KATHARINE PARR,

SIXTH QUEEN OF HENRY VIII.

CHAPTER I.

Katharine Parr the first Protestant queen of England-Her ancestry-Royal descent-Relationship to Henry VIII-Her parents-Her birth at Kendal Castle Death of sir Thomas Parr, her father-His will-Prudent conduct of lady Parr-Katharine's learned education-Her royal destiny predicted-Her dislike of needlework-Sought in marriage for the heir of lord Scroop-Her mother's letters-The treaty broken off-Katharine weds lord Borough-His family-Katharine a widow at fifteen-Her residence at Sizergh Castle with lady Strickland-The queen's chamber at Sizergh-Description of Katharine Parr's embroidery at Sizergh—She marries lord Latimer—Her rich dower— Her husband joins the pilgrimage of Grace-His peril-Katharine's influence with the king-She intercedes for her aunt's husband-Cromwell's disgrace attributable to Katharine Parr-Death of lord Latimer-Katharine a second time a widow-She embraces the reformed faith-Religious assemblies at her house-Courted by sir Thomas Seymour-Her attachment to Seymour-Compelled to relinquish him for the king-Her reluctance to the royal marriageCranmer's license for king Henry's nuptials with Katharine Parr-She is married to the king at Hampton Court-Her attentions to her royal step-children-Presents to the princess Mary-Her friendship with Mary-Fondness of prince Edward for queen Katharine-His letters to her-Description of her queenly dress-Her miniature at Strawberry Hill-Her devotional writings-Henry's hopes of offspring by Katharine Parr-His regard for her-She is appointed queen-regent of England-Her autograph-Her government in king Henry's absence-Her order in council-Return of the king-Painting of the royal family group at Hampton Court.

KATHARINE PARR was the first Protestant queen of England. She was the only one among the consorts of Henry VIII., who, in the sincerity of an honest heart, embraced the doctrine of the Reformation, and imperilled her crown and life in support of her principles. The name of Katharine, which, from its Greek derivation, Katharos, signifies pure as a limpid stream, seems peculiarly suited to the characteristics of this illustrious lady; in whom we behold the protectress of Coverdale, the friend of Anne Askew, the learned and virtuous matron who directed the studies of lady Jane Gray, Edward VI., and queen Elizabeth, and who may, with truth, be called the nursing mother of the Reformation. Katharine Parr was not only queen of England, but an English queen. Although of ancient and even royal descent, she claimed, by birth, no other rank than that of a private gentlewoman. Like Anne Boleyn and

Jane Seymour, Katharine Parr was only the daughter of a knight; but her father, sir Thomas Parr, was of a more distinguished ancestry than either sir Thomas Boleyn or sir John Seymour. From the marriage of his Norman progenitor, Ivo de Tallebois, with Lucy, the sister of the renowned earls Morcar and Edwin, sir Thomas Parr inherited the blood of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Ivo de Tallebois was the first baron of Kendal, and maintained the state of a petty sovereign in the north. His male line failing with William de Lancaster, the seventh in descent, the honour and estates of that mighty family passed to his sisters Helwise and Alice. Margaret, the elder coheiress of Helwise, by Peter le Brus, married the younger son of Robert lord Roos, of Hamlake and Werks, by Isabel, daughter of Alexander II., king of Scotland. Their grandson, sir Thomas de Roos, married Katharine, the daughter of sir Thomas Strickland, of Sizergh Castle, Westmoreland. The fruit of this union was an only daughter, Elizabeth, who brought Kendal Castle and a rich inheritance into queen Katharine's paternal house, by her marriage with sir William de Parr, knight. Sir William Parr, the grandson of this pair, was made knight of the Garter, and married Elizabeth, one of the coheiresses of the lord Fitzhugh, by Alice, daughter of Ralph Neville, earl of Westmoreland, and Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. Alice Neville was sister to the king's great grandmother, Cicely Neville, duchess of York; and, through this connexion, Katharine Parr was fourth cousin to Henry VIII.'

From the elder coheiress of Fitzhugh, the patrimony of the Marmions, the ancient champions of England, was transmitted to sir Thomas Parr, father of queen Katharine. Her mother, Matilda, or, as she was com monly called, Maud Green, was daughter and coheiress of sir Thomas Green, of Boughton and Green's Norton, in the county of Northamptonshire. This lady was a descendant of the distinguished families of Talbot and Throckmorton. Her sister, Anne, wedded sir Nicolas Vaux, afterwards created lord Vaux of Harrowden; and, dying childless, the whole of the rich inheritance of the Greens of Boughton centred in Matilda. At the age of thirteen, Matilda became the wife of sir Thomas Parr. This marriage took place in the year 1508. The date generally assigned for the birth of Katharine Parr is 1510; but the correspondence between her mother and lord Dacre, in the fifteenth year of Henry VIII, in which her age is specified to be under twelve, will prove that she could not have been born till 1513. Her father, sir Thomas Parr, at that time held high offices at court, being master of the wards and comptroller of the household to Henry VIII. As a token of royal favour, we find that the king presented him with a rich gold chain, value £140-a very large sum in those days.* Both sir Thomas and his lady were frequent residents in the court; but the child who was destined hereafter to share the throne of their royal master, first saw the light at Kendal Castle, in Westmoreland, the time-honoured fortress which had

1 Dugdale.

Baker's Northamptonshire, corrected from Dugdale. 'Hopkinson's MSS. Whittaker's Richmondshire.

See sir Thomas Parr's will in Testamenta Vetusta.

been the hereditary seat of her ancestors from the days of its Norman founder, Ivo de Tallebois.

