Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minkie. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: It was an incredibly dangerous thing to be a woman
Speaker 1: in the sixteenth century who disagreed with her husband. A
Speaker 1: woman named Anne Askew was born in fifteen twenty one
Speaker 1: in Lincolnshire. When she was fifteen years old, her sister died.
Speaker 1: Her sister had been engaged to a man named Thomas Kim,
Speaker 1: and to save money on the dowries and negotiations, Anne's
Speaker 1: father simply substituted Anne in to marry her sister's fiancee.
Speaker 1: One daughter was as good as the next. Thomas Kime
Speaker 1: was a Catholic, and he quickly realized that his young
Speaker 1: wife was a devout Protestant. He would enter the room
Speaker 1: to find her studying the Bible or reciting Versus quietly
Speaker 1: to herself that she was trying to memorize and publicly
Speaker 1: challenged the idea of trans substantiation, the notion that when
Speaker 1: taking Holy Communion, the wayfer and wine literally transformed into
Speaker 1: the flesh and blood of Christ. Word got around town.
Speaker 1: Other women began avoiding Anne in the streets. And the shops.
Speaker 1: Though Thomas Kim and Anne had two young children, he
Speaker 1: kicked her out of the house for her beliefs. Anne
Speaker 1: was not put off, unmoored, but not undeterred. She moved
Speaker 1: to London and, sticking with her maiden name, began to preach.
Speaker 1: A woman preaching is bad enough. A woman preaching heretical
Speaker 1: ideas cause enough for a rest. In fifteen, Anne ask
Speaker 1: You was twenty five years old and she was brought
Speaker 1: to the Tower of London. She was tortured on the
Speaker 1: rack by men who demanded to know what other high
Speaker 1: born women shared her beliefs. The torture was brutal and unceasing,
Speaker 1: lasting months. By the time Anne was finally brought to
Speaker 1: be burned at the stake, she had to be carried
Speaker 1: in a chair because she could no longer walk. Anne
Speaker 1: was burned along with three other Protestants. Funnily enough, one
Speaker 1: of the men executed with her was John Lassells. That
Speaker 1: name might sound a little familiar to you if you
Speaker 1: had listened to my episode about Catherine Howard. John Lassell's
Speaker 1: had been the one who reported the young queen's licentious past,
Speaker 1: which led to her beheading. It's said by those who
Speaker 1: watched Anne's burning that she was incredibly brave that she
Speaker 1: didn't cry out until the flames reached her chest. A
Speaker 1: supporter had managed to secretly slip her gunpowder to hide
Speaker 1: in her dress, which exploded, killing Anne and the three
Speaker 1: men quickly and mercifully. Even through all of her torture,
Speaker 1: Anne never gave up any names of any other prominent
Speaker 1: Protestant women, but the torturers were really only interested in
Speaker 1: one name. They wanted Anne to implicate Catherine Parr, King
Speaker 1: Henry the eighth, sixth and final wife. Catherine had already
Speaker 1: upset many at court for the strength of her evangelical views,
Speaker 1: and her enemies were looking for any excuse to bring
Speaker 1: her down. It wouldn't take much. Gossip in court was
Speaker 1: that the king had already grown frustrated with the way
Speaker 1: his wife debated him on matters of religion. Ambassadors wrote
Speaker 1: that he had already been casting his eye around for
Speaker 1: wife number seven. Being the wife of King Henry the
Speaker 1: eighth was like holding a fistful of gunpowder. It would
Speaker 1: only take a spark for an explosion and a quick death.
Speaker 1: Catherine Parr's intelligence had put her in danger, but it
Speaker 1: would also be the key to her survival. I'm Dani Schwartz,
Speaker 1: and this is noble blood. Catherine Parr was seventeen when
Speaker 1: she married a man named Edward Burrow, but the marriage
Speaker 1: didn't last long. Three years later, Edward Burrow had died
Speaker 1: and Catherine Parr was a young childless widow. But she
Speaker 1: was also a young childless widow who came from a
Speaker 1: prominent family, and that meant that a year later her
Speaker 1: family had the connections to marry her off once again,
Speaker 1: this time to a man named John Neville, Lord Latimer
Speaker 1: of Snape. Two Harry Potter names in one side note.
