Latest / Henry VIIIs Wives Their Impact on History / 30 - Henry VIIIs Wives Their Impact on History by Martin A. S. Hume

Transcript

30 - Henry VIIIs Wives Their Impact on History by Martin A. S. Hume · Henry VIIIs Wives Their Impact on History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section twenty nine of The Wives of Henry the Eighth
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and the parts they played in History by Martin Hume.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Fifteen forty
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: two through fifteen forty seven Katherine Parr The Protestants Win
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the Last Trick, Part four. Henry died in fact as
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: he had lived a Catholic. The Reformation in England, of
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: which we have traced the beginnings in this book, did
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: not spring mature from the mind and will of the King,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: but was gradually thrust upon him by the force of circumstances,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: arising out of the steps he took to satisfy his
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: passion and gratify his imperious vanity. Freedom of thought in
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: religion was the last thing to commend itself to such
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: a mind as his, and his treatment of those who
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: disobeyed either the Act of Supremacy or the Bloody Statute
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: the six Articles shows that neither on the one side
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: or the other would he tolerate dissent from his own views,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: which he characteristically caused to be embodied in the law
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: of the land, either in politics or religion. The concession
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: to subjects of the right of private judgment in matters
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: of conscience seemed to the potentates of the sixteenth century
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: to strike at the very base of all authority, And
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the very last to concede such a revolutionary claim was
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Henry Tudor. His separation from the papal obedience, whilst retaining
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: what in his view were the essentials of the papal creed,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: was directed rather to the increase than to the diminution
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: of his own authority over his subjects. And it was
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: this fact that doubtless made it more than ever attractive
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to him to ascribe to him a complete plan for
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the aggrandizement of England and her emancipation from foreign control
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: by means of religious schism. Has always appeared to me
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: to endow him with a political sagacity and prescience which,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, he did not possess, and to estimate
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: imperfectly the forces by which he was impelled. We have
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: seen how entirely in consequence of the unexpected difficulties raised
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: by the papacy to the first divorce, he adopted the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: bold advice of Cranmer and Cromwell to defy the Pope
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: on that particular point. The opposition of the Pope was
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: a purely political one forced upon him by the Emperor
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: for reasons of state, in order to prevent a coalition
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: between England and France. And there were several occasions when
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: if the Pope had been left to himself, he would
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: have found a solution that would have kept England in
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the Orthodox fold. But for the persistence of the opposition,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Henry would never have taken the first step that led
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: to the Reformation, having taken it. Each other step onward
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: was the almost inevitable consequence of the first. Having regard
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: to the peculiar character of the king, it has been
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the main business of this book to trace in what
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: respect the policy that ended in the Great Religious Schism
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: was reflected or influenced by the matrimonial adventures of the king,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: who has gone down to history as the most married
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: monarch of modern times. We have seen that, although, though
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: with the exception of Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: each for a short time, the direct influence of Henry's
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: wives upon events was small, each one represented and coincided
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: in point of time with a change in the ruling
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: forces around the king. We have seen that the libidinous
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: tendency of the monarch was utilized by the rival parties,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: as were all other elements that might help them to
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: forward the opportunity by which a person, to some extent
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: depended upon them, might be placed at the side of
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the king as his wife. And when for the purpose
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: it was necessary to remove the wife in possession. First
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: we have witnessed the process by which it was effected.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: The story from this point of view has not been
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: told before in its entirety. And as the whole panorama
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: unrolls before us, we mark curiously the regular degeneration of
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Henry's character, as the only checks upon his action were removed,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: and he progressively defied traditional authority and established standards of
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: conduct without disaster to himself. The power of the Church
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: to censure or punish him, and the fear of personal
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: reprobation by the world were the influences that, had they
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: retained their force over him to the end, would probably
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: have kept Henry, to all appearance a good man. But
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: when he found, probably to his own surprise, that the
