TOMBS of HENRY VIII’S QUEENS: PART TWO by LINDA FETTERLY ROOT

Westminster Abbey

If the pop quizzes so popular on social media were to ask: ‘Which of Henry VIII’s wives is buried at Westminster?’,  I suspect the correct answer would be the least popular.  I would have guessed Katherine Parr, a woman of untarnished reputation and an Anglican scholar. And I would be wrong.  So would scores of others who had been to the site and read the grave markers in Henry VII’s Lady Chapel where the other Tudors are interred. The last of Great Harry’s wives to die is buried at an obscure location in the nave. Her name is Anne of Cleves.

ANNE OF CLEVES:  

The German princess Anne of Cleves is as obscure in death as she had been in life. She is buried in the nave, and for political and security reasons, her grave is not easily accessible to the public because it is within the sanctuary.  It is said that a visitor standing on the tip of the toes can see the marker, a rather recent addition which is only slightly higher than the floor. Apparently, there was a more visible tomb which was obscured to make a place for another queen’s mother and grandmother to sit at Elizabeth II’s coronation.  Earlier photos of the site are copyrighted and licensed at a king’s ransom.

Anne of Cleves' days as Henry’s consort were short-lived. She was never crowned and Henry swore the marriage was never consummated. Apparently,  the bride was too sexually naïve to know, one way or another, or perhaps she was astute enough to keep her mouth shut. Henry exercised  no such restraint. He found his bride ill-mannered, unappealing and malodorous. He complained of sagging breasts. He is quoted as referring to her as The Flanders Mare. Considering his expanding girth and abscessed leg wound, one might find his comment coming from the pot who called the kettle black. By 1540, the historical Henry was no longer the well-proportioned, athletic Henry portrayed in the Anne of Cleves episodes of the Tudors.

The Holbein Portrait {PD US} Wikimedia 

The king had entered into the marriage contract based on a portrait he had commissioned from court portraitist Hans Holbein, but looks were not the only matter of concern.  A match with a daughter of the Duke of Cleves was meant to solidify his alliance with the German states.  Once contracted, there was no diplomatic way to avoid a wedding without making enemies of the German princes, which Henry could ill-afford. Thus, in January 1540, a disgruntled Henry went through with the ceremony, but neither Holbein nor Thomas Cromwell recovered from the king’s disfavor.  After the wedding night, Henry told Cromwell that he had not liked her much before the bedding, and afterward, he liked her not at all. In February, she was told to leave the court. In early July, the marriage was annulled for lack of consummation and allegations of a pre-contract between Anne of Cleves and the heir to the House of Guise.  By the end of the month, Cromwell had paid for his failed matchmaking with his head, and on the same day, Henry married adolescent Kathryn Howard.

Anne of Cleves stayed on in England.  The king gave her the title of the King’s Sister. She never spoke ill of Henry and had a good relationship with both of his daughters. She is open game for historical novelists because she left an empty slate. She made no enemies and kept her opinions to herself. She survived Henry and his 5^th and 6^th consorts and avoided confrontation during Somerset’s protectorate of Edward VI  and during the Boy King's reign.  When the powers behind the throne rejected Lady Jane Grey and declared for Mary Tudor, Anne of Cleves joined the Lady Elizabeth in the parade marking Mary I's entry into London.  When Catholicism was in vogue during Mary’s reign, Anne abjured the Protestant faith she had adopted when she came.  She ended her days at Chelsea Old House after Queen Mary became suspicious of her relationship with Elizabeth and Frances Brandon, the Duchess of Suffolk.  She lived in quietude, known for the efficient management of her estates, her pleasant temperament, and her generosity to her servants. Henry could have done much worse.

And he did.

KATHRYN HOWARD

Church of Saint Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London (Wikimedia)

Henry's fifth wife, young, vivacious and unfortunately, promiscuous Kat Howard takes us on our second visit to the Church of Saint Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London. In today’s terms, she would be called a Trophy Wife. At the time of her marriage in July 1540, she was probably no more than nineteen.  Kathryn was one of a brood of several children born to Lord Edmund Howard, the financially challenged younger brother of the Duke of Norfolk. Queen Anne Boleyn’s mother had been their sister. The dead queen had been a cousin.  Kathryn’s parents were both previously married with children.  Hence, Kathryn had so many older siblings of the whole and the half that her parents did not bother to record her birth date. It is believed to have been between 1521 and 1523.

With too many daughters in the family, her parents sent her to Lambeth House to live in the household of her paternal grandmother Agnes, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, who ran an ex-officio home for high-born but impoverished surplus daughters. In that setting,the seeds of Kathryn’s fall were sown.  A visit to the Dowager’s household would have found it well-managed in every respect but one—the supervision of the teenage girls who had been deposited there.  The atmosphere portrayed in the mini-series The Tudors is reasonably accurate.  The girls lived in a dormitory and behaved as if it were a long term sleepover. It was a fine place for a robust good time, but not a training-ground for queens.

Kathryn was not a beauty nor was she especially bright, but she was a Howard and vivacious. How far her sexual dalliances as a ward of Lady Agnes Howard may have progressed is a case in controversy. The popular nominees as the girl’s despoiler include her music teacher Henry Mannock, her cousin Thomas Culpepper, and a young aristocrat, Francis Dereham, to whom she was possibly betrothed. Kathryn  might have married Dereham, had she not met the king on a visit to the Bishop of Rochester’s House. Henry's interest did not escape the attention of Kathryn's uncle, the Duke of Norfolk.

Not much later in a move probably brokered by Norfolk, she left her grandmother’s house to become a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves.  Norfolk and the Catholic faction promoted her rise in the king's affection. Already determined to rid himself of his German bride, Henry had discovered a replacement more to his sexual taste,  and the Catholic faction saw a way to get rid of both the German consort and Thomas Cromwell, who was already the subject of Henry's animus.

Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk

Weeks after Anne of Cleves agreed to an annulment on terms allowing her to remain living comfortably in England, Henry married Kathryn at Oatlands.  She was likely not yet twenty and he was forty-nine, obese and diseased. But he was infatuated with his young bride.

