23 thoughts on “WCW: Catherine Parr

  1. I love the Lucy Worsley version (big surprise). I completely forgot about Joely Richardson; then again, I’ve tried to block that whole fiasco out of my mind. :)

  2. Re. Jessica Raine: So Jane Parker/Lady Rochford became Catherine Parr? I thought she looked strangely familiar. Will there be a Lady Rochford WCW? Supposedly, she’s been misjudged by most histories histories and novels (although her conduct as Katherine Howard’s confidante does give one pause).

      1. Hard/impossible to analyze people at this distance in time, but–histrionic personality disorder, something like that? She seemed to be getting off on the drama of it all.

  3. Like Chaucer’s Wife of Bath Katherine had good, old husbands then married a hot man who made her unhappy. Imagine how bad a man has to be to make Henry VIII look like the better marital choice!

  4. My movie watch group recently watched The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), figuring it would be a fun piece of movie history. It was actually rather disturbing, as they depict Katherine Howard as a scheming adult vixen who seduced Henry. All of us know a little too much actual history (Katherine was a painfully young teenager) to be comfortable with that. It’s an interesting snapshot of 1930s culture but not worth the creepy feelings.

    1. Likewise, the 1953 movie sounds gross. Elizabeth was underage and the twit was her stepdad! No way should that be portrayed as part of a love triangle.

    2. I know Private Life is all wrong historically but it is quite funny except for the tragic storyline of Katherine Howard.

  5. I certainly hope Firebrand does Catherine Parr justice, after the Becoming Elizabeth fiasco, also after the horrible Tudors debacle. Have you read Alison Weir’s take on the Six Wives? You can tell she did her reasearch! She focused on the wives both pre and post Henry VIII!

    1. Definitely read Weir! My favorite take on the wives is Karen Lindsey’s “Divorced, Beheaded, Died.” A very interesting feminist interpretation, particularly of Anne Boleyn. Her argument is basically that Anne was being sexually harassed and wasn’t all that into Henry.

      1. Love that book! I think it was also where I first found the interpretation that Anne of Cleves was NOT unattractive (many contemporary sources described her as being good-looking if not a raving beauty, and it’s telling that Henry never punished Hans Holbein for misrepresenting her), but Henry rejected her because she reacted to him as the overweight middle-aged man he was instead of the handsome young swain he imagined himself to be. After all…he described her as fat, unattractive, and smelly. Now who else would those adjectives apply to?

    2. I admire Antonia Fraser’s “The Six Wives of Henry VIII”: well researched, well balanced.

    1. Much better to be Henry’s mistress! No pressure, no high expectations and when it’s over you get a golden handshake and a good husband. Elizabeth Blount got a title, Mary Boleyn one of Henry’s gentlemen all set for a brilliant career if he hadn’t died of the Sweat.

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