Katherine Parr: The Sixth and Last Wife (Thankfully)--But Much More

Katherine Parr, queen and regent of England (married 12 July 1543)

On this day in 1543, Henry VIII of England married his sixth wife, Katherine Parr.

Katherine Parr, the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr and Maud Green, is mostly known for being the queen who survived her much-married royal husband. Not that she enjoyed a long life—probably born in 1512, she died on 5 September 1548, just thirty-six years old.

Katherine Parr, c. 1545

Before marrying Henry VIII, Katherine Parr had been twice widowed. Her first husband was Sir Edward Borough, to whom she was married in 1529, when she was seventeen. After his death in 1533, she married John Neville, lord Latimer, the next year; Latimer died on 2 March 1543, and Katherine married the king just months later, on 12 July 1543.

But rather than spending more time on Katherine as Henry's last wife, I thought I'd post about two lesser known aspects of her life.

First, while married to Henry, Katherine served as regent of England. As a last hurrah to his life-long military fantasies, Henry VIII invaded France during his final years, and while he was out of the kingdom, from 14 July 1544 until 30 September 1544, he left it in Katherine's hands. 

In his magisterial account of the reign of Henry VIII, J. J. Scarisbrick refers to Katherine's role as "governor of the realm and protector." In her excellent biography of the queen, Susan E. James refers to Katherine as "regent-general of England." 

Second, Katherine wrote and published. In fact, as her recent editor Janel Mueller notes, Parr is the "first woman to publish in print a work of her own under her own name, in English and in England." In 1545, while she was involved with the translation of a work by the Dutch humanist scholar Erasmus into English, she published Prayers or Meditations . . . Collected out of Holy Works by the Most Virtuous and Gracious Princess, Katherine, Queen of England, France, and Ireland. Two years later, in 1547, she published, again in her own name, The Lamentation of a Sinner, a personal expression of Katherine's own religious views.

Mueller also credits Katherine Parr with one anonymously published work, Psalms and Prayers (1544) and with an unpublished collection of devotional works that Mueller identifies as Parr's "prayerbook."

After Henry VIII's death, Katherine Parr married Thomas Seymour, brother of Jane Seymour (Henry VIII’s third wife). On 30 August 1548 she gave birth to a daughter, Mary Seymour, but Katherine died six days later, on 5 September of puerperal fever (the same bacterial infection that was the cause of Jane Seymour's death after the birth of Edward Tudor).

After the death of Katherine Parr's last husband, executed for treason on 20 March 1549, Katherine's daughter Mary was transferred to the custody of a woman we have met before, Katherine Willoughby Brandon, duchess of Suffolk (click here and scroll down). Unfortunately, from the surviving correspondence, the duchess was not all that happy about taking on the responsibility for the baby.

After 1550, Katherine Parr's daughter disappears from the historical record. The baby was "restored to the blood" on 22 January 1550, which meant that, after her father's treason, her inheritance rights were restored, but when a grant for her maintenance was due to be renewed on 17 September 1550, it was allowed to expire. James concludes that the little girl died, probably around her second birthday.

Although there have long been theories that the little girl lived, married, and had children, recent historical discoveries, as reported by Linda Porter, in History Today, have made it pretty clear that she did not.

Update, 13 July 2020: I notice that the History Today article is now behind a paywall--I've left the link, just in case you have access or are willing to pay for access, but here is an excellent summary of Porter's article, from The Anne Boleyn Files website. Many of the reader comments on the summary are very well-informed (some are sorta nuts, but you can figure out which are which quite easily).

Mary Rose, "the French Queen"

Mary Tudor (died 25 June 1533)

Mary Tudor was the younger sister of Henry VIII, the fifth child of Henry VII and his wife, Elizabeth of York.

Mary Tudor, detail
from a portrait made during her
brief reign in France

Born on 18 March 1496, Mary Tudor was married off--much against her wishes--to a fifty-two-year-old Louis XII of France.

She was eighteen--married on 9 October 1514, crowned on 15 November, and widowed on 1 January 1515, less than three months after her marriage. She may have lost her king (a loss she surely did not mourn), but she gained the title by which she would be known for the rest of her life, "the French queen."

