January 21, 2025 • 34 mins
Catherine Parr was the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. Hello, this
is Danas Schwartz's host of Noble Blood. This is the
last week of my maternity leave and the last episode
in our series revisiting the wives of King Henry the Eighth.
(00:21):
Today we're talking about his final wife, the woman who survived,
Katherine Parr. But Catherine's future back when she was married
to the king was far from secure, and surviving Henry
required cunning and the ability to manage a volatile and
aging king enjoy It was an incredibly dangerous thing to
(00:53):
be a woman in the sixteenth century who disagreed with
her husband. A woman named Anne Askew was born in
fifteen twenty one in Lincolnshire. When she was fifteen years old,
her sister died. Her sister had been engaged to a
man named Thomas Kyme, and to save money on the
(01:15):
dowries and negotiations, Anne's father simply substituted Anne in to
marry her sister's fiance. One daughter was as good as
the next. Thomas Kyme was a Catholic, and he quickly
realized that his young wife was a devout Protestant. He
(01:37):
would enter the room to find her studying the Bible
or reciting verses quietly to herself that she was trying
to memorize. Anne publicly challenged the idea of transubstantiation, the
notion that when taking Holy Communion, the wafer and wine
literally transformed into the flesh and blood of Christ. Word
(02:02):
got around town. Other women began avoiding Anne in.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
The streets and the shops. Though Thomas Kime and Anne
had two young children, he kicked her out of the
house for her beliefs. Anne was not put off, unmoored,
but not undeterred. She moved to London, and, sticking with
her maiden name, began to preach. A woman preaching is
(02:32):
bad enough. A woman preaching heretical ideas cause enough for arrest.
In fifteen forty six, Anne Ask You was twenty five
years old and she was brought to the Tower of London.
She was tortured on the rack by men who demanded
(02:53):
to know what other high born women shared her beliefs.
To tour was brutal and unceasing, lasting months. By the
time Anne was finally brought to be burned, at the stake.
She had to be carried in a chair because she
(03:14):
could no longer walk. Anne was burned along with three
other Protestants. Funnily enough, one of the men executed with
her was John Lassal's. That name might sound a little
familiar to you if you had listened to my episode
about Catherine Howard. John Lassal's had been the one who
(03:36):
reported the young queen's licentious past, which led to her beheading.
It's said by those who watched Anne's burning that she
was incredibly brave that she didn't cry out until the
flames reached her chest. A supporter had managed to secretly
slip her gunpowder to hide in her dress, which exploded,
(04:00):
killing Anne and the three men quickly and mercifully. Even
through all of her torture, Anne never gave up any
names of any other prominent Protestant women, but the torturers
were really only interested in one name. They wanted Anne
to implicate, Katherine Parr, King Henry the Eighth's sixth and
(04:25):
final wife. Catherine had already upset many at court for
the strength of her evangelical views, and her enemies were
looking for any excuse to bring her down. It wouldn't
take much. Gossip in court was that the king had
already grown frustrated with the way his wife debated him
(04:47):
on matters of religion. Ambassadors wrote that he had already
been casting his eye around for wife number seven. Being
the wife of King Henry the eighth was like holding
a fistful of gunpowder. It would only take a spark
for an explosion and a quick death. Katherine Parr's intelligence
(05:10):
had put her in danger, but it would also be
the key to her survival. I'm Danish Schwartz and this
is noble blood. Katherine Parr was seventeen when she married
a man named Edward Burrow, but the marriage didn't last long.
(05:34):
Three years later, Edward Burrow had died and Katherine Parr
was a young childless widow. But she was also a
young childless widow who came from a prominent family, and
that meant that a year later her family had the
connections to marry her off once again, this time to
a man named John Neville, Lord Latimer of Snape. Two
(05:58):
Harry Potter names and one side note. I looked it up. J. K.
Rowling did name Snape after a village, but it wasn't
that village. Latimer was forty three with two teenage children,
only a few years younger than Catherine herself twenty one,
but maturity came easily to Catherine Parr, who spoke and
(06:20):
wrote English, French and Italian, who was already reading religious
doctrine that her Catholic husband no doubt wouldn't have approved
of if he had been home long enough to notice.
It was Latimer's religious beliefs that got the couple into trouble.
In the end, they lived in Yorkshire and Latimer was
roped into helping the Catholic rebels during the Pilgrimage of
(06:44):
Grace Rebellion in fifteen thirty six. Though high born Latimer
was never actually charged and he managed to escape any
real consequences with just a slap on the wrist, his
reputation deteriorated, and soon after so did his health. Catherine
found that she not only had the skill to run
(07:06):
a large household, she also had the inclination. With her
husband weakening, the family moved down to Worcester to get
out of the troublingly rebellious North and to be closer
to Catherine's family at Court, where her brother William and
her sister Anne were both members of the royal household.
(07:28):
Catherine tended to her ailing husband, ran his household, raised
his children from his previous marriage, and also began to
make friends at court, including the Queen Jane Seymour. To
stay away from my brother, Jane teased Thomas is on
the lookout for a rich widow. Thomas Seymour was a
(07:54):
few things. He was handsome, definitely charming. Absolutely, I'm so
socially ambitious. Katherine Parr noticed him, of course she noticed him.
How could she not. Everyone in court noticed Thomas Seymour,
the Queen's brother, But Catherine's husband, weak as he was,
(08:15):
wasn't dead yet, and Catherine always floated above even a
whiff of scandal. There aren't even rumors of thoughts of
impropriety on her part. Catherine was just a well liked, smart,
pretty presence at court who cared dutifully for her ailing husband.
