KATHERINE PARR, SIXTH AND LAST OF HENRY VIII WIVES.

Katherine Parr, was the sixth and last of Henry VIII wives. The twice widowed Katherine, married Henry VIII of England on 12th July 1543 at Hampton Court Palace, after first breaking off a relationship she had entered into with Sir Thomas Seymour, the brother of the King's third wife Jane Seymour.

It was while she was in the household of Mary Tudor, the future Mary I of England, the eldest daughter of King Henry VIII, that she first caught the attention of the King. Once Henry had taken a liking to her, she was obliged to break off her relationship with Seymour and accept the King's proposal instead.

Katherine Parr, was born in the year 1512, the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Parr, a descendant of King Edward III, and his wife Lady Parr, the former Maud Green. They lived at Kendal Castle, Westmorland, where Katherine was born, and Parr House, which was situated on the Strand in London.

In 1509, at the age of fourteen, Katherine's mother, Maud became a lady-in-waiting to Katherine of Aragon, the first of Henry VIII's wives and named her eldest daughter after her, when she gave birth three years later. Thomas and Maud, had two more children, William, who later became 1st Marquess of Northampton and Anne, who later became Countess of Pembroke.

At the age of twenty two, Katherine's mother was left a widow when Thomas died of the sweating sickness, leaving her to bring up their three children and to manage the families estates. She died at the age of thirty four in 1529 and was buried beside her husband in Blackfriars Church, London.

In the same year that her mother died, Katherine Parr married Edward Borough. There is not a lot known about which Edward Borough she actually married and there has been much debate about this subject over the years.

For many years it had generally been accepted, that it was the old Sir Edward Borough, 2nd Baron of Gainsborough, who had been knighted immediately after the Battle of Stoke Field, that she had married. If so, he was a man old enough to be her grandfather and died the same year.

However, it appears that nowadays the general concensus is that it was the 2nd Baron's grandson Edward, who she married.This younger Edward Borough was in his twenties and may possibly have been in poor health, for he died in 1533.

The following year, the young widow married John Neville, 3rd Baron Latymer, who came from Snape,in the North of Yorkshire. The Baron himself was a widower, with two children, who it is reported got on very well with their new step-mother, Katherine Parr.

In 1536, they were taken hostage in the rebellion, known famously as the Pilgrimage of Grace. King Henry VIII and his Chief Minister, Thomas Cromwell, had commenced their extremely unpopular policy of Dissolving the English Monasteries.

Although King Henry VIII was the force behind the break with Rome, as he alone had the power and the final say, there is no certainty he wanted events to unfold in the way they did. On the contrary. The concensus here is that he genuinely felt, that by exerting enough pressure on the Pope, he would get all that he desired, which was an annullment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon.

Thomas Cromwell on the other hand though, did want the events to unfold the way they did. We cannot be absolutely certain that he planned all the events in advance, or just grabbed the opportunities as they arose.

However, there is probably not a shadow of a doubt that Thomas Cromwell did engineer the whole thing. No shadow of doubt, yes, but no absolute certainty either, but he was the King's chief advisor and He was also an ardent follower of Martin Luther's reforming tenets. We know that he believed in and wanted, a Sovereign Nation State.

When Pope Clement VII, in 1534 announced that Katherine of Aragon was still the rightful wife of Henry VIII of England, and as such, was still the rightful Queen of England, the King was furious. It was now obvious that he would not get an annullment from the Pope.

Thomas Cromwell was a very intelligent and ambitious man. This ambition, combined with the position he held, gave him the perfect vantage point to see what King Henry VIII's dispute with Rome could lead to.

It also gave him the perfect opportunity to influence and guide which events would take place, before they took on a momentum of their own, leading to the eventual break with Rome.

It was this break with Rome,combined with the Dissolution of the English Monasteries which alienated most of the population of England, outside of the City of London. They did not want these reforms. Neither did they want the widespread destruction of very popular shrines to Saints throughout the land.

Ordinary people, including much of the nobility, were fervent believers in the old rituals and depended on the English Monasteries for all their religeous devotions. Travellers depended on them for overnight lodgings, as there were no Coaching Inns then. It was this Dissolution which heralded the arrival of the Coaching Inns.

ABOVE:THOMAS CRANMER A STAUNCH SUPPORTER OF THOMAS CROMWELL WHO ALSO SHARED MANY OF KATHERINE PARR'S REFORMING VIEWS.

It was the implementation of these very unpopular policies and the hatred for Thomas Cromwell and his supporter Thomas Cranmer, the man whom Henry VIII had appointed as the Archbishop of Canterbury, which infuriated the population and led to several uprisings and disorders throughout the land.

It culminated with the great northern rising of 1536-1537, which was known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, in which Katherine Parr was held hostage.

Her husband, John Neville, 3rd Baron Latymer, had spoken on behalf of the rebels and was widely suspected of collaborating with them.

On being summoned, to report and explain his actions to the King, he was cleared of taking part in the rebellion and thus, did not suffer the fate of hundreds of the rebels, who were summarily executed.

Being absolved of any participation in the rebellion was one thing, but being held under suspicion was quite another. His health quickly deteriorated as a result and was believed to have led to his death in March 1543.

Towards the end of John Neville's life they lived in London where Katherine Parr herself nursed her very sick husband, but she was also able to spend more time at court.

She was thirty one years of age and very wealthy when she became a widow for the second time. She started a relationship with Thomas Seymour, who was the uncle of the future King, Edward VI, and the brother of the late Queen, Jane Seymour.

