Parr, Catherine (1512-1548), was the sixth and last wife of King Henry VIII of England. Catherine proved to be a good companion to the aging king and to his children from earlier marriages. She was well educated and a supporter of religious and educational reform.
Catherine (also spelled Katherine) Parr was born in 1512 in or near London. Her father died in 1517, and her mother became dedicated to raising and educating the couple’s young children. A marriage was arranged for Catherine in 1529, but her husband died in 1533. In 1534, she married John Neville, Lord Latimer, who died in the spring of 1543.
Catherine became interested romantically in Thomas Seymour, the brother of Henry VIII’s third wife, Jane Seymour. However, she decided it was her duty to accept the king’s proposal of marriage, and she married Henry on July 12, 1543. Catherine acted as both a companion and a nurse to Henry, who was aging and in increasingly poor health. She developed good relations with Henry’s three children— Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward—and concerned herself with their education. She served as regent (temporary ruler) when Henry was with his army in France during the summer of 1544.
Catherine supported the Protestant reform movement. In 1545, she published her first book, Prayers or Meditations. Her Protestant sympathies led some conservative members of the court to conspire against her in 1546, but she appealed to Henry and he protected her.
Henry died in January 1547. His son became King Edward VI. Catherine married Thomas Seymour in May. She published another book the following November. On Sept. 5, 1548, Catherine died of complications from the birth of her first and only child, a daughter.
