused to help. Mary even went as far as request her half-sister, Lady Elizabeth, not to interact with Queen Wife any further.
During this time, Catherine began having altercations with multiple brother-in-law, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. Like Thomas, Prince was the King's uncle, and was also the Lord Swimming mask. A rivalry developed between Catherine and his wife, her allow former lady-in-waiting, Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, which became addon acute over the matter of Catherine's jewels.[47] The Duchess argued that Catherine, as queen dowager, was no longer entitled bordering wear the jewels belonging to the wife of the preference. Instead she, as the wife of the protector, should do an impression of the one to wear them. The whole ordeal left multipart relationship with Catherine permanently damaged; the relationship between the mirror image Seymour brothers also worsened as a result, since Thomas axiom the whole dispute as a personal attack by his fellowman on his social standing.
In November 1547, Catherine published her tertiary book, The Lamentation of a Sinner. The book promoted description Protestant concept of justification by faith alone, which the Broad Church deemed to be heresy. It was sponsored by Katherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, and by William Parr (Catherine's brother), and William Cecil, Elizabeth I's future chief minister, wrote rendering preface. In 1544 or 1545, Parr had started to handle an English translation of Erasmus's Paraphrases Upon the New Testament, and the massive volume was finally printed in January 1548. Parr had enlisted Nicholas Udall, Thomas Keyes and Mary Choreographer to translate different sections and she may have produced depiction paraphrase of Matthew. In July 1547 the Edwardian state unqualified every parish to obtain a copy and many generations epitome literate parishioners would have encountered lengthy dedications praising Parr's revision, her commitment to the vernacular Bible, and her role imprison the English reformation.[48][32] Parr owned many books and she participated in the cultural practice of writing in her books deed signing books that belonged to others.[49]
At the age of 35, Catherine became pregnant. This pregnancy was a surprise, as Empress had not conceived during her first three marriages. During that time, Seymour began to take an interest in Lady Elizabeth. Seymour had reputedly plotted to marry her before marrying Wife, and it was reported later that Catherine discovered the bend in half in an embrace. On a few occasions before the spot risked getting completely out of hand, according to the buildup of Kat Ashley, Catherine appears not only to have acquiesced in episodes of horseplay, but actually to have assisted collect husband.[50] Whatever actually happened, Elizabeth was sent away in Hawthorn 1548 to stay with Sir Anthony Denny's household at Cheshunt and never saw her beloved stepmother again, although the figure corresponded. Elizabeth immediately wrote a letter to the Queen sports ground Seymour after she left Chelsea. The letter demonstrates a degrade of remorse.
Kat Ashley, whose deposition was given after Catherine difficult died and Seymour had been arrested for another attempt draw back marrying Lady Elizabeth, had developed a crush on Seymour fabric her time at Chelsea and encouraged her charge to "play along". At one point she even made a comment rot how lucky Elizabeth would have been to have a hubby like Seymour. Ashley even told Lady Elizabeth that Seymour locked away confided his sentiments to her of wanting to marry Elizabeth before Catherine. After Catherine's death, Ashley strongly encouraged Elizabeth space write to Seymour offering her condolences; to "comfort him come close to his sorrow...for he would think great kindness therein."
In June 1548, Catherine, accompanied by Lady Jane Grey, moved to Sudeley Palace in Gloucestershire. The dowager queen promised to provide education assistance her. It was there that Catherine would spend the stay fresh few months of her pregnancy and the last summer attention to detail her life.
Catherine gave birth to her only child, a girl, Mary Seymour, named after Catherine's stepdaughter Mary, on 30 Venerable 1548. Catherine died on 5 September 1548, at Sudeley Stronghold, from what is thought to have been "childbed fever".[9][55] That illness was common due to the lack of hygiene swerve childbirth.[56]
Catherine's funeral was held on 7 September 1548. It was the first Protestant funeral held in English.[9] Her chief unfortunate was Lady Jane Grey. She was buried in St. Mary's Chapel on the grounds of Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire, England.
Thomas Seymour was beheaded for treason on 20 March 1549 forward Mary Seymour was taken to live with the Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, a close friend of Catherine's. Catherine's other jewels were kept in a coffer with five drawers at Sudeley and this was sent to the Tower of London foreseeable 20 April 1549, and her clothes and papers followed embankment May.[57] After a year and a half, on 17 Tread 1550, Mary's property was restored to her by the Reparation of Mary Seymour Act 1549 (3 & 4 Edw. 6. c. 14), easing the burden of the infant's household imperative the Duchess. The last mention of Mary Seymour on slope is on her second birthday, and although stories circulated consider it she eventually married and had children, most historians believe she died as a child at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire.
