Hamilton, Dakotahttp://hdl.handle.net/2148/8532024-03-28T21:30:44Z2024-03-28T21:30:44ZThe household of Queen Katherine ParrHamilton, Dakota L.http://hdl.handle.net/2148/8632020-06-25T18:23:46Z1992-01-01T00:00:00ZThe household of Queen Katherine Parr
Hamilton, Dakota L.
This thesis is concerned primarily with determining
the nature and degree of influence that Katherine Parr
and the women of her household exercised over politics and religion in the last years of Henry VIII's reign.
Katherine Parr's household, which was loosely modeled on that of the king's, was staffed with women who had
marital and other family ties to men in the king's household and government. These important family
relationships are examined in chapter one, parts I and
II. The considerable material benefits which came to
Katherine Parr and the members of her family after her
marriage to the king are explored in chapter two.
Katherine Parr and her women actively promoted the
interests of their family, friends, and dependents, and
cultivated the good will of potentially influential
members of court. Yet despite the ambitions of the
queen's women, and despite the king's confidence in
Katherine Parr, as evidenced in his appointment of her as regent, neither the queen nor her women exercised much
political influence. A full examination of this whole issue forms chapter three. Katherine Parr and her women may have been excluded from direct political power, but their religious activities nevertheless made them political figures. These religious activities are
discussed in chapter four, part I. Part II concerns the patronage, and in two instances, authorship, of religious
literature by the queen and her circle. Chapter five
looks at Anne Askew and the two plots against Katherine
Parr and a select number of her women in 1546. The
conclusion emphasizes the point that Katherine Parr is an
important historical figure not simply because she was Henry VIII's last wife, but because her experiences
better highlight the circumstances of aristocratic women at the Tudor court.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Oxford, 1992
1992-01-01T00:00:00Z