Catherine Parr

Queen of England, 1512–1548

Catherine Parr was the sixth and last wife of Henry VIII, and the queen who did most to shelter the gospel in his final years. She was the widow of Lord Latimer and was at court when the ailing king resolved to marry again. Merle d’Aubigné describes her as “a woman of good sense, of virtuous and amiable character.”1 She had spent much time in the study of Scripture.2 She married Henry on July 12, 1543. Cranmer and the friends of reform rejoiced, while Gardiner and his party grew alarmed.1 When Henry invaded France in 1544, he named her regent of the kingdom.1

An Evangelical Queen

In her rooms the queen and her ladies heard the Scriptures expounded. In Lent a chaplain preached to them every afternoon.3 She was the first English queen to publish books in English under her own name: Prayers or Meditations (1545) and The Lamentation of a Sinner (1547). Her stepdaughter Elizabeth translated the Prayers into Latin, French, and Italian.4 Most important of all, she supplied evangelical tutors for Prince Edward and the Lady Elizabeth, and so helped shape the two Protestant reigns that followed.4, 2

In Danger of Death

In 1546, the year Anne Askew was burned, the queen pressed the sick king to finish purging the Church of England “from the dregs thereof.” Gardiner and Lord Chancellor Wriothesley persuaded Henry to sign articles against her. The paper was dropped in the palace and carried to Catherine, who collapsed in terror.3 Then she went to the king and submitted herself to his judgment. “You are become a doctor, Kate,” he said, but she answered that she had argued only to ease his pain and to learn from him. “Then perfect friends we are now again,” said Henry. The next day Wriothesley arrived with forty guards to arrest her and was sent off with the words, “Fool, madman, arrant knave!” Catherine herself pleaded for him.3

After Henry’s death in January 1547 she married Sir Thomas Seymour, uncle of the young king, so soon that it was thought unseemly. The Princess Elizabeth lived in her household for a time.5 Catherine died in 1548. Her only child, Mary Seymour, was born of this last marriage.2

Cautions

Merle d’Aubigné notes her “want of prudence,” and he grants that her words of submission to Henry held “somewhat of exaggeration,” though he believed them sincere. Her humble speech on the duty of wives was spoken to save her life, and it should be read that way. Some popular accounts credit her with the printing of tens of thousands of English Bibles; that claim is not supported in the sources consulted here.6

Women of the Reformation   Next: Anne Askew

Sources

  1. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, trans. William L. R. Cates, vol. 8 (London: Longmans, Green), bk. 15, ch. 8, “Catherine Parr, a Protestant Queen”. ↩
  2. Mary L. Hammack, A Dictionary of Women in Church History (Chicago: Moody, 1984), “Parr, Catherine.” Summarized. ↩
  3. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, trans. William L. R. Cates, vol. 8 (London: Longmans, Green), bk. 15, ch. 10, “Queen Catherine in Danger of Death”. ↩
  4. Christian History 131, “Women of the Reformation: Lesser-Known Stories”, “Did You Know?” and Calvin Lane, “Not a Soap Opera: Henry VIII’s Wives and Daughters.” Summarized. ↩
  5. Jacob Abbott, History of Queen Elizabeth, Makers of History (New York: Harper, 1849), on the queen dowager’s marriage. Summarized. ↩
  6. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, trans. William L. R. Cates, vol. 8 (London: Longmans, Green), bk. 15, ch. 8, “Catherine Parr, a Protestant Queen”. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, trans. William L. R. Cates, vol. 8 (London: Longmans, Green), bk. 15, ch. 10, “Queen Catherine in Danger of Death”. ↩