Catherine Parr

Who was Catherine Parr?

Catherine Parr was Queen of England from 1543 until 1547, as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII. She married him on 12 July 1543, and outlived him. She was also the most-married English queen, with four husbands, and the first English queen to be titled "Queen of Ireland".

Catherine enjoyed a close relationship with Henry's three children and was personally involved in the education of Elizabeth and Edward, both of whom became English monarchs. She was influential in Henry's passing of the Third Succession Act in 1543 that restored both his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, to the line of succession to the throne.

Catherine was appointed Regent from July to September 1544 while Henry was on a military campaign in France and in case he lost his life, she was to rule as Regent until Edward came of age. However he did not give her any function in government in his will. In 1544, she published her first book, Psalms or Prayers, anonymously. On account of Catherine's Protestant sympathies, she provoked the enmity of powerful Catholic officials who sought to turn the King against her—a warrant for her arrest was drawn up in 1546. However, she and the King soon reconciled. Her book Prayers or Meditations became the first book published by an English queen under her own name. She assumed the role of Elizabeth's guardian following the King's death, and published a third book, The Lamentations of a Sinner.