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Catherine Parr became the sixth wife of King Henry after the bloody death of his fifth wife, Catherine Howard. Catherine Howard was sentenced to death after it was discovered that she’d had an affair.
In his younger days, King Henry had been dashing and handsome, but by the time he’d finally married Catherine Parr, he was paranoid and sickly. If not for this fact, Catherine Parr may well have suffered a fate similar to Catherine Howards. However, she was spared being judged a heretic by the death of King Henry VIII when she was thirty-five.
Carolly Erickson paints a vivid tale of the life of Queen Catherine. From Catherine’s first days at court when she was seven, through her happy marriage to Ned and then her marriage to John, and finally to her hectic marriage to King Henry VIII, Erickson makes history come alive. In the days when women were merely chattel, and beauty could draw favor or result in death, Catherine Parr life flows against a backdrop of treachery and politics.
THE LAST WIFE OF KING HENRY VIII is a griping tale of one woman’s survival in a maze of deceit and mortality.
Reviewed by Janean Nusz
for The Road to Romance
May 23, 2007
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