Early in the morning of 5th September 1548, Catherine Parr, Queen Dowager and wife of Thomas Seymour, Baron Sudeley, died at Sudeley Castle just a few days after giving birth to her first child, a daughter Mary.
You can read more about Catherine’s death, and also the discovery of her remains in 1782, in my article from 2012 – 5 September 1548 – Death of Catherine Parr, Queen Dowager.
You can read more about Catherine herself in the following articles:
It must have been strange to be buried on the same day, especially for a noble ex queen. I think Katherine would not have wanted a fuss, honour, yes, but not all the trappings. This was the first royal none Catholic funeral. What a pity that Elizabeth fell out with her step mother as she was having an affair with her husband. Her tomb is fine but simple.
I don’t see Katherine as a feminist, as feminism did not exist until the nineteenth century when the term was first used to describe suffragets. However , some qualities of femanism show in her being determined to have a good education, to see the children had access to their father, promoted the interests of the ladies of the court in theological terms, debated theological issues, kept several books, had a book published, even though it was traditional, but generally her role was that of obedient wife and mother. I think of Katherine more as a scholar, she did show her own mind, had a good head for ruling, she was a reformer, but at the end of the day, she still took the traditional roles of a wife, nurse and mother, all laudable and to be praised. In the end she was wise enough not to debate too much with Henry, accept that she had gone too far, that she could not reform Henry and the safe course of action was to submit to him and say he was right. I do feel sorry for her in the end, though, Tom Seymour, her so called love of her life, turned out to be a cad.