Catherine Parr

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Catherine Parr
Queen consort of England and Ireland
Tenure12 July 1543 – 28 January 1547
BornAugust 1512
Blackfriars, London, England
Died(1548-09-05)5 September 1548 (aged 35–36)
Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire, England
Burial
St Mary's Chapel, Sudeley Castle
SpouseSir Edward Burgh
(m. 1529–1533; his death)
John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer
(m. 1534–1543; his death)
Henry VIII of England
(m. 1543–47; his death)
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley
(m. 1547–48; her death)
IssueMary Seymour
FatherSir Thomas Parr
MotherMaud Green
SignatureCatherine Parr's signature

Catherine Parr (alternatively Katherine or Kateryn) (c. August 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and of Ireland (1543–47). She was the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII. She married him on 12 July 1543, and outlived him by one year. She was also the most-married English queen, with four husbands. She was also the first woman to be queen of both England and Ireland.

Catherine had a close relationship with Henry's three children. She personally helped teach school for Elizabeth and Edward, both of whom became English monarchs. She helped get the Third Succession Act in 1543 passed. This placed Mary I and Elizabeth I, back into the line of succession to the British throne.[1]

Henry died on 28 January 1547. Six months after Henry's death, she married her fourth and final husband, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley.

Catherine gave birth to her only child — a daughter, Mary Seymour. She was named after Catherine's stepdaughter Mary – on 30 August 1548. She died only six days later, on 5 September 1548, at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire, from what was probably childbed fever (sepsis). This was common at that time, because births did not happen in clean conditions.

Many years later, in 1782, the coffin of Queen Catherine was found in the ruins of the Sudeley Castle chapel.

References[change | change source]

  1. Jones, Phillippa (2010). Elizabeth: Virgin Queen. London, England: New Holland Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84773-515-7. Retrieved 8 October 2015.

Further reading[change | change source]

  • Martienssen, Anthony (1973). Queen Catherine Parr. London: Secker & Warburg.
  • Parr, Katherine (2011). Mueller, Janel (ed.). Katherine Parr: Complete Works and Correspondence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Norton, Elizabeth (2011). Catherine Parr. Chalford: Amberley.
  • Withrow, Brandon (2009). Katherine Parr: The Life and Thought of a Reformation Queen. Phillipsburg: P&R.