(08:35):
Rather than flirt, She spent most of her time with
Princess Mary Tudor, Henry the Eighth's daughter. Catherine Parr's mother
had been a lady in waiting to Catherine Everden, Mary's mother,
so the two had known each other when they were children,
but as adults they reunited over their shared love of academia.
(08:57):
Though Catherine's leanings were Evangelic and Mary was a devout Catholic,
it didn't affect their friendship at all. Mary encouraged Catherine
to read the Bible and helped her with the Latin
that Catherine had never learned as a child. Catherine wasn't
born a boy, and she wasn't born a royal, and
so her education had been decent, but far from comprehensive.
(09:22):
It was her own natural curiosity that turned her into
an avid reader and an avid writer. By the time
her husband died, Catherine found herself in a strange and
rare position. She was still young, thirty one, twice widowed, orphaned,
and with the inheritance of her husband's estate, independently wealthy.
(09:48):
Her only responsibility was taking care of her almost grown stepdaughter,
whom she adored. She was a woman with money and
her entire life out of her Her parents were both dead,
and so she had no obligations to marry for anything
except love. At thirty one, Katherine Parr's life could finally begin,
(10:13):
and so Katherine Parr could finally look at Thomas Seymour,
and she found him looking back at her, smiling that
charming smile and making her secretly grateful in spite of everything,
that life had landed her here, exactly where she belonged.
(10:39):
It had been a busy few years at court since
Katherine Parr and her husband had arrived from Yorkshire. King
Henry the Eighth had finally gotten his son, although it
led to the death of his queen, Jane Seymour. He
had sent away for another bride, received Anne of Cleaves,
and forced a divorce because he didn't find her attractive enough.
(11:02):
He married Catherine Howard, was humiliated by her laciviousness, and
had her arrested and beheaded. King Henry the Eighth was tired.
It would be another year as a widower before Henry
would begin to look in earnest for a new wife.
By this point, Henry the Eighth had finally evolved into
(11:22):
what you most likely already imagine when you hear the
words King Henry the Eighth. A caricature of a man
probably eating a giant turkey leg. King Henry the Eighth's
waist had ballooned to fifty three inches, which required specially
made doublets large enough so that three men could stand
(11:44):
comfortably inside them. The ulcers on Henry's legs had turned
to open rot. From records of his household, we know
that the endlessly weeping puss meant that he needed to
order a brand new pair of hose for every single
day of the year. Marrying the teenager Katherine Howard had
(12:10):
been a mistake. He knew that now she was too young,
too frivolous. It had been a decision made out of lust. Now,
for his sixth wife, he needed someone of absolutely unimpeachable character,
someone like Catherine Parr. She was wiser, older, but not
(12:32):
so old that she couldn't still bear him another son.
That was important. In an ideal world, Henry would have
two sons. Although Henry's failing health meant that he could
no longer plausibly blame his impotence on a woman being
too unattractive or having allegedly saggy breasts, he still wanted
(12:52):
another boy, a Duke of York, to ensure that his
lineage was secure. Henry needed a queen to manage the
household and manage his moods and tempers and well, though
he hated to admit it, he was lonely. Henry had
always loved the company of women, loved discussion and praise
(13:15):
and witty banter and praise and mostly praise. Was it
so wrong that in his final years he wanted someone
beautiful on his arm and in his bedchamber, with whom
he could also discuss art and music. Middle age had
also made Henry more aware of his formerly estranged daughters,
(13:36):
Mary and Elizabeth, the daughters of Catherine of Aragon and
Anne Boleyn, respectively. They say that family is the most
important thing, don't they, So if you're going to marry
a young wife almost half your age, you should at
least do so with the courtesy of choosing someone who's
friends with your daughters. It was a month before Catherine
(13:57):
Parr's husband actually died that Henry began sending along letters
and gifts. The moment the King's first letter arrived. It
was a dagger to the future that Catherine had imagined
for herself, a life where she would be free to
marry Thomas Seymour, someone that she chose for herself after
(14:20):
two husbands. Hadn't she earned that? But when the king
chooses you, you don't get a choice. Later, she would
write to Thomas Seymour in a letter as truly as
God is God, my mind was fully bent the time
(14:44):
I was at liberty to marry you before any man
I know. Henry knew that Catherine had been interested in
Thomas Seymour, a handsome, athletic man only a few years
older than Catherine. He heard the rumors that she loved him,
that she wanted to marry him. Henry also didn't care
(15:06):
when he proposed to Catherine Parr a few months later,
a respectful period after the death of her husband. She
didn't answer right away. She asked the King if she
could have a brief moment to think about it. Henry amused,
but good natured enough agreed. Usually one doesn't ask the
(15:30):
king to wait before you respond to a question he asks.
But this situation wasn't usual. Catherine Parr was within a
stoned throw of something most sixteenth century women could only
dream of, genuine contentment. But Henry's interest in her meant
(15:51):
that that vision of the future was already dead. A
king wanting to marry you meant that a king got
to marry you. Really what Henry understood full well when
he gave Catherine some time too think it over. Sure,
he was in his fifties, impotent, rotting, so he had
(16:11):
killed two wives and cruelly disposed of two others. He
was still the king. Catherine would be giving up her
life for a life under a microscope, constantly scrutinized by
the entire court, her neck vulnerable to a mercurial king's whims.
