(Cover image – © The Tudors – Showtime)
If there was anything that the young Lady Mary Tudor had learned about her father over the course of her life, it was that it was his way or the highway—meaning being thrown in prison until the King forgave you or having a one-way ticket to the executioner’s block. There was nothing her father wouldn’t do to achieve hat he wanted; her mother’s horrific divorce and death as well as the execution of her first stepmother had proved this much. And if there was one thing that Mary could be certain about; it is that, as long as her father lived, there was always cause for worry.
With the recent execution of her fourth stepmother, Katheryn Howard, on the charges of adultery and therefore treason against the Crown, Mary must have been aware that it would not be very long at all before her father began searching for a sixth wife. Worried about who her next stepmother would be and what fate awaited her, Mary must have felt extremely worried about her father’s next choice for a wife. His last two wives were very much contrasts of one another; Anna von Kleve, his fourth wife, was a German Princess a mere year older than Mary herself and had married Henry VIII as part of a political alliance, similar to how Mary’s own mother, Catalina de Aragon, had over twenty years prior. Katheryn Howard, on the other hand, was the teenage fifth wife of Mary’s father, a woman of lower standing and the cousin of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife and ironically the only other wife to be executed by the Tudor monarch. Anna was graceful, quiet and maintained a friendly relationship with Mary even after her marriage to the King was annulled whilst Katheryn and Mary experienced a hostile, almost jealous relationship between them.
Having a fifth stepmother was not something that Mary would have expected growing up but it was something that she would have to content herself with now. This new stepmother could either support her and try to improve Mary’s relationship with her father just as Jane Seymour and Anna von Kleve had or… she could feel threatened by the influence that Mary had on the King and cause conflict to arise similar to how it had with Anne Boleyn and recently with Katheryn Howard.
This worry would have lingered much at the forefront of Mary’s mind during the time of waiting to find out who her new stepmother would be.
For Henry, marrying a sixth time was more bothersome than his previous marriages. By the time of Katheryn Howard’s execution on 13th February 1542, Henry VIII was no longer the young, energetic man he used to be. He was now a fifty-one year old severely overweight man who suffered from painful leg ulcers stemming from his jousting accident in 1536 (the one that left him unconscious and possibly could have killed him). Painful leg ulcers weren’t the only illness or injuries that plagued the aging King; he also struggled with constant headaches, uncomfortable constipation that was difficult to control, bad odour stemming from his obesity and leaking ulcers, swollen ankles that made wearing shoes almost impossible and so many other physical complaints. He had long lost the handsomeness and attractive physique that he had been praised for in his youth and his lust and desire had long gone with it.
In Henry’s mind, his only successful marriage was to his third wife; Jane Seymour. It is believed that he truly loved her for providing him with the son that he desired and that she almost his ideal woman (something we shall explore later on), hence why he wished to be buried beside her when he passed in 1547. His first marriage to Mary’s mother, Catalina de Aragon, was one of duty; she was previously married to his late elder brother Arthur who died before they could ‘consummate’ the marriage and when Catalina failed to provide him a son (only giving him Mary), he questioned whether her first marriage was truly unconsummated and used religion to divorce her. His second wife Anne Boleyn was executed on the charges of treason (although she was accused of incest, witchcraft and plotting against the King—none of the charges against her have ever been proven to be valid) after she failed to provide him with a son after three years of marriage and Henry even used the fact that he had slept with her older sister as cause for their divorce. Anna von Kleve was another unwanted political marriage that he quickly rid himself of and his last wife, Katheryn Howard, was his teenage mistress until he divorced Anna and married her, only for their marriage to be short-lived when news of her scandalous past came to light as well as the accusation of her having an affair with a member of the royal household.
