PARR, Catharine, queen of England, was the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal. She was first married to John Nevil, Lord Latimer, and after his death was, by her marriage with Henry VIII., raised to the throne. The royal nuptials were solemnized at Hampton Court on the 12th of July 1543. This lady, being religiously disposed, was, in the early part of her life, a zealous observer of the rites and ceremonies of the Catholic Church; but on the dawning of the Reformation, she became as zealous a promoter of the Lutheran doctrine, though with all the prudence and circumspection which her perilous situation required. Nevertheless, it is alleged that she was in great danger of falling a sacrifice to the popish faction, the chief of which was Bishop Gardiner, who is said to have drawn up articles against her, and prevailed on the king to sign a warrant to remove her to the Tower. This warrant, however, was accidentally dropped, and immediately conveyed to her majesty. What her apprehensions must have been on making such a discovery may be easily imagined. Knowing the character of the monarch, and recollecting the fate of his former queens, she was seized with a sudden illness. The news of her indisposition brought the king to her apartment. He was lavish in expressions of affection, and sent her a physician. His majesty also being soon afterwards indisposed, she prudently returned the visit. With this the king seemed pleased, and began to talk with her on religious subjects, proposing certain questions, concerning which he wanted her opinion. She answered, that such profound speculations were not suited to her sex; that it belonged to the husband to choose principles for his wife; that the wife’s duty was, in all cases, to adopt implicitly the sentiments of her husband; and that as to herself, it was doubly her duty, being blessed with a husband who was qualified, by his judgment and learning, not only to choose principles for his own family, but for the most wise and knowing of every nation. “Not so, by St Mary,” replied the king; “you are now become a doctor, Kate, and better fitted to give than receive instruction.” She meekly replied, that she was sensible how little she was entitled to these praises; that although she usually declined not any conversation, however sublime, when proposed by his majesty, she well knew that her conceptions could not serve any other purpose than to give him a little momentary amusement; that she found the conversation a little apt to languish when not revived by some opposition, and she had ventured sometimes to feign a contrariety of sentiments, in order to give him the pleasure of refuting her; and that she also proposed, by this innocent artifice, to engage him into topics, whence she had observed, by frequent experience, that she reaped profit and instruction. “And is it so, sweetheart ?” replied the king; “then we are perfect friends again.” He embraced her with great affection, and sent lier away with assurances of his protection and kindness.

The time being now come when she was to be sent to the Tower, the king, walking in the garden, sent for the queen, and met her with great good humour; when the chancellor, with forty of the guards, approached. He fell upon his knees, and spoke softly with the king, who called him knave, arrant knave, beast, fool, and commanded him instantly to depart. Henry then returned to the queen, who ventured to intercede for the chancellor: “Ah, poor soul,” said the king, “thou little knowest how ill he deserveth this grace at thy hands. Of my word, sweetheart, he has been toward thee an arrant knave; and so let him go.” The king died in January 1547, just three years and a half after his marriage with this second Catharine, who, in a short time, was again espoused to Sir Thomas Seymour, lord-admiral of England; and in September 1548 she died in childbed. The historians of this period generally insinuate that she was poisoned by her husband, to make way for his marriage with the lady Elizabeth.

Catharine Parr wrote, 1. Queen Catharine Parr’s Lamentation of a Sinner, bewailing the ignorance of her blind life, London, 1548, 1563, in 8vo; 2. Prayers or Meditations, wherein the mind is stirred patiently to suffer all afflictions here, to set at nought the vain prosperity of this world, and always to long for the everlasting felicity, printed by John Wayland, 1545, 4to, reprinted 1561, 12mo.