Henry VIII Signed Her Arrest Warrant. Katherine Parr Talked Her Way Out.

About this episode

In the summer of 1546, Henry VIII signed a warrant for the arrest of his sixth wife. Katherine Parr found out because somebody dropped it on the floor. Today we're spending time with the queen who's usually remembered as Henry's nurse, and I think that does her a real disservice. Before she ever married the king, Katherine had been held hostage by rebels in a Yorkshire castle. As queen, she ran England as regent while Henry was at war in France, and she became the first woman to publish a book in English under her own name. She also turned her rooms at court into a study circle for reform-minded women, which is exactly what put her in danger. We'll look at Anne Askew, who was racked in the Tower by the Lord Chancellor himself and still wouldn't give up the queen's ladies. We'll get the plot from Stephen Gardiner and Thomas Wriothesley, the paper on the floor, and the night Katherine went to Henry's bedchamber and gave the performance of her life. And then there are the secret letters she wrote to Thomas Seymour after Henry died, and the book she'd been sitting on the whole time. I also make the case for the villains, because Gardiner and Henry had their reasons too. Do you thin