After the disaster of his marriage to Catherine Howard, Henry was in his fifties, fatter and more mad than ever. He wanted a wife with an impeccable reputation and one who would care for him and his ever growing list of ailments. Pretty widow Katherine Parr looked like a great match. She was in her early thirties, with an impeccable reputation and was well educated and intelligent.
Like three 3 of his previous wives, Katherine Parr was the daughter of English courtiers. By the time she caught Henry’s eye she’d had a bit of bad luck with husbands. She’d been widowed twice and had no children to show for it. Now a wealthy widow, Katherine was free to make her own choices in life. She fell in love with the handsome and charming Thomas Seymour, brother to Jane Seymour.
She planned to marry Thomas, but King Henry came calling so she had to let Thomas go. You didn’t say no to the King. She married Henry in 1543 with all of his children present and quickly became a model wife and step-mother. She had a great relationship with all three of her step-children, with a special interest in their education and well-being. She helped the fat, ailing King and cheered him up when his moods were sour. He even, like Catherine of Aragon before her, let her take his place ruling when he went overseas.
Everything was good, but they did have some hiccups, especially when it came to religion. Although Henry had got rid of the Pope in England all the way back when he divorced Catherine of Aragon, he was still, essentially, Catholic. The intelligent, well educated Katherine Parr, however, had been exposed to the new Protestant forms of Christianity. She collected ‘heretical’ books and enjoyed religious debate. Debating religion with her grouchy old husband, however, was one step too far. Henry was furious at her supposed heresy and told his doctor that he was going to have Katherine arrested. Katherine heard the rumours and threw herself at the King, saying exactly what Henry wanted to hear. She appealed to him that as a just a dumb woman she could never tell the King, a man, what to believe. He was right and she was wrong. Not so dumb after all, as soon all was forgiven.
She was, in-fact, so smart that she became the first female author to be published in England. Her book was called ‘The Lamentation of a Sinner’ and was an anti-Roman Catholic series of religious reflections. It was published in 1547 when her step-son, Edward VI came to the throne, after King Henry VIII’s death. It was quite a radical religious book for the time and it’s unlikely Henry would have appreciated it much, but it was well received in the reign of protestant Edward.
After Henry’s death in 1547, Katherine finally got to marry Thomas Seymour. Soon after, at 35 years old, she was pregnant for the first time. Sadly, after giving birth to a daughter, Katherine came down with the same infection that had killed Jane Seymour. Katherine died six days later. Her daughter didn’t survive infancy.