Speaker 1: I looked it up. J. K. Rowling did name Snape
Speaker 1: after a village, but it wasn't that village. Latimer was
Speaker 1: forty three with two teenage children, only a few years
Speaker 1: younger than Catherine herself twenty one, But maturity came easily
Speaker 1: to Catherine Parr, who spoke and wrote English, French and Italian,
Speaker 1: who was already reading religious doctrine that her Catholic husband,
Speaker 1: no doubt wouldn't have approved of if he had been
Speaker 1: home long enough to notice. It was Latimer's religious beliefs
Speaker 1: that got the couple into trouble. In the end, they
Speaker 1: lived in Yorkshire and Latimer was roped into helping the
Speaker 1: Catholic rebels during the Pilgrimage of Grace Rebellion in fifteen
Speaker 1: thirty six. Though high born, Latimer was never actually charged
Speaker 1: and he managed to escape any real consequences with just
Speaker 1: a slap on the rest, his reputation deteriorated, and soon
Speaker 1: after so did his health. Catherine found that she not
Speaker 1: only had the skill to run a large household, she
Speaker 1: also had the inclination. With her husband weakening, the family
Speaker 1: moved down to Worcester to get out of the troublingly
Speaker 1: rebellious North and to be closer to Catherine's family at Court,
Speaker 1: where her brother William and her sister Anne were both
Speaker 1: members of the royal household. Catherine tended to her ailing husband,
Speaker 1: ran his household, raised his children from his previous marriage,
Speaker 1: and also began to make friends at court, including the
Speaker 1: Queen Jane Seymour. To stay away from my brother, Jane
Speaker 1: teas Thomas is on the lookout for a rich widow.
Speaker 1: Thomas Seymour was a few things. He was handsome, definitely charming,
Speaker 1: absolutely also socially ambitious. Catherine part noticed him. Of course
Speaker 1: she noticed him. How could she not. Everyone in court
Speaker 1: noticed Thomas Seymour, the Queen's brother, but Catherine's husband, weak
Speaker 1: as he was, wasn't dead yet, and Catherine always floated
Speaker 1: above even a whiff of scandal. There aren't even rumors
Speaker 1: of thoughts of impropriety on her part. Catherine was just
Speaker 1: a well liked, smart, pretty presence at court who cared
Speaker 1: dutifully for her ailing husband. Rather than flirt, she spent
Speaker 1: most of her time with Princess Mary Tudor Henry, the
Speaker 1: eighth daughter. Katherine Parr's mother had been a lady in
Speaker 1: waiting to Katherine Everdon, Mary's mother, so the two had
Speaker 1: known each other when they were children, but as adults
Speaker 1: they reunited over their shared love of academia. Though Catherine's
Speaker 1: leanings were Evangelical and Mary was a devout Catholic, it
Speaker 1: didn't affect their friendship at all. Mary encouraged Catherine to
Speaker 1: read the Bible and helped her with the Latin that
Speaker 1: Catherine had never learned as a child. Catherine wasn't born
Speaker 1: a boy, and she wasn't born a royal, and so
Speaker 1: her education had been decent, but far from comprehensive. It
Speaker 1: was her own natural curiosity that turned her into an
Speaker 1: avid reader and an avid writer. By the time her
Speaker 1: husband died, Catherine found herself in a strange and rare position.
Speaker 1: She was still y'all, thirty one, twice widowed, orphaned, and
Speaker 1: with the inheritance of her husband's estate, independently wealthy. Her
Speaker 1: only responsibility was taking care of her almost grown stepdaughter,
Speaker 1: whom she adored. She was a woman with money and
Speaker 1: her entire life out of her Her parents were both dead,
Speaker 1: and so she had no obligations to marry for anything
Speaker 1: except love. At thirty one, Katherine Parr's life could finally begin,
Speaker 1: and so Catherine Parr could finally look at Thomas Seymour,
Speaker 1: and she found him looking back at her, smiling that
Speaker 1: charming smile and making her secretly grateful in spite of everything,
Speaker 1: that life had landed her here, exactly where she belonged.