Love was something Henry believed he was too old for and he no longer wanted a wife that reminded him of his youth. Henry was intelligent enough to know that he would not last long enough to find fault in his sixth wife and find another one before one of his numerous injuries or illnesses ended his stressful, drama-filled life. For his sixth wife, Henry was looking for; an intelligent woman whom he could hold a conversation with, someone who was honest and devoted so he could never question their loyalty to him and finally, someone loving who would take care of him always. Basically, he wanted a companion in a wife, he knew that he could not have the lover he had found in his previous wives as his painful leg ulcers made intimacy only happen on rare occasions.
Ironically, historians believe that his children also played a major role in the selection of what would be his final wife. You see, Henry had to take into account that his only son, the five-year old Edward, and his youngest daughter, nine-year old Elizabeth, needed a mother figure in their lives. Their mothers had both died when they were at a tender age and they needed someone to love and guide them, especially since Henry’s illnesses often meant he was too busy to do so—not that he took an overly active role in their lives, of course. Twenty-six year old Mary was also a major factor in selecting his next wife; Mary was quite close to her father at this point, despite their differences over the years. Some historians have theorised that his choice for a sixth wife needed to be someone that could form a close relationship with Mary and be more of a friend, rather than a mother. Catalina would always be Mary’s mother and no one could replace her, and Henry knew this. Like him, Mary needed a companion, someone she could rely on to be there for her whenever she needed them. It might have been that Henry felt he owed his children, especially Mary whom had suffered for years at his hand, this much to find a sixth wife who he didn’t have to divorce or beheaded. A wife that didn’t cause trouble for a King who had a temper that could be set off just by looking at him wrong.
There were many women that Henry considered as a suitable sixth wife but it was the freshly widowed Katharine Parr whom he would select as his next wife. And luckily for him, Katharine already had a connection with the Lady Mary, meaning that all of his children would be able to bond with Katharine and he could have the companion he so needed.
Katharine Parr was born circa. August 1512 in Blackfriars London as the eldest child of Sir Thomas Parr and his wife, Maud Green. Similar to Henry’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, Katharine had been raised in the Catholic faith but converted to Protestant later in life and would remain Protestant to the end of her days. Being born in 1512 made Katharine four years older than her eldest stepdaughter Mary but they were also distant relations, as most families were in Tudor times. Almost every family had connections to another and you’ll find that practically all of Henry VIII’s six wives not only were relations to one another but also to their husband.
Katharine was related to both the King and Lady Mary through her maternal and paternal sides. Through Katharine’s paternal side, Mary and her were fourth-cousins through Katharine’s descent from the Beaufort family (as Henry VIII’s grandmother was Margaret Beaufort). Once again, they were fourth-cousins through her paternal side through the Woodville family as Elizabeth Woodville was Mary’s great-great grandmother and Katharine Parr’s family also had links to this former Queen. There a multiple ways that the two were cousins through her paternal side so we won’t dive too deep or it might become confusing but they were also related through Mary’s maternal side, specifically her grandmother Isabella of Castile, which made the two both fifth cousins and fifth cousins once removed.
Quite confusing, isn’t it?
However, this was pretty much the norm in Tudor times, distant relations could wed one another as long as they received the proper dispensation from the Pope and some even married the younger sibling of their deceased partner if permission was granted. Just like Henry had done with his late brother’s wife, Catalina, but later believed that the first marriage was valid and therefore his own was impure and unlawful in the eyes of God.
Either way, prior to her marriage to Henry VIII, Katharine and Mary were already quite close and considered to be friends due to their closeness as children. You see, Katharine’s mother, Maud, was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine, Mary’s mother, shortly after she married Sir Thomas Parr. Not long after the marriage, Katharine was born and named in the Queen’s honour who is believed to have been Katharine’s godmother. This might have been the reason why Katharine had an early connection with Princess Mary as their mothers formed a unique bond for a lady-in-waiting and a Queen.