Kat Howard's uncle and his allies who had promoted her so vigorously had not wasted any time by vetting her. Not long after her honeymoon, Kathryn renewed her relationship with her cousin Tom Culpepper, meeting with him privately in trysts arranged by her cousin-by-marriage, Lady Rochford, sister-in-law of Anne Boleyn. Kat Howard had never been especially discreet, and her new royal status did not change that.  The anti-Howard faction took notice, even if  their smitten king did not. When they had enough evidence, they presented it to the king. After ordering the queen's  arrest, he never saw her again. The men in Kathryn's past were quickly dispatched.  The queen's case presented some dicey legal issues, and  trial was delayed so Parliament could pass a law making it a capital offense for a consort to withhold knowledge of prior sexual conduct. Also, a Bill of Attainder would eliminate the need for an embarrassing trial. Soon any issues stemming from a precontract with Dereham were moot. Culpepper had confessed to a relationship with Kat while she was queen before he died. Evidence included a  letter to Culpepper before his arrest which Kathryn signed 'Yours as long as life endures,' which turned out to be not very long at all for either of the lovers. The cuckolded King of England wanted blood.

By January 1542, enemies of the Howards had accumulated enough evidence of an on-going affair with Culpepper to send both the silly queen and her lady, Jane Rochford, to the block. The two women joined their Boleyn relatives  in the pile of bones in the floor of Saint Peter ad Vincula.

Norfolk was included in the attaint, but his fall was more of a bounce.  Soon he was back in favor and appointed Lieutenant of the Armies. His eventual fall from grace had more to do with his conservative but astute decision to lift the siege on Montreuil and retreat to Calais, which embarrassed Henry during his war against the French. The behavior of his two royal nieces had little to do with it.

KATHERINE PARR:

A slightly different likeness of Katherine Parr
Wikimedia Commons

Thomas Seymour, Baron Sudeley

Katherine Parr is buried in Saint Mary’s Church at Sudeley Castle. It is the only private English castle to have a Queen buried on its grounds.  

Young Elizabeth

After Henry VIII’s death, the dead king's son Edward VI gave Sudeley 
to his uncle Thomas at the same time he made him a baron, probably at Thomas’s older brother Edward Seymour’s suggestion. Edward, Earl of Somerset was the self-appointed Protector of the Realm.  After their marriage, Seymour and his wife, who had been granted the title Queen Dowager for Life, resided at Chelsea with Lady Jane Gray and Lady Elizabeth as their wards.

Those who remember their Tudor history will identify Sudeley as the new home of Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour of Sudeley, who, driven by ambition that outstripped his wit, married Henry’s widow and later broke her heart by making advances to his ward, the adolescent Lady Elizabeth, later Queen of England. Both women suffered over the love triangle. Seymour's unbridled ambition later put Elizabeth's life at risk. 

By the time Katherine became pregnant, Elizabeth had been sent to Hatfield in disgrace. The Queen Dowager moved her household to Sudeley for her laying in.  Six days after delivering a daughter, she died. She had not been a young woman when she married Seymour, and although she had been widowed twice when she married the king, all of her prior marriages had been childless. She would have been 35 at the time she gave birth to Seymour’s child.  Pregnancies were dangerous under the best of circumstances, but a first pregnancy in what was then well into middle age was especially precarious.  Some of  Seymour’s vociferous enemies suspected poison. Others blamed it on the stress his dalliance with Elizabeth caused the Queen. Nevertheless, although she had been heartbroken when she caught him and Elizabeth embracing, Katherine had forgiven her husband and had renewed a warm correspondence with Elizabeth, who sent a hand-knit baby gift.

Katherine Parr was buried at Sudeley Castle in Saint Mary’s Chapel. Thomas engaged in a series of madcap maneuvers aimed at displacing his brother Edward. In the last escapade, he shot the young king's dog. Seymour was executed for treason seven months after Katherine died. He is buried in the floor at the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower.

Queen Katherine's lead coffin was not identified until 1782. When it was opened, her corpse was well preserved. Drunken grave robbers ravaged the site ten years later, and what was left was buried in the tomb of one of the castle’s subsequent owners. Gothic architect George Gilbert Scott restored the site in the early 19th century and commissioned John Birnie Philip to create a tomb effigy for Katherine Parr. It seems a suitable resting place for a woman who understood the concept of duty but was never bound to silence and who appreciated beauty. She was a competent scholar and the first female English  writer to publish under her own name in England.  She was a gifted woman who deserved better of the men in her life. Her writings are available through the Women Writers Project and on Amazon.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

 Photographs are from Wikimedia Commons.  Online sources are numerous. Print sources include:  

John Field, Kingdom Power and Glory, A Historical Guide to Westminster Abbey, James& James, 1996: Derek Wilson, The Tower of London, Constable/Dorset 1978:and Julia Fox, Jane Boleyn: The True Story of Lady Rochford, Ballantyne Books, New York, 2009, among others.

LINDA FETTERLY ROOT is a former major crimes prosecutor, armchair historian, and author of the historical novels in the Legacy of the Queen of Scots series, and two epic novels set in the life and times of Marie Stuart. She lives in the historically rich ‘wild west’ north of Palm Springs, on the edge of Joshua Tree National Park, with her canine partners Maxx and Maya, and assorted wild things. https://www.amazon.com/Linda-Root/e/B0053DIGM8/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1473349726&sr=1-2-ent

The Taming of Katherine Parr

by Danielle Marchant

This month sees the release of Philippa Gregory’s latest historical novel The Taming of the Queen, which is about Henry VIII’s sixth wife, Katherine Parr. As with all historical novels and dramas, there’s always anticipation on how the character is going to be portrayed and how their story will be told. In some cases, the historical fiction version of the characters tends to be a lot more exciting and dangerous than the real life characters. The various portrayals of Anne Boleyn is a good example of this, where in fiction she is often portrayed as a home-wrecking, man-eating Sex Goddess with a sixth finger, whereas in reality it has been argued that she was probably far more sober and God- fearing. The fictional portrayals of Katherine Parr, however, tend to buck the trend.

Katherine, as the famous nursery rhyme told us, was the one that survived. She was the sober nursemaid, the much-needed mother figure for Edward, Elizabeth and Mary who liked nothing more than to change Henry’s bandages for his putrid leg wound. However, in an interesting reversal – and of course, with the exception of the “The Tudors” TV drama series - it was actually the real Katherine that lived a far more interesting, exciting and even dangerous life compared to her fictional portrayals. It’s almost like the image of the real Katherine has been straitened to nothing more than a boring nursemaid, skulking in the shadows of the far more famous of Henry VIII’s wives. The real Katherine has been tamed. However, the real Katherine, who is possibly the least famous of all of Henry VIII’s wives, not only narrowly escaped facing the same tragic fate as that of two of Henry’s other wives, but she also was a major influence on the future Queen Elizabeth I.