Speaker 1: It had been a busy few years at court since
Speaker 1: Catherine Parr and her husband had arrived from Yorkshire. King
Speaker 1: Henry the eighth had finally gotten his son, although it
Speaker 1: led to the death of his Queen Jane Seymour, he
Speaker 1: had sent away for another bride received Anne of Cleave's
Speaker 1: and forced to divorce because he didn't find her attractive enough.
Speaker 1: He married Katherine Howard, was humiliated by her lasciviousness, and
Speaker 1: had her arrested and beheaded. King Henry the Eighth was tired.
Speaker 1: It would be another year as a widower before Henry
Speaker 1: would begin to look in earnest for a new wife.
Speaker 1: By this point, Henry the Eighth had finally evolved into
Speaker 1: what you most likely already imagine when you hear the
Speaker 1: words King Henry the Eighth, a caricature of a man,
Speaker 1: probably eating a giant turkey leg. King Henry the Eighth's
Speaker 1: waist had ballooned to fifty three inches, which required specially
Speaker 1: made doublets large enough so that three men could stand
Speaker 1: comfortably inside them. The ulcers on Henry's legs had turned
Speaker 1: to open rot. From records of his household, we know
Speaker 1: that the endlessly weeping pus meant that he needed to
Speaker 1: order a brand new pair of hose for every single
Speaker 1: day of the year. Marrying the teenager Katherine Howard had
Speaker 1: been a mistake. He knew that now she was too young,
Speaker 1: too frivolous. It had been a decision made out of lust.
Speaker 1: Now for his sixth wife, he needed someone of absolutely
Speaker 1: unimpeachable character, someone like Catherine Parr. She was wiser, older,
Speaker 1: but not so old that she couldn't still bear him
Speaker 1: another son. That was important. In an ideal world, Henry
Speaker 1: would have two sons. Although Henry's failing health meant that
Speaker 1: he could no longer plausibly blame his impotence on a
Speaker 1: woman being too unattractive or having allegedly saggy breasts, he
Speaker 1: still wanted another boy, a Duke of York, to ensure
Speaker 1: that his lineage was secure. Henry needed a queen to
Speaker 1: manage the household and manage his moods and tempers and well,
Speaker 1: though he hated to admit it, he was lonely. Henry
Speaker 1: had always loved the company of women. Loves discussion and
Speaker 1: praise and witty banter and praise and mostly praise. Was
Speaker 1: it so wrong that in his final years he wanted
Speaker 1: someone beautiful on his arm and in his bedchamber, with
Speaker 1: whom he could also discuss art and music. Middle age
Speaker 1: had also made Henry more aware of his formerly estranged daughters,
Speaker 1: Mary and Elizabeth, the daughters of Catherine of Arragon and
Speaker 1: Anne Boleyn respectively. They say that family is the most
Speaker 1: important thing, don't they, So if you're going to marry
Speaker 1: a young wife almost half your age, you should at
Speaker 1: least do so with the courtesy of choosing someone who's
Speaker 1: friends with your daughters. It was a month before Catherine
Speaker 1: Parr's husband actually died that Henry began sending along letters
Speaker 1: and gifts. The moment the King's first letter arrived. It
Speaker 1: was a dagger to the future that Catherine had imagined
Speaker 1: for herself, a life where she would be free to
Speaker 1: marry Thomas Seymour, someone that she chose for herself after
Speaker 1: two husbands. Hadn't she earned that? But when the King
Speaker 1: chooses you, you don't get a choice. Later, she would
Speaker 1: write to Thomas Seymour in a letter, as truly as
Speaker 1: God is God, my mind was fully bent the time
Speaker 1: I was at liberty to marry you before any man
Speaker 1: I know. Henry knew that Catherine had been interested in
Speaker 1: Thomas Seymour, a handsome, athletic man only a few years
Speaker 1: older than Katherine. He heard the rumors that she loved him,
Speaker 1: that she wanted to marry him. Henry also didn't care
