Firebrand: The True Story of Katherine Parr, Queen of England & Ireland

MsMojo

Hail to the queen. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re discussing the life of Catherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII.

Transcript

00:00In a rotten, blood-soaked island kingdom, there once was a queen by the name of Catherine Parr."

00:07Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today, we're discussing the life of Catherine Parr,

00:12the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII.

00:15"'I'm the survivor, Catherine Parr. I bet you wanna know how I got this far.'"

00:23Early life and learning. Catherine Parr was born in 1512,

00:27the eldest of Sir Thomas Parr and Maude Green's three surviving children.

00:31At the time of her birth, the Parr family had two homes,

00:34Kendal Castle in Westmoreland and a town home in the Blackfriars neighborhood of London.

00:39Both parents worked in Henry VIII's court.

00:41"'By the time of Catherine's birth, they were wealthy northern landowners

00:46and connected by marriage to some of the most prominent noble families in the north of England.'"

00:51Thomas held different positions, including master of the guards and comptroller to the king.

00:56Maude served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon,

00:59Catherine Parr's godmother, and likely namesake.

01:02"'She is, if you will permit me, Highness, she is much as you were.'"

01:07"'She will be a fine companion to the king of England.'"

01:10After Thomas Parr died in 1517, Maude didn't remarry.

01:14She gave her children a noble education.

01:16"'Maude Parr's household developed such a reputation for dedication to scholarship

01:22and learning that the parents of other noble and gentry families of her acquaintance

01:26often appealed to her to take in their children who needed to finish their educations.'"

01:32Catherine grew to love learning and became fluent in multiple languages,

01:35including French, Latin, and Italian.

01:38In 1529, Maude arranged for Catherine to marry Sir Edward Burrough,

01:42though he passed away in the spring of 1533.

01:46Earlier biographies have confused Catherine's first husband with his father,

01:50who was also named Edward.

01:52Thus, it has traditionally been supposed that Catherine's first marriage was to a much older man,

01:59which is not the case.

02:01Lady Latimer

02:02By the summer of 1534, Parr gained the title Lady Latimer when she married her second husband,

02:07John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer, who was also her father's second cousin.

02:11Catherine became only the second member of her family to marry into the English peerage,

02:16and there is evidence to suggest that they cared for one another and enjoyed a happy union."

02:22In October 1536, at the beginning of the Pilgrimage of Grace,

02:25Lord Latimer was forced to join the Catholic rebels in the revolt against the English Reformation.

02:30However, some believe he was a willing conspirator.

02:33During his absence, Catherine and her stepchildren had to survive on their own,

02:37and were briefly held hostage in Snape Castle, their North Yorkshire home.

02:42Around 1542, Catherine began spending more time with her brother and sister,

03:02William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, and Anne Parr, Countess of Pembroke.

03:07Neville died in 1543, leaving Catherine a wealthy widow and the guardian of stepdaughter Margaret.

03:13Catherine reacquainted herself with Lady Mary, Catherine of Aragon's daughter,

03:17and around February 1543, she was a regular among the household.

03:31At the time, she was romantically involved with Sir Thomas Seymour,

03:34brother of King Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour.

03:37However, once the King took notice of Catherine,

03:40she felt compelled to end her relationship with Sir Thomas and accept the King's marriage proposal.

03:53The Queen Who Survived

03:54Henry VIII and Catherine Parr married on July 12th, 1543,

03:58making her the first to become both the Queen of England and Ireland.

04:02She initiated the reconciliation between the King and his daughters,

04:05Mary and Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn.

04:07Parr helped Henry pass the Third Succession Act of 1543,

04:11which reinstated his daughters to the line of succession behind Edward,

04:14their half-brother who later became King Edward VI.

04:18In addition to being a caring stepmother,

04:32Catherine Parr was an accomplished author and scholar.

04:34On April 25th, 1544, she anonymously published her first book, Psalms or Prayers,

04:40an English translation of Bishop John Fisher's Latin work.

