The Queen's Grace

Book excerpt: Catherine Parr, also known as Katryn, is most well-known as the last and sixth wife of King Henry VIII — a powerful monarch and an infamous husband. However, Katryn's role as queen, though aglow with razzle dazzle, is but a brief chapter of her absorbing story. Most noble men and women of the sixteenth century married to unite families, build fortunes, produce heirs, and to maintain or secure power. Katryn was no exception. Independent, well-educated, and eager to experience life and take risks, she nevertheless agreed to marry after the death of her father and found herself the wife of a much older man when she was barely sixteen. Not one to shirk responsibility, she fulfilled her duties faithfully. Households flourished under her direction and she raised her numerous step-children with love and genuine concern for their welfare. However, beneath her dutiful exterior lurked a passionate woman who met and fell in love with a man she was not destined to marry until she had been widowed three times. Thomas Seymour — a forceful and reckless man who was the brother of Jane Seymour, third wife to King Henry VIII — was her match in all ways and their unpredictable and tempestuous relationship is the real subject of this story. Jan Westcott is the daughter of a renowned classical historian and subsequently became an enthusiastic and insightful student of history. With spell-binding speculation she deftly expands on the facts as we know them to bring to life the trials and frustrations, disappointments and triumphs of Katryn Parr and all the lords and ladies of King Henry's realm.