(16:32):
But in return she would get a crown and all
of the wealth and majesty and power of being the
Queen of England. Here's what Catherine knew. Privilege is not
the same as freedom. The massive privileges that would be
afforded to her by the throne of England would come
(16:54):
at a heavy price. She would lose as much as
she would gain. Henry's will was God's will. It was
around this time that Henry decided, for no particular reason,
that he would send Thomas Seymour out on a new job,
a diplomatic posting in Flanders. Catherine never had any decision
(17:19):
to make. After all, she and the king were married
July twelfth, fifteen forty three, where Henry the Eighth said,
I do for the sixth and final time. The role
Catherine was to play at court was a delicate one,
(17:42):
but she found almost immediately that it was a role
she was suited for. Henry wanted a wife to dazzle
and entertain his court, to represent the glory of Henry's
court back in its prime, all masquerades and games and dances,
even though Henry was no longer dancing. But to that end,
(18:03):
he gave Catherine money for jewels and clothing, supported her
interests in music, and sent fresh flowers to her bedchamber
every day. Katherine bathed in milk and herbs. Even though
her relationship with Henry wouldn't be the lusty, passionate affair
that he had shared with earlier wives, she knew it
(18:26):
was her duty, above all else to be pleasing to him.
As queen. She was given the full wardrobe from the
dead former Queen Katherine Howard. She was stepping into the
shoes of her predecessor. Literally, every item needed to be tailored.
Katherine Parr was several inches taller than the teenage former queen,
(18:50):
but Catherine found she didn't mind wearing the clothes. They
were beautiful, for one, but they also made her role
as queen feel like a duty, a duty with a
uniform as if she was in the military. Catherine Parr
was incredibly well liked by everyone at court, will almost everyone.
(19:10):
Another former Queen, Anne of Cleaves, had quietly hoped that,
with Catherine Howard gone, King Henry the Eighth were to
remarry her. Unfortunately, Henry did not agree. When Anne of
Cleaves heard that the position of queen had been filled,
she murmured that she was surprised the king had married
(19:31):
a woman not nearly as beautiful as she. But to
everyone else, Katherine Parr was a balm for the chaosic
court the preceding few years. She was calm, sensible, kind, smart.
Above all, she was competent. That was why, when Henry
(19:52):
left to lead a military campaign against France, he left
her as regent. Henry, at fifty three years old, was
desperate to regain some of his former glory, and so
that meant, despite the advice of his doctors and friends,
he would go into battle. He forged an alliance with
(20:14):
the Holy Roman Emperor, commissioned a customized suit of armor
that would fit his considerable size, and left the country
in Catharine Parr's capable hands. The victory, if you could
call it that, if Henry won three months later was
pretty toothless. Almost immediately afterward. The King of France renewed
(20:36):
his friendship with the Holy Roman Emperor and geared up
to retaliate in England the following summer. But while Henry
was away, Catherine reigned beautifully. She dealt with deserters and
Scottish prisoners, managed the supplies and troops being sent to France,
and reacted swiftly and decisively to an outbreak of the plague.
(21:00):
All the while she wrote letters to Henry telling him
how deeply she missed him and how much she desired
to be in his presence again. The following year, Catherine
published a book, Prayers or Meditations, the first English book
published by woman under her own name in the country
and the first book ever published by a queen. That Christmas,
(21:25):
her stepdaughter, Princess Elizabeth translated it into Latin and French
and Italian, and bound the translations in red silk and
gave them to Catherine Parr as perhaps the most thoughtful
Christmas gift heretofore ever given. But still it wasn't beyond
notice that Catherine Parr hadn't born Henry a son, or
(21:48):
even yielded a pregnancy, and although of course that wasn't
her fault, it still meant that her position as queen
wasn't entirely secure. There were rumors in court. There are
always rumors, but one particular rumor put Katherine on edge
and soured her normally genial disposition. Henry's best friend, Charles Brandon,
(22:13):
the Duke of Suffolk, died, leaving his wife, a good
friend of Catherine's, a widow and single, and Henry seemed
to be spending some time, just a respectful time, nothing untoward,
yet comforting her. Again nothing but rumors. But the King
(22:35):
also seemed to be getting annoyed with Katherine Parr more frequently.
Recently she had taken to arguing with him about theology.
When Catherine brought up a hole in one of Henry's arguments,
he snapped at her, it's a good hearing. It is
when women become such clerks, and a thing much to
(22:58):
my comfort in my own old days, to be taught
by a woman. Catherine might have been well liked as
a person in court, but she was evangelical, ordering on Protestant,
and she wasn't shy about making her beliefs public. She
had enemies, and now they had ammunition. In fifteen forty six,
(23:26):
Anne ask You was tortured for the names of other
high born women who shared her heretical views. Anne didn't
name names, but the men torturing her got enough to
implicate the women of Catherine's court. There would be a
search for heretical literature in their chambers. Fortunately word got
(23:49):
out ahead of it, so books were stashed and locks
were changed and nothing was found. But that didn't mean
Catherine wasn't in danger. After all, she existed at the
whim of Henry, and Henry hated feeling threatened. After Catherine
contradicted Henry in debate, a bishop and one of Henry's ministers, Ropsley,
(24:14):
seized the moment to get Henry to sign a warrant
for her arrest, which he did. Whether it was sheer,
dumb luck, or a friend looking out for her. A
copy of the warrant was left out in the open
where Katherine could see it. Catherine had the benefit of
(24:35):
being the sixth wife of learning from the women who
came before her and their mistakes. Henry was extremely malleable,
but Katherine Parr also knew that as soon as Henry
made his mind up about a woman, he would simply
remove her from his presence and not give her the
chance to speak with him. Her time was extremely limited.
