I do have a fascination with the Tudors and the life of Katherine Parr is one of the more interesting out of all Henry VIII’s wives. Most people focus in on the King’s Great Matter, which is what advisors called his apparent mental and spiritual battle around his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. More likely he wanted to dispense with a wife who would no longer give him heirs and move on to his proposed mistress Anne Boleyn. The Great Matter was simply an excuse for divorce and if only Katherine had gone quietly. As it was it didn’t take long for Anne to be out of favour too, but sadly Katherine was too ill to enjoy her replacement’s fall from grace. A few years later, Anne of Cleves would go quietly and in doing so received great favour from Henry and Anne Boleyn’s childhood home of Hever Castle. She was the most shrewd of the wives. It is and Katherine Parr that most see as escaping Henry’s barbarous habits of killing off his wives, but Katherine’s life after Henry was far from rosy. I always feel desperately sorry for this woman who loved a man from a very young age, but could never have him because of being married off to various old and infirm men who she nursed till their deaths. Katherine’s entire life is often reduced to these marriages, especially the last two; King Henry who she couldn’t refuse and finally, after Henry’s death, the love match she had always wanted with Thomas Seymour. There are various strange aspects to this last marriage but the men she married are not really the sum of this intelligent and witty woman.

Courtiers saw Katherine’s marriage to Thomas Seymour as proof that the Queen had intelligence but absolutely no common sense, full of passion for a younger man who was certainly not worthy of her. In this book the author intends to uncover more about this interesting woman, by looking at the circumstances of her death and her burial place. The author clearly has a passion for his subject and has written the book like a book on true crime. This makes it compelling and meant I read it in a day when I was unwell in bed. However, there were areas where whole paragraphs could have been scrapped because they were mainly repeating information already explored elsewhere. However, the opening chapter was well written and placed perfectly to grab the reader and lead them into the mystery by looking at several odd events in the last twenty months of her life. I had always assumed that she’d married Seymour so soon after Henry’s death because she didn’t want to wait and be proposed to by someone else she couldn’t refuse. It is often mooted that she wanted to finally have some fun after dealing with an ailing Henry and the terrible ulcer that he received in a much earlier jousting match. The ulcer never healed fully and.was often weeping and painful. It is likely that sepsis from this infected leg eventually killed him. However, the author questions these long accepted facts as well as the assumption that her death was due to childbed fever. From my own reading I was aware of some of the information the author presents here. For example, before Henry’s death Katherine was the wife who managed to reunite him with his children. Most sources mention the close relationship she had with Elizabeth, possibly because Elizabeth left court to live with her stepmother in Gloucester after her father’s death. She also wrote regularly to Mary and Edward, convincing the King to invite his children to court and have them around him in his final years. Edward was of course the son of Henry and his third wife Jane Seymour, making Thomas Seymour the King’s uncle as soon as Edward took the throne. This made Thomas powerful, but it was also suggested he wouldn’t want a dowager Queen still of marriageable age interfering with his protectorship of Edward. What better way to take control than to become her husband?

Another rumour I’ve read in several history books and novels is that Thomas Seymour had his eyes on a much greater prize. Eventually, Edward’s reign would pass on to one of his sisters - an event that might come sooner than most expected since the young king was known to be frail. The Protestant Seymour’s would not want the Catholic Mary taking the throne, so if Thomas could get into the orbit of Elizabeth and start to influence her - no better than grooming - he could go from the King’s Uncle to the Queen’s Consort. I’ve read that Katherine Parr had a difficult pregnancy, with bed rest being recommended for many months. This left Thomas Seymour unoccupied and unsatisfied. He struck up a rapport with the Princess who was only a teenager. Elizabeth’s nurse Kat Ashley observed that he might pop into the princess’s bed chamber and was found ticking her when she was still in her night clothes. Kat made sure she didn’t leave Elizabeth alone for too long, but it is possible that the damage was done. Some sources suggest an absence for the princess not long after Katherine’s confinement. Could the teenage Elizabeth have been pregnant? 

