suffer death.

vice, and a woman into her chamber the journal of that day's proceedings. who had known their former ill life, the clerk, unaccountably, having be and thus rendered her intentions ap-gan the entry with these words: hoc parent; and as she had admitted Cul- etiam adjiciens-and added nothing more. pepper to be with her in a suspicious When the commons had assembled, the place, for several hours in the night, royal assent was read in due form to with no one present but Lady Rochford; the act, which condemned Katherine it is desirable that the Queen, Derham, Howard as a traitress and an adulteress. Culpepper, and Lady Rochford, be without her having been permitted to attainted of treason, and that the speak one word in her own defence, Queen and Lady Rochford should and without one single proof of her Fourth, That the King guilt having been adduced. Her conwould not trouble to give his assent fession to Norfolk was evidently only a to this act in person, but grant it by penitent acknowledgment of the sins she letters patent, under his hand and seal. had been guilty of before her marriage Fifth, That the Duchess Dowager of to the King; for, had she have been Norfolk, the Countess of Bridgewater, brought to confess adultery, the only the Lord William Howard, and his crime with which she was charged, that wife, and four other men, and five nobleman, in his address, would doubtwomen, who were already attainted by less have so stated, in broad and unthe course of common law (the Duchess equivocal terms. The bill of attainder of Norfolk and the Countess of Bridge- would have been based on her own adwater excepted), that knew the Queen's mission, and not on the supposition of vicious life, and had concealed it, her intention to commit the crime, and should be all attainted of misprision of a full and clear statement of her guilt treason. would have been male, both to the commons and to the lords. In fact, neither the original letters in the state papers, the act of attainder, nor the pro

An act to this effect was hurried through both houses of parliament, and passed on the sixth of February. On the tenth, the hope-blighted, peni-ceedings in parliament, justify a belief tent Queen was removed by water from Sion House to the Tower, where, on passing under the arch of the deathboding Traitors' Gate, she shuddered, shrieked, and fainted. How she conducted herself the first night in her new prison-lodging, no pen has detailed; but on the following day, the lord chancellor brought the bill to the lords, signed by the King, with the great seal appended to it; and whilst the commons were being summoned to attend, the Duke of Suffolk arose, and said that he and several others had that morning visited the Queen; that she acknowledged her offence against God, the King, and the nation, implored his Grace not to punish her brothers, or family, for her faults; and, as a last request, desired permission to divide her clothes amongst her maidens, as she had nought else to recompense their services with. The Earl of Southampton confirmed this statement, and added more which has not been entered on

that Katherine Howard, base and incontinent as she was previous to her marriage with Henry the Eighth, was guilty of adultery-the crime for which she suffered death; and if she was innocent, so also were Lady Rochford, Culpepper, and Derham. Indeed, Derbam evidently suffered not because he had committed the act imputed to him, but because he might possibly have intended to do so. According to those valuable national records, the State Papers: when the King, in his wrath, expressed a desire to take the life of the aged Duchess of Norfolk, the judges for once had the boldness to dissent; declaring that the Duchess, having opened Derham's chests, and willingly destroyed his papers, could not constitute high treason, without it could be proved that the papers were of a treasonable nature, and the Duchess knew them to be such; -an opinion which so irritated the despotic monarch, that, on hearing it, he vehemently exclaimed, "They cannot

say that they have any learning to following, whose souls (I doubt not) be maintain that they have a better ground with God, for they made the most godly to make Derham's case treason, and to and Christian end that ever was heard presume that his coming again to the tell of, I think, since the world's creaQueen's service, was to an il intent tion: uttering their lively faith in the of a renovation of his former naughty | blood of Christ only, and with goodly life. than they have in this case, to words and stedfast countenances, they presume that the breaking of the coffers desired all Christian people to take re[Derham's chests] was to the intent to gard unto their worthy and just punishconceal letters of treason!"-A proof ment with death for their offences, and that the charge of having made the against God heinously from their youth disgraced Queen an adulteress, was upward, in breaking all his commandnever substituted against Derham. ments, and also against the King's royal majesty very dangerously. Wherefore they, being justly condemned (as they said) by the laws of the realm and parliament to die, required the people (I say) to take example at them for amendment of their ungodly lives, and gladly to obey the king in all things, for whose preservation they did heartily pray, and willed all people so to do, commending their souls to God, earnestly calling for mercy upon him whom I beseech to give us grace, with such faith, hope, and charity, at our departing out of this miserable world, to come to the fruition of his Godhead in joy everlasting. Amen "Your loving brother,

On being informed that she must prepare for her execution, Katherine made the subjoined solemn protestation to her last confessor, Dr. White, who subsequently delivered it to a noble young lord, of her name and near alliance :"As to the act, my reverend Lord, for which I stand condemned, God and his holy angels I take to witness, upon my soul's salvation, that I die guiltless, never having so abused my sovereign's bed. What other sins and foilies of youth I have committed, I will not excuse, but am assured for them God hath brought this punishment upon me, and will in his mercy remit them, for which I pray you pray with me unto his Son and my Saviour, Christ."