(25:03):
Wearing one of the dresses that had once belonged to
foolish dead Katherine Howard, Katherine Parr went to the King
and did the thing she needed to save herself. She
graciously thanked the King for his kindness that he had
taken in sharing his insights and wisdom with her. You see,
(25:24):
she was only debating him as an intellectual exercise for him,
so he could take his mind off his pain, and
so that she could learn from him. So Henry said,
you don't disagree with me, then, no, of course not.
Katherine Parr laughed, Your Majesty has very much mistaken me,
(25:47):
for I have always held it preposterous for a woman
to instruct her lord. It was a brilliant turn of
tect Henry swept Catherine Parr on to his knee, reassured
her of his love for her, and ordered her jewels
and pearls and furs. That afternoon, Rothsley arrived at the
(26:10):
Queen's gardens with forty armed men, only to find Catherine
sitting on Henry's knee. Henry had forgotten to call off
the rest. What are you doing, Henry called, You dare
to insult our queen with threats out Rothley apologized profusely,
(26:32):
sweating and bowing. Of course, Catherine knew all about the
arrest attempt, but Henry didn't know that. She knew. You
really don't need to be so hard on him, she
said sweetly to her husband. Henry laughed, Oh, you sweet
innocent child, If only you knew how little he deserves
(26:53):
this grace your showing him. Catherine laughed and pulled Henry
in for a kiss, thinking somewhere in the back of
her mind that the same was true of the grace
that she showed Henry. But Catherine wouldn't have too much
longer to go as Henry's wife. His health was now
(27:17):
fading and fast. Henry was finding it increasingly difficult to walk.
He needed to use a ramp to mount his horse.
Hunting became impossibly exhausting. Most of the time, Henry was
transported from room to room, being carried on a chair.
His rooms were heavily perfumed at all times in an
(27:41):
attempt to cover the smell of his rotting leg always
wet from his many medicinal baths. That Christmas, Catherine Parr,
Mary and Elizabeth were sent away from Whitehall so they
wouldn't have to watch the rest of Henry's decline. Would
never see him again, though after the first week of
(28:03):
January Catherine returned, she wasn't permitted to see him. Henry
died on January twenty eighth, fifteen forty seven. Catherine mourned,
of course, but her real sorrow would come only when
she saw the will that Henry had rewritten a month
before his death. She got plenty of money, an annual allowance,
(28:26):
and a stipulation that she be treated as a queen
and not a dowager. But she didn't get what she
really wanted. She wasn't made regent for the young nine
year old King Edward. Her political career was entirely over.
Smart as she was, competent, as she was capable as
(28:47):
she was, Catherine Parr no longer had any avenue to power.
She had come close being Henry's wife, and for that
shining period in fifteen forty four she had tasted it.
But now she was just a woman again, put in
her place back where she had started being back where
(29:12):
she had started wasn't all bad. Four years after she
had fallen in love with him, Catherine Parr was finally
able to marry Thomas Seymour. It's a bitter sweet love story.
I like to end it there without the details that
perhaps the marriage had happened a bit too fast and
(29:32):
it was unseemly that she had had to wheedle young
King Edward to approve the marriage after it had happened.
It's also a sweeter story if we leave out the
fact that Thomas Seymour, sociall climber as he was, had
actually tried to court the thirteen year old Princess Elizabeth
before marrying Katherine Parr, and that when Elizabeth came to
(29:54):
live with her former stepmom and new husband Thomas, that
he would continue blesting her and making sexual overtures until finally,
out of shame and hurt, Katherine Parr had to send
young Elizabeth away, never to see her in person again. No,
it's a better story if we ended there the idea
(30:17):
that she had lost her love, was dutiful to Henry,
and then finally got to marry her love and live
out the rest of her life and peace in a
different world, Katherine Parr could have led as regent or
even queen, and we could have seen what she would
have accomplished instead. Hers is a story of a woman
(30:38):
who fell in love but was forced into duty instead,
but met it with savvy and grace. She survived not
out of luck, but because she made sure that she would.
That's the story of Catherine Parr's marriage to Henry the Eighth.
(31:01):
But stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear
a short story about what happened when her coffin was unearthed.
Catherine Parr was buried beneath Sutley Chapel, but over the
(31:22):
next two centuries the chapel and estate above her fell
into ruin. It wasn't until seventeen eighty two when the
owner of the property and a few visitors were curious
enough to force their way down the narrow stone steps
and see the crypt that lay beneath. Catherine's lead. Coffin
(31:45):
was exactly as it had been when it was placed
there over two hundred and thirty years prior. Pressed into
the lead, the inscription read k p here Eliath Queen Katherine,
wife to King Henry the Eighth, and the wife of Thomas,
Lord of Sutley. Curiosity got the better of the visitors
(32:10):
and they pried open the coffin to find the corpse
wrapped in waxy linen. They recoiled when they saw what
was revealed inside. The coffin had been so air tight
that it looked as though Catherine Parr had died only
the day before. Her skin was milky white, her hair perfect,
(32:34):
her dress still retained color. She might as well have
been taking a nap. Horrified, the men shut the lid
to the coffin and left, but they had broken the
seal and let the air in. By the time Katherine
Parr's corpse was excavated again, all that was left was bones.
(32:55):
While not only bones, an ivy plant had also managed
to grow in the coffin, weaving its way up and
around the skull. If you looked at it from certain angles,
the ivy plant had curled itself over her skull into
a crown. Noble Blood is a production of iHeart Radio
(33:25):
and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is
hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research
by Hannah Johnston Hannah's Wick Courtney sender, Amy Hit and
Julia Milaney. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk,
with supervising producer rima il KLi and executive producers Aaron Manke,
(33:48):
Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1 (33:52):
iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. Hello, this
is Danas Schwartz's host of Noble Blood. This is the
last week of my maternity leave and the last episode
in our series revisiting the wives of King Henry the Eighth.
