25 Interesting Facts about Catherine Parr

Catherine was a well educated woman like her two predecessors Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, and yes she was far from being the old nursemaid to Henry V111, she probably did sit with him and read to him and talk when he was in bed in pain with his legs, but the image of her as a serious faced matronly woman plumping up the kings pillows is really a myth, in reality she was a deeply sensuous woman who loved beautiful clothes and jewels, and had a warm and giving personality, she also had a sense of fun and was popular amongst many, she was also pretty as her portrait testifies, chestnut haired with deep brown eyes an upturned nose and an ivory complexion, yet in the portrait she is not smiling but her eyes look sideways warily, which is hardly surprising, as Henry V111’s wife she had the vision of his two beheaded wives in her mind, she was a mature woman when the king married in his old age, no young flibbertigibbet like her tragic predecessor, she really was just what he needed, she had kindness compassion and patience, unassuming and respectful and, she was a kind stepmother to his three children and although not a Catholic, the kings eldest Lady Mary was fond of her, however Catherine like most well educated women, was highly opinionated on her faith and made the mistake one day of going rather too far with her talk on religion to the king, he was a bit irked by this and declared it was a sorry state when kings are lectured by their wives, Henry loved a debate he enjoyed the company of intelligent women, but he did not care to be criticised on his own views, like his other queens before her, Catherine had her share of enemies and it was the Catholic Stephen Gardiner that was her most dangerous, one of her friends was Anne Askew a most remarkable woman who many viewed as a heretic, and she was racked by Gardiner in a vain attempt to implicate the queen, whom he also thought of as a heretic, her apartments were even searched for heretical books but the queen got wind of this and hid them all, Catherine out of all Henry’s wives was indeed fortunate, she had loyal friends and Askew kept her mouth shut under the severest of tortures, she even heard about the document for her arrest and under hysteria gave way to weeping, it makes one wonder if she had not been able to plead her case with the king, would Catherine Parr also have gone down in history as another of Henry V111’s beheaded wives? However fortune it seemed was on her side, because she won the king round and as she sat in the gardens with him the next day, sour faced Gardiner arrived with an attachment of the kings guards to arrest her, the king according to the source tells us that he got up and boxed Gardiner about the ears and called him a cur amongst others, he had no choice but to slink away like a wounded animal with the guards in retreat, it seems comical but Catherine must have been trembling, her life as Henry’s queen was fraught with danger but it was not the first time she had been in danger, married twice before she had lost her husband at a young age and then she had married again, to Lord Latimer an elderly man with children, during the pilgrimage of Grace her house had been attacked and she
had been taken hostage with her step daughters, so she had lived quite a volatile life, she was descended from Edward 111 on her paternal side and was cousins to the king several times over, her extreme good fortune in being able to reach the king before arrest, makes one wonder had Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard had the same chance, would they also have been allowed to live, would his sentiments have affected his judgement, after her arrest Anne Boleyn never saw her husband again, neither did Catherine Howard after she was confined to her quarters, so we will never know if he would have weakened at the sight of their pleading faces, it seems Catherine Parr was not destined to tread the same doomed path as they, and she outlived her royal husband, whilst queen she was held in deep respect by the king and was appointed regent when he went to France, the court was a merry one and she had her step children there often, Elizabeth especially never knowing her mother, and being too young to remember Jane Seymour and not really having much of a chance to know Anna from Cleves, must have looked on Catherine as the first real mother she had ever known, Elizabeth herself being bright would have appreciated her step mother’s literary works, as they both shared the same faith, and Catherine was fluent in several languages likewise Elizabeth who was taught Latin as well as French, one Christmas Elizabeth gave her father a book written by her in Latin, so they must have conversed with each other often, when she became queen Catherine began to learn Spanish which must have pleased Mary and although the image of the Tudor wife is one of meek servility many noble houses gave their daughters as well as their sons an excellent education, the Grey