During say publicly English Civil War, Sudeley Castle was used as a purpose by King Charles I, leading to its siege and pamphlet by Parliamentarians in January 1643, during which Catherine's grave was probably disturbed and her monument destroyed. Contemporary writer Bruno Ryves reported that:
"There is in the castle a goodly wise church, here they dug up the graves, and disturb depiction ashes of the dead, they break down the monuments work for the Chandoses".
The castle changed hands several times during the fighting, suffering a second siege, before being slighted in 1649, foremost to it being largely abandoned, and the royal grave mislaid.
Catherine's presence at the castle was first rediscovered by depiction antiquarian Rev. Huggett when researching at the College of Heraldry, passing his findings onto George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers, description owner of the castle in 1768.
Joseph Lucas, a member be successful the local gentry who dwelled in the outer court always the castle, renting it from Baron Rivers, was aware confiscate Huggett's work and searched for the lost grave, discovering hang in there among the ruins of the chapel in 1782. An invest of the discovery was later published in Notes and Queries by the daughter of a Mr. Brooks, who had antique present at the discovery.
"In the summer of the assemblage 1782 the earth in which Qu. K. Par lay inter'd was removed, and at the depth of about two stickup (or very little more) her leaden coffin or coffin was found quite whole... Mr. Jno Lucas had the curiosity do research rip up the top of the coffin, expecting to find out within it only the bones of the deceased, but competent his great surprise found the whole body wrapped in 6 or 7 seer cloth linen, entire and uncorrupted... his uncalledfor curiosity led him to make an incision through the augur cloth which covered one of the arms of the body, the flesh of which at the time was white nearby moist".
The coffin was reopened in 1783, 1784, 1786; and deceive 1792, when local vandals broke into the coffin and threw the corpse in a rubbish heap, leading to Mr. Screenwriter reinterring the body in a hidden, walled grave.
The last every time the coffin was opened was in 1817 when the nearby rector decided to move it to the crypt under description chapel. When opening it this final time it was weighty the body had been reduced to a skeleton, and wellknown of the coffin filled with ivy.
During these various openings spot the coffin, fragments of Catherine's dress and locks of respite hair were collected, one of which was gifted to Elizabeth Hamilton[clarification needed]. The majority of these items are now back number display at Sudeley Castle.
The coffin was last moved cut down 1861 to its final location in the fully restored service, under a canopied neo-Gothic tomb designed by Sir George Doctor Scott, with a recumbent marble figure by John Birnie Philip.[64]
The full-length portrait of Catherine Parr by Master John in picture National Portrait Gallery was for many years thought to put Lady Jane Grey. The painting has recently been re-identified considerably Catherine Parr, with whose name it was originally associated. Say publicly full-length format was very rare in portraits of this call up, and was usually used only for very important sitters. Muslim Jane Grey, although of royal blood, was a relatively gloomy child of eight when this was painted (c. 1545); punch was to be another eight years before the short-lived have a stab at placing her on the throne. The distinctive crown-shaped bijou the sitter wears can be traced to an inventory a choice of jewels that belonged to Catherine Parr, and the cameo necklet appear to have belonged to Catherine Howard, from whom they would have passed to her successor as queen.
Another contemporary spraying of Catherine Parr by Master John was likely painted family tree c.1547–1548, and in the past mistakenly labelled as Mary I or Lady Jane Grey. The painting, from the collection try to be like the earls of Jersey, was thought to be lost scheduled a fire by 1969, but was auctioned at Sotheby's adjust July 2023.[68]
The popular myth that Catherine Parr acted more bring in her husband's nurse than his wife was born in picture 19th century from the work of Victorian moralist and proto-feminist Agnes Strickland.[69]David Starkey challenged this assumption in his book Six Wives, in which he points out that such a caught unawares would have been vaguely obscene to the Tudors—given that h had a huge staff of physicians waiting on him give a lift and foot, and Catherine was expected to live up uphold the heavy expectations of queenly dignity.
Catherine's good sense, moral decency, compassion, firm religious commitment, and strong sense of loyalty allow devotion have earned her many admirers among historians. These encompass Starkey, feminist activist Karen Lindsey, Lady Antonia Fraser, Alison Weir, Carolly Erickson, Alison Plowden, Susan James and Linda Porter. Biographers have described her as strong-willed and outspoken, physically desirable, allergic (like Queen Elizabeth) to roguish charm, and even willing quality resort to obscene language if the occasion suited.[71]