Catherine Parr

Catherine Parr 1512-48, sixth queen consort of Henry VIII of England. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr, an officeholder at the court, and had been twice widowed before Henry made her his wife in 1543. She exerted a beneficent influence over the aging king, interceding in behalf of Henry's daughters, Mary and Elizabeth (whom she helped to educate), and served for a time as queen regent (1544). At one point Catherine's Protestant sympathies placed her in danger, but she lived to become queen dowager and to wield considerable power at the start of the reign of Henry's son, Edward VI. She married (1547) Baron Seymour of Sudeley but died in childbirth the next year.

Bibliography: See biography by A. Martienssen (1974).

Catherine Parr (1512–48), 6th queen of Henry VIII. Daughter of Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal, Catherine was well educated with protestant sympathies. She was 31 and had been twice married when she attracted Henry's attention. The marriage was performed at Hampton Court on 12 July 1543. She provided something of a home for the royal family, and interested herself in Mary and Elizabeth. On Henry's death in 1547 she married the ambitious Thomas Seymour, a former admirer, and promoted Baron Seymour of Sudeley. She died on 7 September 1548 shortly after the birth of a daughter.