"OTWELL JOHNSON." "With my hearty commendations unThe uncrowned Queen had been con- to Mr. Cave and Mistress Cave, not fordemned but two days, when, on the thir- getting my sister, your wife. I pray teenth of February, she and Lady Roch-you, let them be made partakers of these ford, accompanied by her confessor, were last news, for surely the thing is well led to execution. The scaffold on which worth the knowledge." they suffered was the same on which Anne Boleyn was decapitated, and was erected on the grave, facing the church of St. Peter ad Vincula, within the Tower.

The particulars of the execution are graphically detailed in the subjoined letter, addressed by an eye-witness, Otwell Johnson to his brother, John Johnson, a merchant of the Staple, at Calais. "At London, the fifteenth day of February, 1542.

"From Calais I have heard nothing as yet of your suit to my Lord Grey; and for news from hence, know ye that even according to my writing on Sunday last. I saw the Queen and the Lady Rochford suffer, within the Tower, the day

The original of this letter is in the Record office in the Tower. It was probably intercepted, as from its tenor we learn that Katherine, whilst she died with Christian meekness and resignation, so far from confessing the crime for which she was beheaded, used the very same ambiguous and unsatisfactory language which Suffolk had just before emdence not likely to be accidental, and ployed in the House of Lords, a coinciwhich is a further proof of the unjustness of her condemnation.

The mangled remains of Katherine Howard were buried with indecent haste, and without funeral pomp, in St. Peter's chapel, within the Tower, close to where those of Anne Boleyn were interred.

She died in about the twenty-first or great trouble; and to secure both himtwenty-second year of her age, and in self and his successors for the future from the eighteenth month of her marriage.* a similar misfortune, in the bill of her Little time was allowed her to prepare attainder he caused it to be enneted that for death. but in her last moments she any one who knew, or even strongiv sustestified resentment against no one but i pected any guilt in the Queen, might disher uncie Norfolk, and this was less on close it to the King or the council, without account of herself than of her aged grand- incurring the penalty of any former laws mother, the Duchess of Norfolk. She against defaming the Queen; that any knew that the old Duchess was con- one knowing the Queen's guilt, and not demned for misprision of treason, chiefly disclosing it to the King or the council, through Norfolk's agency, and expected or noising it abroad, or even whispering that she would shortly follow her to the it to their friends, should be guilty of block; but in this she was mistaken, treason. That the Queen, who should for shame induced Henry to pardon the move another person to commit adultery Duchess in May. 1543. with her, or the person who should move As Lady Rochford had been the chief her to the like act with him, should also instrument in bringing her own husband | be guilty of treason; and that if the and Anne Boleyn to their end, she died unpitied; but many felt for the untimely fate of the beautiful Katherine Howard, and deemed her at least innocent of the crime for which she suffered. Her carly derelictions certainly caused the King

King married any woman who had been incontinent, believing her to be a maid, she should be guilty of treason if she did not disclose her disgrace to him previous to her marriage. The people made merry with this last clause, and said that the King must henceforth look out for a widow, for no reputed maid would ever he persuaded to incur the penalty of the

statute.

KATHERINE PARR,

Sixth Queen of Bearg the Eighth.

CHAPTER I.

Katherine's parentage-Birth-In childhood loses her father-Talents, learning, wisdom, virtue-Futile negotiations for her marriage to Lord Scroop's heir-Married to Lord Borough—He dies, and Katherine's mother also—Katherine's widowhood-She becomes the wife of Lord Latimer-Insurrection in the North-Lord Latimer one of the insurgents—lis peril and loss-Katherine procures the release of Sir George Throgmorton, and the full of Cromwell-Her second husband diesSir Thomas Seymour woos her-Henry the Eighth demands her hand, and murries her-She becomes a reformer-Is hated by the Catholics - Persecution of Marbeck and other reformers—Advancement of Katherine's kindred-Katherine's kindness to her royal step-children-Act of Parliament settling the succession-Mutual friendship between Katherine and the Princess Mary-Katherine holds a grand court-She is constituted Regent—Henry goes to France, and takes Boulogne-Her doings in the King's absence-His letter to her from Boulogne-The plague-Capture and ransom of George Throgmorton-Painting of the Royal Family.

