Katharine Parr, the Sixth Wife by Alison Weir

Author:Alison Weir [Weir, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2021-05-11T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

Katharine would have liked to have had Uncle William as her chamberlain, but he was often ailing these days and was spending less and less time at court. She missed his reassuring presence and his wise advice, and worried about his health. But Anne was with her, as chief lady of her privy chamber, serving alongside Margaret, Aunt Mary, and Magdalen Lane, good friends and kinswomen all of them.

Sitting among her women as they sewed and read together, she thought herself fortunate to have the Duchess of Suffolk among her many ladies-in-waiting, and Lady Hoby, a learned woman whose husband, Sir Philip, was a respected diplomat. One she did not care for, though. Lady Hertford was strident to the point of being obnoxious and clearly had a low opinion of Katharine, who supposed she was angry that her husband’s brother had been jilted. She would have liked to dismiss her, but the woman was so clever with her jibes that complaining about them would have sounded lame, and she did not want to injure the Seymours any further.

She was fond of the stolid Susanna Gilman, a Flemish artist who had given up her career to serve her as gentlewoman, but who undertook a few private commissions for her. Henry thought it a good idea for Katharine to have some portraits painted, anticipating a high demand for them, and promised to commission his painter, Hans Holbein, to take her likeness. Holbein had already sketched her sister and captured her brilliantly, but he was busy with other projects for Henry, so Katharine took pleasure in patronizing a rotund and fussy artist called John Bettes and another Flemish artist, Levina Teerlinc, one of the King’s painters; her appointment had been a unique honor for a woman. Privately, Katharine thought her talent inferior to Susanna’s; all her sitters had stick-thin arms.

Today, she and her chief ladies had read aloud passages from Scripture to each other and a lively discussion had ensued. She was in little doubt that the majority of those who formed her inner circle were secret Protestants. It was the one matter on which she was in sympathy with Lady Hertford. They all took care not to be openly controversial. Even the outspoken Lady Suffolk remained circumspect, although she had no time for bishops and had christened her spaniel puppy Gardiner. “Heel, Gardiner!” she would say, or “In the corner, Gardiner!” amidst gales of laughter. Katharine smiled at that, but was at the same time chilled to think what the consequences would be if their secret beliefs were ever exposed. A nest of heretics, the real Gardiner would have called the Queen’s chamber if he knew the truth. She was doing her best to avoid him.

Mindful of the King’s middle way, she had been careful to ask for a traditional Catholic, the Bishop of Chichester, as her almoner; her chaplains, however, were reformists. Among them was her old friend, Miles Coverdale, who had translated the Bible. For all her circumspection, religious radicals came flocking to her little court to join the debates.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.