The household of Queen Katherine Parr

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.