The Wives of Henry VIII: Katherine Parr, Part III

Katherine, now a widow, moved to a manor house in Chelsea, where in April she secretly married the love of her life, Thomas Seymour. But hers was not to be the fabled happy ending. Seymour, being a man of great appetites, became infatuated with the young Princess Elizabeth, who had come to stay with her stepmother after her father's death and to share with her cousin, Lady Jane Grey, the tutelage and education which were necessary to her rank. Dazzled by the romantic Tom, Elizabeth naively struggled not to fall victim to his charm, but his attentions were so overt that his poor wife, now great with child, was forced to remonstrate with him out of her own grief and jealousy, and out of a concern for the reputation of the young princess. Elizabeth was sent from the happy house to an establishment of her own, and in August, 1548, the disillusioned and unhappy Katherine gave birth to a daughter, named Mary after the Princess whom she loved. Katherine's own life was at an end, and with the birth of her daughter she became stricken with a puerperal fever, and died on 7 September. Her husband followed her to the grave by less than a year, his reckless and heedless behavior and his irresponsible ego finally bringing him to the block on 20 March, 1549.

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