(00:21):
Today we're talking about his final wife, the woman who survived,
Katherine Parr. But Catherine's future back when she was married
to the king was far from secure, and surviving Henry
required cunning and the ability to manage a volatile and
aging king enjoy It was an incredibly dangerous thing to
(00:53):
be a woman in the sixteenth century who disagreed with
her husband. A woman named Anne Askew was born in
fifteen twenty one in Lincolnshire. When she was fifteen years old,
her sister died. Her sister had been engaged to a
man named Thomas Kyme, and to save money on the
(01:15):
dowries and negotiations, Anne's father simply substituted Anne in to
marry her sister's fiance. One daughter was as good as
the next. Thomas Kyme was a Catholic, and he quickly
realized that his young wife was a devout Protestant. He
(01:37):
would enter the room to find her studying the Bible
or reciting verses quietly to herself that she was trying
to memorize. Anne publicly challenged the idea of transubstantiation, the
notion that when taking Holy Communion, the wafer and wine
literally transformed into the flesh and blood of Christ. Word
(02:02):
got around town. Other women began avoiding Anne in.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
The streets and the shops. Though Thomas Kime and Anne
had two young children, he kicked her out of the
house for her beliefs. Anne was not put off, unmoored,
but not undeterred. She moved to London, and, sticking with
her maiden name, began to preach. A woman preaching is
(02:32):
bad enough. A woman preaching heretical ideas cause enough for arrest.
In fifteen forty six, Anne Ask You was twenty five
years old and she was brought to the Tower of London.
She was tortured on the rack by men who demanded
(02:53):
to know what other high born women shared her beliefs.
To tour was brutal and unceasing, lasting months. By the
time Anne was finally brought to be burned, at the stake.
She had to be carried in a chair because she
(03:14):
could no longer walk. Anne was burned along with three
other Protestants. Funnily enough, one of the men executed with
her was John Lassal's. That name might sound a little
familiar to you if you had listened to my episode
about Catherine Howard. John Lassal's had been the one who
(03:36):
reported the young queen's licentious past, which led to her beheading.
It's said by those who watched Anne's burning that she
was incredibly brave that she didn't cry out until the
flames reached her chest. A supporter had managed to secretly
slip her gunpowder to hide in her dress, which exploded,
(04:00):
killing Anne and the three men quickly and mercifully. Even
through all of her torture, Anne never gave up any
names of any other prominent Protestant women, but the torturers
were really only interested in one name. They wanted Anne
to implicate, Katherine Parr, King Henry the Eighth's sixth and
(04:25):
final wife. Catherine had already upset many at court for
the strength of her evangelical views, and her enemies were
looking for any excuse to bring her down. It wouldn't
take much. Gossip in court was that the king had
already grown frustrated with the way his wife debated him
(04:47):
on matters of religion. Ambassadors wrote that he had already
been casting his eye around for wife number seven. Being
the wife of King Henry the eighth was like holding
a fistful of gunpowder. It would only take a spark
for an explosion and a quick death. Katherine Parr's intelligence
(05:10):
had put her in danger, but it would also be
the key to her survival. I'm Danish Schwartz and this
is noble blood. Katherine Parr was seventeen when she married
a man named Edward Burrow, but the marriage didn't last long.
(05:34):
Three years later, Edward Burrow had died and Katherine Parr
was a young childless widow. But she was also a
young childless widow who came from a prominent family, and
that meant that a year later her family had the
connections to marry her off once again, this time to
a man named John Neville, Lord Latimer of Snape. Two
(05:58):
Harry Potter names and one side note. I looked it up. J. K.
Rowling did name Snape after a village, but it wasn't
that village. Latimer was forty three with two teenage children,
only a few years younger than Catherine herself twenty one,
but maturity came easily to Catherine Parr, who spoke and
(06:20):
wrote English, French and Italian, who was already reading religious
doctrine that her Catholic husband no doubt wouldn't have approved
of if he had been home long enough to notice.
It was Latimer's religious beliefs that got the couple into trouble.
In the end, they lived in Yorkshire and Latimer was
roped into helping the Catholic rebels during the Pilgrimage of
(06:44):
Grace Rebellion in fifteen thirty six. Though high born Latimer
was never actually charged and he managed to escape any
real consequences with just a slap on the wrist, his
reputation deteriorated, and soon after so did his health. Catherine
found that she not only had the skill to run
(07:06):
a large household, she also had the inclination. With her
husband weakening, the family moved down to Worcester to get
out of the troublingly rebellious North and to be closer
to Catherine's family at Court, where her brother William and
her sister Anne were both members of the royal household.
(07:28):
Catherine tended to her ailing husband, ran his household, raised
his children from his previous marriage, and also began to
make friends at court, including the Queen Jane Seymour. To
stay away from my brother, Jane teased Thomas is on
the lookout for a rich widow. Thomas Seymour was a
(07:54):
few things. He was handsome, definitely charming. Absolutely, I'm so
socially ambitious. Katherine Parr noticed him, of course she noticed him.
How could she not. Everyone in court noticed Thomas Seymour,
the Queen's brother, But Catherine's husband, weak as he was,
(08:15):
wasn't dead yet, and Catherine always floated above even a
whiff of scandal. There aren't even rumors of thoughts of
impropriety on her part. Catherine was just a well liked, smart,
pretty presence at court who cared dutifully for her ailing husband.
