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KATHERINE THE QUEEN: THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF KATHERINE PARR: LINDA PORTER

Katherine The Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr: Linda Porter

Friday March 19,2010

By Peter Burton

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THERE is an old rhyme which makes it easy to remember the fates of the six wives of Henry VIII: Divorced, beheaded, died/ Divorced, beheaded, survived.

Each of these wives were sharply characterised.

The images we retain were essentially a construct of Victorians and, thus, Katherine of Aragon is forever stern, Anne Boleyn eternally scheming, Jane Seymour passive, Katherine Howard flighty, Anne of Cleves plain and Katherine Parr, the final wife, subsequently Henry’s widow, homely.

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Agnes Strickland’s Lives Of The Queens Of England, published in 1852, established Katherine Parr as lovingly tending the ailments of her aged and decaying husband.

In this book Linda Porter revises this impression to create a fully rounded portrait of a woman possessed of “an intelligent mind and ability to use her position as queen to maximum effect”, which “would make her among the most successful writers of the 16th century and an important influence on the history of England”.

Born into the landed gentry in 1512, Katherine Parr was first married at the age of 16 to Edward Borough, eldest son of a controlling country squire. But by 20 she was a widow, childless and without wealth.

Within a year she was wed for a second time, becoming the third wife of John Neville, Lord Latimer, stepmother to his two children, a difficult 14-year-old boy and a nine-year-old girl whom she came to adore. This marriage lasted almost a decade and his children proved to be a useful testing ground for Katherine’s relationships with the king’s three children, the future Edward VI, Mary I and, most profoundly, Elizabeth I.

However, before she was wooed by the king, Katherine was pursued by the dashing Thomas Seymour. When Henry made his intentions towards Katherine clear, Seymour withdrew his suit.

It is clear that Henry was besotted with Katherine, at least in the first two years of their marriage. He appointed her Regent when he was off fighting the French and showered her with expensive gifts until Katherine’s intellectual pursuits began to assert themselves. Her strong espousal of the Protestant cause (further reforms to Henry’s reformed church) almost had her following the two beheaded wives to the block. But she survived.

Not for long, however. Just months after the death of the king she married her former suitor Thomas Seymour. His reckless behaviour with Elizabeth caused a rift between Katherine and the princess which was barely healed when Katherine died after giving birth to a daughter.

Porter’s vividly written biography confirms her belief that Katherine was an influential woman. As stepmother she shaped Elizabeth I, one of England’s most successful monarchs.

More importantly, Porter presents a portrait of an attractive woman more than capable of navigating the treacherous waters of life at the duplicitous Tudor court.

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