King Henry VIII & Catherine Parr

Sunday School Teacher

In the early 1540s Henry VIII seemed to have finally realized that marriage was not working out for him. By then he had married five wives, beheading two. Wife number three, Jane Seymour, had given him the son he desperately wanted, so marriage was no longer a matter of dynastic necessity. His one try at a conventional royal marriage, with Anne of Cleves for the sake of an alliance, had been a fiasco; she just didn't appeal to him. Henry needed allies in the early 1540s, but no ally was worth an unattractive wife.

Henry's most recent marital adventure, with sexy teenager Catherine Howard in 1540, was the worst of all: Within months of the wedding she was caught running around on him. Henry had her beheaded, of course, and nothing could restore his zest for romance. As he entered his fifties, dancing and courtly flirtation no longer seemed to hold pleasure for him.

Yet in 1543 he was falling in love again. The object of his desires was a woman of thirty-one, already twice widowed, named Catherine Parr. For once Henry made a rather sensible choice. This Catherine, unlike his last one, was not a teenage vamp. She was devoutly religious but also intelligent and well-educated; she was someone Henry could talk to. (Though anything but a feminist, he clearly regarded intelligence and wit as part of a woman's charm.) Because she had been married to two much older men already, she would also know how to play nursemaid to a man who at 52 was grossly overweight and in failing health.

Catherine Parr was not thrilled by the royal courtship. Having married twice for family obligation, she was ready this time to marry for herself. She was in love with Sir Thomas Seymour, brother of Henry's third wife Jane, and her interest was reciprocated. As a dutiful and loyal subject, however, Catherine answered the royal call and married Henry in 1543. She really didn't have much choice.

Being married to Henry VIII was a risky occupation, and after some time, Catherine found herself in trouble with him. She was a Protestant. Henry, though he launched the English Reformation, was not. His only problem with the Catholic Church had been the Pope's refusal to grant him a divorce. Once he broke from Rome, however, not even Henry VIII could stop the spread of Protestant ideas, and his court ended up divided into pro-Protestant and pro-Catholic factions.

Women Who Think Too Much

Theology and politics are an explosive mix, and in Henry VIII's court a spark of sex could set them off. From Anne Boleyn on, the rise and fall of Henry's wives was entangled with court politics and the Reformation struggle. Catherine Howard's affairs had been exposed by Protestant sympathizers eager to bring down the pro-Catholic Howards. Now the Catholic faction intended to repay the favor by bringing down Protestant Catherine Parr.

Her enemies got their chance in 1546. Catherine Parr was not simply well-educated, she was a genuine intellectual. A few years later she published a book, a very rare thing for a woman to do at the time, called Lamentations of a Sinner.

Henry and Catherine had been talking religion one afternoon. Henry liked sharp women, but he expected them to use their intelligence to tell him why he was right. Catherine got a bit too enthusiastic in promoting her own views. Henry blew up, furiously accusing her of presuming to be his "doctor" (meaning advanced instructor, as in PhD).

Shortly after this spat, a court official dropped a slip of paper and one of Catherine's servants scooped it up. It turned out to be a warrant for her arrest. Catherine had to use her head or lose it. She immediately went to Henry and apologized for speaking up. Her only intent in talking religion with him, she said, was to help take his mind off his sore leg. She had never meant to get uppity about it.

This satisfied Henry. "Why then, Kate," he said, "we are perfect friends again!" No sooner was domestic bliss thus restored than officials and guards burst in to arrest Catherine and dispatch her to the Tower. Henry's glare was enough to tell them that royal policy had changed: They should be concerned for their own necks, not the queen's.

Catherine Parr had dodged the ax. A year later Henry was dead. And within another year, Catherine Parr published her book and also jumped into her fourth marriage, to her beloved Sir Thomas Seymour.