(08:35):
Rather than flirt, She spent most of her time with
Princess Mary Tudor, Henry the Eighth's daughter. Catherine Parr's mother
had been a lady in waiting to Catherine Everden, Mary's mother,
so the two had known each other when they were children,
but as adults they reunited over their shared love of academia.
(08:57):
Though Catherine's leanings were Evangelic and Mary was a devout Catholic,
it didn't affect their friendship at all. Mary encouraged Catherine
to read the Bible and helped her with the Latin
that Catherine had never learned as a child. Catherine wasn't
born a boy, and she wasn't born a royal, and
so her education had been decent, but far from comprehensive.
(09:22):
It was her own natural curiosity that turned her into
an avid reader and an avid writer. By the time
her husband died, Catherine found herself in a strange and
rare position. She was still young, thirty one, twice widowed, orphaned,
and with the inheritance of her husband's estate, independently wealthy.
(09:48):
Her only responsibility was taking care of her almost grown stepdaughter,
whom she adored. She was a woman with money and
her entire life out of her Her parents were both dead,
and so she had no obligations to marry for anything
except love. At thirty one, Katherine Parr's life could finally begin,
(10:13):
and so Katherine Parr could finally look at Thomas Seymour,
and she found him looking back at her, smiling that
charming smile and making her secretly grateful in spite of everything,
that life had landed her here, exactly where she belonged.
(10:39):
It had been a busy few years at court since
Katherine Parr and her husband had arrived from Yorkshire. King
Henry the Eighth had finally gotten his son, although it
led to the death of his queen, Jane Seymour. He
had sent away for another bride, received Anne of Cleaves,
and forced a divorce because he didn't find her attractive enough.
(11:02):
He married Catherine Howard, was humiliated by her laciviousness, and
had her arrested and beheaded. King Henry the Eighth was tired.
It would be another year as a widower before Henry
would begin to look in earnest for a new wife.
By this point, Henry the Eighth had finally evolved into
(11:22):
what you most likely already imagine when you hear the
words King Henry the Eighth. A caricature of a man
probably eating a giant turkey leg. King Henry the Eighth's
waist had ballooned to fifty three inches, which required specially
made doublets large enough so that three men could stand
(11:44):
comfortably inside them. The ulcers on Henry's legs had turned
to open rot. From records of his household, we know
that the endlessly weeping puss meant that he needed to
order a brand new pair of hose for every single
day of the year. Marrying the teenager Katherine Howard had
(12:10):
been a mistake. He knew that now she was too young,
too frivolous. It had been a decision made out of lust. Now,
for his sixth wife, he needed someone of absolutely unimpeachable character,
someone like Catherine Parr. She was wiser, older, but not
(12:32):
so old that she couldn't still bear him another son.
That was important. In an ideal world, Henry would have
two sons. Although Henry's failing health meant that he could
no longer plausibly blame his impotence on a woman being
too unattractive or having allegedly saggy breasts, he still wanted
(12:52):
another boy, a Duke of York, to ensure that his
lineage was secure. Henry needed a queen to manage the
household and manage his moods and tempers and well, though
he hated to admit it, he was lonely. Henry had
always loved the company of women, loved discussion and praise
(13:15):
and witty banter and praise and mostly praise. Was it
so wrong that in his final years he wanted someone
beautiful on his arm and in his bedchamber, with whom
he could also discuss art and music. Middle age had
also made Henry more aware of his formerly estranged daughters,
(13:36):
Mary and Elizabeth, the daughters of Catherine of Aragon and
Anne Boleyn, respectively. They say that family is the most
important thing, don't they, So if you're going to marry
a young wife almost half your age, you should at
least do so with the courtesy of choosing someone who's
friends with your daughters. It was a month before Catherine
(13:57):
Parr's husband actually died that Henry began sending along letters
and gifts. The moment the King's first letter arrived. It
was a dagger to the future that Catherine had imagined
for herself, a life where she would be free to
marry Thomas Seymour, someone that she chose for herself after
(14:20):
two husbands. Hadn't she earned that? But when the king
chooses you, you don't get a choice. Later, she would
write to Thomas Seymour in a letter as truly as
God is God, my mind was fully bent the time
(14:44):
I was at liberty to marry you before any man
I know. Henry knew that Catherine had been interested in
Thomas Seymour, a handsome, athletic man only a few years
older than Catherine. He heard the rumors that she loved him,
that she wanted to marry him. Henry also didn't care
(15:06):
when he proposed to Catherine Parr a few months later,
a respectful period after the death of her husband. She
didn't answer right away. She asked the King if she
could have a brief moment to think about it. Henry amused,
but good natured enough agreed. Usually one doesn't ask the
(15:30):
king to wait before you respond to a question he asks.
But this situation wasn't usual. Catherine Parr was within a
stoned throw of something most sixteenth century women could only
dream of, genuine contentment. But Henry's interest in her meant
(15:51):
that that vision of the future was already dead. A
king wanting to marry you meant that a king got
to marry you. Really what Henry understood full well when
he gave Catherine some time too think it over. Sure,
he was in his fifties, impotent, rotting, so he had
(16:11):
killed two wives and cruelly disposed of two others. He
was still the king. Catherine would be giving up her
life for a life under a microscope, constantly scrutinized by
the entire court, her neck vulnerable to a mercurial king's whims.