In March 1543, thirty-year-old Katherine was widowed for the second time after the death of her husband Lord Latimer, but financially she was comfortable. She found herself in a position of freedom and was able to think about what she wanted to do with her life. There were two things that were certain for Katherine. She knew that she definitely wanted to stay at court, and she wanted to remarry. She had also fallen in love. The man that had stolen her heart was Thomas Seymour, the King’s brother-in-law. Four years later, she had told Seymour: “As truly as God is God, my mind was fully bent the other time I was at liberty to marry you before any man I know.”

This is quite a passionate image of Katherine, an image we don’t often associate with the real Katherine. However, Katherine had to forget about Thomas. There was another man who wanted her hand in marriage – it was the King. Despite already going down the aisle five times before, it didn’t deter him from a sixth trip. This time he was looking for an attractive woman without a reputation (Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard would have come to mind on the latter point). Lady Latimer ticked these boxes, so the King popped the question and, forgetting all about Thomas Seymour, she wisely accepted. They were married on the 12th July at Hampton Court Palace in the Queen’s Closet. This does show another quality that isn’t emphasised that much when referring to Katherine – bravery. She was brave in the sense that she was about to marry a man who had executed two of his previous wives.

In addition, she showed bravery in her religious beliefs. She wasn’t afraid to talk about her beliefs later on in the marriage. This was incredibly risky because it later nearly led to her being put in the Tower. Henry caused some confusion with his religious beliefs. When Katherine first married the King, we don’t really know what Katherine’s religious beliefs were at the time. However, even though the King had embraced the Reformation and the break with Rome, on the other hand, he was not a Lutheran and still very much believed in the presence of the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine at mass. Katherine, however, did seem to demonstrate reformist – even Calvinist – beliefs, which became more apparent as the years went by. Henry and Katherine would often have religious debates, but at this stage it didn’t cause any particular concern to Henry. She collected books such as a 1542 English translation of A Sermon of St Chrysostome by the Oxford Scholar John Lupset. Katherine also wrote books for her ladies and friends. They were books of prayers, beautifully bound in gilt and leather, sold at 16 shillings, or £250 a copy in today’s money. Katherine was particularly in awe of the Great Bible, printed in Paris, which then emerged in England in April 1540. The Great Bible showed the word of God in the English language – it spoke directly to the people, including Katherine, without any additional interpretations from Priests. This encouraged Katherine to become more involved in the great religious debates. Her enthusiasm reached a peak in 1545, when Katherine went on to write the “Lamentation of a Sinner”. Based on St. Paul’s teachings and the epistles, it was the first work of its kind written by a woman. So, not only was the real Katherine brave, passionate and religious, she was also creative. These are qualities that are not often associated with Katherine.

However, Katherine's involvement in religious discussions and the views she expressed in her writing began to cause suspicion to the King, and this provided ammunition to the conservative faction at court. Bishop Gardiner and his cronies looked at everything that could be used against her – the books she wrote, the books she read and even her ladies-in-waiting were held with suspicion. There were three ladies in particular that became a focus of this campaign – Lady Herbert (Katherine’s sister), Lady Lane (Katherine’s cousin) and Lady Tyrwhit. John Foxe recalled the events later in the Elizabethan period:

It was devised that these three should first of all have been accused and brought to answer to the six articles (the act passed in 1539) and upon their apprehension in court, their closets and coffers should have been searched, that somewhat might have been found by which the Queen might be charged; which being found, the Queen herself presently should have been taken, and likewise carried by night by barge to the Tower.

However, fate intervened. The King revealed to one of his physicians, Dr. Wendy, what he was going to do, but the bill of articles against Katherine, signed by the King himself, had been accidently dropped by an anonymous councillor. It was then found and brought to the Queen. As you could imagine, Katherine flew into panic mode – she “fell immediately into a great agony, bewailing and talking on in such sort”. Dr. Wendy was summoned to the Queen and advised her that she should “shew her humble submission to the King”.

Katherine took on board this advice, and one night she went to the King’s Bedchamber. The King decided to launch a debate on religion, a topic they were always guaranteed to have a debate on. However, instead of speaking her mind on religious matters, she instead said to him: “God has appointed such a natural difference between man and woman, and your majesty being so excellent in gifts and ornaments of wisdom, and I a silly poor woman, so much inferior in all aspects of nature to you”.

Katherine was now playing the part of a submissive wife. She said that she only debated with him on religion to distract him from the pain caused by his ill health. She said it was ridiculous, the thought of a woman trying to teach her husband. Both made peace with each other, and all was well. When Chancellor Thomas Wriothesely arrived with his armed guards of forty men to arrest the Queen, Henry sent him away, shouting “Knave, arrant knave, beast and fool”. Katherine had lived to see another day. This does show a very clever and witty side to Katherine as well – she certainly knew how to turn a negative situation into a positive one.

Wriothesely’s involvement is interesting as it refers to another unknown side to the real Katherine. Katherine was not one to give in to self-pity. Wriothesely’s wife, Jane, who was also Katherine’s lady-in-waiting, had lost her baby son. Katherine wrote a letter to her in March 1545, and even though this was written in an age when child mortality was common, its tone still seems very cold and harsh:

It have pleased God of late to disinherit your son of this world, of intent he should become partner and chosen heir of the everlasting inheritance, which calling and happy vocation ye may rejoice. If you lament your son’s death, you do him great wrong and show yourself to sorrow for the happiest thing there ever came to him.

Even though this was written in an age of religious fervour, Katherine’s tone in this letter still comes across as very cruel to a grieving mother who has just lost her child. With the exception of being a step-mother, Katherine at the time of writing this was not a mother herself, so would not have related to the pain that Jane was experiencing. Katherine, based on her own personal experiences, was a woman who kept a lid on her emotions and didn’t dwell on the past, and probably felt that in her own way, she was trying to help Jane. However, this would have provided little comfort to Jane and her husband. Their reaction to the letter is not known, however, it’s very possible that this may have caused so much upset that it fuelled Wriothesley’s anger towards Katherine later on.