A crumbling relic of this stronghold of feudal greatness is still in ex istence, rising like a grey crown over the green hills of Kendal. It is situated on a lofty eminence, which commands a panoramic view of the town, and the picturesque and ever-verdant vale of the Kent, that clear and rapid stream, which, night and day, sings an unwearied song, as it rushes over its rocky bed at the foot of the castle-hill. The circular tower of the castle is the most considerable portion of the ruins; but there is a large enclosure of ivy-mantled walls remaining, with a few broken arches. These are now crowned with wild flowers, whose peaceful blossoms wave unnoted, where the red cross banner of St. George once flaunted, on tower and parapet of the sternly guarded fortress that, for centuries, was regarded as the most important defence of the town of Kendal and the adjacent country.

The warlike progenitors of Katharine had stern duties to perform, at the period when the kings of Scotland held Cumberland of the English crown, and were perpetually harassing the northern counties with predatory expeditions. Before the auspicious era when the realms of England and Scotland were united under one sovereign, the lord of Kendal Castle, like his feudal neighbour of Sizergh, was compelled to furnish a numerous quota of men-at-arms, for the service of the crown, and the protection of the border. The contingent consisted of horse and foot, and above all, of those bowmen, so renowned in border history and song, the Kendal archers. They are especially noted by the metrical chronicler of the battle of Flodden

"These are the bows of Kentdale bold,
Who fierce will fight and never flee."

Dame Maud Parr evinced a courageous disposition, in venturing to choose Kendal Castle for the place of her accouchement, at a time when the northern counties were menaced with an invasion from the puissance and flower of Scotland, headed by their king in person. Sir Thomas Parr was, however, compelled to be on duty there, with his warlike meinè, in readiness either to attend the summons of the lord warden of the marches, or to hold the fortress for the defence of the town and neighbourhood; and his lady, instead of remaining in the metropolis, or seeking a safer abiding-place at Green's Norton, her own patrimonial domain, decided on sharing her husband's perils in the north, and there gave birth to Katharine. They had two other children, William, their son and heir, afterwards created earl of Essex and marquis of Northampton, and Anne, the wife of William Herbert, the natural son of the earl of Pembroke, to which dignity he was himself raised by Edward VI Sir Thomas Parr died in the year 1517, leaving his three infant children to the guardianship of his faithful widow, who is said to have been a lady of great prudence and wisdom, with a discreet care for the main chance.

The will of sir Thomas Parr is dated November 7th, the 9th of Henry VIII. He bequeathed his body to be interred in Blackfriar's church.

London. All his manors, lands, and tenements, he gave to his wife, dame Maud, during her life. He willed his daughters, Katharine and Anne, to have eight hundred pounds between them, as marriage-portions, except they proved to be his heirs or his son's heirs, in which case that sum was to be laid out in copes and vestments, and given to the monks of Clairveaux, with a hundred pounds bestowed on the chantry of Kendal. He willed his son William "to have his great chain, worth one hundred and forty pounds, which the king's grace gave him." He made Maud, his wife, and Dr. Tunstall, Master of the Rolls, his executors.

Four hundred pounds, Katharine's moiety of the sum provided by her father for the nuptial portions of herself and her sister, would be scarcely equal to two thousand pounds in these days, and seems but an inadequate dowry for the daughters of parents so richly endowed with the gifts of fortune as sir Thomas and lady Parr. It was, however, all that was accorded to her who was hereafter to contract matrimony with the sovereign of the realm.

Sir Thomas Parr died in London, on the 11th of November, four days after the date of his will, in the parish of the Blackfriars, and there can be no doubt but he was interred in that church, according to his own request; yet, as lately as the year 1628, there is record of a tomb, bearing his effigies, name, and arms, in the chapel or family buryingplace of the Parrs,' in the south choir of Kendal church.

It has been generally said, that Katharine Parr received a learned education from her father; but as she was only in her fifth year when he died, it must have been to the maternal wisdom of lady Parr that she was indebted, for those mental acquirements which so eminently fitted her to adorn the exalted station to which she was afterwards raised. Katharine was gifted by nature with fine talents, and these were improved by the advantages of careful cultivation. She both read and wrote Latin with facility, possessed some knowledge of Greek, and was well versed in modern languages. How perfect a mistress she was of her own, the elegance and beauty of her devotional writings are a standing monument.

"I have met with a passage concerning this queen," says Strype, "in the margin of Bale's Centuries, in possession of a late friend of mine, Dr. Sampson, which showed the greatness of her mind and the quickness

This monument is thus described in Dr. Whittaker's History of Richmondshire:-"On a tomb a man in armour kneeling, on his breast two bars argent, within a bordure sable, for Parr, on his wife's breast quartering Greene and Mapleloft, and about it was written, Pray for the soul of Thomas Parr, knight, squire of the king's body, Henry 8th, master of his wards, who deceased the 11th day of Nov., in the 9th year of our said sovereign lord, at London, . . . . in the Fryers, as his tomb doth record.' In the window over this tomb was em blazoned the arms of Katharine's ancestor, sir William Parr, who married the heiress of Roos. The large black marble tomb still remaining in the Parr chapel is supposed to cover the remains of her grandfather, sir William Parr, K. G., for it bears the paternal shield of Parr, quartered with Roos, Brus, and Fitzhugh, encircled with the garter. The ladies whose arms are engraven on this monument were all heiresses; therefore the property accumulated by these marriages a the family of Parr must have been considerable."