During this time, Queen Catherine could not maintain healthy, honest relationships with her ladies-in-waiting, just like many Queens before her. It was a well-known fact that most royal mistresses caught the King’s eye whilst being a part of the Queen’s royal household, mostly due to his easy access to them and the fact that the Queen couldn’t dismiss them from her service due to the affair without displeasing the King. Maud, however, was a pleasant surprise for Queen Catherine; she was quite happy with her marriage and had no intention of catching the King’s eye nor betraying her mistress. Mary’s mother was able to trust Katharine’s and this allowed them to bond over something that they both suffered from; failed pregnancies and losing a child too soon.
As we know from history, Catherine’s multiple pregnancies did not all end well as she experienced many of her pregnancies ending before she reached full-term, she witnessed her infant son dying shortly after birth and her husband was still unhappy that their only living child was a daughter, Mary.
Katharine’s mother, Maud, also suffered the death of her eldest child at that time, an infant boy, shortly before she became pregnant for a second time with Katharine and then in circa. 1517, Maud experienced a horrific miscarriage or stillbirth following the birth of her three healthy children; Katharine, William and Anne. It was these experiences that allowed Maud to form a friendship with the Queen which would last until Maud’s death on 1st December 1531, when she was just thirty-nine years old.
Although Katharine’s father would die in 1517, her mother would remain as a lady-in-waiting to the Queen even as the royal marriage began to decline faster and faster during the 1520s with the King infatuation with his latest mistress Anne Boleyn becoming very much apparent by 1525. Maud, like several of the ladies in the Queen’s employment e.g. Gertrude Courtenay and Elizabeth Howard, never once betrayed the Queen in favour of the rising Boleyn family and chose to remain by the Queen’s side, travelling with her wherever the King demanded the now Dowager Princess of Wales to reside.
The loyalty of Katharine’s mother is undoubtedly something that spurred the theory that Katharine Parr and the then Princess Mary were educated together. There is no evidence to support this claim as it is a known fact that Katharine remained at the Parr home in Blackfriars whilst her mother attended the Queen at the court and Princess Mary had her own household at this point and her mother had instructed the finest private tutors to educate the young Princess. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that Katharine and Mary were educated together, although they might have seen each other occasionally if Mary or Katharine were brought to court by their mothers, but this is still an unlikely theory.
Katharine, along with her younger siblings William and Anne, was very well educated similar to other women born well-off, as the saying goes—meaning that they were born to a high-standing family. Katharine was fluent in French, Latin and Italian which meant that she was a highly intelligent woman and a woman of excellent quality. Later on during her marriage to Henry VIII, Katharine would begin to learn Spanish, whether this was in honour of her mother’s relationship with Queen Catherine or because of Mary or simply because she wanted to, we cannot say for certain. What we do know is that Katharine was more of an academic than enjoying other feminine pastimes such as embroidery, which Katharine was said to have hated.
Unlike Henry VIII’s other wives, Katharine had been married twice before him, making it apparent that she would not be a virgin. Thankfully for Katharine, the King was less bothered about that, although the possibility of a second son would always be at the back of his mind. Henry had his son and heir and, although having a second son would ensure that the Tudor line would be secured, Henry made it clear that he desired a companion and a mother figure to his children more than anything. Poor Katharine had no idea that she would become more of a nurse and a carer rather than a wife, however she contented herself with the life that was chosen for her with grace and dignity.
Her first marriage was in 1529 to a distant relative called Sir Edward Burgh or Borough as it is sometimes written when she was seventeen and her husband is believed to have been somewhere in his twenties. Historians believe her husband was in bad health at the point of their marriage as Katharine would find herself widowed a mere 4 years later in the spring of 1533, childless and assumedly no longer a maiden. Arranging second marriages for women was not an easy affair as not many men would marry a woman who had been deflowered by a previous husband. However, in Katharine’s case, she would not have to wait long to find a second husband. In the following year 1534, Katharine married Sir John Neville, the 3rd Baron Latimer. Sir John was twice the age of his new wife as well as a second cousin to her father but this did not matter much as he had now been twice widowed with two children from his first marriage to Dorothy De Vere; John and Margaret. This marriage would provide Katharine with an opportunity to bond with her stepdaughter Margaret and perhaps prepare her for bonding with her future stepdaughters Mary and Elizabeth, although she was much closer with the latter.
