This week we have a guest post written by my brother Calvin Ullrich about a fascinating story that he learned in school. Many of us have heard of Catherine (Katherine) Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII, but not many of us know that she was a courageous supporter of the reformation!

Katherine Parr by Calvin Ullrich (age 11)

Katherine couldn’t believe her eyes! The note was signed by the king for her arrest. “Henry how could you?” she gasped.

Katherine was King Henry VIII’s sixth wife. She knew that two of his other wives had been beheaded and two divorced. Katherine was a Protestant and Henry hated the reformers so she had to be careful about what she said.

But lately she had been talking to him about reformation ideas and they were discovered by his counselors and they encouraged him to arrest her for treason.

Katherine became suddenly ill from the shock. She called to her ladies-in-waiting to hide the book she had been writing about reformed ideas. Seeing how ill she looked, they called for the doctor – also a Protestant Christian. He asked how she came to know about her arrest and the lady-in-waiting told how the note seemed to have been dropped accidentally outside the door by the king’s messenger. The doctor realized that the king was probably just trying to scare Katherine out of her reformation ideas and to please the counselors at the same time. He told her this and she said, “And he nearly succeeded!” Now Katherine was faced with a very trying choice.

With her most beautiful royal garments on she respectfully and humbly entered the king’s counsel chamber. In front of all his counselors Katherine meekly pleaded for the king’s pardon for her seeming to be his teacher.

Henry’s face changed. She could see that he had just been testing her and that he still loved her. He solemnly agreed that she had been disrespectful but later when this counselors and soldiers came to arrest her Henry ferociously defended her. Katherine nursed Henry until he died and after his death she got the reward for behaving in a Christian way because she was able to publish her book that we can still read today.

****

In spite of her powerful husband’s aversion to the Reformation, Catherine Parr did her best to convince him of the truth. This nearly cost her life. However, she, unlike some of the king’s other wives, survived and nurtured her two step-children Elizabeth and Edward. It was partially through her influence that Edward became the great ruler that he was. After the king’s death, she published her book The Lamentation or Complaint of a Sinner. She died in 1548.

Source: Withrow, Mindy and Brandon,  Courage and Conviction, Christian Focus Publications, 2008