This title presents the turbulent life and loves of Henry VIII's sixth wife. Romantic, chaotic, and terrifying, Catherine Parr's life unfolded like a romance novel. Wed at 17 to the grandson of a confirmed lunatic then widowed at 20, Catherine chose a Yorkshire lord twice her age as her second husband. Caught up in the turbulent terrors of the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, she was captured by northern rebels, held hostage, and suffered violence at their hands. Fleeing to the south shortly afterward, Catherine took refuge in ...
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This title presents the turbulent life and loves of Henry VIII's sixth wife. Romantic, chaotic, and terrifying, Catherine Parr's life unfolded like a romance novel. Wed at 17 to the grandson of a confirmed lunatic then widowed at 20, Catherine chose a Yorkshire lord twice her age as her second husband. Caught up in the turbulent terrors of the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, she was captured by northern rebels, held hostage, and suffered violence at their hands. Fleeing to the south shortly afterward, Catherine took refuge in the household of the Princess Mary and in the arms of the king's brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Seymour. Her employment in Mary's household brought her to the attention of Mary's father, the unpredictable Henry VIII. Desperately in love with Seymour, Catherine was forced into marriage with a king whose passion for her could not be hidden and who was determined to make her his queen.
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She was the sixth wife of King Henry VIII, and the one 'that got away'. Catherine Parr had been married twice before and both times widowed, when she was chosen by 'Auld King Henry' to be his sixth wife - two he had divorced, one died in childbirth, two had been executed. What had fate in store for her?
Susan James describes Catherines life, before, during, and after the marriage to Henry brilliantly and well researched. You almost feel that you are there, in private life with her first two husbands, and at the sparkling and cruel Court of the Tudors, during all the intrigues and backstage stabbings. It is also a kind of thriller (if you don't now the outcome). Shall the 'mad' King, manipulated by his evil advisors, murder his sixth wife as he has done (by proxy) with two of his previous ones, or shall she manage to escape? Read the book, and see!