While still in France, Mary chose her second husband for herself. Fearful of whatever political match her brother, Henry VIII, might next arrange for her, she married Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, on 3 March 1515. All things considered, he was an interesting choice, husband-wise.

At this point, Brandon's marital adventures had gone far beyond those of his new brother-in-law, Henry VIII, who was still married to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. But in 1515, Mary Tudor, now the widow of the French king, was Brandon's third--or fourth--wife, depending on how you did the counting.

About 1505, Brandon had engaged himself to Anne Browne by a binding contract of sponsalia per verba de praesenti--a valid marriage under canon law by which both parties "in the present" mutually agree. In the case of Brandon and Anne Browne, their exchange of promises must also have been followed by consummation, because she became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter in 1506.  

But then Brandon changed his mind; he had his "marriage" with Anne "declared void" in 1507 and then married Anne’s aunt, Margaret Neville, who was the widow--the wealthy widow--of Sir John Mortimer. When that marriage was declared "null and void" by angry family members, Brandon returned to Anne Brown, and they had a second daughter, born in 1510.

After Anne Browne died in 1511, Brandon was not too heartbroken to consider another marriage. In 1512, Brandon had been granted the wardship of Elizabeth Grey, the eight-year-old daughter of the recently deceased John Grey, viscount Lisle. In 1513, Brandon decided he would marry the child, and the two were betrothed; on 15 May 1513, Henry VIII created Brandon Viscount Lisle, in right of his betrothed wife.

But this didn't prevent Brandon from marrying Mary Tudor when he had his chance in 1515. At the time he married, he was still "betrothed" to Elizabeth Grey (eventually he had to give up his wardship and titles). Not only that, his second "wife," Margaret Neville Mortimer, was still alive (she would marry again, too, but not until c. 1521). Brandon's divorce from Margaret wouldn't be confirmed as valid until 1528, when Pope Clement VII issued a papal bull, thereby insuring the legitimacy of his two daughters by Anne Brown.

Still with me? We might as well finish up Brandon's marital (mis)adventures: less than three months after Mary Tudor's death, Brandon would marry yet again. His fourth or fifth wife (again, her position depends on how you count Brandon's marriages) was Katherine Willoughby, just fourteen when she married the forty-nine-year-old Brandon--she was his ward, a bride destined for his son. Oops. Katherine Willoughby Brandon survived her marriage to Brandon and went on to choose a husband for herself the second time around.

Well, that was a bit of a detour. And, by the way, don't you just love "traditional marriage"?

Although "the French queen" had chosen a husband for herself when she was a young widow, she died when she was just thirty-seven years old, leaving three surviving children: Frances Brandon, Eleanor Brandon, and Henry Brandon. The boy died less than a year after his mother.

Frances Brandon, Mary Tudor's elder daughter, was the mother of Lady Jane Grey, whom we've met before. All three of Frances Brandon's daughters--Jane, Catherine, and Mary--came to grief over their claims to the throne.

Mary Tudor, detail
from a portrait with Charles Brandon

Mary Tudor's younger daughter, Eleanor Brandon, was eighth in line to the throne by the terms of Henry VIII's Third Succession Act of 1544. Eleanor died in 1547, leaving her daughter, Margaret Clifford, in the line of succession.

Margaret Clifford also suffered because of her inheritance--in 1579, she was accused of sorcery and plotting against Queen Elizabeth I and was imprisoned. Although Eleanor's physician was executed, she was spared, though she was banished from court and increasingly impoverished. She died in 1596. 

None of Mary Tudor's descendants succeeded Elizabeth I when she died in 1603. The crown went to James of Scotland. 

Although the noted historian David Loades published a biography of Mary Tudor, Mary Rose, in 2012, she plays a relatively small role in a book that offers very little information about her that has not appeared in biographies of Henry VIII or Charles Brandon. Much better is Jennifer Kewley Draskau's The Tudor Rose: Princess Mary, Henry VIII's Sister. 

But you might prefer Maria Perry's The Sisters of Henry VIII: The Tumultuous Lives of Margaret of Scotland and Mary of France--it's very reasonably priced and you get two for the price of one!