It’s only recently while watching a programme on Henry’s queens that I found out about that Katherine’s body had laid in a near perfect state for centuries.it was fascinating part of the book that detailed an elaborate process of embalming and being interred In a lead lined sheets before being placed in her coffin. All this was carried out with unseemly haste only 24 hours after her death from puerperal fever. She was buried only yards from her home of Sudeley Castle in the chapel. Over the years the chapel fell into disrepair and was removed, leaving no marker for her grave - a strange state of affairs for a woman who had been Queen. Her resting place forgotten, it was centuries later when Katherine was disinterred and so well preserved that her body was still perfect. At this point the grave was opened and keepsakes taken from her body. The grave was subject further vandalism and investigation in a terribly undignified succession of events, including being left in the open. It took several decades and more indignities before a rector decided to disinter the Queen one last time and bury her where no one could get to the body again. Finally Katherine was at peace. However, for me the most pressing question about those final years of Katherine’s life is what happened to her daughter Mary, still a newborn baby when she died. The author goes some way towards answering this mystery and shedding new light on Katherine’s final days. I thoroughly enjoyed the new light the author shed on why the Queen might have married Seymour, only months after Henry’s death. I found this new perspective speculative with little evidence to back it up, but it was still an interesting and valid theory.

I found some of the book a little disjointed as well as repetitive. The author jumped around from parts of Katherine’s life which was fine if you knew some of her story. However, if you didn’t the it might be harder to keep up. The author uses repetition and reminders about facts already established in other parts of the book, but for those who’ve read a lot of Tudor history or just have a good memory the reminders were a bit wearing and unnecessary. I do think that as a whole the book provides a thorough and well researched biographical introduction to Katherine. It’s also interesting enough to spark some thoughts for any lover of Tudor history. It also poses important questions to consider about the final 20 months of her life and some I’d never considered. Such as why she left court and moved to Gloucestershire far away from her allies and courtly circle? Was the description of her marriage to Seymour as a love match really justified? What was the full medical cause of death? Why was her burial so quick with a state funeral not even considered? I thought the author explored these questions well, as well as her relationship with Edward and Mary, her other stepchildren who she wrote to regularly. It’s also interesting to read about her Protestant beliefs and how they led to her being the first woman and Queen to publish a book on her faith. So, I found this book mostly well researched, it also found insight into her death although the whereabouts of her daughter still remains a mystery. It is thought that she was entrusted to a noble woman and died in infancy. Some of the arguments the author puts forward on these (and other) points. I had never read any of the letters sent to her by her stepchildren and didn't know about her warm relationship with Mary and Edward in particular (the relationship with Elizabeth is more widely written about) Also her Protestant beliefs were more clearly explained as was her power at the court before her royal marriage. It left me with a healthy respect for Katherine that I hadn’t had before and despite some repetition I learned some new facts about her life. She was certainly much more than the nursemaid Queen we are led to believe.

Interesting book about the last wife of Henry VIII, Katherine Parr. Overall it was a good read, but it was overshadowed by the tedious round about ways of presenting the same facts over and over: married four times, died of childbirth or something else, devoted to the Reformation, why did she go to Sudderley, etc. The chapters go back in forth in time, they are not in chronological order.

In June 1548,Catherine, moved to Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire.It was there that Catherine would spend the last few months of her pregnancy and the last summer of her life.Catherine gave birth to her only biological child,Mary Seymour,on 30 August 1548.Catherine died on 5 September 1548, at Sudeley Castle, from what is thought to have been "childbed fever".Catherine's funeral was held on 7 September 1548.It was the first Protestant funeral held in English.She was buried in St.Mary's Chapel on the grounds of Sudeley Castle.There were theories that Katherine's last husband,Thomas Seymour,1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley poisoned her since he was power hungry and had made inappropriate advances towards the future Elizabeth I,who was Katherine's stepdaughter.She was also buried very quickly after her demise and her stepchildren weren't mentioned in her will.Her legacy was forgotten until way later on.
During the English Civil War, Sudeley Castle was used as a base by King Charles I,and with sieges taking place in 1643 and 1649,along with numerous change of hands,Catherine's grave was probably disturbed and her monument destroyed.The castle was then abandoned with her royal grave being lost. Catherine's presence at the castle was first rediscovered by the antiquarian Rev. Huggett when researching at the College of Arms,passing his findings onto George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers,the castle's owner in 1768.Joseph Lucas,a member of the local gentry who dwelled in the outer court of the castle, renting it from Baron Rivers,was aware of Huggett's work and searched for the lost grave, discovering it among the ruins of the chapel in 1782. The coffin was reopened in 1783, 1784, 1786; and in 1792, when local vandals broke into the coffin and threw the corpse in a rubbish heap, leading to Mr. Lucas reinterring the body in a hidden,walled grave.The last time the coffin was opened was in 1817 when the local rector decided to move it to the crypt under the chapel.It was found the body had been reduced to a skeleton.The coffin was last moved in 1861 to its final location in the fully restored chapel,under a canopied neo-Gothic tomb.