As part of the campaign to put Katherine in the Tower, Wriothesley tried to link Katherine to Anne Askew, a heretic who became a martyr for her reformist beliefs and was burnt at the stake in July 1546. The torture Anne endured while being interrogated was particularly shocking as they resorted to putting her on the rack in a desperate attempt to get her to blurt out the names of members of Katherine’s privy chamber. Even Wriothesley himself turned the rack. Was this his revenge for the hurt Katherine had caused him and his wife before with her letter about their son? Anne Askew described her torture:

Then they put me on the rack, because I confessed no ladies or gentlewomen to be of my opinion; and there they kept me a long time, and because I lay still and did not cry, my lord chancellor and Master Rich took pains to rack me with their own hands till I was nigh dead.

The incident was also particularly shocking to her contemporaries as Anne was born into the gentry, and the gentry were never tortured. Even more disturbing, it is possible that the King himself gave them permission to torture her.

The fate of Anne, along with the attempt to put Katherine in the Tower, was evidence of a move against reformist belief in the last two years’ of the King’s reign. The campaign had begun in April 1546 – coincidently, soon after the conservative Bishop Gardiner’s return from Europe. In a sense, it was probably a blessing that Katherine did have this side to her where she could keep her emotions in check – it may have caused anger to the Wriothesleys, but at the same time, it ultimately helped her to face the King when she was interrogated herself over religion and come out of the situation calmly and unscathed.

Another fascinating but little-known fact about the real Katherine was how well she got on with her step-daughter, Mary Tudor. We’ve always been given the impression in fiction that the two simply did not get along due to their religious differences - Protestant Katherine vs Catholic Mary. This image, however, was created later on. We do know that when Mary became Queen, she did ban Katherine’s book The Lamentation of a Sinner. However, Mary did accept the changes her father had made, and the Mass was just as important to her as it was to her father and Katherine. Mary even helped Katherine to translate Erasmus’s Paraphrases of the New Testament, where she translated St. John’s Gospel. Due to illness, Mary was unable to finish her part of the project, but Katherine’s chaplain, Francis Mallet, intervened to finish Mary’s work. It has been suggested that the illness was an excuse to not finish the work, but this is unlikely as later on, Mary became uncomfortable with the idea of gaining credit for work that was not entirely her work. Katherine, however, reassured her:

All the world knows that you have toiled and laboured much in this business, I do not see why you should repudiate that praise which all men justly confer on you. However, I leave this whole matter to your discretion, and whatever resolution you may adopt, that will meet my fullest approbation.

This shows how very supportive and encouraging Katherine was as a step-mother to Mary and had helped her to become a published author.

Katherine also had a pleasure-loving side. She fully embraced the role of Queen. Her household ate, drank, were merry, sung, danced and took part in sports. Katherine kept hounds and hawks for hunting, parrots for entertainment, and she loved dogs. Katherine’s spaniel, Rig, owned an impressive collar of crimson velvet embroidered with damask gold and it had rings made of silver gilt to attach its lead.

Katherine loved clothes and her wardrobe was full of beautiful and expensive items. Crimson was her favourite colour and she even dressed her footman and pages in Crimson. Even her own lavatory had a crimson velvet canopy, cushions covered in cloth of gold and a seat of crimson velvet. A removable commode was covered in red silk and ribbons, attached with gilt nails. She chose luxurious, expensive fabrics, such as cloth of gold and silver (silver being her favourite), damasks, taffetas, silks, satins and velvets. In the three years that she spent being Henry’s sixth wife, she had bought 315 yards of black velvet, 95 yards of black satin and 35 yards of orange damask. Katherine also had a thing for shoes – she owned no less than an impressive 117 pairs of shoes, although this number did eventually drop to 47 pairs.

What is possibly the most important but little-known fact of the whole Tudor period was that Katherine was a huge influence on the future Queen Elizabeth I. The many little ways that Katherine had helped to mould the young Elizabeth would emerge later on and help to make her the kind of Queen that she became.

Katherine was meticulous in her choice of clothes and jewels for portraits. She wanted to show the world that she was Queen, that she was a regal figure in her own right. Even more interesting, these portraits were not ordered by the King; the Queen had requested these herself. There were more portraits of Katherine than there were of any other Queen of England in this period – but, with the exception of Elizabeth I.

Queen Elizabeth has been seen in many portraits, bedecked with jewellery and fine fabrics, giving a clear message to those looking at her portrait that she was Queen and was so in her right - in very much the same way as Katherine had done once before. Therefore, the young Elizabeth had definitely watched her step-mother and took notes. The image that Katherine gave to the public would have no doubt made a lasting impression on Elizabeth, teaching her the art of being a Queen.

The young Elizabeth and Katherine also shared a love of studying, and Elizabeth became aware of Katherine’s religious interests. As a New Year’s gift in 1544, Elizabeth endeavoured to impress Katherine with a translation of Margaret of Navarre’s Le miroir de l'âme pécheresse. Elizabeth called it The Mirror or Glass of the Sinful Soul. While accomplishing this, Elizabeth learned that the writer “can do nothing that good is or prevaileth for her salvation, unless it be through the grace of God”. This was the earliest statement of Elizabeth’s religious views and was evidence of how possibly Katherine’s reformist beliefs were influencing Elizabeth’s. When Elizabeth grew up and became Queen, unlike her siblings Edward and Mary, she did not favour just Catholicism or Protestantism alone; she worked towards a middle way between the two, leading to the creation of the Church of England. So, having been exposed to her step-mother’s beliefs and then, seeing the two extremes of religion in the reigns of both of her siblings – Protestant Edward and then Catholic Mary – this all must have had an impact of how she wanted to run the country and mediate its spiritual and ecclesiastical issues.

Possibly the most important tutorial in being a Queen that Elizabeth observed came in the summer of 1544. In that summer, the King had sailed to France and Elizabeth observed Katherine as a Queen Regent. This would help to prove to the young Elizabeth that in an age when women were seen as inferior to men, a Queen could rule England just as well as any King. Only Katherine of Aragon had been made Queen Regent before Katherine Parr. Katherine Parr excelled in and took great delight in her new responsibility, handling with ease the mass of papers, taking part in discussions with advisers and make important decisions. This definitely had a great influence on the young Elizabeth who later on as Queen faced and defeated the Spanish Armada. Everything that Elizabeth had learned about being Queen was epitomised in what was to be her most famous speech, given to her army at Tilbury in 1588:

I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all, to lay down my life for my God and for my kingdom and for my people, my honour, and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too.