Speaker 1: when he proposed to Katherine Parr a few months later,
Speaker 1: a respectful period after the death of her husband. She
Speaker 1: didn't answer right away. She asked the King if she
Speaker 1: could have a brief moment to think about it. Henry, amused,
Speaker 1: but good natured enough agreed. Usually one doesn't ask the
Speaker 1: king to wait before you respond to a question he asks,
Speaker 1: but this situation wasn't usual. Katherine Parr was within a
Speaker 1: stoned throw of something most sixteenth century women could only
Speaker 1: dream of, genuine contentment, But Henry's interest in her meant
Speaker 1: that that vision of the future was already dead. The
Speaker 1: king wanting to marry you meant that a king got
Speaker 1: to marry you. That was really what Henry understood full
Speaker 1: well when he gave Catherine some time to think it over. Sure,
Speaker 1: he was in his fifties, impotent, rotting, so he had
Speaker 1: killed two wives and cruelly disposed of two others. He
Speaker 1: was still the king. Catherine would be giving up her
Speaker 1: life for a life under a microscope, constantly scrutinized by
Speaker 1: the entire court, her neck vulnerable to a mere curial
Speaker 1: king's whims, But in return she would get a crown
Speaker 1: and all of the wealth and Madge state and power
Speaker 1: of being the Queen of England. Here's what Catherine knew.
Speaker 1: Privilege is not the same as freedom. The massive privileges
Speaker 1: that would be afforded to her by the throne of
Speaker 1: England would come at a heavy price. She would lose
Speaker 1: as much as she would gain. But Henry's will was
Speaker 1: God's will. It was around this time that Henry decided,
Speaker 1: for no particular reason, that he would send Thomas Seymour
Speaker 1: out on a new job, a diplomatic posting in Flanders.
Speaker 1: Catherine never had any decision to make. After all, she
Speaker 1: and the king were married July three, where Henry the
Speaker 1: Eighth said, I do for the sixth and final time.
Speaker 1: The rule old Catherine was to play at court was
Speaker 1: a delicate one, but she found almost immediately that it
Speaker 1: was a role she was suited for. Henry wanted a
Speaker 1: wife to dazzle and entertain his court, to represent the
Speaker 1: glory of Henry's court back in its prime, all masquerades
Speaker 1: and games and dances, even though Henry was no longer dancing.
Speaker 1: But to that end he gave Catherine money for jewels
Speaker 1: and clothing, supported her interests in music, and send fresh
Speaker 1: flowers to her bedchamber. Every day, Catherine bathed in milk
Speaker 1: and herbs. Even though her relationship with Henry wouldn't be
Speaker 1: the lusty, passionate affair that he had shared with earlier wives,
Speaker 1: she knew it was her duty, above all else to
Speaker 1: be pleasing to him. As queen. She was given the
Speaker 1: full wardrobe from the dead former Queen Catherine Howard. She
Speaker 1: was stepping into the shoes of her predecessor. Literally every
Speaker 1: item needed to be tailored. Catherine Parr was several inches
Speaker 1: taller than the teenage former queen, but Catherine found she
Speaker 1: didn't mind wearing the clothes. They were beautiful, for one,
Speaker 1: but they also made her role as queen feel like
Speaker 1: a duty, a duty with a uniform as if she
Speaker 1: was in the military. Catherine Parr was incredibly well liked
Speaker 1: by everyone at court, while almost every one another former Queen,
Speaker 1: Anne of Cleaves, had quietly hoped that with Catherine Howard gone,
Speaker 1: King Henry the Eighth would remarry her. Unfortunately, Henry did
Speaker 1: not agree. When Anne of Cleaves heard that the position
Speaker 1: of queen had been filled, she murmured that she was
Speaker 1: surprised the king had married a woman not nearly as
Speaker 1: beautiful as she, but to everyone else, Katherine Parr was
Speaker 1: a balm for the chaos at court the preceding few years.
