Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr by Linda Porter Read Free Book Online Page A

philosophy and religion and the independence of thought that goes with regular study. In so doing, it produced a tension between the accepted wisdom that even educated women would never play more than a secondary and submissive role in life and the experience of the lives they in fact led. The Tudor queens, Mary and Elizabeth, are prime examples of this dichotomy. Katherine Parr felt it too, and from an early age. She had only to look at her mother to see that being female did not equate to weakness. And Katherine, like a number of other intelligent, well-born girls, does not seem to have been burdened by a feeling of inferiority.
    Outside the schoolroom, Katherine Parr developed other interests and enjoyed a variety of pastimes. She liked country pursuits (perhaps encouraged by her uncle) and was a keen rider and hunter. She collected coins, played chess and loved music and dancing. Hers was a comfortable and stimulating upbringing, bounded by strong bonds of family affection. Perhaps she had ambitions, or daydreams, of a much greater future. The story she told her mother that she was not interested in needlework because her hands were made for sceptres is almost certainly apocryphal. But as she left childhood behind, she would have known that her prospects were unlikely to be brilliant. She had no great fortune and no title. Only marriage could bring her those attributes.

    L ADY P ARR began the quest for a husband for Katherine when her daughter was eleven years old. If this seems startlingly young, it should be remembered that the process could take time and, even after the wedding ceremony itself, cohabitation often did not take place until both parties were about sixteen years old. In the recent past, Katherine’s female relatives had tended to marry much older men. This was a common-enough occurrence when death in childbirth was frequent and men found themselves widowers not just once, but often several times. It could also be the outcome of the underlying imperative to gain financial and social advancement through marriage wherever possible. Maud Parr knew that she did not have anything outstanding to offer a prospective son-in-law and that she would therefore be unlikely to find a match for Katherine in court circles. The most obvious solution was to find someone from among her extensive network of relatives. Here an opportunity presented itself in the spring of 1523, whether by chance or design we do not know, to take the matter forward.
    While the court was at Greenwich, and Maud evidently in attendance on the queen, she discussed Katherine’s future with Lord Dacre, Sir Thomas Parr’s first cousin. Dacre was a northernlord of influence and wealth who spent much of his life holding the borders of England against the Scots for successive kings far away in London. A Yorkist, like the Parrs and many other northerners, he accepted the Tudors and fought well for them, at Flodden and in continuing border skirmishes; but the relationship was always uneasy. His military prowess and local power was praised by the poet earl of Surrey, whose admiration was not easily won. In April 1523 Lord Dacre was at court but had to leave to deal with yet another threatened Scottish invasion. There must have been many calls on his time and patience, but somehow Maud Parr managed to get his attention before his departure to talk to him about finding a suitable candidate for the hand of her elder daughter. This says a great deal about Maud’s powers of persuasion and the ties of family. The outcome was that Dacre agreed to try to facilitate a marriage between his grandson, Henry Scrope, and Katherine Parr. He evidently responded with enthusiasm to the idea of a union that would strengthen family links in the north and, with his encouragement, negotiations began between Lady Parr and Lord Scrope of Bolton.
    They did not fare well. Dacre may have been a formidable soldier and scourge of the Scots, but his son-in-law resisted doing his