Therefore, the real Katherine Parr was brave, passionate, religious, creative, witty and clever, liked glamour, escaped with her life from the Tower and helped to mould and influence one of English history’s greatest Queens. She even got on well with a Catholic. However, many of us don’t know this because the real Katherine has been tamed.

Images:
- Katherine Parr – artist unknown, painted in 1545.
- Katherine Parr – artist unknown.
- The young Elizabeth.
- Elizabeth I “The Rainbow Portrait”

Sources and suggested further reading:
Katherine the Queen – Linda Porter, Macmillan, 2010.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By Danielle Marchant
I am an Independent Author from London, UK. I am the author of “The Lady Rochford Saga”, based on the life of Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford. Both parts 1 and 2 are out now, and I am currently working on part 3, due for release Spring/Summer 2016:

Amazon

Visit my Facebook page and website.

The Admiral’s Tale: Thomas Seymour

by Judith Arnopp

Thomas Seymour; Baron Sudeley

A new narrator popped into my work in progress the other day; a voice that wants to be heard, and who am I to deny him?

Thomas Seymour is often portrayed in historical novels as a brash adventurer, a power hungry molester of young girls but, when writing history, it is important to stay true to the time in which the events take place.

Elizabeth Tudor was fourteen at the time Seymour married Katherine Parr and, although to us the alleged relationship between him and his step daughter is shocking due to her age, at the time, fourteen was regarded as ‘marriageable.’ There was no undue public outrage and he was not labelled as an abuser. What was shocking to the 16^th century mind-set was Elizabeth’s status. Mistresses were perfectly acceptable, royal princesses were definitely not.

Even when added to his other alleged ‘crimes’ Seymour still doesn’t emerge as a ‘monster’. He was misguided perhaps, driven by his baser instincts, very human in fact.

Thomas and Katherine Parr were on the brink of marriage when she was spotted by the king as a potential wife but Thomas gallantly gave way to his monarch. But, after Henry VIII’s death Seymour lost no time in marrying his former sweetheart.

Seymour was the uncle of the young king Edward VI, but it was his elder brother, Somerset, who had control of the king's leading strings. Although Thomas was made Lord High Admiral and 1^st Baron of Sudeley, it was his brother who became Lord High Protector and held all the power that Thomas craved.

Feelings between the siblings were not sweet. After the death of Henry VIII the Lord Protector seized the crown jewels from Katherine, including some personal pieces of her own, not belonging to the crown. This infuriated Thomas and he spent the rest of his wife’s life trying to regain her rightful possessions. This fury was ignited further by the continual snubbing of Katherine by Edward’s wife, Anne Stanhope.

Amid this family unrest Elizabeth Tudor, second in line to the throne, took up residence with her step-mother and her new husband, Seymour, at Katherine’s home in Chelsea, later moving to Seymour’s holding at Sudeley Castle. Katherine and Elizabeth were close, sharing a love of learning and religion but during this time rumours emerged involving Seymour and the fourteen year old Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Tudor

There were reports of him entering the girl’s bedchamber early in the morning to tickle and slap her. In some instances Katherine joined him, whether to protect her step daughter’s virtue or to aid and abet him is unclear. One has to look to the other aspects of Katherine’s character to judge her possible motive.

These unusual events have been variously depicted as innocent horseplay and sinister abuse. Whatever the truth of the matter is, there are no reports of undue outrage at the time. Ultimately, Elizabeth was sent away but her relationship with her step-mother remained strong and they corresponded regularly.  Katherine and Thomas remained at Sudeley, awaiting the birth of their first child. Katherine gave birth to a daughter, Mary, but died a short time later; sadly the records of her long-awaited daughter’s life fade out after just two years.

It is after the death of Katherine that Thomas seems to have become more ungovernable. He began an alleged campaign against his brother, trying to usurp the influence Somerset had over the boy king. He started to provide his nephew with pocket money, trying to win his favour by playing the popular fun loving uncle. At the same time he abused his position as Lord High Admiral by encouraging piracy, criticising his brother’s policies and, most outrageous of all, bribing the Vice treasurer of the Bristol Mint to finance an alleged coup against the Protectorship.

In 1548 he was called to appear before the Privy Council to explain his actions. To Thomas, it must have seemed that the world was against him. All he wanted was an audience with the king, to explain his behaviour and point out the error of Somerset’s ways. He wanted, once and for all, to put an end to his brother’s Protectorship. Thomas was convinced he would do a much better job. In the end he went so far as to hatch a desperate plot to gain access to Edward VI.

Edward VI

On the 16^th January 1549 Seymour, by way of the privy garden, broke into the royal apartments at Hampton Court. The story goes that as he crept into Edward’s bedchamber his favourite spaniel woke up and began to bark. Seymour, without thinking, silenced the yapping, snarling dog by drawing his pistol and shooting it dead. It was against all royal etiquette to draw one’s pistol in the presence of a king and the act, together with the death of the royal pet, sealed Thomas’ fate.

Thomas Seymour was sent to the Tower, accused of attempting to kidnap the king, and plotting to marry the King’s half-sister, Elizabeth and put her on the throne in Edward’s place. In all, thirty three separate counts of treason were brought against him and, with the murder of his pet probably uppermost in his mind, Edward had no hesitation in signing his Uncle Thomas’ death warrant.

He was executed on 20^th March 1549, dying bravely on the scaffold, leaving as his legacy a poem, which hint that his motives may have been more honourable than his actions.

“Forgetting God to love a king
Hath been my rod or else nothing:
In this frail life being a blast
of care and strife till in be past.
Yet God did call me in my pride
lest I should fall and from him slide
for whom loves he and not correct
that they may be of his elect.
The death haste thee thou shalt me gain
Immortally with him to reign
Who send the king like years as noye
In governing his realm in joy
And after this frail life such grace
As in his bliss he may have place.”
(Taken from Skidmore: Edward VI))

For all his faults and intemperate actions Seymour was popular with many of his contemporaries. There was unrest at his sentencing and Somerset was proclaimed ‘a bloodsucker and a ravening wolf.’ (Skidmore) Measures were taken to calm the situation, the most effective method proved to be the blackening of the Admiral’s character.

The council accused him as an atheist, a traitor, a lecher, and circulated rumours that he had encouraged rebellion, writing to Elizabeth and Mary urging them to rise up against the Protectorship. On the order of the council Hugh Latimer emphasised that Seymour was ‘a wicked man, and the realm is well rid of him.’