Speaker 1: She was calm, sensible, kind, smart. Above all, she was competent.
Speaker 1: That was why, when Henry left to lead a military
Speaker 1: campaign against France, he left her as regent. Henry, at
Speaker 1: fifty three years old, was desperate to regain some of
Speaker 1: his former glory, and so that meant, despite the advice
Speaker 1: of his doctors and friends, he would go into battle.
Speaker 1: He forged an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, commissioned
Speaker 1: a customized suit of armor that would fit his considerable size,
Speaker 1: and left the country in Catherine Parr's capable hands. The victory,
Speaker 1: if you could call it, that of Henry one three
Speaker 1: months later, was pretty toothless. Almost immediately afterward, the King
Speaker 1: of France renewed his friendship with the Holy Roman Emperor
Speaker 1: and geared up to retaliate in England the following summer.
Speaker 1: But while Henry was away, Catherine reigned beautifully. She dealt
Speaker 1: with deserters and Scottish prisoners, managed the supplies and troops
Speaker 1: being sent to France, and reacted swiftly and decisively to
Speaker 1: an outbreak of the plague. All the while, she wrote
Speaker 1: letters to Henry telling him how deeply she missed him
Speaker 1: and how much she desired to be in his presence again.
Speaker 1: The following year, Catherine published a book, Prayers or Meditations,
Speaker 1: the first English book published by a woman under her
Speaker 1: own name in the country and the first book ever
Speaker 1: published by a queen. Mat Christmas. Her stepdaughter, Princess Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: translated it into Latin and French and Italian, and bound
Speaker 1: the translations in red silk and gave them to Catherine
Speaker 1: Parr as perhaps the most thoughtful Christmas gift heretofore ever given.
Speaker 1: But still it wasn't beyond notice that Katherine Parr hadn't
Speaker 1: born Henry a son, or even yielded a pregnancy, and
Speaker 1: although of course that wasn't her fault, it still meant
Speaker 1: that her position as queen wasn't entirely secure. There were
Speaker 1: rumors in court there are always rumors, but one particular
Speaker 1: rumor put Catherine on edge and soured her normally genial disposition.
Speaker 1: Henry's best friend, Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk, died,
Speaker 1: leaving his wife, a good friend of Catherine's, a widow
Speaker 1: and single, and Henry seemed to be spending some time,
Speaker 1: just a respectful time, nothing untoward yet comforting her again
Speaker 1: nothing but rumors. But the king also seemed to be
Speaker 1: getting a no aid with Katherine Parr more frequently. Recently,
Speaker 1: she had taken to arguing with him about theology. When
Speaker 1: Catherine brought up a hole in one of Henry's arguments,
Speaker 1: he snapped at her, it's a good hearing it is
Speaker 1: when women become such clerks, and a thing much to
Speaker 1: my comfort in my old days, to be taught by
Speaker 1: a woman. Catherine might have been well liked as a
Speaker 1: person in court, but she was evangelical, ordering on Protestant,
Speaker 1: and she wasn't shy about making her beliefs public. She
Speaker 1: had enemies, and now they had ammunition. In fifteen forty
Speaker 1: six and ask You, was tortured for the names of
Speaker 1: other high born women who shared her heretical views and
Speaker 1: didn't name names, but the men toward during her got
Speaker 1: enough to implicate the women of Catherine's court. There would
Speaker 1: be a search for heredical literature in their chambers. Fortunately
Speaker 1: word got out ahead of it, so books were stashed
Speaker 1: and locks were changed and nothing was found. But that
Speaker 1: didn't mean Catherine wasn't in danger. After all, she existed
Speaker 1: at the whim of Henry, and Henry hated feeling threatened.