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: jealous divisions of the Catholic powers on the continent made
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: defiance of the Church in his case unpunishable, and that
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: crafty advisers and servile parliaments could give to his deeds,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: however violent and cruel, the sanction of holy writ and
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: the law of the land. There was no power on
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: earth to hold and check the devil in the breast
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: of Henry Tudor. And the man who began a vain,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: brilliant sensualist with the feelings of a gentleman, ended a repulsive,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: bloodstained monster. The more dangerous because his evil was always
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: held to be good by himself and those around him.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: In his own eyes, he was a deeply wronged and
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: ill used man. When Catherine of Aragon refused to surrender
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: her position as his wife after twenty years of wedlock,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: and appealed to forces outside England to aid her in
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: supporting her claim, it was a rebellious, a cruel, and
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: a wicked thing for her and her friends to stand
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: in the way of his tender conscience and of his
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: laudable and natural desire to be he succeeded on the
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: throne by a son of his own. Similarly, it seemed
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: very hard upon him that all Europe and most of
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: his own country should be threateningly against him for the
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: sake of Anne Bolin, for whom he had already sacrificed
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: and suffered so much, and particularly as she was shrewish
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: and had brought him no son, he really was a
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: most ill used man. And it was a providential instance
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: of divine justice that Cromwell, in the nick of time,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: when the situation had become unendurable and Jane Seymour's prudish
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: charms were most elusive, should fortunately discover that Anne was
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: unworthy to be Henry's wife, and Cranmer should decide that
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: she never had been his wife. It was not his fault. Moreover,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: that Anne, of Clee's physical qualities had repelled him. A
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: wicked and ungenerous trick had been played upon him. His
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: trustful ingenuousness had been betrayed by flatterers. In the instance
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: of a Knavish minister who, not content with bringing him
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: a large, unsympathetic Dutch vrow for a wife, had pledged
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: him to an alliance with a lot of insignificant vassal
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: princes in rebellion against the greater sovereigns who were his
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: own peers. It was a just decree of Heaven that
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: the righteous wisdom of Gardener and Norfolk should enable it
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: to be demonstrated clearly that the good King had once
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: more been deceived, and that Ann and the policy she
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: stood for could be repudiated at the same time without
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: opprobrium or wrongdoing. Again, how relentless was the persecution of
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the powers of evil against the obese in fifty who married,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: in ignorance of her immoral past, a light lived beauty
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: of seventeen, and was undeceived when her frivolity began to
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: pall upon him by those whose political and religious views
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: might benefit by the disgrace of the party that had
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: placed Catherine Howard by the King's side as his wife.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: That the girl queen should lose her head for lack
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: of virtue before her marriage and lack of prudence after
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: it was of course quite just and in accordance with
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the law of the land, for all that Henry did
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: was strictly legal. But it was a heartrending thing that
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: the good husband should suffer the distress of having once
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: believed in so unworthy a wife. Still, Catherine Howard was
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: not sacrificed in vain, for although the Catholic policy she
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: represented so offered no check for reasons set forth in
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: earlier pages, The King's sad bereavement left him in the
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: matrimonial market and enhanced his price as an ally. For
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: much of the future depended upon the wife and the
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: party that should be in possession when the king died.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: As we have seen, the Protestants, or rather the anti Catholics,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: won the last trick, and Somerset's predominance meant that the
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Reformation in England should not be one of form alone,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: but of substance. The life of Catherine Parr after Henry's
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: death hardly enters into the plan of this book, but
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: a few lines may be devoted to it, and to
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: her pitiable end. The instant rise of the Protector Somerset
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: on the death of Henry brought with it a corresponding
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: increase in the importance of his brother, served Thomas, then
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Lord Seymour of Subtley, who was certainly no less ambitious
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: than his brother, and probably of much stronger character. For
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: a time all went well between the brothers, Thomas being
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: created Lord Admiral, to the annoyance of Dudley, now Earl
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: of Warwick, who had held the office and receiving great
