Kateryn Parr: Henry VIII's Sixth Queen

By Laura Adkins

Katheryn Parr is mainly remembered today as being the sixth wife of King Henry VIII, the one who ‘survived’. Katheryn was not only a wife but a queen, mother, reformer, and author. 

Katheryn would face a number of events in her lifetime including being held to ransom during the Pilgrimage of Grace, being placed as regent while Henry was in France, a role which only one of his five previous wives held, her namesake Katherine of Aragon, and overcame a plot which would have led to her arrest and execution. While Queen she was able to unite the Tudor family and establish some form of happiness for Henry VIII’s three children.

Raised by her mother Maud Parr, under a humanist education, Katheryn was intelligent enough to understand her role in life and was not afraid to do her research. Although raised a Catholic, Katheryn became a reformer and went on to write a number of religious texts, being the first female in England to ever have a book published under her own name. She was loyal not only to her family but her servants and the women of her court. She loved her stepchildren and provided them with a mother's love and a role model which her stepdaughters could learn from. Her views on what was expected of her placed her into an open conflict with her brother-in-law Edward Seymour and his wife Anne.

This book explores the various roles she had in her lifetime and the passion and duty she put into them, even if it meant putting others first. It will explore her love for Thomas Seymour and how it blindsided her and led to a sad end of her life, and the book will finally look at her legacy - the influence she had on Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth I.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: May 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9781399082860

Laura Adkins

Ever since being inspired by her history teacher in secondary school and the 1997 movie Titanic, Laura has had a passion for history, especially medieval and Tudor eras. She writes her blog the Local History Blogger which focuses on her home county of Essex, England.In her past jobs, she has been fortunate to work in historic locations such as the Tower of London and Banqueting House, Whitehall where she gave public talks on its history and talks on the Tudors and Stuarts.Her other passion in life is her daughter who now joins Laura on her history trips and outings. When she is not exploring Laura enjoys reading and adding to her growing collection of books. Katheryn Parr: Henry VIII's Sixth Queen is her first book

Book preview

Introduction

In 1782 a group of ladies entered the overgrown ruins of Sudeley Castle with a mission, to locate the final resting place of Kateryn Parr, sixth wife of King Henry VIII. She had been buried on the north side of the chapel in the castle grounds, but it had been destroyed after the castle had been slighted during the Civil War in 1642.

From the description of her burial the ladies deduced where she may have been and enlisted some local men to dig where a large alabaster block was situated. A coffin was located two feet below the surface and upon opening, like she had been frozen in time, lay Kateryn Parr, her eyes open, staring up at them before the open air began to rapidly decay her face. She was swiftly covered up only to be disturbed again a few months later, this time by a tenant farmer. He found the same lack of decay on her arm which, like the face, began to decompose.¹

Sadly further disturbance was to come, when the coffin was opened again in 1783 by a Mr Brooks, Steward to Lord Rivers, the owner of the castle, and again the following year when an old woman recorded ‘the remains of costly burial clothes were on the body, not a shroud but a dress, as in life; shoes were on her feet, but very small and all her proportions extremely delicate’. She particularly noticed that traces of beauty were ‘still perceptible in the countenance, of which the features were at that time perfect…[and] her long hair was golden. The cerecloth consisted of many folds of linen, dipped in wax, tar and gums, and the lead [coffin] fitted exactly to the shape of the body’.² The body was only five feet four inches in length.

By 1786 when the tomb was disturbed once more Kateryn’s body had decayed rapidly; no more were there traces of her beauty, instead a brown skeleton with teeth fallen from their sockets and ‘the hands and nails were entire, but of a brownish hue’.³ Rather than sealing the grave so no one could disturb it further, Kateryn was left where she lay. In 1792 she was disturbed once more, when her skeleton was allegedly removed from the coffin and the culprits danced with it before she was reburied. This time a grave was dug deeper to prevent further, disturbance but while doing so, the men, who were intoxicated from alcohol, managed to pull the hair away from the skull, cutting her head off with a spade, knocking the teeth and pulling off her arms. In one final insult, they buried the coffin upside down.

It would not be until 1861 when Kateryn’s remains, which were by now just dust, were finally reburied with the respect and care she deserved. Her coffin, which since the late 1700s had been stored in a lean-to building in the grounds of Sudeley, was finally relocated to St Mary’s Church, also in the castle grounds. Placed in a vault to the left of the chapel, her coffin was covered with a mediaeval style canopied tomb, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott⁴, displaying the coats of arms of her four husbands. It had been based on a woodcut of the original monument. The life-sized marble figure placed on top of her tomb did not bear any likeness to any surviving portraits. It was designed by John Birnie Philip.⁵ Kateryn Parr, queen of England, stepmother to royalty and reformist author was finally able to rest once more. Today, she still rests in the chapel not far from where she died at Sudeley Castle.