Speaker 1: After Catherine contradicted Henry in debate, a bishop and one
Speaker 1: of Henry's ministers, Ropsley, seized the moment to get Henry
Speaker 1: to sign a warrant for her arrest, which he did.
Speaker 1: Whether it was sheer, dumb luck, or a friend looking
Speaker 1: out for her, A copy of the warrant was left
Speaker 1: out in the open where Katherine could see it. Catherine
Speaker 1: had the benefit of being the sixth wife, of learning
Speaker 1: from the women who came before her and their mistakes.
Speaker 1: Henry was extremely malleable. Catherine Parr also knew that as
Speaker 1: soon as Henry made his mind up about a woman,
Speaker 1: he would simply remove her from his presence and not
Speaker 1: give her the chance to speak with him. Her time
Speaker 1: was extremely limited. Wearing one of the dresses that had
Speaker 1: once belonged to foolish dead Katherine Howard, Katherine Parr went
Speaker 1: to the King and did the thing she needed to
Speaker 1: save herself. She graciously thanked the King for his kindness
Speaker 1: that he had taken in sharing his insights and wisdom
Speaker 1: with her. You see, she was only debating him as
Speaker 1: an intellectual exercise for him, so he could take his
Speaker 1: mind off his pain, and so that she could learn
Speaker 1: from him. So Henry said, you don't disagree with me, then, no,
Speaker 1: of course not. Catherine Parr laughed, Your majesty has very
Speaker 1: much mistaken me, for I have always held it preposterous
Speaker 1: for a woman to instruct her lord. It was a
Speaker 1: brilliant turn of tact. Henry swept Catherine Parr on to
Speaker 1: his knee, reassured her of his love for her, and
Speaker 1: ordered her jewels and pearls and furs. That afternoon, Roth'sley
Speaker 1: arrived at the Queen's gardens with forty armed men, only
Speaker 1: to find Katherine sitting on Henry's knee. Henry had forgotten
Speaker 1: to call off theear rest. What are you doing, Henry called,
Speaker 1: You dare to insult our queen with threats out rothsily
Speaker 1: apologized profusely, sweating and bowing. Of course, Catherine knew all
Speaker 1: about the arrest attempt, but Henry didn't know that. She knew,
Speaker 1: you really don't need to be so hard on him,
Speaker 1: she said sweetly to her husband. Henry laughed, Oh, you
Speaker 1: sweet innocent child, If only you knew how little he
Speaker 1: deserves this grace you're showing him. Catherine laughed and pulled
Speaker 1: Henry and for a kiss, thinking somewhere in the back
Speaker 1: of her mind that the same was true of the
Speaker 1: grace that she showed Henry. But Catherine wouldn't have too
Speaker 1: much longer to go as Henry's wife. His health was
Speaker 1: now fading and fast. Henry was finding it increasingly difficult
Speaker 1: to walk. He needed to use a ramp to mount
Speaker 1: his horse. Hunting became impossibly exhausting. Most of the time,
Speaker 1: Henry was transported from room to room, being carried on
Speaker 1: a chair. His rooms were heavily perfumed at all times
Speaker 1: in an attempt to cover the smell of his rotting leg,
Speaker 1: always wet from his many medicinal baths. That Christmas, Catherine, Parr, Mary,
Speaker 1: and Elizabeth were sent away from Whitehall so they wouldn't
Speaker 1: have to watch the rest of Henry's decline. They would
Speaker 1: never see him again, though after the first week of
Speaker 1: January Catherine returned, she wasn't permitted to see him. Henry
Speaker 1: died on January. Katherine mourned, of course, but her real
Speaker 1: sorrow would come only when she saw the will that
Speaker 1: Henry had rewritten a month before his death. She got
Speaker 1: plenty of money, an annual allowance, and a stipulation that
Speaker 1: she be treated as a queen and not a dowager.
Speaker 1: But she didn't get what she really wanted. She wasn't
Speaker 1: made regent for the young nine year old King Edward.