ATHERINE PARR, the sixth and last consort of Henry the Eighth, and the first Protestant Queen of England, was the only daughter of Sir Thomas Parr, of Kendal, and his wife Matilda, daughter of Sir Thomas Green, of Broughton and Green's Norton, in Northamptonshire. Although, like Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, only a Knight's daughter, Katherine was allied in blood to the King himself; and what infinitely

Joanna Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt, married Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, by whom she had two daughters, Cicely and Alice. Cicely married Richard, Duke of York, and was the mother of Edward the Fourth. Alice married the Lord Fitz

eclipses the boast of descent, she was a lady of remarkable piety, prudence, and virtue. She was born about the year 1513 (the precise date is not known), at Kendal Castle, in Westmoreland, founded by her Norman ancestor, Ivo de Tallebois. William, her only brother, was created Earl of Essex in December, 1543, · and afterwards Marquis of Northampton. Her sister, Anne, became the wife of William Herbert, created Earl of Pembroke by Edward the Sixth. Whilst yet but a child, she had the misfortune to lose her father, Sir Thomas Parr, who died in the parish of Blackfriars, London, on the eleventh of November, 1517, left his children to the guardianship of Hugh. and had Elizabeth, who married Sir William Parr, grandfather to the subject of the present memoir.

their mother, and by his will, dated four | dren much older than herself, and who days previous to his demise, bequeathed | died about the year 1528, leaving her a his lands and possessions to his wife during her life; his great gold chain that the King had graciously presented to him. worth one hundred and forty pounds, to his son William; and to each of his daughters, Katherine and Anne, as their wedding portion, four hundred pounds, a sum equal to about two thousand pounds each present money; a bequest paltry indeed, considering that to him belonged Kendal Castle, the rich inheritance of the Greens, of Broughton, and other manors and broad lands, to say nothing of goods, chattels, and money.

childless widow of fifteen. Whilst yet in deep mourning for the loss of her first husband, Katherine, to her infinite sorrow, received intelligence of the death of her beloved mother, and last surviving parent, on the twentieth of May, 1529, The will of Dame Maud Parr, widow and late wife of Sir Thomas Parr, as Katherine's mother styles herself, is remarkable for lack of sense and perspicuity. In it allusion is made to the marriage of Katherine's brother to Lady Bourchier, daughter of the Earl of Essex, and sole descendant of Isabella Plantagenet, sister to Richard, Duke of York, the King's great-grandfather; an alliance which connected the family of the Parrs still more closely to that of their sovereign.

Katherine was endowed by nature with uncommon talents, which, by the wisdom of her mother, were improved and carefully cultivated. Besides being a perfect mistress of her own tongue, she was a good Latin, French, and German Katherine, it appears, passed the pescholar, and even possessed some know-riod of her first widowhood at Sizergh ledge of Greek; whilst her skill and in- Castle, under the protection of her stepdustry in the use of the needle were such, son, Henry Borough. Both her brother that to this day may be seen, in excel- and her uncle obtained posts in the royal lent preservation, at Sizergh Castle, a household, and she herself appears to superb counterpane, and a toilet cover of have been on something like terms of rich white satin, embossed with flowers friendship with the King, as in the privy and heraldic devices, in many-coloured purse expenses of Henry the Eighth, is silks and threads of gold, wrought, it is an entry, in 1530, of a rich coat of Kensaid, solely by her hands. dal cloth, which she presented to him. The present, however, must have been one of friendship, and not of love. Henry's affections were then firmly fixed on Anne Boleyn, and this fact was well known to Katherine, who, although astrology had predicted that she was born to be one of the greatest queens in Christendom, shortly afterwards (the date is unknown) gave her hand in marriage to the wealthy Lord Latimer, an elderly widower with two children, who had already buried two wives: - Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Musgrave, and Dorothy, who died in 1527, and was daughter of Sir George de Vere, and coheiress to John de Vere, Earl of Oxford.

In 1524, a negotiation was opened for the marriage of Katherine to the heir of Lord Scroop. With this view, several letters passed between Lord Parr's widow, Lord Scroop, and Lord Dacre, the latter acting as mediator; but as both parties were fishing for gold, they each endeavoured to drive so hard a bargain that the affair came to nothing, and was terminated by Lord Dacre writing to Lady Parr, in May, 1525, expressing regret that the matter had not been amicably arranged, and declaring that Lord Scroop's demand of eleven hundred marks was only what she could afford to give; and as to his offer of one hundred marks jointure, it was not far from the established custom of the country, which was to give ten marks jointure for every hundred marks of dower.

No long time afterwards, Katherine was married to Lord Borough, of Gainsborough, au elderly widower with chil

Whilst the wife of Lord Latimer, Katherine passed most of her time at his castle of Snape, in Yorkshire, near Great Tanfield, a manor which belonged to her childless brother, William Parr, and to which, at the time of her marriage, she was heiress presumptive. Her lord