Needless to say, Katharine’s second marriage would also leave her widowed but this time she would be much better off than the previous time. Now Lady Latimer, Katharine was the first in her family to marry into peerage since her great-aunt, Maud Parr, Lady Dacre. Her husband’s death not only left her a wealthy woman but her friendship with the Lady Mary meant that she was in a much more comfortable position than many other widows might have been. Her wealth meant that she was able to provide for herself as well as her stepdaughter Margaret whom she cared for until she reached maturity and could be married off but her relationship with the King’s daughter is believed to have allowed her to enter the household of the Lady Mary.
Historians differ over the circumstances that led Katharine to become one of Mary’s ladies with Susan James claiming that Lady Mary remembered the loyalty, love and kindness that Katharine’s mother Maud had shown her mother Catalina during the darkest period of her life and in return, eagerly took Katharine in as one of her ladies. On the other hand, Linda Porter disputes that Katharine’s standing as the widow of a peer meant that it would have been far beneath her, especially as a woman who possessed her own establishments and received a large settlement following the death of her husband. Regardless of these differing opinions, being a lady in the household of either of the King’s daughters was a highly sought-after position, even after both of them had been declared illegitimate. It meant that the woman would have a position at the centre of the royal court and would be able to hear all the latest gossip or help their male relatives achieve popularity at court or with the King. It also meant a higher chance for unmarried ladies to achieve advantageous marriages or be courted by wealthy widowers that could offer them a better title than they had. This is exactly why Katharine’s younger sister, Anne, had served all of Henry’s wives and would even become a lady-in-waiting to her sister when she became the last of Henry’s Queens.
Marriage, at this point in her life, was something that now Katharine had free will over; no longer would her father or male relatives be able to dictate whom she married and when. As a wealthy widow with security and stability in her current circumstances, Katharine could take her time if and when she wished to marry for a third time, although she was not short of any suitors as men would eagerly pursue her, most likely for her wealth. One of these men would become her lover and that man was Sir Thomas Seymour, one of the older brothers of the late Queen Jane Seymour, Henry’s most beloved wife.
Instantly, the two began to court one another and it was obvious that Katharine had fallen in love with Thomas by the time she caught the King’s eye. Whether Thomas reciprocated her love or was simply using her, we cannot say but I believe it is more the latter than the former, considering the later neglect he showed to Katharine and the abuse he offered her stepdaughter, the teenage Elizabeth. Katharine and Thomas were planning to marry but as soon as Katharine caught the eye of the King and spent more time in his company, Thomas must have known that his chances of marrying Katharine were slim as refusing the King would not reflect well on Katharine. There is a theory that when the King swiftly proposed to Katharine, Thomas was one of those who encouraged her to accept the King’s hand, with the belief that when the King died (which Thomas believed to be soon), the two would be able to marry without question. This theory is very much unproved and though many historical works appear to believe this theory, there is no evidence to support the claim that Thomas believed the King would die soon enough for him to marry Katharine—with the fact that the King had him sent to Brussels to remove him from court during this time acting as evidence that the King saw Thomas as a rival and wanted no inference in his latest conquest, if you can call it that.
Once Katharine accepted, the announcement came of the upcoming wedding for the King and his new Queen and the arrangements began with the utmost of priority. Whilst the King was busying himself with preparing to marry for a sixth time, Katharine was preparing to come to court and be introduced to her new stepchildren. When she appeared at court in spring 1543, she was greeted by both her stepdaughters, Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth. This was a significant moment for Katharine as she understood the importance of having a good relationship with both of her stepdaughters, specifically Mary, would be a fundamental influence on how well her Queenship went. Her strategy was to stay on good terms with the King in order to ensure that she did not lose her head like her predecessor had just a year before her and that her relationships with the King’s children were positive so that she did not lose favour with the court or the King as the three children were beloved by the King and his court.