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: grants of forfeited estates and other wealth. But soon the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: evident attempts of Lord Seymour to rival his elder brother,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: and perhaps to supplant him, aroused the jealousy of Somerset,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: or more likely of his quarrelsome and haughty wife. Some
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: love passages we have seen took place between Seymour and
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Catherine Parr before her marriage with the King, so that
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: it need not be ascribed to ambition that the lover
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: should once more cast his eyes upon the royal widow
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: before the weeds for the King had been cast aside. Katherine,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: with a large dower that has already been mentioned, lived
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: alternately in her two mansion houses at Chelsea and Hanworth,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and to her care was consigned the Lady Elizabeth, then
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: a girl of fourteen. As early as the beginning of
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: May fifteen forty seven, Seymour had visited the widowed queen
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: at Chelsea with his tale of love. Katherine was now
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: thirty four years of age, and having married in succession
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: three old men, might fairly be entitled to contract a
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: fourth marriage to please herself. There was no more manly
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: or handsome figure in England than that of Seymour, with
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: his stately stature, his sonorous voice, and his fine brown beard,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: and in his quiet meetings with the Queen in hers
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: her pretty riverside garden at Chelsea, he appears to have
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: found no difficulty in persuading Catherine of the sincerity of
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: his love. For a time, the engagement was kept secret,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: but watchful eyes were around the Queen, especially those of
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: her own kin, and the following letter written by Seymour
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: to her on the seventeenth May shows that her sister,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Lady Herbert, at least had winn from Catherine of what
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: was going on. After my humble commendations of your Highness
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: yesternight I supped at my brother Herbert's, of whom for
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: your sake, besides my own, I received good cheer, And
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: after the same I received from your Highness by my
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: sister Herbert, your commendations, which were more welcome than they
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: were sent. And after the same she, Lady Herbert, waited
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: further with me, touching my being with your Highness at Chelsea,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: which I denied, But that indeed I went by the
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: garden as I went to the Bishop of London's house,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: and at this point I stood with her for a time,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: till at last she told me further tokens that made
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: me change color, and she, like a false wench, took
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: me with the manner. Then, remembering what she was, and
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: knowing how well YE trusted her, I examined her whether
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: these things came from your Highness, and by that knew
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: it to be true. For the witch, I render unto
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: your Highness my most humble and hearty thanks for by
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: her company, in default of yours, I shall shorten the
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: weeks in these parts, which heretofore were three days longer
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: in every of them than they were under the planets
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: at Chelsea. Besides this commodity, I may ascertain that is
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: inform your Highness by her how I do proceed in
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: my matter. Seymour goes on to say that he has
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: not yet dared to try his strength until he is
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: fully in favor, this having reference apparently to his intentions
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: of begging his brother to permit the marriage, and then
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: he proceeds, if I knew what means, I might gratify
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Your Highness for your goodness to me at our last
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: being together, I should not be slack to declare mine
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: to you again, And the intent that I will be
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: more bound to your Highness, I do make my request
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: that if it be not painful to your Highness that
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: once in three days I may receive three lines in
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: a letter from you, and as many lines in letters
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: more as shall seem good to your Highness. Also, I
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: shall humbly desire Your Highness to give me one of
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: your small pictures, if you have one left. Who, with
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: this silence, shall give me occasion to think on the
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: friendly cheer I shall have when my suit shall be
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: at an end twelve o'clock on the night this Tuesday,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: the seventeenth May fifteen forty seven, from him who ye
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: have bound to honor, love, and in all lawful things
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: obey t Seymour. The Queen had evidently pledged her troth
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: to her lover at the previous meeting, and it would
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: appear that when Catherine had promised to write to him
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: but once a fortnight, her impatience, as much as his,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: could ill suffer so long a silence. Either an answer
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: to the above letter or another similar one, Catherine wrote,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: my Lord, I send you my most humble and hearty commendations,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: being desirous to know how YE have done since I
