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Historical person
born 1548
Mary Seymour was the only child of Catherine Parr and Thomas Seymour, born in August 1548. Her mother died soon after childbirth, and her father was executed for treason the following year. The orphaned infant was placed in the care of Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, who complained about the expense of maintaining her household.
Records then fall silent, and Mary probably died in early childhood, although no certain date or burial is known. Mary appears at the end of novels about Catherine Parr, including Elizabeth Fremantle’s Queen’s Gambit and Alison Weir’s Katharine Parr, The Sixth Wife. Her brief life gives a sombre conclusion to the ambitions and scandals surrounding her parents.
In Alison Weir’s The Queen’s Child, After Katharine Parr’s death, the infant Mary Seymour becomes a problem for relatives who lack the money or political will to support her. In Sandra Byrd’s The Secret Keeper, The story continues through Henry’s death, Katherine’s marriage to Thomas Seymour and the dangerous household that includes Princess Elizabeth.
Series
Tudor Ladies in Waiting presents the Tudor court through women who serve queens at moments of religious and dynastic crisis. Margaret Lee, the fictional Juliana St John and Helena Snakenborg provide close viewpoints on Anne Boleyn, Katherine Parr and Elizabeth I, linking public politics to friendship, household service…
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The Six Tudor Queens sequence retells the lives of Henry VIII’s wives through six full-length novels. Twelve companion stories shift attention to relatives, servants, artists and courtiers affected by the same events, while Six Tudor Queens: Writing a New Story explains the project’s historical method. In the Shadow…
All books in this series