The wedding took place on 12th July 1543 at Hampton Court Palace with both the Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth in attendance. Prince Edward did not attend for the obvious reason being that he was the only male heir to the throne and the King wanted to protect him from any dangers including an assassination attempt, being exposed to deadly diseases such as plague or the sweating sickness or an accident happening that could jeopardize the future King’s health. With this marriage, Katharine became the first Queen of England to also be the Queen of Ireland now that Henry had adopted the title of King of Ireland by this point. She would also be the first Queen to publish a book under her own name but this will be discussed some point in the future.
Now Queen of England and the stepmother to three stepchildren belonging to her husband, Katharine did not see caring and loving her stepchildren as a duty but more as an opportunity to bond with them as she had yet to conceive her own children and could later come in handy. Whilst she found bonding with Prince Edward and Lady Elizabeth to be quite simple due to the fact that neither had many memories of their deceased mothers since they died when they were infants, Katharine’s relationship with Mary was no longer the way it was prior to her marriage to Mary’s father.
Unlike her siblings, Mary had lived and bonded with her mother for the first twenty years of her life before her mother tragically passed assumedly from cancer, which meant that she had strong memories of her mother and no one could replace her. The relationship of Katherine’s mother with Mary’s is what brought them close together as friends but it was Katharine’s marriage to her father and her religion that put a brief strain on their friendship. Understandably, Mary must have been shocked and hurt by the news that her friend was going to marry her father and become her new stepmother, especially after she had seen how much Mary and her mother had suffered during her parents’ divorce and his marriage to Anne Boleyn. Although Mary would have come to understand that Katharine most likely did not have a choice in the matter as refusing her father would have lead Katharine down an even darker path, she was still upset about Katharine’s converting to Protestant instead of remaining a member of the Catholic faith like Mary had. Nevertheless, the two were able to remain friends despite this difference of religion, although Mary would only see Katharine as a friend and not a mother figure like Edward and Elizabeth would as Katharine had a more profound impact on their lives. Both of her younger stepchildren were Protestant and needed guidance and love in the form of a mother, Mary needed a friend to help her more than anything else.
Mary and Katharine’s friendship seemed to improve more and more as the years went by and Katharine continued to campaign for the security of the futures of all her stepchildren, especially Mary and Elizabeth. Mary was in her late twenties and in the eyes of society, should have been married a long time ago, and so Katharine was trying to convince her husband to consider suitable marriages for Mary. Most likely someone from her mother’s Spanish roots would be a suitable match for Mary and a Protestant Lord or high-standing member of Henry’s court for Elizabeth. Edward was a Crown Prince and he would be betrothed to a foreign Princess to establish another political alliance, just like the first and fourth marriages of Henry VIII. Katharine promised all of her stepchildren a stable and secure future as long as she was Queen and Henry VIII was alive.
The marriage of Katharine Parr and Henry VIII proved to be one of the undisturbed periods of happiness and delight for Mary; for the first time in a very long time, she could live life to the fullest and know that her family was finally at peace. Mary and Katharine exchanged gifts with one another throughout the years of Katharine’s marriage to the King which included purses of money (a token of female friendship according to aristocracy). An example of Katharine bestowing a gift on Mary occurred shortly after her wedding to the King where she presented Mary with gold bracelets as a sign of goodwill and the friendship that lasted between them. Not only did Mary enjoy being at the centre of the court and spending time with her stepmother. The two spent their time listening to music, discussing the latest trends in clothes and jewels, and they seemed to thrive off conversation. Mary and Katharine were similar to one another than they might have realised prior to Katharine’s marriage to Henry.
