Two Queens: Two Great women.
Katherine of Aragon -first Queen Consort of Henry VIII and mother to England’s first Queen Regnant. Katherine Parr, last Queen Consort and first Queen of Ireland who largely influenced England’s most famous Queen, Glorianna.
Both of these women have gone down in history as old, prude, ugly, stubborn (in KOA’s case) and zealous, nursemaid (in KP’s case). But they were more than that and two great biographers, in their respective biographies of her, explore these myths. Porter lays out Katherine Parr’s great lineage. Out of all of Henry’s English wives, she was the one with more royal blood and her family was well connected. Her mother, lady Maud Parr nee Green served under Queen Katherine as a lady in waiting, and Katherine Parr as her brother (William) received a great education in astronomy, mathematics, languages and in herbal medicine. David Starkey suggests that Katherine Parr did not become interested in Protestantism until she became Henry’s Queen and she began to form a friendship with Thomas Cranmer. This sounds about right, but it is not entirely true Katherine likely became interested in Protestantism earlier, during her second husband’s (Lord Latimer) days. By the time she became Henry’s Queen, she was well rooted in the many currents of Protestantism and did her best to promote it and her court became a refuge for like-minded thinkers. After she became a royal widow, she published her second and last book “Lamentations of a Sinner” which greatly influenced the English reformation.
Katherine Parr was a strong influence on her youngest royal stepchildren, Edward and Elizabeth. Through her, Elizabeth learned about queenship, and the power a woman could wield in a man’s world.
Katherine of Aragon on the other hand was of the opposite band but no less smarter. As it’s stated, Katherine Parr’s mother served under her, and the Parrs stayed loyal to the old Queen during her husband’s marriage to Anne Boleyn. This was never forgotten by her daughter, Mary Tudor, who formed a strong friendship with Katherine Parr. Katherine of Aragon in her prime was beautiful. The epitome of beauty, she emulated all the virtues that were acceptable for women to emulate. Red hair, blue eyes and fair skin. She and Henry were equals during the first years of their marriage. As Fox and Mattingly (and recently Licence) put it, both the King and Queen were a power couple every other royal couple could envy. Thomas More praised the Queen more than she did the new King and his praise was not too overrated since Katherine wasn’t just any royal bride. She was the daughter of two of the most powerful people in Christendom, Isabella and Ferdinand of Castile and Aragon. Her mother had died in 1504 and that had left her in a precarious position as her father in law no longer saw her as a desirable bride for his remaining son, Henry, and eh started to look elsewhere. During this time she became her father’s ambassador and that helped her position, for a while. She had to rely on her wits and her ambition. Getting closer to Henry, convincing him through indirect means (through her smile, their friendship, listening to his complaints, showing herself more affable than his father) that she was the only bride for him. And it worked. When all hope was lost and everyone wanted Henry to take another bride, the new King claimed he would not because his father had told him to honor his promise to marry the Spanish Infanta. This sounds romantic but it is untrue; many historians believe that the old King did not want his son to marry his brother’s widow and in fact he was leaning more to a Habsburg marriage or even a French one. Henry however, like his grandfather Edward IV, showed himself the chivalric hero ‘rescuing’ his fair maiden. As we have seen, Katherine was no fair maiden, she was no victim, and she was no passive bystander. She knew how to play the political game. She had been trained for it. She had seen her parents in their greatest moments. Katherine and her sisters enjoyed an education equal to that of their brother (as Katherine Parr did). They were not educated as royal princesses, but as royal princes. In addition to domestic arts, they were taught languages, poetry, music, art, dance and canon and secular law, and most important of all: rhetoric. The most important subject of the liberal arts where truths could be mixed with lies and one of Katherine’s greatest weapons. But perhaps Katherine’s greatest weapon was her advocacy of scholars and religious reformers. While she was Catholic, she hated corrupt priests and abhorred dishonest ones. Her mother had done bher best controlling Castile, forcing the Church to stay out of state affairs unless the Queen asked for their assistance. Katherine wanted the same in England.However, England was not Spain and she knew it so her powers here were limited. Juan Luis Vives dedicated his most famous book (Education of Christian Princes) to her and called her not just an example for women, but for all royalty. Kathrine of Aragon also made education fashionable for women. Margaret Beaufort, her husband’s
grandmother was a great influence in England during her lifetime. She founded and re-founded universities and helped students who couldn’t go to university, to enroll in these. Bishop Fisher (who later became one of Katherine’s strongest defender) spoke very highly of her. Indeed, Margaret might just have set the basis for her granddaughter-in-law. But Katherine went a step further, participating in masques, enjoying the secret, surprise parties that Henry threw for her, bursting into her chambers disguised as Robin Hood or some other legendary hero and Katherine being the great hostess, played along and did role play herself. She sponsored artists and poets, and after her husband’s defense of their church, Katherine did her own and she earned a similar title of “Defendress of the Faith”. Her scholarship inspired other women, she and Henry created a court of merriment and scholars, surrounded by the best of the best.
Both women were astounding in their own right, they were two of the most educated women in their lifetimes and the only ones to be appointed Regents.
Their mottos: Humble and Loyal and To be Useful In All That I do.