sisters were another example as well as Anne Boleyn who had received a cosmopolitan education as well, there is a full length portrait of Catherine where she wears a gold embroiled gown and is carrying a book, her face is enchanting with the same small features but her hair in this one is more auburn than chestnut, and she looks more cheerful, having narrowly escaped imprisonment and / or death, she chose to live more quietly and never got into another heated debate with Henry again and Gardiner and Page and her other enemies had to lick their wounds and do nothing, Henry was fond of his Kate she was a mature woman and his pride had taken a battering after Catherine Howard, he knew she would never make a fool of him, as the new year commenced it was obvious to his doctors that the king would not live much longer, and she was allowed to see him so he could make his farewells, Catherine was then around thirty five and after three marriages still had no child of her own, four months later she married Thomas Seymour the new kings uncle, swept away by his youth and charm, she went to live with him in Sudeley Castle taking her step daughter Elizabeth with her, then a girl of fourteen and little Jane Grey her husbands ward, there in the beautiful lush countryside she must have been truly happy for the first time in years, but sadly marital bliss was denied her, her husband who fancied himself a ladies man, began flirting with Elizabeth and one day he went to far, heavily pregnant she discovered them one day locked in an embrace, Elizabeth was dismissed and from then on Seymour blundered from one catastrophe to another, inevitably like all ambitious men he ended up on the block, Catherine like Jane Seymour suffered from complications in childbirth and although her baby was born healthy, it robbed her mother of her life, the infection which increases delirium made Catherine babble as she lay on her death bed and she accused her husband of making her suffer with cruel taunts, Catherine was then thirty six, too old really in Tudor times to have her first child, but whatever age the mother, childbirth was very dangerous without the modern medicine and care mothers have today, her useless husband was stricken at her death and all he was left with now was their baby daughter, christened Lady Mary, possibly named after the Lady Mary, Catherine’s eldest stepdaughter, her funeral service was befitting of a one time queen consort and her epitaph was beautiful, many people sobbed as the staves were thrown onto her coffin, little Lady Jane Grey was chief mourner and she must have felt sad because now she would be sent home to her mother and father, whom she did not care for much, finding Catherine and Thomas much more less strict and kindlier then them, Catherine had a short life but it was certainly a full one married four times one of them to a king, she was highly educated and was the first queen to have her books published, she also was the first queen in Britain to have her funeral service in English, she laid in peace for about two hundred years, then in the middle part of the eighteenth century her tomb was discovered by two ladies whilst venturing around the castle ruins one day, the castle then having fallen into disrepair, it attracted the curious and the description of the dead queen is a very full and accurate one, the skin was firm and moist, the lead in which the body was encased preserved her remains, traces of beauty could be seen in its countenance, which looking at her portraits bears this out, her burial gown was lavish and the cere cloth which was her shroud and her shoes were all perfectly preserved, it was noted the queen had only been a little woman, maybe about five feet two, as her coffin was five feet four in length, the coffin was then covered up but opened again some time later, and this time was treated with dreadful disrespect, thrown onto a rubbish tip and even her body was stabbed with a pitchfork or some other sharp instrument, some drunken workmen were given the task to bury her so it was probably them who treated her with such appalling disregard, village louts no doubt, even then poor queen was not allowed to rest in peace, she was opened for a third time and of course by now, decay had set in and all what was left of this once remarkable woman was bones and dust, now she lies perfectly at rest in a marble tomb with a beautiful effigy, in the final home she had known briefly true happiness, her daughter little Mary Seymour is a mystery there are no records of her, and so the common assumption is, she sadly must have died young, but she was heiress to her father after his death and given into the care of the queens great friend, the Duchess of Suffolk, who bewailed the cost of keeping her, for little Mary was a most important personage, the daughter of an ex Queen consort of England, she thus fades from history, however her mother is known for being the last of Henry V111’s wives, the one who got away, and who escaped the gilded but sometimes bloody and dangerous cage.