Katherine Parr

The ordinary people, however, seemed to hold a different view. Seymour was loved by many people, particularly the women. His love for Katherine Parr seems genuine; bowing out of the relationship to make way for King Henry and not hesitating to rekindle it once she was widowed. The stories about Elizabeth are the only stain against him, and then we are judging by 21^st rather than 16^th century standards. Better men than Thomas Seymour took mistresses and better men than him have been led astray by the charms of a young girl.

And as for Elizabeth? Maybe her love for Thomas was genuine. Perhaps it was her experience with Seymour and his subsequent death (that was so akin to her mother’s) that made her shun sexual relationships from that day on. David Starkey points out that ‘almost all of the men she subsequently loved, or pretended to love, resembled Seymour.’

Most of the detrimental stories of Thomas Seymour date from after his death. Like so many others executed in this period, his name has been blackened by those who survived him. Brother of a queen, uncle of a king, husband of a dowager queen, Seymour may have craved power in his own right but that is not a monstrous crime.

He was man who believed he could serve England better than his brother; a headstrong man who made unwise decisions; a man who dallied with a royal princess; a man who shot the king’s dog.

If Thomas had a flaw it was that he was driven by human failings. In the words of Sir Nicolas Throckmorton Thomas Seymour was, ‘… fierce in courage, courtly in fashion, in personage stately, in voice magnificent, but somewhat empty of matter.’

Not the most becoming epitaph but in my forthcoming novel, Intractable Heart, Thomas Seymour has a section of the narrative to himself; a chance to redress the balance and provide his own version of his extraordinary life.

Further reading

Susan James, Catherine Parr
Linda Porter, Katherine the Queen
Elizabeth Norton, Catherine Parr
David Starkey, Elizabeth
Anne Somerset, Elizabeth I
Alison Plowden, The Young Elizabeth
Chris Skidmore, Edward VI

For more information about me and my novels please visit my website.

Photographs from Wikimedia Commons.

The Kiss of the Concubine UK link

US link



The Winchester Goose UK link

US link



The Forest Dwellers UK Link

US link

The Song of Heledd UK link

US link

Peaceweaver UK link

US Link

Katheryn Parr – The not-so-boring sixth wife of Henry VIII.

by Judith Arnopp

The wives of Henry VIII sit neatly in their various pigeon holes. The old rhyme, Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived, sums up what many people believe to be the truth about each queen.

They have ceased to become complex, living, breathing people (yes, I know they aren’t breathing now) and no longer exist outside the applied modern-day stereotype.  They have each been summed up in three words.

Catherine of Aragon – stubborn, proud, barren.
Anne Boleyn – scheming, traitorous, unfaithful.
Jane Seymour – sweet -natured, soothing, mother.
Anne of Cleves – malodorous, simple, German.
Katherine Howard – unfaithful, foolish, child.
Katheryn Parr – gentle, nursemaid, step-mother.

Yet they were so much more than this. This blog could become a lengthy one, dismissing these assumptions and detailing the many virtues and accomplishments of each queen but, today, I want to concentrate on Henry’s last queen, Katheryn Parr.

Katheryn Parr

My novel The Kiss of the Concubine; a story of Anne Boleyn, has been very well received but when I mention that the subject of my next novel, Intractable Heart, is Katheryn Parr, people look a little sceptical. “Isn’t she a bit dull? You know; wasn’t she more a nursemaid than a queen?”

But, unless we are to judge a woman as boring because she manages to keep her head, Katheryn’s story is equally as compelling as that of Henry’s other queens. It may be less ‘bloody’ but I don’t think we can say it is less romantic, or less dramatic.

Katheryn was the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr, her first two marriages arranged by her ambitious mother, Maud. She lived through the northern rebellion and the siege of Snape Castle, war with France, and the reformation of the church, not to mention life with Henry.

While Anne Boleyn desired church ‘reform’, she remained what we would now call ‘Catholic’ to her death. Katheryn, on the other hand, was the first queen to properly embrace Protestantism. Katheryn ‘managed’ Henry better than any of his previous wives; she was credited by her contemporaries for her intellect, and was the first English queen to become a published author.

Henry VIII

Henry’s opinion of her was such that while he made war on the French, he appointed her Regent in his absence, an honour bestowed only on one other of his wives, Catherine of Aragon. As well as carrying out this role superbly, Katheryn also reunited the royal family, bringing all three of Henry’s legitimate children, Mary, Elizabeth and Edward, back to court. Furthermore, her influence can be detected in the character of her step daughter, who later became Queen Elizabeth I.

Elizabeth was at Katheryn’s side in 1544 during her role as regent and there can be little doubt as to the impact of the princess’s first experience with the challenges of female leadership. She witnessed first-hand her step-mother’s control of a male-dominated world, and the strategies the queen undertook to maintain her authority over the council.

Thomas Cranmer

Far from being simply a nursemaid to an elderly monarch, Katheryn Parr was both influential and respected. It was her strong influence over the king that ultimately placed her life in peril. Katheryn’s close proximity to Henry, together with her involvement in reform, won her enemies in high places. Traditionalists like Gardiner, Norfolk, and Wriothesley looked for ways to implicate her in crimes against the state. Katheryn, surrounded with scholars and theologians was the prime target for those against Lutheranism.

In 1546 Anne Askew was arrested, accused of heresy and acts against the Catholic Church. She was tortured and tormented before ultimately facing the penalty of death by burning. There is no proof that Katheryn and Anne had ever met and, fortunately, Anne died without betraying any of her friends. However, she did have links with Cranmer and Catherine Willoughby, who were also friends with Katheryn, and Gardiner lost no time in acting against the queen.

The  burning of Anne Askew for heresy

Katheryn’s influence with Henry and her interest in the new religion strengthened the reformist party. Gardiner had to stop this. He wanted a new queen, one who was conservative in her religious opinion. Given the choice, he would probably have selected a biddable, uneducated wife for Henry; one who would never dream of questioning either God’s law or that of the king.

Gardiner began to plot.

Stephen Gardiner

Toward the end of his life constant pain from his ulcerated leg made it impossible for the king to partake of many of his former pleasures. As a result Henry’s mood became ever more irascible. Katheryn began to talk to him of her beliefs, church reform and the errors she perceived in the traditional religion. Henry, who apart from the initial break with Rome, clung throughout his life to the Catholic religion, grew ever more cantankerous. Some say he resented his wife’s intelligence, her argumentative manner. Henry and Katheryn began to have disagreements and people believed that the king’s enchantment with Katheryn was beginning to wane.