Speaker 1: Her political career was entirely over. Smart as she was, competent,
Speaker 1: as she was, capable as she was, Catherine Parr no
Speaker 1: longer had any avenue to power. She had come close
Speaker 1: being Henry's wife, and for that shining period in fifteen
Speaker 1: forty four, she had tasted it. But now she was
Speaker 1: just a woman again, put in her place, back where
Speaker 1: she had started. Being, back where she had started wasn't
Speaker 1: all bad. Four years after she had fallen in love
Speaker 1: with him, Katherine Parr was finally able to marry Thomas Seymour.
Speaker 1: It's a bitter sweet love story. I like to end
Speaker 1: it there without the details that perhaps the marriage had
Speaker 1: happened a bit too fast, and it was unseemly that
Speaker 1: she had had to wheedle young King Edward to approve
Speaker 1: the marriage after it had happened. It's also a sweeter
Speaker 1: story if we leave out the fact that Thomas Seymour,
Speaker 1: social climber as he was, had actually tried to court
Speaker 1: the thirteen year old Princess Elizabeth before marrying Katherine Parr,
Speaker 1: and that when Elizabeth came to live with her former
Speaker 1: stepmom and new husband Thomas, that he would continue molesting
Speaker 1: her and making sexual overtures until finally, out of shame
Speaker 1: and hurt, Katherine Parr had to send young Elizabeth away,
Speaker 1: never to see her in person again. No, it's a
Speaker 1: better story if we ended there the idea that she
Speaker 1: had lost her love, was dutiful to Henry and then
Speaker 1: finally got to marry her love and live out the
Speaker 1: rest of her life and peace. In a different world,
Speaker 1: Katherine Parr could have led his regent or even queen,
Speaker 1: and we could have seen what she would have accomplished instead.
Speaker 1: Hers is a story of men who fell in love
Speaker 1: but was forced into duty instead, but met it with
Speaker 1: savvy and grace. She survived not out of luck, but
Speaker 1: because she made sure that she would. That's the story
Speaker 1: of Katherine Parr's marriage to Henry the Eighth, But stick
Speaker 1: around after a brief sponsor break to hear a short
Speaker 1: story about what happened when her coffin was unearthed. Katherine
Speaker 1: Parr was buried beneath Suddy Chapel, but over the next
Speaker 1: two centuries the chapel and a state above her fell
Speaker 1: into ruin. It wasn't until two when the owner of
Speaker 1: the property and a few visitors were curious enough to
Speaker 1: force their way down the narrow stone steps and see
Speaker 1: the crips that lay beneath. Catherine's lead. Coffin was exactly
Speaker 1: as it had been when it was placed there over
Speaker 1: two d and thirty years prior. Pressed into the lead,
Speaker 1: the inscription read kp here Liath, Queen Catherine, wife to
Speaker 1: King Henry the eighth and the wife of Thomas, Lord
Speaker 1: of Subtlely. Curiosity got the better of the visitors, and
Speaker 1: they pried open the coffin to find the corpse wrapped
Speaker 1: in waxy linen. They recoiled when they saw what was
Speaker 1: revealed inside. The coffin had been so air tight that
Speaker 1: it looked as though Katherine Parr had died only the
Speaker 1: day before. Her skin was milky white, her hair perfect,
Speaker 1: her dress still retained color. She might as well have
Speaker 1: been taking a nap. Horrified, the men shut the lid
Speaker 1: to the coffin and left, but they had broken the
Speaker 1: seal and let the air in. By the time Catherine
Speaker 1: Parr's corpse was excavated again, all that was left was bones.
Speaker 1: While not only bones, an ivy plant had also managed
Speaker 1: to grow in the coffin, weaving its way up and
Speaker 1: around the skull. If you looked at it from certain angles,
Speaker 1: the ivy plant had curled itself over her skull into
Speaker 1: a crown. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky. The show
Speaker 1: was written and hosted by Danis Schwartz and produced by
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble
Speaker 1: Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and
Speaker 1: you can learn more about the show over at Noble
Speaker 1: blood tails dot com. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. M hmm