An extremely well researched look at Katharine Parr, Lady, Queen and wife to four. . The book answers many questions and also arouses many others. A very readable and informative. book.

Thank you net galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

This is the true story of Katherine Parr Henry 8th last wife. This is a well researched book perfect for young and older readers. The author delves deep into the life of Katherine Parr both before and after her marriage to the king. It is obvious Katherine lead a very full life and died in childbirth leaving her daughter Mary without her mother. There is discussion in the book about why and how she died so soon after childbirth and her marriage to Seymour who was later executed for treason..
The book is full of interesting facts and it was obvious that Henry’s children held their step mother in high esteem plus Henry trusted this last wife with his kingdom while he fought his last battle in France. It appeared that although Katherine was to be treated as queen after Henry’s death it was soon apparent that she was almost forgotten in the whole scheme of royalty at the time and even her burial was far from royal.
Read this book which is full of facts and enjoy the mystery of Katherine Parr’s last years .

Nonfiction can be very hot or miss for me. Keeping this in mind, this particular book is one of those books that you can't help but like, whether or not you are acquainted with the subject matter. The writing is smooth and not pretentious plus the research done is evident in every line written. Highly recommended.

I would rate this 3.5 out of 5.

I want to thank Pen & Sword Publishing and NetGalley for an early copy of this book.

Brief Summary: Katherine Parr's legacy is often overshadowed by her final two marriages. As the final queen of Henry VIII, she is viewed as a nursemaid to an ailing tyrant. As the wife of Thomas Seymour, she is seen as a woman driven by a passion for a man of "great wit and little sense". However, her impact on English history is undeniable if only it can be uncovered. How did a woman who reached the pinnacle of power at the Tudor court fade from history? Woolerton attempts to answer this question by exploring what Parr's death and final resting place say about her life.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this book a lot. It reads like a true crime biography of a Tudor icon and I read the whole book in nearly a single setting.

I will start by saying that Woolerton's interest and passion for the subject of Katherine Parr is clear throughout the book. That being said, the writing was not my favourite. It was very repetitive in many places and there were several times where it was frustrating because it felt like entire sections could have been cut. After all, I just read the contents in another paragraph.

The most fascinating part of this book was what happened to Parr's body after her sudden death. I had no idea how much vandalism and investigation occurred at her final resting place. The first chapter where Woolerton outlines many of the details about these events grabbed my attention immediately. I had never heard any of the information surrounding these events and the way that they were presented was well throughout and captivating.

However, my favourite part of the book was Woolerton's thoughts on why Parr may have married Seymour. This theory provided a new perspective which I had not considered before and is something that I think is a perfectly logical explanation of events. While this portion of this book was more conjecture than specific fact, Woolerton does a good job of laying out the evidence to support the conjecture.

This is a very interesting book and is likely to spark some thoughts for any lover of Tudor history. I think that this is an excellent book to introduce you to the life and legacy of Katherine Parr. It provides you with a clear overview of her life and legacy. It also poses important questions to consider about the final 20 months of her life.

Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Death, and Child Death
Moderate: War, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexism, Murder, Death of a parent, Classism, and Grief
Minor: Religious bigotry and Infidelity

This is a well crafted, well researched book on Katherine Parr, Henry VIII’s last queen.

Anyone that’s checked out my previous reviews knows I’m a big Tudor history fan girl. If there’s a book about it I’m going to want to read it, fiction or non-fiction, so I was especially glad to be granted this from the wish list at NetGalley.

Katherine Parr is probably the Tudor Queen I know least about or the one that is most misrepresented in my mind - another reason why I requested this book. Reading it has put her much clearer in my mind.

Unlike some other historical non-fiction this is lovely and accessible in terms of prose. A couple of things to note. 1 - It does jump around in time a little but this doesn’t make it unduly confusing. 2 - There are small pieces which are repeated throughout the chapters, especially around her relationships with Henry’s children & John Neville’s children. I personally found this a little jarring at times but most people probably wouldn’t even notice and it didn’t spoil my overall enjoyment.

This is a short, impactful read, shining a new light on the demise of Katherine Parr and shares some interesting and credible new theories about some of her actions, especially around her marriage to Thomas Seymour. This book is a credit to the author & I enjoyed reading it.

Thank you to the author, publishers & NetGalley for granting me access to this arc in return for an honest review.