Kateryn’s last few years of her life had been just as chaotic as her centuries of disturbance while dead. She had been the target of a plot to have her beheaded, she married for love facing the wrath of the Privy Council, she was humiliated by her husband in a potentially scandalous affair with her stepdaughter and finally, after giving birth to a longed-for child of her own, died of puerperal fever. It was a sad end to one who had lived a fascinating life and was loved by many.

Kateryn Parr will always be remembered as the sixth wife of Henry VIII, the larger-than-life king who married six times and broke with Rome amongst others. In the ‘divorced, beheaded, died’ rhyme, she is the one at the end who ‘survived’ but she was so much more than just a wife to the Tudor king. Queen Kateryn became stepmother to his three children, all of whom had their own damaged childhoods and lacked a mother figure. She entered a world of religious friction and even herself underwent a religious awakening and became a reformist. As queen, Henry placed her in charge for a few months while he went to war with France, a position which was not just signing a few pieces of paper. She would also write three religious texts whilst queen, putting her name to two of them, the first female in England to do so. As queen, Kateryn used her position to make herself one of the most significant queens in the Tudor age. Even before becoming queen, Kateryn had a life which prepared her for the life she achieved. It is in her childhood and through the guidance of her mother that preparation was made for what lay ahead even though at the time her future was of course unknown to her or her mother. Kateryn would develop a zeal and passion for all the roles that she undertook in life, and this passion would continue right up until her death; it is what made her a loving and loyal sibling, a caring stepmother, dutiful wife, passionate reformer and a dedicated queen. The Parr family motto was ‘love with loyalty’, and one they lived by. These words would be ones Kateryn would follow to the letter her whole life and not only in her role as wife, but also in those she cared for and in her love for God. She never betrayed anyone’s faith in her and would always reward their loyalty to her wherever she could. Her personal motto when queen was ‘to be useful in all I do’, again words which she followed to the letter. She did not let any role or opportunity given to her go to waste, and as queen she used her position to patronise those in the humanist circles to help elevate and promote their beliefs and views. Her first active involvement in politics as queen was to try and get the Tudor princesses restored to the line of succession, serving them as a mother should.

Through her life Kateryn took what she learned and developed herself, within the confines of her gender, and gained a form of independence many women of the time did not realise they could have. By realising the power, she could wield, Kateryn used it to help shape her own passions in life and lived a full life, although at times this led to her sacrificing her own personal happiness.

Daughter, sibling, wife, mother, queen, reformer and writer — Kateryn Parr lived a passionate life and ended it following her biggest passion of all, Thomas Seymour. She proves she is not just a wife to Henry VIII, and this is her story.

Chapter 1

The Life of Kateryn Parr

Kateryn was the eldest child of Thomas and Maud Parr, born in 1512 and raised at the family home of Rye House, Hertfordshire. Her father died when she was only around 5 years of age. Her mother Maud never remarried and chose a life of dedication to her three children; a decision that seems to have influenced Kateryn when she reached adulthood as she always put others first.

Sir Thomas Parr, born around 1483 to Sir William Parr and Elizabeth Fitzhugh, was the eldest child, and through his mother’s lineage a descendant of Edward III. His ancestry also had links to the Nevilles and Beauforts, all key players in the Wars of the Roses. Thought to be a down-to-earth family, the Parrs of Kendal held their main seat at Kendal, Westmorland and since 1381 were the most influential presence in southern Westmorland. He was given the education expected of someone of his status, learning classical Greek and Latin. Not only was he well educated, but he was schooled alongside others of a similar age and from notable families which allowed links to be formed which would assist the young gentry as they grew into adulthood.

