actually engaged to Lord Seymour, and was, as she said, determined to become his wife at that time if her will had not for wise purposes been overruled by a higher power. When this higher power pressed his suit she told him that it was better to be his mistress than his wife; not that such an unholy thought ever flashed across her mind (her affection for Seymour and love of virtue forbade it), but meant as a withering lesson to the Monster, that she knew how much better it fared with his concubines than his lawful wives. However, they were married, and she lived with him as his sixth and last wife three years six months and five days. "The king (says Herbert) after marriage lived apparently well with her for the most part." Indeed there is every ground for the report that they lived happily together. None of his wives, neither Anne Boleyn nor Jane Seymour, had such influence over him. By a superiority of understanding and thorough knowledge of his temper, made easier by a sense of her virtues, she could lead him where and as she pleased; but as with the self-willed and violent it is best done by invisible reins, she managed him so as neither to rouse his anger, excite his jealousy, or hurt his pride-the tenderest corns of his constitution. Her Brother William was created Earl of Essex and Marquis of Northampton; Seals, Goldsticks, Stalls, Maidships of Honor,-common sans nombre at Court for relatives and hangers-on; and she herself created (by Act of Privy Council 36 Hen. 8) Queen Regent of England and Ireland during his absence in the French war. Nor was this confidence misplaced; she was truly devoted to him and to his children: Edward and the two Princesses Mary and Elizabeth were the neverceasing objects of her solicitude; she wholly directed their studies. Some of the celestial seed thus sown by her, it is true, fell by the way side and the fowls came and devoured it up; and some fell among thorns; but some (thank God) fell upon good ground and brought forth fruit, which we still feed on, the manna vouchsafed to the inhabitants of Great Britain. Henry left her by his will £.3000 in plate and £.1000 in money. On the fall of Cromwell, it should also be observed, he had invested her with the Manor of Wimbledon, and had made enormous grants to her. After his death she retired to Chelsea Hall, some traces of which still are to be seen behind Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. Mary and Elizabeth seem to have lived with her there. It was here that Thomas Lord Seymour, her former disappointed lover, renewed his addresses, and scarce out of her widow's quarantine she married him. "He married her (says Carte) so soon after Henry's death that if she had brought a chyld as early as might have been, it would have afforded a pretence to start a doubt, whether her late husband was not the father, and to raise a disturbance in the Kingdom. This marriage was kept secret for some time till he had procured a letter from the young King recommending him to her for a husband, and then it was publicly declared to the great discontent of the Protector, who neither approved the match nor liked the clandestine manner in which it had been transacted. The Admiral, it is further stated, employed the vast wealth which he had either acquired by his wife whilst Henry was living, or left her by his will in corrupting the King's servants and gaining over to his interests such as were about his Majesty's person." Seymour, it will be remembered, was Uncle to Edward the VIth. and now Lord Admiral. They lived together but a short time, and, as some allege, unhappily. By him she had a Daughter, Mary. Kateryn died on the 5th. Sept. 1548 in childbed of this daughter, that is to say, seven days after, and not, as some will have it, of a broken heart or of poison to make way for Seymour's marriage with the Princess Elizabeth. Seymour's family do seem to have treated her harshly, but there is no evidence of his supposed ill usage*; on the contrary, the weight of evidence is the other way. Thus ended at the premature age of thirty-five the earthly career of Kateryn Parr. "Like the Lily That once was mistress of the field and flourished, Alas! her husband Seymour soon followed her to the tomb; for little better than six months after * Burleigh's State Papers, 61. VOL. I. Ꭰ her death he was beheaded on Tower Hill (17th March 1549.) Before his execution he committed his daughter by Kateryn to the care of the Duchess of Suffolk; but what became of her afterwards no one seems to know. Some allege that she died young and childless; others claim descent from her. We think that she died unmarried, and that very soon after she was restored to her blood, which took place in the 5th year of Queen Eliz. Our immortal bard has some severe strictures on these iterata vota, calling them killing, base respects of thrift, and the like. Whether Shakspeare was a convert to the creed of Tertullian or wished to show his learning, or was led away by his creative and wayward fancy, we need not stop to enquire; for if any practical lesson is to be drawn from Kateryn's case, it is that the connubial state is more desirable than celibacy, and that in the esteem of marrying men a virtuous woman is not the worse for being a widow. Perhaps on such a question, Shakspeare like Milton should be regarded with suspicion; when we remember, that the one left his wife his second best bed, and the other was divorced. It cannot however be denied that there is something mysterious about her marriages; especially about that with the King so soon after the death of Lord Latimer-her former husband; his death and her marriage with the King taking place in the self-same year, and the latter on the 12th of July of that same year! Her apparently indecent marriage too with Lord Sey mour, besides its political imprudence, cannot escape notice. But let us, in the spirit of that charity with which her life so abounded, ascribe the matter to its true cause. The mystery must needs be with us and not with them: it is to our own ignorance of the facts and circumstances obliterated by time that must be attributed these seeming inconsistencies of her life. Had they really been, what first appearances indicate, she never would have been the wife of Henry the 8th, especially after, and under the circumstances of the execution of Catherine Howard; nor, let us add, would she have been the wife of Lord Seymour. Malice too-the malice of Courts, which gives no quarter to human infirmities (as recent events lamentably prove) and from which innocence itself does not always go unscathed, trumpet-tongued would have proclaimed hers to the world; whereas all are agreed in this, that slander never had the subject, nor the courage to speak of her. The following anecdote, told by Herbert in his life of Henry the 8th and by other historians, goes far to confirm it, if any confirmation were needed*. The incontinency of Catherine Howard, when discovered, so stung the brute to the quick, that he vowed he would never be laughed at again for a similar oversight, if the mighty sanctions of Parliament could shield him. To Parliament Harry never appealed in vain; if he wished this * See Burnet, Stowe, Hume. |