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: saw you. I pray ye be not offended with me
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: in that I send sooner to you than I said
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: I would, for my promise was but once a fortnight.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Howbeit the time is well abbreviated. By what means I
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: know not, except weeks be shorter at Chelsea than another places.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: My Lord, your brother hath deferred answering such requests as
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: I made to him till his coming hither, which he
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: saith shall be immediately after the term. This is not
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the first promise I have received of his coming and
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: yet unperformed. I think, my lady, that is the Duchess
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: of Somerset, hath taught him that lesson, for it is
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: her custom to promise many comings to her friends and
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: to perform none. I trust in greater matters she is
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: more circumspect. Then follows a curious, loving PostScript, which shows
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: that Catherine's fancy for Seymour was no new passion. I
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: would not have you think that this mine honest good
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: will towards you proceeds from any sudden motion of passion.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: For as truly as God is God, my mind was
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: fully bent the other time I was at liberty to
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: marry you before any man, I know. Howbeit God withstood
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: my will therein most vehemently for a time and through
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: his grace and goodness, made that possible, which seemed to
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: me most impossible. That was made me renounce utterly mine
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: own will and follow his most willingly. It were long
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: to write all the process of this matter. If I live,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: I shall declare it to you myself. I can say nothing,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: but as my lady of Suffolk saith God is a
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: marvelous man, Catherine the Queen, The course of true love
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: did not run smoothly. Somerset and especially his wife, did
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: not like the idea of his younger brother's elevation to
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: higher influence by his marrying the Queen dowager, and the
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Protector proved unwilling to grant his consent to the marriage.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Catherine evidently resented this, and was inclined to use her
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: great influence with the young king himself over his elder
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: uncle's head. When Seymour was in doubt how to approach
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: his brother about it, Catherine wrote, spiritedly, the denial of
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: your request shall make his folly more manifest to the world,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: which will more grieve me than the want of his speaking.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: I would not wish you to importune for his good
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: will if it come not frankly at first it shall
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: be sufficient once to require it, and then to cease.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: I would desire you might obtain the King's letters in
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: your favor, and also the aid in furtherance of the
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: most notable of the Council, such as ye shall think convenient.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Which thing being obtained shall be no small shame to
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: your brother and sister in case they do not the like.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: In the same letter, Catherine rather playfully dallies with her
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: lover's request that she will abridge the period of waiting
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: from two years to two months. And then she concludes
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: in a way which proves, if nothing else did how
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: deeply she was in love with Seymour. When it shall
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: pleasure you to repair hither Chelsea, ye must take some
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: pains to come early in the morning, so that ye
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: may be gone again by seven o'clock. And thus I
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: suppose ye may come without being suspect. I pray ye
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: let me have knowledge overnight at what hour ye will come,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: that your portress, that is Catherine herself, may wait at
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: the gate to the fields. For it was not two
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: years or even two months that the impatient lovers waited,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: for they must have been married before the last day
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: in May fifteen forty seven, four months after Henry's death,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Catherine's suggestion that the boy king himself should be enlisted
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: on their side was adopted, and he was induced to
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: press Seymour's suit to his father's widow as if he
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: were the promoter of it. When the secret marriage was
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: known to Somerset, he expressed the greatest indignation and anger
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: at it, and a system of petty persecution of Catherine began.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Her jewels of which the King had left her the
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: use during her life, were withheld from her. Her jointure
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: estates were dealt with by Somerset regardless of her wishes
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and protests, and her every appearance at court led to
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: a squabble with the protector's wife as to the precedence
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: to be accorded to her. On one occasion, it has
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: stated that this question of precedents led in the Chapel
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Royal to a personal encounter between Catherine and Proud and Stanhope.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Nor was Catherine's life at home with her gallant, empty headed,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: turbulent husband cloudless. The Princess Elizabeth lived with them, and
