Friday 4 March 2011

Defending Katherine Parr

Above: British actress Joely Richardson as Katherine Parr in Series 4 of The Tudors.

Concluding her excellent series on the reputations of Henry VIII's six wives, Claire Ridgway mounts a rousing defence of his final queen, Katherine Parr (1512 - 1548.)

"In the final part of our Six Wives’ Stereotypes series we look at a wife who I would say has been more ignored and misrepresented than maligned. When I did a project on Henry VIII and his six wives when I was 11, I thought that Catherine Parr was nothing but a glorified nursemaid, a nurse with a crown and jewels as a perk. I imagined her tending the obese, bad-tempered and ill King, mopping his brow and whispering soothing words of comfort to him. A woman who made his last years more comfortable and who humoured him. How wrong I was. Just last weekend I was watching “The Tudors” and there was Queen Catherine Parr applying a poultice to Henry’s leg ulcer, although I am pleased to say that they have also made Henry’s sixth wife glamorous and intelligent so I might let them off!"


For Katherine Parr's position as the first English Queen of Ireland, click here.


For an account of her death, click here.

2 comments:

  1. I'm really enjoying Claire's posts. Thanks for pointing the way, Gareth.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sometime ago i realized that are few articles of Tudors and Anne Boleyn in portuguese, so i created an blog where i am translating various articles, in the most time of english. I was very glad to find your site, and and i want very much translate your articles. The credits will go to your site, of course.

    Sorry to send the bad english.

    ReplyDelete

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