A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Catharine Parr
CATHARINE PARR,
Sixth and last wife of Henry the Eighth, was the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Parr, of Kendal, and was at an early age distinguished for her learning and good sense. She was first married to Edward Burghe, and secondly to John Neville, Lord Latimer; and after his death attracted the notice and admiration of Henry the Eighth, whose queen she became in 1543. Her zealous encouragement of the reformed religion excited the anger and jealousy of Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, the Chancellor Wriothesley, and others of the popish faction, who conspired to ruin her with the king. Taking advantage of one of his moments of irritation, they accused her of heresy and treason, and prevailed upon the king to sign a warrant for her committal to the Tower. This being accidentally discovered to her, she repaired to the king, who purposely turned the conversation to religious subjects, and began to sound her opinions. Aware of his purpose, she humbly replied, "that on such topics she always, as became her sex and station, referred herself to his majesty; as he, under God, was her only supreme head and governor here on earth." And so judiciously did she conduct herself on this occasion, that she obtained a restoration of the king's favour, which she kept until his death, when he left her a legacy of four thousand pounds, besides her jointure, "for her great love, obedience, chasteness of life, and wisdom." She afterwards espoused the Lord Admiral Sir Thomas Seymour, uncle to Edward the Sixth; but these nuptials proved unhappy. and involved her in troubles and difficulties. She died in childbed in 1548, not without suspicion of poison.
She was a zealous promoter of the Reformation, and with several other ladies of the court secretly patronized Anne Askew, who was tortured, but in vain, to discover the names of court Mends. With the view of putting the Scriptures into the hands of the people, Catharine employed persons of learning to translate into English the paraphrase of Erasmus on the New Testament, and engaged the Lady Mary, afterwards queen, to translate the paraphrase on St. John, and wrote a Latin epistle to her on the subject. Among her papers after her death was found a composition, entitled "Queen Catharine Parr's Lamentations of a Sinner, bewailing the ignorance of her blind Life," and was a contrite meditation on the years she had passed in popish fasts and pilgrimages. It was published with a preface by the great Lord Burleigh, in 1548. In her lifetime she published a volume of "Prayers or Meditations, wherein the mind is stirred patiently to suffer all afflictions, and to set at nought the vaine prosperitie of this worlde, and also to long for the everlasting felicitee." Many of her letters have been printed.