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: though she was but a girl, Seymour began, before many
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: months of married life, to act suspiciously with her. The
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: manners of the time were free, and Seymour might perhaps
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: innocently romp suggestively, as he did, sometimes alone and sometimes
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: in his wife's presence, with the young princess as she
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: lay in bed. But when Catherine, entering a chamber suddenly
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: once found young Elizabeth embraced in her husband's arms, there
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: was a domestic explosion which led to the departure of
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the girl from the Chelsea household. Catherine was pregnant at
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: the time, and Elizabeth's letter to her on her leaving
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Chelsea shows that although for the sake of prudence, the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: girl was sent away, there was no great unkindness between
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: her and her stepmother. In consequence, she says that she
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: was cheery of her thanks when leaving, because quote, I
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: was replete with sorrow to depart from your highness, especially
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: leaving you undoubtful of health. And albeit I answered little,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I weighed more deeper when you said you would warn
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: me of all the evils that you should hear of
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: me end quote. When the poor lady's time drew near,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: she wrote a hopeful yet pathetic letter to her husband,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: who was already involving himself in the ambitious schemes that
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: brought his head to the block. Both she and her husband,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: in their letters anticipated theirth of their child with a
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: frankness of detail, which make the documents unfitted for reproduction here,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: and it is evident that, though they were now often separated,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: this looked for son was to be a new pledge
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: to bind them together for the future. In June fifteen
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: forty eight, Seymour took his wife to Suttley Castle for
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: her confinement, and from there carried on, through his agents
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: with the King, his secret plots to supersede his brother Somerset,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: as protector of the realm. He and his wife were
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: surrounded by a retinue so large as of itself to
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: constitute a menace to the protector, but Catherine's royal title
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: gave a pretext for so large a household, and this
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: and her personal influence secured whilst she lived her husband's
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: safety from attack by his brother at length. On the
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: thirtieth August, Catherine's child was born, a daughter, and at
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: first all went well. Even Somerset, angry and distrustful as
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: he was, was infected with his brother's joy and sent congratulations.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: But on the fourth day The mother became excited and
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: wandered somewhat, saying that she thought she would die and
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: that she was not being well treated. Those who are
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: about me do not care for me, but stand laughing
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: at my grief. She complained to her friend, Lady Tarrant.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: This was evidently directed against Seymour, who stood by. Why, sweetheart,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: he said, why would you know hurt? No, my lord,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: replied Catherine, I think so, But she whispered, you have
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: given me many shrewd taunts. This seems to have trouble Seymour,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and he suggested to Lady Tyrot that he should lie
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: on the bed by the queen's side and try to
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: calm her. But his efforts were without effect, for she
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: continued excitedly to say that she had not been properly
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: dealt with. These facts, related and magnified by attendants, and
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: coupled with Seymour's desire to marry Elizabeth as soon as
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: his wife died, gave rise to a pretty general opinion
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: that Catherine was either poisoned or otherwise ill treated. But
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: there are many circumstances that point in the contrary direction,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: and there can be no reasonable doubt now that although
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: in her inmost mind, she had begun to distrust her husband,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: and the anxiety so caused may have contributed to her illness.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: She died on the fifth September of ordinary pererperal fever.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: She was buried in great state in the chapel at
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Suttley Castle, and her remains, which have been examined and
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: described several times, add their testimony to the belief that
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the unfortunate queen died a natural death. The death of
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Catherine Parr, the last and least politically important of Henry's
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: six wives, took place so far as English history is concerned,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: on the day that heralded the death of her royal husband.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: From the moment that Somerset and his wife sat in
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the seats of the Mighty, there was no room for
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: the exercise of political influence by the Queen Dowager, and
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: these latter pages telling of her fourth marriage, this time
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: for love, formed but a human PostScript to a political history.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: End of Section twenty nine of The Wives of Henry
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: the Eighth and The Parts They Played in History by
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Martin Hume