Taking full advantage of the situation, Gardiner made his move. Using flattery and cunning, he slowly began to convince Henry that the queen was a heretic, her presence giving other heretics and traitors access to court. Eventually Henry agreed to issue a warrant for her arrest.

I want to pause here and consider what Henry may have been feeling at this time. He was no longer a young man. He was tired. He had spent all his adult life in pursuit of securing the succession and so far, had produced just one boy, and two useless girls. His sixth marriage had, up until now, been happy. He was probably just beginning to feel confident that at last he’d discovered a good woman; a faithful, staunch supporter, a helpmeet, someone he could trust.

Henry wasn’t a monster. He was a man with too much power trying to obtain the unobtainable, something that at least felt like love. He cannot have relished the idea of another failed marriage, another trial, another execution. He was getting old. The idea of searching out a replacement for Katheryn would not have been a welcome one, and surely by now, he can have held little faith left in finding a better wife. Unlike previous occasions, when he’d taken for the hills at the first hint of marital failure, this time Henry stayed at the palace, giving Katheryn and her friends time to act.

Some say it wasn’t by chance that the news of her imminent arrest fell into the hands of Katheryn’s friends. The queen was tipped off, giving her time to act and allowing Henry to apply the ultimate test of her fidelity. Perhaps the king never had any real intention of arresting her. Maybe it was a game he was playing; like a small bored boy with two beetles in a jar, setting the opposing sides against each other, for entertainment.

We can never really know but it is fun to speculate.

Anyway, on hearing the news, Katheryn fell into uncharacteristic (possibly feigned or exaggerated) hysterics that were so severe that her physicians were summoned. She made such a commotion that Henry, hearing her from in his adjoining apartments, went to investigate. When he enquired as to the cause of her upset, she fell at his feet declaring she feared she had displeased him when all she had meant to do was take his mind from his troubles.

She went on to ask, how could ‘a poor silly woman’ like herself ever think to council the erudite king on matters of theology or state. Katheryn claimed she only ever discussed religious matters with her husband so that she might learn and benefit from his superior mind. Henry, appeased as always by flattery, reassured her that he loved her as much as ever and that they were ‘perfect friends.’

Katheryn was a resourceful woman. It was no coincidence that she performed so competently during her regency. The episode of her attempted coup illustrates the clever strategy of a woman who had learned how to handle her man.

Next day in the palace gardens Wriothesley, with the warrant for Katheryn’s arrest tucked neatly beneath his arm, arrived with the guard to take the queen to the Tower. Imagine his frustration when Henry turned on him in fury, calling him a ‘Beast’, ‘a fool,’ and ‘a knave’ and sending him about his business. Astounded at the king’s change of heart, there was nothing Wriothesley could do but creep off with his tail between his legs.

Katheryn had won but only by the skin of her teeth. Thereafter, she kept her opinions to herself, suppressing her views and ceasing work on her half-written manuscript The Lamentations of a Sinner which was not published until after Henry’s death in January 1547.

Thomas Seymour

After the king’s death, having already made three political marriages, Katheryn at last married for love; this time selecting her former sweetheart, Sir Thomas Seymour. But this marriage was not as successful as her previous dealings with matrimony. Seymour was not a man to be easily managed. After a brief spell of apparent wedded bliss the relationship began to fail. Seymour is alleged to have been a rogue and hungry for power, carrying out a flirtation under Katheryn’s nose with her stepdaughter, the Lady Elizabeth.

We cannot help where we love and perhaps Katheryn found it harder to manage this husband because her heart was involved, making it impossible to remain objective. For many years she had dreamed of being Seymour’s ‘humble, true and loving wife’ but having gained all that she wished for, she died with a reproach on her lips in 1548, shortly after giving birth to Seymour’s daughter. She was just thirty-six years old.

Katheryn’s story is the subject of my next novel Intractable Heart. Told by four narrators, Margaret Neville, Katheryn Parr, Thomas Seymour and Elizabeth Tudor. The novel traces Katheryn’s path from her days as Lady Latimer during the northern uprising, through her role as Henry VIII’s queen. The narrative then follows her disastrous fourth and final marriage, and concludes at her death in 1548.

Images from Wikimedia commons

Further reading

James, Susan, Catherine Parr
Norton, Elizabeth, Catherine Parr

Hutchinson, Robert, The Last Days of Henry VIII
Weir, Alison Henry VIII, King and Court
Starkey David, Six Wives: the queens of Henry VIII
Withrow, Brandon, G. Katherine Parr
Porter, Linda, Katherine the Queen, the remarkable life of Katherine Parr

My other novels include:

The Kiss of the Concubine: A Story of Anne Boleyn

The Winchester Goose: at the court of Henry VIII

The Song of Heledd

The Forest Dwellers

Peaceweaver

All available in paperback or on Kindle.

For more information please visit my webpage: www.juditharnopp.com

Hey Henry! That’s no way to say ‘goodbye.’

by Judith Arnopp

Henry VIII

Although Henry VIII is famous for abandoning, beheading, divorcing his wives it seems he didn’t enjoy ‘goodbyes.’ Each one of his relationships ended suddenly, without discussion.  In most instances he simply crept out of the palace, mounted his horse and rode away. End of relationship. End of marriage.

His battle for a divorce from Katherine of Aragon, his wife of almost twenty years, was a long protracted affair, ending with Henry breaking his ties with the Pope and the excommunication of England from the Roman Church. By the time he finally lost patience and removed himself from the marriage, he was already committed to Anne Boleyn.

For months the king and his two ‘wives’ had lived in a sort of Ménage à trois with Katherine trailing in the wake of Henry and Anne. But in June 1531 Henry and Anne rode away from Hampton court, leaving the queen behind.

For a few weeks it seems the couple visited several hunting lodges with Anne playing the part of consort. It had long been Catherine’s habit to write to Henry every few days when they were apart, enquiring after his health but this time her letter also expressed her regret that he had not bid her farewell when he departed.

Catherine of Aragon

Henry’s response was pitiless, informing her he ‘cared not for her adieux.’ Catherine’s reply illustrates admirable restraint but Henry did not bother to answer; instead she received a letter from the Council which, for the first time failed to address her as ‘Queen.