(16:32):
But in return she would get a crown and all
of the wealth and majesty and power of being the
Queen of England. Here's what Catherine knew. Privilege is not
the same as freedom. The massive privileges that would be
afforded to her by the throne of England would come
(16:54):
at a heavy price. She would lose as much as
she would gain. Henry's will was God's will. It was
around this time that Henry decided, for no particular reason,
that he would send Thomas Seymour out on a new job,
a diplomatic posting in Flanders. Catherine never had any decision
(17:19):
to make. After all, she and the king were married
July twelfth, fifteen forty three, where Henry the Eighth said,
I do for the sixth and final time. The role
Catherine was to play at court was a delicate one,
(17:42):
but she found almost immediately that it was a role
she was suited for. Henry wanted a wife to dazzle
and entertain his court, to represent the glory of Henry's
court back in its prime, all masquerades and games and dances,
even though Henry was no longer dancing. But to that end,
(18:03):
he gave Catherine money for jewels and clothing, supported her
interests in music, and sent fresh flowers to her bedchamber
every day. Katherine bathed in milk and herbs. Even though
her relationship with Henry wouldn't be the lusty, passionate affair
that he had shared with earlier wives, she knew it
(18:26):
was her duty, above all else to be pleasing to him.
As queen. She was given the full wardrobe from the
dead former Queen Katherine Howard. She was stepping into the
shoes of her predecessor. Literally, every item needed to be tailored.
Katherine Parr was several inches taller than the teenage former queen,
(18:50):
but Catherine found she didn't mind wearing the clothes. They
were beautiful, for one, but they also made her role
as queen feel like a duty, a duty with a
uniform as if she was in the military. Catherine Parr
was incredibly well liked by everyone at court, will almost everyone.
(19:10):
Another former Queen, Anne of Cleaves, had quietly hoped that,
with Catherine Howard gone, King Henry the Eighth were to
remarry her. Unfortunately, Henry did not agree. When Anne of
Cleaves heard that the position of queen had been filled,
she murmured that she was surprised the king had married
(19:31):
a woman not nearly as beautiful as she. But to
everyone else, Katherine Parr was a balm for the chaosic
court the preceding few years. She was calm, sensible, kind, smart.
Above all, she was competent. That was why, when Henry
(19:52):
left to lead a military campaign against France, he left
her as regent. Henry, at fifty three years old, was
desperate to regain some of his former glory, and so
that meant, despite the advice of his doctors and friends,
he would go into battle. He forged an alliance with
(20:14):
the Holy Roman Emperor, commissioned a customized suit of armor
that would fit his considerable size, and left the country
in Catharine Parr's capable hands. The victory, if you could
call it that, if Henry won three months later was
pretty toothless. Almost immediately afterward. The King of France renewed
(20:36):
his friendship with the Holy Roman Emperor and geared up
to retaliate in England the following summer. But while Henry
was away, Catherine reigned beautifully. She dealt with deserters and
Scottish prisoners, managed the supplies and troops being sent to France,
and reacted swiftly and decisively to an outbreak of the plague.
(21:00):
All the while she wrote letters to Henry telling him
how deeply she missed him and how much she desired
to be in his presence again. The following year, Catherine
published a book, Prayers or Meditations, the first English book
published by woman under her own name in the country
and the first book ever published by a queen. That Christmas,
(21:25):
her stepdaughter, Princess Elizabeth translated it into Latin and French
and Italian, and bound the translations in red silk and
gave them to Catherine Parr as perhaps the most thoughtful
Christmas gift heretofore ever given. But still it wasn't beyond
notice that Catherine Parr hadn't born Henry a son, or
(21:48):
even yielded a pregnancy, and although of course that wasn't
her fault, it still meant that her position as queen
wasn't entirely secure. There were rumors in court. There are
always rumors, but one particular rumor put Katherine on edge
and soured her normally genial disposition. Henry's best friend, Charles Brandon,
(22:13):
the Duke of Suffolk, died, leaving his wife, a good
friend of Catherine's, a widow and single, and Henry seemed
to be spending some time, just a respectful time, nothing untoward,
yet comforting her. Again nothing but rumors. But the King
(22:35):
also seemed to be getting annoyed with Katherine Parr more frequently.
Recently she had taken to arguing with him about theology.
When Catherine brought up a hole in one of Henry's arguments,
he snapped at her, it's a good hearing. It is
when women become such clerks, and a thing much to
(22:58):
my comfort in my own old days, to be taught
by a woman. Catherine might have been well liked as
a person in court, but she was evangelical, ordering on Protestant,
and she wasn't shy about making her beliefs public. She
had enemies, and now they had ammunition. In fifteen forty six,
(23:26):
Anne ask You was tortured for the names of other
high born women who shared her heretical views. Anne didn't
name names, but the men torturing her got enough to
implicate the women of Catherine's court. There would be a
search for heretical literature in their chambers. Fortunately word got
(23:49):
out ahead of it, so books were stashed and locks
were changed and nothing was found. But that didn't mean
Catherine wasn't in danger. After all, she existed at the
whim of Henry, and Henry hated feeling threatened. After Catherine
contradicted Henry in debate, a bishop and one of Henry's ministers, Ropsley,
(24:14):
seized the moment to get Henry to sign a warrant
for her arrest, which he did. Whether it was sheer,
dumb luck, or a friend looking out for her. A
copy of the warrant was left out in the open
where Katherine could see it. Catherine had the benefit of
(24:35):
being the sixth wife of learning from the women who
came before her and their mistakes. Henry was extremely malleable,
but Katherine Parr also knew that as soon as Henry
made his mind up about a woman, he would simply
remove her from his presence and not give her the
chance to speak with him. Her time was extremely limited.
