5 SEPTEMBER 1548
Death of Katherine Parr, sixth consort of Henry VIII. She was born in August (probably) 1512.
Her first husband was Edward Borough, whom she married about May 1529. Edward died shortly before April 1533, and she married John Neville, third Baron Latimer, in the summer of 1534. John died on 2 March 1543 and she was married to Henry VIII just four months later on 12 July 1543. She also survived Henry, who died on 28 January 1547. In May 1547, she secretly married for a fourth time, Sir Thomas Seymour, in whom she had already been interested before attracting Henry’s attention. She gave birth to a daughter, Mary, on 30 August 1548, but died a few days later of puerperal fever.
Katherine was an influential patron of religious and educational reform, the arts in the fields of drama, miniature painting, and music. She was the first known Englishwoman to publish a work of prose in the sixteenth century, and advocated the publication of affordable vernacular religious writings. Politically she contributed to the re-establishment of her stepdaughters Mary and Elizabeth in the line of succession.
Source: ODNB: Susan E. James, ‘Katherine [Katherine Parr] (1512–1548)’, accessed: 5 September 2013
Tags: Henry VIII
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