A further order demanded that she remove herself to The More in Hertfordshire, and ordered the Princess Mary to go to Richmond. Henry was not only abandoning Catherine but also their daughter, who was never allowed to see her mother again.

Henry’s marriage to Anne was very different to his first. Whereas Catherine had the royal training to ignore her husband’s romantic indiscretions, Anne had no such qualms. This made marriage to Anne a roller coaster ride of arguments, fights and reconciliations. There are plenty of marriages like this, it is no indication that they were no longer in love.

Anne Boleyn

Since their life together was peppered with disputes, when Anne fell out of favour in May 1536 she had no reason to suspect that it was any more than another tiff. But, after signing the order for her arrest, Henry refused to see or communicate with Anne again.

It is tempting to wonder if things had been otherwise she might have managed to talk her way out of it, as Henry’s sixth wife, Katherine Parr, did in the final years of his reign.

Jane Seymour has always been described as the ‘one he loved best’ yet when she died after giving him a son, the only indication of his grief is that he did not remarry straight away. While Jane was on her deathbed he had the goodness to delay his planned departure to Esher by several days. Cromwell was told that, ‘If she amend (recover), he will go, and if she amend not, he told me this day, he could not find it in his heart to tarry.” (Starkey. P. 608)

Jane Seymour

In other words, his wife’s death did not interfere with the king’s itinerary. Jane died at 8pm on the same day this message was written. We do not know if Henry was with her.

I have always questioned Henry’s love for Jane. We tend to think that because he was still in love with her (or at least had not yet found a replacement) he must have felt more for her than the others. But, suppose she had survived, who is to say he would not have tired of her too and found an excuse to creep from her bed into the arms of another?

I think we are safe to assume Henry had no love for his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. From the moment he saw her, before the marriage had even taken place, Henry wanted an end to it. He raged to his councillors that she did not please him but, unable to free himself from the political ties of the union, he was trapped, like a caged lion. The wedding went ahead and the honeymoon night was a disaster.

All over London jousts and celebrations were under way but the king was far from happy. He had set his heart on another and was already sneaking out after dark to visit Catherine Howard at the home of Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester in Southwark.

Anne of Cleves

David Starkey in Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII says, ‘Anne herself probably understood little of the political storm which raged round her and of which she was the all-too passive cause. She was shrewd enough, however, to notice the King’s attentions to Catherine Howard, and, on 20th June, complained vigorously about them to the Cleves agent in London, Karl Harst. Two days later, she was in better spirits, because Henry had spoken to her kindly. It was the last time she saw him as her husband.”

Ordered to leave the court and take up residence at Richmond Palace, Anne did not learn of her fate until July when she was informed of the king’s decision to reconsider the marriage. Although she was often at court after the annulment, Anne never saw Henry again until the separation was legally finalised.

Catherine Howard, as we all know, was accused of adultery and treason. As sad as it is, the charges were probably just. The legend of the little queen running screaming for Henry along the corridors of Hampton court sound as if they are straight from the pages of fiction, and they probably are. But the image is a powerful one, indicative of her terror, her knowledge of what is about to come to pass. For Catherine, coming at the end of a long line of dispatched spouses, can have held little doubt as to her fate. But, if the story is true, it was a futile attempt to reason with the king for, before she was even aware that anything was wrong, Henry had already fled.

Katherine Howard

Hurt and humiliated, the king lost no time in making himself scarce. On the 5^th of November, on the pretext of hunting, he ‘dined in a little pleasure-house in one of the parks around Hampton Court. Then, under the cover of night, he left secretly for London.’ (Starkey, p. 671)

Catherine never saw him again.

Afterwards the Spanish ambassador described Henry as suffering ‘greater sorrow and regret at her loss than at the faults, loss of divorce of his preceding wives.’ (Starkey. P. 685) The picture of an aging broken king mourning the loss of his faithless child bride is touching but, it has to be said, his sorrow was more likely to have been of the self-pitying kind than remorse for Catherine.

Katherine Parr

Katherine Parr, Henry’s last queen, was a scholar and a reformer, publishing books and entering the male world of theological debate, just as Anne Boleyn had before her. This won the queen enemies, the conservative faction resenting her influence over the aging and increasingly disabled king.

Just as with several of her predecessors, moves were made to bring her down and the task promised not to be difficult. It is possible that Katherine was just too clever for the king’s liking, perhaps she bested him with her arguments, perhaps she reminded him just a little too much of Anne Boleyn. Whatever the reason, after several years of marriage, Henry came to resent her unfeminine attitude, providing her enemies with the opportunity they needed.

When Henry complained, in Gardiner’s presence, of the nature of the queen’s conversation Gardiner lost no time in convincing the king to agree to a coup against her. Her women and her books were to be seized and the queen arrested and sent to the Tower.

Luckily for Katherine, one of Henry’s physicians got wind of the plan and tipped her off. Katherine went straight to the king but had the sense not to remonstrate with him outright. Instead, when the subject turned to religion, she pretended ignorance, preferring to ‘defer my judgement in this, and all other cases, to our Majesty’s wisdom, as my only anchor Supreme Head and Governor her in earth, next under God.’ (Starkey. P.763)

When he looked doubtful as to her honesty, she went on to claim that she had only ever disputed with Henry to take his mind from his pain, and to try to learn from his own great wisdom. His ego salved and his faith in women restored, Henry and Katherine kissed and made up.

It must have been a triumphant moment for Katherine when Wriothesley arrived the next day to arrest her.  The king and queen were walking in the garden and when Wriothesley arrived with the guard, Henry furiously berated him, calling him a knave and a beast. Wriothesley fled the royal presence.

On this occasion Henry’s wife managed to escape the ultimate penalty for displeasing the king but, as Henry’s health began to deteriorate further, the couple spent more and more time apart.

Henry spent his last Christmas in London, while Katherine was at Greenwich. He died in January 1547, probably without saying ‘Goodbye.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Judith Arnopp is the author of historical fiction. Her books include:

   The Kiss of the Concubine

TheWinchester Goose: at the court of Henry VIII

The Song of Heledd

The Forest Dwellers

Peaceweaver

For more information about Judith’s books please visit her webpage.

 All available on kindle or in paperback

Further reading.

David Starkey, Six Wives: the queens of Henry VIII

Alison Weir, Henry VIII King and Court

Joanna Denny, Katherine Howard,

Eric Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn

David Loades, Henry VIII and his Queens