A lot of Katherine's time was spent at the household of Mary Tudor, the future Mary I of England and daughter of King Henry VIII.

It was here, in Mary Tudor's household, that King Henry noticed her and liked what he saw. Under these circumstances Katherine Parr was obliged to end her relationship with Thomas Seymour and accept the King's proposal instead.

After the wedding, which took place at Hampton Court Palace on 12th July 1543, Katherine Parr, as well as becoming the Queen of England, became the first Queen of Ireland, following the adoption of the title King of Ireland by King Henry.

An Act of the Irish Paliament in 1541, had created the title King of Ireland, replacing the title Lordship of Ireland, which had been in existance since 1171.

Katherine had a good relationship with all three of Henry's children and was able to claim partial responsibility for the reconciliation of Henry with his two daughters, the future Mary I of England and Queen Elizabeth 1. With her new status of Queen, her uncle Lord Parr of Horton became her Lord Chamberlain.

Henry appointed his wife Katherine, Regent in 1544, while he was away between July and September on his last, unsuccessful military campaign in France. Her tenure in this office was very effective, she was able to maintain control, facing no serious challenge to her authority. She had much help in her duties from her uncle and her councilors, Thomas Cranmer, and Edward Seymour.

Her religeous convictions at that time are very cloudy. She was obviously brought up in the old faith of Roman Catholicism, since she was born before the Reformation, but she sympathised with Protestantism later, finding it a very attractive, New Faith.

She also became a very close friend of Thomas Cranmer, one of the main leaders of the English Reformation, who along with Thomas Cromwell supported Royal Supremacy.

It is quite a widely held belief that she had actually turned to Protestantism by the middle of the 1540s. With the publication of her book, Lamentations of a Sinner in 1547, after King Henry's death, it is pretty clear that she held some pretty strong reformed convictions.

The published book contained, and in so doing, promoted these convictions, which were heretical in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

Prior to Henry's death and the publication of her book, both Catholic and anti-evangelical officials considered Katherine Parr sufficiently reformist enough, to be viewed with enough suspicion to try and turn the King against her.

An Act for the Advancement of True Religion had been passed by the English Parliament on 12th May 1543, restricting the reading of the Bible to clerics, noblemen, the gentry and rich merchants. Only women belonging to the gentry and nobility were allowed to read it, but only in private with a stipulation not to engage in religious debate.

This law was ignored by Katherine Parr, who felt secure in her position at court and continued to engage in religious debates. When her friend Anne Askew was arrested for evangelical preaching, along with other minor evangelicals, in the hope that they would implicate those who were more highly placed ,askew would not talk, declining to name anyone.

When Askew was burnt at the stake at Smithfield, London on 16th July 1546, Katherine Parr threw away her all her dangerous evangelical books. Her enemies still conspired against her and eventually a warrant was drawn up for her arrest.

The warrant was either, accidentally dropped at her doorstep, or it was placed there on purpose with the intention of warning her. It did give her warning, which allowed her enough time to make preperations to meet the King. It has been said that Katherine became very ill, but it is not clear if this illness was genuine or if it was just feigned sickness as a ruse.

It seems to have been effective however, for the King went to see her. After berating her about her outspoken religious views and even her arguments with himself over religion, she replied humbly, that a wife was subordinate to her husband in every way.

She managed to pacify him by saying she had only argued about religion with him, in order to take his mind off the suffering he was going through with his ulcerous leg. This did the trick, for he is reported as saying: "Then Kate, we are friends again."

Katherine, was already a wealthy woman in her own right before she married Henry VIII of England, but when Henry died In January 1547, he left her one of the wealthiest.

A few months Before the King died, Thomas Seymour, the man who Katherine had finished having a relationship with, in order to marry the King, returned to court and saw his brother Edward, effectively become the ruler of the country, when he became Lord Protector of England as Regent for the young Edward VI.

Thomas was Lord High Admiral and had been granted the title, Baron Seymour of Sudeley. This, it appears wasn't enough, for he was ambitious, and started scheming to replace his brother Edward as Lord Protector.

Katherine Parr and Thomas Seymour were secretly married, barely a few months after King Henry had died, causing a huge scandal. It did not however, prevent her from securing the guardianship of Princess Elizabeth Tudor as well as the wardship of Lady Jane Grey.

Katherine became pregnant at the age of thirty five. The first time she had been pregnant in her three marriages. However, her joy was not to be, for it was discovered that her husband, who had been scheming to marry Princess Elizabeth, was also discovered taking liberties with the teen-aged princess.

In order to protect the young Princess Elizabeth, Katherine sent her away to live with the household of Anthony Denny in Hertfordshire. They never saw each other again, for shortly afterwards Katherine gave birth to her only child, a baby girl.

Katherine Parr died six days after giving birth, on 5th September 1548 at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire. The child was Christened Mary. She is thought to have died from puerperal fever, the illness which is also thought to have killed Jane Seymour.

It was a very common killer in those days, due to the lack of hygiene at the birth of a child.

Less than a year later, Thomas Seymour was accused of treason after he was discovered breaking into the boy King Edward VI's apartments at Hampton Court Palace, with the intention of kisnapping him.

He was executed at the Tower of London, dying "dangerously, irksomely and horribly."

In 1782, Katherine Parr's coffin was discovered in the ruins of the Sudeley Castle Chapel. Her remains were moved in 1817 to the tomb of Lord Chandos, whose family then owned the castle. The chapel was rebuilt in later years by Sir John Scott which incorporated an altar-tomb, specially erected to house what remained of Katherine Parr, the sixth and last of Henry VIII's Wives.

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