Religion was one of them, oddly enough if you consider how much Mary detested Protestantism and all of her immediate family members (her father, her stepmother and both her younger siblings) had left the one true religion (Catholicism) for this… false religion. However, although Mary did not approve of her father’s (and Katharine’s) change of religions, she had contented herself with the fact that nothing she did or said would convince them to convert back to Catholicism. Some historians have even stated that, had Katharine survived childbirth and lived during Mary’s reign, Mary would have tried once more to convert her and if Katharine refused, would have burned her at the stake as a heretic, like the other hundreds of Protestants she burned. Hence her nickname of Bloody Mary, which we have discussed before about how it is insane how she is nicknamed this but executed a mere fraction of the people that her father had.
Regardless, religion was of the utmost importance to both of these women and despite their differences in opinions, it never seemed to hinder their relationship enough to cause friction between the two, as far as we are aware.
The biggest impact that Katharine Parr had on her stepdaughter’s future is the most important one of all; Katharine’s influence on the restoration of Mary to the succession. As mentioned beforehand, Katharine had made it abundantly clear very early on in her marriage to Henry VIII that she intended to reconcile Mary with Henry in order to have her restored as a potential heir to he throne. The Spanish Ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, praised Queen Katharine for her favouring of Mary and her attempts to restore her to the succession. He was so impressed that he wrote to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V encouraging him to continue the positive relations with Queen Katharine, who was communicating with them in Spanish now that she was fluent.
Fortunately for Katharine, Mary and many of her supporters, the King finally listened to what his people wanted; in the year 1543, the Third Succession Act was passed into law. This Third Succession Act returned Henry VIII’s daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, to the line of succession behind the legitimate heir, their younger half-brother Edward. If Edward should die without an heir, the throne would immediately pass to Mary and to Elizabeth after that if Mary should also die without an heir.
Mary must have wept for joy when she heard the news; not only had her stepmother supported her rightful place as a possible heir to the throne but her stepmother was the chief instrument of the King’s decision to name all of his children, not just Edward, as heirs to his throne following his death in his will. For this, Mary would be eternally grateful to her stepmother, as would have Elizabeth, as this not only secured their futures in the tragic case of Edward dying unexpectedly (as he would do only a few years into being King) but it also meant that their newfound position as possible heirs to the throne would better their chances of marrying well. Although Mary and Elizabeth were never legitimised by Henry (which must have still hurt considering they were his daughters but he still viewed his marriages to their mothers as illegitimate), the fact that they now had a legitimate claim to the throne changed everything.
And they had Katharine to thank.
But now the King was aging and he knew that time was running out for him. Towards the end of Henry VIII’s reign, he had begun to distance himself from Katharine as well as his children, with the exception of Prince Edward whom he had begun to make provisions for. He had hoped to have lived longer to allow Edward more time to prepare for becoming the next King of England but as Henry’s condition continued to worsen, he knew that he had to act fast. Edward would be a child King and he would need people to support him until he reached the age of maturity where he could govern without someone to support him. Henry would spend his last Christmas alone at Whitehall as he had left his wife and children at Greenwich Palace and although it was announced on 11th January 1547 that the Queen’s apartments had been prepared for her arrival, Katharine and his children were not present on 28th January 1547 when Henry VIII died at the age of fifty-six.
Understandably, Katharine was upset to have not been present at her husband’s side when he passed but she knew that she had to be strong for the children and for herself. With her husband’s death, she was no longer Queen Regent as Henry had made her in previous years during his time at war and her future was now uncertain. Although she knew that she was now free to pursue a marriage with Thomas Seymour, she understood that she would have to wait before that could happen. Although the King’s injuries prevented them from being intimate, many of Henry’s court believed that the Queen could still have conceived and Katharine would have to prove to the court over the course of many months that she was not carrying a possible male heir before she could marry Thomas Seymour.