I was blown away by this investigation. I was unaware that Katherine Parr remarried ( a Seymour) and was intrigued by this detailed exploration of the facts around her death. What a story! June Woolerton’s research appears to be meticulous and I found her narrative engaging and compelling. I knew she was Henry’s last wife and outlived him, but I didn’t know that she remarried so quickly. As soon as I learned her new husband was a Seymour, I could understand why there was mystery surrounding her death and hasty burial a few days after giving birth, The Seymour’s werekey players on the Tudor stage with a singular interest in one thing; power.

June Woolerton offers a number of possibilities, each have some conviction and I liked the fact that there is little by way of speculation. The facts are presented based on evidence, not conjecture, and upturn the long held conventional view. A really enjoyable investigation and plenty of food for thought, with, for me, a totally new angle on the Tudors. I really enjoyed this title.

The Mysterious Death of Katherine Parr by June Woolerton

The final days of Henry VIII’s last queen included a faithless husband and rumours of a royal affair while the weeks after her funeral swirled with whispers of poison and murder. The Mysterious Death of Katherine Parr dives into the calamitous and tumultuous events leading up to the last hours of a once powerful queen and the bizarre happenings that followed her passing.

From the elaborate embalming of her body, that left it in a state of perfect preservation for almost three centuries despite a burial just yards from her place of death, to the still unexplained disappearance, without trace, of her baby, the many questions surrounding the death of Queen Katherine are examined in a new light.
A very well researched and thorough insight into Katherine Parr and her life once the king had died ( and death ).
Was interesting and found out things I had not known before.

The Mysterious Death of Katherine Parr by June Woolerton, focus on the sudden and abrupt death of the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII, Queen Katherine Parr.

I was slightly disappointed with this novel, as I feel it lost itself in its premise. Woolerton tries to pose the question was Katherine really murdered by her last husband? Instead of presenting points for her question, she really circled around the same three points for the length of the book. Katherine’s four marriages, Katherine’s relationship with her children, and Katherine’s learning. It seemed like every other page, the author was referencing “the four time married” queen.

There was not enough lent to the support of the theory that Queen Katherine Parr died of anything other than “child bed fever.” It is a compelling theory, but without more support it falls flat.

I still would recommend the novel to anyone who likes Tudor History or Katherine Parr, but keep your expectations light.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Pen and Sword Publishing for the advanced reader copy!

This book is well written, interesting and informative. It deals a lot with the afterlife of Katherine Parr as well as with her actual death which was an interesting approach but not really one that I was expecting from the title . Nevertheless I Highly recommended this.

This study of Queen Katherine Parr's life, death and "afterlife" contains fascinating and presumably factual information. I found the story of how her grave was discovered, desecrated, and studied to be quite fascinating. Despite extensive reading on Henry VIII's six queens, I was unaware of this information. The book is undeniably well-researched in many areas; kudos to the author for uncovering this history.

However, my praise ends there. After the first chapter or two, the book is, quite frankly, a mess. The writing is extremely repetitive, and disjointed, making it difficult to read. While it isn't necessary for a biographical work to be linear, this one jumped back and forth between many periods in Katherine's life, and repeated many of the same facts or suppositions each time, as if the average reader was unable to retain the information. Confusion frequently set in; it was often difficult to differentiate between Katherine Parr and others named "Katherine" who also figured in her story. There were times when I believed the author was attempting to draw a conclusion -- such as in regards to Katherine Parr's cause of death -- but fell short of doing so. by not providing supporting evidence.

I believe ARC readers are supposed to refrain from mentioning typos and lack of editing -- presuming that a good editor will take care of those issues before a book is published. But, I feel compelled to bring them up because the narrative's disarray and the author's lack of attention to submitting a cohesive, non-repetitive story to the publisher, even in unedited form, had a profoundly negative impact on my opinion. And that's sad, because I found the information interesting and wanted very much to be able to like the book.

I hope that when published, it will have been thoroughly edited, which will significantly reduce its length. The information is fascinating; it would be a relief to not have to wade through repetitions, and grammar/sentence structure issues, in order to digest it.

Although this is a history book, large parts of it rea more like a story. I quickly became invested in Katherine, her family, and what happened to her. She comes alive as a real person, not just a historical ruler. The sadness I felt over the state of her grave, and her death was completely unexpected. I will definitely be picking up other books this author has published, and any to come in the future.

