Katherine the Queen

This biography restores Katherine Parr to the centre of Tudor political and religious life. Twice widowed before marrying Henry VIII in 1543, Katherine had already survived the Pilgrimage of Grace, during which rebels held her household hostage. As queen, she created a stable royal family around Mary, Elizabeth and Edward, acted as regent while Henry campaigned in France and used print to express reformist religious ideas.

Porter follows Katherine through the danger created by conservative opponents who attempted to turn her theological interests into a charge of heresy. After Henry’s death, she married Thomas Seymour and established a household that included the young Elizabeth, but Seymour’s behaviour damaged both the marriage and Katherine’s standing. Her death after childbirth in 1548 ended a life in which queenship, authorship and step-motherhood influenced the generation that inherited the Tudor crown.