04:48Her second text, Prayers or Meditations, was published in June 1545 under her own name,

04:57the first British Queen to do so.

04:59She published her third book, Lamentation of a Sinner, in November 1547.

05:10From July to September 1544, Parr temporarily ruled as regent

05:14while King Henry VIII was away campaigning in France.

05:17She became known for being outspoken,

05:19and in 1546 Stephen Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester,

05:23and Lord Rothsley, the Lord Chancellor, suspected her of having radical Protestant views.

05:28But of course to be a Protestant in Henry VIII's England was to be a heretic

05:33and to be subject to prosecution by the church courts and possibly burning,

05:37which was a penalty for heresy.

05:39So the stakes were very, very high.

05:41The two officials tried to have her arrested for heresy,

05:44but Parr discovered the arrest warrant,

05:46and instead of further pushing her ideas for religious reform,

05:49she reaffirmed her devotion to Henry, effectively saving her own life.

05:54Religious reform was her life,

05:56but she knew she couldn't carry out that reform if she went to the executioner's block.

06:04So she hid her true beliefs and survived to fight another day.

06:08The Dowager Queen.

06:10After years of struggling with his health,

06:12Henry VIII died on January 28, 1547.

06:16Days later, the coronation of her stepson, Edward VI,

06:19was celebrated and she retired from the royal court.

06:22Already Catherine's thoughts had turned back to life before Henry.

06:27About four months after Henry's death,

06:30Parr rekindled her romance with Thomas Seymour, First Baron Seymour of Sudley.

06:34The two secretly married in May 1547,

06:37but when it finally became public knowledge,

06:39the union was a scandal, as expected.

06:41You cannot hold the royal jewels, now you are now no longer a royal.

06:46I can well believe semantics are your lifeblood, sir.

06:51Fetch the king's will, and we shall check the wording of the whole thing.

06:54See that it is being obeyed to the letter.

06:56Catherine became pregnant in 1548,

06:58around the same time her husband began an affair with Lady Elizabeth,

07:01his wife's stepdaughter.

07:03As a result, Elizabeth was sent away in May 1548,

07:06from their Chelsea home.

07:08The way the world thinks of you, what it says is precious.

07:13It can protect you or it can end you.

07:17Please, think of that next time.

07:21A month later, Catherine and Lady Jane Grey moved to Sudley Castle in Gloucestershire, England.

07:27Then on August 30th, she gave birth to her only child, a daughter, Mary Seymour.

07:31Perhaps no one will understand my marriage to you.

07:36I certainly don't.

07:38But I speak to you and you answer.

07:40As was common back then with childbirth,

07:42she suffered from a postpartum bacterial infection, or childbed fever,

07:46and died on September 5th.

07:48Her funeral was held two days later.

07:50A mask for Catherine Park.

07:53She was my friend once.

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08:11In the media.

08:12While she's been portrayed in series such as The Tudors and Becoming Elizabeth,

08:16Catherine Parr is seemingly the lesser known of Henry VIII's six wives.

08:20But the strong-willed, intelligent woman is at the center of Kareem Aynous' film Firebrand,

08:24starring Alicia Vikander in the lead role opposite Jude Law's Aileen King.

08:29Five wives who came before her all met untimely ends.

08:32But Catherine's fate was to change the kingdom forever.

08:36Based on Elizabeth Fremantle's Queen's Gambit,

08:38the historical drama follows the latter years of their tumultuous marriage.

08:42The film premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in May 2023,

08:46and is set to hit theaters on June 14th, 2024.

08:49I think we're both bound for it.

08:52I'm ready. Are you?

08:55Are you going to check out Firebrand?

08:56Let us know in the comments below.

08:59You have to go.

09:00We would have to have their head cut off.

09:02I'm sure you would come up with something much more creative.

09:04Sometimes we think you know us better than we know ourself.

09:09Do you agree with our picks?

09:10Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.

09:13And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.

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