Prince Edward now became King Edward VI and his uncle Edward Seymour (the older brother of Thomas Seymour) became Lord Protector over the King until he reached the age where he could rule on his own. Edward did not have the closest relationship with his father nor did Elizabeth but both must have been upset with the death of their father yet none of them have a recorded reaction as they never publicly mourned for their father, just like Mary didn’t. All of them must have felt upset over losing their last surviving parent as all of their mothers were long gone but in truth, Henry had made each of them suffer in their own way. Both Mary and Elizabeth had to suffer with being made illegitimate and having to worry almost every day of their lives whilst Edward had been isolated away from the world for his entire life, unable to spend time enjoying his childhood for fear that he would injure himself or catch a deadly illness.
Henry’s death must have allowed them all to relax slightly and breathe a little more freely, although Mary was very upset that she had to wait several days to be informed of her father’s death, the reason why is unsure. At the time of Henry VIII’s death, Mary was thirty-one years old, Elizabeth was fourteen and Edward was ten. Mary, just like Elizabeth, was given the opportunity to live with Katharine who was now made a widow for the third time and this was the best possible solution for them all. Katharine was still a desirable choice for a bride since she was now a former Queen who had much influence over the court and her new husband would eventually share the same influence as a result. Mary and Elizabeth were now two of the richest women in England following their father’s death; he had left them a sizeable income with the promise a dowry (which Edward would deliver on) and extensive holdings of property—Mary had 32 houses and manors by this point whereas Elizabeth had a lower but still considerable number.
Just months after Henry VIII’s death and the succession of Edward to the throne of England, Katharine begun her courtship with Thomas Seymour and in secret, they married in May of 1547. Katharine quickly became pregnant with her first and only child, proving that she had not been carrying the King’s child and that she was now carrying Thomas Seymour’s. Katharine’s marriage to Thomas Seymour upset a great many people, including Mary, but after publishing her third novel and her pregnancy causing more and more problems, it was apparent that something was not right. Katharine became very ill during the last trimester of her pregnancy and her husband’s neglect and abuse of her stepdaughter Elizabeth caused her a lot of unwanted stress and anxiety. Although Mary was somewhat disappointed in Katharine’s choice of a husband, she was just as distressed as Elizabeth and Edward when the news came that Katharine had died five days after giving birth to her daughter, Mary, whom Katharine had named after her stepdaughter on 5th September 1548. Katharine’s death was a shock to them all but there would have been little time to grieve since her husband Thomas would be executed on the charge of treason against the King on 20 March 1549. Mary Seymour was taken to live with Katherine Brandon, the Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, and there is no record of her past her second birthday, causing historians to believe that she died as an infant in Lincolnshire.
Although Katharine Parr is remembered as the wife who ‘survived’ Henry VIII, her life following Henry’s death was nothing short of tragic. Her husband, whom she loved more than anything, neglected her and used her in order to abuse the young Lady Elizabeth and then attempted to kidnap King Edward and marry Elizabeth now that his wife was dead.
The relationship between Mary and Katharine is best portrayed in Showtime’s The Tudors from the start of Katharine’s marriage to Henry VIII up until his death, with both Sarah Bolger who played Mary and Joely Richardson who played Katharine portraying these strong-willed women brilliantly. Starz’s Becoming Elizabeth does show the events following the death of Henry VIII and the succession of Edward VI to the throne. Whilst the show focuses more on Elizabeth’s relationship with Katharine and the abuse/grooming she suffered at the ends of Thomas Seymour, it does briefly show us a glimpse at the relationship between the two women. Although I will admit that I wish we could have seen more of these moments considering how important Mary was to Katharine and vice versa but I love Romola Garai’s portrayal of Mary as she truly captures Mary’s sassy nature, her strong-will, her strength in her Catholic faith as well as her complicated relationships with her siblings, especially Elizabeth.
It is just said to know that each of the women involved in Henry VIII’s life experienced incredible amounts of hardship and pain during their lives, even that of his own children.
Until next time!
- Have a ‘Tudor-fic’ week!
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