Her mother was born Matilda Green on 6 April 1492 to Sir Thomas Green of Boughton and Greens Norton and Jane Fogge, daughter of Sir John Fogge. She was born in Northamptonshire although her ancestors came from Yorkist stock. Her great grandfather, Sir John Fogge was treasurer to Edward IV for a time and knew her future father-in-law. Considered to be an unpleasant lot, it seems Maud took after her father’s positive attributes of trying to get on with those around him with determination to get places in life, a trait that would continue down to Maud’s daughters. She had been educated well, not quite that which her daughters would have but much more than what was expected for a woman of her status. Her father, Sir Thomas, would eventually find himself imprisoned in the Tower for treason, in a charge relating to Edmund Pole (which seemed to have been made up). This, sadly, was where he died on 9 November 1506. He left behind two daughters, Maud and Anne; their mother had died many years before. They were now heiresses jointly to his vast fortune and therefore good marriage prospects. This was when Sir Thomas Parr entered Maud’s life. He brought her wardship and married her a year later in 1508. A marriage of fortune for Sir Thomas but also one of friendship and most likely love. Thomas allowed his 15-year-old bride to get to know him first, and they both shared similar interests. It would also be around this time Nicholas Vaux, stepfather to Sir Thomas, married Maud’s elder sister Anne, and what could have been a time of loneliness for the two sisters became one of happiness as the two would stay in close contact with one another and their children grew up alongside one another.¹

The newly married Parrs would spend life at court, with Thomas being a close companion to the young King Henry. Under Henry VIII he was appointed Master of the Wards, Master of the Guards and Comptroller to the King. In 1509 he was knighted and became High Sheriff of Northamptonshire and the following year High Sheriff of Lincolnshire. Maud would find a place in Katherine of Aragon’s court, where she and the queen became good friends, with Katherine being godmother, and most likely namesake, to her first daughter Kateryn.

Kateryn’s early life was stable and full of love. Maud raised Kateryn and her two other siblings in the ways of the world, so they understood what their role was and what was expected of them. Maud would raise Kateryn in the same way that Thomas More raised his children (Thomas More’s first wife was a niece of Thomas Parr by marriage). They believed that females should have an education similar to their male counterparts. In addition, educating females would enhance not only themselves but those who became part of their lives, like their families.

They both have the same human nature, which reason differentiates from that of beasts; both, therefore, are equally suited for those studies by which reason is cultivated and becomes fruitful like a ploughed land on which the seed of good lessons has been sown… the reward of wisdom is too solid to be lost like riches or to decay like beauty, since it depends on the intimate conscience of what is right, not on the talk of men, then which nothing is more foolish or mischievous.²

More was not alone in this belief, many other humanists of the time including Erasmus and Juan Luis Vives felt the same. Erasmus would be responsible for what is today called Christian Humanism. He believed people should be educated with a combination of piety and learning, and this education, this humanist education and upbringing, would have a deep impact on not only Kateryn’s life but that of her stepchildren in years to come.

Kateryn, along with her two siblings — William (born 1513) and Anne (born 15 June 1515) — would not be raised alone for several children, male and female of notable noble families were there. Due to Maud’s background in the court and her post as a lady-in-waiting for Queen Katherine of Aragon, Rye House had become what one could call a finishing school. In addition to this education, they had access to green open spaces, fresh air and nature. Something Kateryn would continue to enjoy in her adult life.

Although their father had died, they still had a male presence in their lives to supervise their upbringing. This was in the form of their uncle, William Parr of Horton, and Cuthbert Tunstall, a close family friend (and distant relative on their mother’s side). He would remain close to all three of the Parr siblings throughout their lives and become an active and devoted surrogate father.

Cuthbert Tunstall was known at court as an honest man and had many connections and resources in court, including a friendship with both Thomas More and Erasmus. In his book, Utopia, More would say of Tunstall: I will say nothing in praise of this man, not because I fear the judgement of a friend might be questioned, but because his integrity and learning are greater than I can describe.³ He would be the chief executor of Maud Parr’s will when she died. Like the Parr siblings, Cuthbert tried to always remain impartial. He had a fondness for children even though he had none of his own. He would write De Artes Supputandi, a book on mathematics to aid young children. He believed good maths was essential in life. It was through his connections at the court that Kateryn would benefit as she grew into adulthood.⁴

Family bonds of affection were something which Kateryn was fortunate enough to experience in her childhood and this affection and loyalty would continue throughout her whole life. In character, Kateryn was described as having a kind disposition who tried to get along with all those in her life. ‘She had an inquiring mind, was dedicated to her roles and was quite intelligent. Beside the virtues of her mind, she endured with rare gifts of nature as singular beauty, favour and comely personage.’⁵

The surviving portraits and contemporary descriptions of Kateryn describe her as having an oval face, auburn hair, around five feet in height and possibly hazel or brown eyes. Many of the portraits painted of Kateryn date mainly from her time as queen and include a full-length piece by the Flemish painter Master John in 1544⁶ (the first full length portrait of an English queen) and another around a year later by William Scrots,⁷ the court painter who had replaced Holbein. In both these portraits Kateryn is regal and serious in posture. She can be seen to be following the fashion trends of the day; in the first she is wearing a dress in the French style and in the Scrots’ one a year later, her style has changed to that of the Italian style in a V-neck bodice. She is also wearing crimson, not only her favourite colour but one which indicates status. This portrait was painted just after her regency had ended, showing a woman who was confident and comfortable with her position and power.