(25:03):
Wearing one of the dresses that had once belonged to
foolish dead Katherine Howard, Katherine Parr went to the King
and did the thing she needed to save herself. She
graciously thanked the King for his kindness that he had
taken in sharing his insights and wisdom with her. You see,
(25:24):
she was only debating him as an intellectual exercise for him,
so he could take his mind off his pain, and
so that she could learn from him. So Henry said,
you don't disagree with me, then, no, of course not.
Katherine Parr laughed, Your Majesty has very much mistaken me,
(25:47):
for I have always held it preposterous for a woman
to instruct her lord. It was a brilliant turn of
tect Henry swept Catherine Parr on to his knee, reassured
her of his love for her, and ordered her jewels
and pearls and furs. That afternoon, Rothsley arrived at the
(26:10):
Queen's gardens with forty armed men, only to find Catherine
sitting on Henry's knee. Henry had forgotten to call off
the rest. What are you doing, Henry called, You dare
to insult our queen with threats out Rothley apologized profusely,
(26:32):
sweating and bowing. Of course, Catherine knew all about the
arrest attempt, but Henry didn't know that. She knew. You
really don't need to be so hard on him, she
said sweetly to her husband. Henry laughed, Oh, you sweet
innocent child, If only you knew how little he deserves
(26:53):
this grace your showing him. Catherine laughed and pulled Henry
in for a kiss, thinking somewhere in the back of
her mind that the same was true of the grace
that she showed Henry. But Catherine wouldn't have too much
longer to go as Henry's wife. His health was now
(27:17):
fading and fast. Henry was finding it increasingly difficult to walk.
He needed to use a ramp to mount his horse.
Hunting became impossibly exhausting. Most of the time, Henry was
transported from room to room, being carried on a chair.
His rooms were heavily perfumed at all times in an
(27:41):
attempt to cover the smell of his rotting leg always
wet from his many medicinal baths. That Christmas, Catherine Parr,
Mary and Elizabeth were sent away from Whitehall so they
wouldn't have to watch the rest of Henry's decline. Would
never see him again, though after the first week of
(28:03):
January Catherine returned, she wasn't permitted to see him. Henry
died on January twenty eighth, fifteen forty seven. Catherine mourned,
of course, but her real sorrow would come only when
she saw the will that Henry had rewritten a month
before his death. She got plenty of money, an annual allowance,
(28:26):
and a stipulation that she be treated as a queen
and not a dowager. But she didn't get what she
really wanted. She wasn't made regent for the young nine
year old King Edward. Her political career was entirely over.
Smart as she was, competent, as she was capable as
(28:47):
she was, Catherine Parr no longer had any avenue to power.
She had come close being Henry's wife, and for that
shining period in fifteen forty four she had tasted it.
But now she was just a woman again, put in
her place back where she had started being back where
(29:12):
she had started wasn't all bad. Four years after she
had fallen in love with him, Catherine Parr was finally
able to marry Thomas Seymour. It's a bitter sweet love story.
I like to end it there without the details that
perhaps the marriage had happened a bit too fast and
(29:32):
it was unseemly that she had had to wheedle young
King Edward to approve the marriage after it had happened.
It's also a sweeter story if we leave out the
fact that Thomas Seymour, sociall climber as he was, had
actually tried to court the thirteen year old Princess Elizabeth
before marrying Katherine Parr, and that when Elizabeth came to
(29:54):
live with her former stepmom and new husband Thomas, that
he would continue blesting her and making sexual overtures until finally,
out of shame and hurt, Katherine Parr had to send
young Elizabeth away, never to see her in person again. No,
it's a better story if we ended there the idea
(30:17):
that she had lost her love, was dutiful to Henry,
and then finally got to marry her love and live
out the rest of her life and peace in a
different world, Katherine Parr could have led as regent or
even queen, and we could have seen what she would
have accomplished instead. Hers is a story of a woman
(30:38):
who fell in love but was forced into duty instead,
but met it with savvy and grace. She survived not
out of luck, but because she made sure that she would.
That's the story of Catherine Parr's marriage to Henry the Eighth.
(31:01):
But stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear
a short story about what happened when her coffin was unearthed.
Catherine Parr was buried beneath Sutley Chapel, but over the
(31:22):
next two centuries the chapel and estate above her fell
into ruin. It wasn't until seventeen eighty two when the
owner of the property and a few visitors were curious
enough to force their way down the narrow stone steps
and see the crypt that lay beneath. Catherine's lead. Coffin
(31:45):
was exactly as it had been when it was placed
there over two hundred and thirty years prior. Pressed into
the lead, the inscription read k p here Eliath Queen Katherine,
wife to King Henry the Eighth, and the wife of Thomas,
Lord of Sutley. Curiosity got the better of the visitors
(32:10):
and they pried open the coffin to find the corpse
wrapped in waxy linen. They recoiled when they saw what
was revealed inside. The coffin had been so air tight
that it looked as though Catherine Parr had died only
the day before. Her skin was milky white, her hair perfect,
(32:34):
her dress still retained color. She might as well have
been taking a nap. Horrified, the men shut the lid
to the coffin and left, but they had broken the
seal and let the air in. By the time Katherine
Parr's corpse was excavated again, all that was left was bones.
(32:55):
While not only bones, an ivy plant had also managed
to grow in the coffin, weaving its way up and
around the skull. If you looked at it from certain angles,
the ivy plant had curled itself over her skull into
a crown. Noble Blood is a production of iHeart Radio
(33:25):
and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is
hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research
by Hannah Johnston Hannah's Wick Courtney sender, Amy Hit and
Julia Milaney. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk,
with supervising producer rima il KLi and executive producers Aaron Manke,
(33:48):
Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1 (33:52):
iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Dana Schwartz
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