This is both an informative and an interesting read. The author has included primary and secondary documents, which makes the story - and theories - far more credible than others I have seen. In addition to this, the author explains WHY certain actions raise red flags, which is helpful for someone who may not understand the historical social times.

I love historical fiction, especially about the Tudors. It's one of my favorite parts to read about and this book was perfect for me. It had so much to say about one of the last Tudor wives and the only one to survive. Much isn't known about Katherine Parr after she survived Henry and it was fascinating to read about how she lived and died. There was so much tragedy and horror filled around this man that you feel sorry for everyone involved. I loved this book and will be recommending it.

This is a very thorough biography of Katherine Parr although from the title it seems like it would only be about the circumstances of her death. Although I have read a lot of books about the Tudors, I have never read any which focuses on her life after Henry VIII as much as this one does. And what a fascinating subject. Although she only lived a short while after his death, I had no idea that how she died was controversial at all. Was it a result of childbirth? If so, why was she buried so quickly and at such a small church even though she was still regarded as a queen? This book approaches the questions from all angles and is full of a wealth of facts. It is an intriguing mystery and perhaps one that we will never know the answer to.

In the popular rhyme about Henry the Eight's wives, Katherine Parr is the one who "survived" (although Anne of Cleves did too)

I knew that she had remarried the caddish Thomas Seymour (uncle to the King) and had a child and always wondered what happened to the child. I assumed that it was a love match with the handsome Admiral and that she had died as a result of some birth related disease.

All of this is re-examined and questioned.

It starts with the disinterment of her body, all wrapped in cloth and lead encased. It then details any accounts from the time and any subsequent reports of what later happened to her body.

We then back-track to find out what an important , supportive ,educated and loving wife and stepmother she had been . This leads the author to question the accepted version, with facts from primary sources and also build a picture of why her death leaves many questions open
For example:-
Why did she move to Gloucestershire from London when her orbit of power was at court and London
Was it really a love match?
What was the medical cause of her death?
Why was her funeral so hastily arranged when state funerals rarely were?

I was intrigued by the arguments the author puts forward on these (and other) points. I had never read any of the letters sent to her by her stepchildren and didn't know about her warm relationship with Mary and Edward in particular (the relationship with Elizabeth is more widely written about) Also her Protestant beliefs were more clearly explained as was her power at the court before her royal marriage.

There was some over repetition of the arguments , but the book was well researched and is an interesting addition to books about the wives of Henry the Eighth.

he Mysterious Death of Katherine Parr is an engaging and layman accessible historical account of the death and aftermath of the last Queen of Henry VIII written by June Woolerton. Released 4th April 2024 by Pen & Sword on their History imprint, it's 224 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. Due for release outside the UK 30th May 2024.

This is a very well written account of the mysteries and lack of documentation and records surrounding the late life, death, and burial of Queen Katherine Parr, the last queen of Henry VIII. The author has done an impressive job of collecting and presenting an astounding collection of snippets, historical talks, excerpts from letters, and extant records to reconstruct the later life of the queen.

Although it's a layman accessible text, and written in everyday language, it is meticulously annotated and the chapter notes are well written and provide another layer of detail and will provide the keen reader many hours of reference reading outside the main text. The author/publisher have also provided a number of facsimile documents and black and white photos and greyscale illustrations of the main characters (many of the known Holbein portraits are included, as well as the lands and gardens around Sudbury, and several B&W studies of the marble tomb figure erected in the 19th Century for the late queen by Queen Victoria when Queen Katherine's remains were moved to a new (more appropriate) location.

Five stars. Engaging and well written. It would be an excellent choice for public or school library acquisition, for gift giving, and for home library.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I became interested in Katherine Parr after seeing the musical Six, and was thrilled to see this book. Katherine Parr outlived Henry VIII, if only for a mere 18 months. Not typically being a nonfiction reader, the writing and information presented were engaging and compelling. Did she die in childbirth or was something more sinister at play? The author dies a fabulous job presenting interesting facts that make your question what you know.

Thank you NetGalley and Pen & Sword for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I wish I could give this book a better rating, for it was well-researched and clearly a work of passion for the author. However, it was written in such a superfluous way that I struggled to appreciate the story of Katherine Parr within.
This could have been a well-worded essay as opposed to a 187-page book. The text is full of spelling and grammar errors that leads me to believe this was a first and only draft. The book is also extremely repetitive. Information is stated over and over again as though it is expected that the reader has the memory span of a goldfish.
Another disservice done to Katherine Parr.