Born 1512   Married 1543   Died 1548

Catherine of Parr

Sixth wife.

For his sixth and last venture in matrimony, Henry was content to choose a rather different bride. Not for him this time a girl barely out of her teens, but a woman of 31 who had already been twice widowed. Catherine Parr was the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr of Kendall. She was well schooled in languages , Latin, Greek and French and became one of the select group of educated ladies at court who could discourse without embarrassment with the most foremost scholars that day. by the time of her second widow-hood lady Catherine had become well known and much admired in court circles for her learning and  accomplishment. she was also possessed of a sensitivity and sympathetic feeling which was exceptional in a court where tension between the rival religious groups and between the ambitious younger men and the established older men was becoming increasingly acute and the parties jostled and maneuvered for positions around the visibly ageing king. Henry's courtship with Catherine is not well documented. nearly 18 months elapsed between execution of Catherine Howard and the marriage of the king to Catherine Parr on 12 July 1543. When he married Catherine she became as much a nurse to him a a wife. She knew well how to humor him, how to ease his pain and soothe his spirits. Life with Henry in his declining years cannot have been easy, yet Catherine managed to bring to the intimate circle of the royal family a degree of harmony and mutual affection it had scarcely ever known before. the two princesses, Mary and Elizabeth, were reconciled to their father and encouraged in their studies . Young Edward's education was committed to the care of two scholars and even Anne of Cleves the king's "sister" was made to feel at home. Henry died in February 1547 . Catherine was free to marry ( in secret) her great love Thomas Seymour and gave birth to his child on 3 Augustus 1548. But, like her sister in law and predecessor as queen, Jane Seymour, she did not long survive birth.   She died on 7 September and was buried at the Seymour manor Sudeley.   

  The beautiful effigy of Catherine Parr.