With the exception of Elizabeth I, Kateryn would be the most painted sixteenth-century queen of England. This she did off her own back, not at the request of the king. Like the Tudor royalty themselves Kateryn used her portrait as a propaganda tool. She could show herself to the world, how she wanted to be seen and accepted. Unfortunately, in the famous family portrait Henry VIII had painted in 1545⁸ she was left out; instead, it was the late Jane Seymour who was depicted as she was Edward VI’s mother and therefore was responsible for continuing the Tudor dynasty. Kateryn had not done that and so she needed to promote herself in other ways. However, having a portrait painted presenting her public image on the same footing as her royal husband was a bold move, but one which worked.

The first portrait we know to be identified as Kateryn is from her second marriage to Lord Latimer in 1534 and was most likely painted in celebration of the fact. The artist has placed an emphasis on a gold and ruby ring on her right index finger. Such a focus on hands at this time was rare so it was most likely to highlight that the sitter was getting married/recently married. In this portrait Kateryn is wearing crimson, gold and purple, already indicating her love of colours and being richly dressed. She stands with her oval-shaped face and firm jawline looking out at us.⁹ This lady is not shy and knows who she is in the world.

In the Strawberry Hill Houses collection there is a miniature of Kateryn (artist unknown),¹⁰ painted in 1545, during the time Kateryn was queen. Again, we see the hazel/brown eyes and auburn hair. She is richly dressed as befits her status. Again, Kateryn’s hazel eyes are looking back at the viewer; she is wearing a crimson hood and a gold dress which cuts across the chest, a common style at the time. Sewn within the dress are pearls and jewels. The artist is unknown, but it is thought to bear a likeness to the one painted by Master John.

Other descriptions of Kateryn from her lifetime include one by the secretary to the Duke of Najera, de Gante in 1544:

She is of a lively and pleasing appearance and is praised as a virtuous woman. She was dressed in a robe of cloth of gold and a petticoat of brocade with sleeves lined with crimson satin and trimmed with three-piled crimson velvet. Her train was more than two yards long. Suspended from her neck were two crosses, and a jewel of very rich diamonds and in her headdress were many beautiful ones. Her girdle was of gold with large pendants.¹¹

Kateryn liked the finer things in life and allowed herself to be dressed in the finest gowns of the time including scarlet damask, crimson velvet and cloth of gold. She was obsessed with shoes and accounts show she had a new pair nearly every week and at one point owned forty-seven pairs. One could say her wardrobe would put the future Queen Elizabeth’s collection of over forty-five years to shame. She liked to look after herself and took milk baths and scented her body with rosewater. When queen, she had her lavatory covered with red silk and ribbons with a canopy of crimson velvet and cushions of cloth of gold.¹²

A patron of music, she loved to dance and kept jesters in her court. She enjoyed reading and had a vast collection of books, including twenty-two volumes in her personal collection. In childhood, she developed an interest in collecting coins and playing chess. She developed an interest in medicines and herbs thought to have been introduced by Tunstall along with coin collecting. This skill she put to good use when nursing her second husband, Lord Latimer, when he was dying and tending to Henry VIII’s ulcerated leg. She liked the outside and many of her properties had green open spaces and gardens where she and her ladies could walk, and like those from her childhood at Rye House. She also enjoyed riding and was a keen hunter with a love of using the crossbow. An animal lover, Kateryn kept a pet spaniel whom she named Rig. The dog had a crimson velvet collar to match his mistress. She also kept greyhounds, a parrot and hawks. This love of animals spread to flora, especially roses, having fresh ones in her quarters daily.

Kateryn was raised well by Maud, and it was a result of Maud’s sound humanistic education and her ‘cultivating court connections’ that set Kateryn off on a course which would lead to her daughter becoming queen of England, something which she never envisioned.

Before her death and Kateryn’s marriage to her first husband Edward Borough in the spring of 1529, Maud had set about arranging for her eldest daughter to marry the son and heir of Henry,