Why would Catherine Parr be the best wife for Henry VIII?
When Henry VIII of England noticed the widowed Catherine Parr, he had just had his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, executed for deceiving him. He divorced his fourth queen, Anne of Cleves, because he was not attracted to her. He’d lost his third wife, Jane Seymour, after she gave birth to his only legitimate son. Henry put aside his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and split with the Church of Rome in order to divorce her, so that he could marry his second wife, Anne Boleyn, only to have Anne executed for treason for betraying him. Knowing that history, and apparently already engaged to Jane Seymour’s brother, Thomas Seymour, Catherine Parr was both reluctant to marry Henry, and aware that refusing could have serious consequences for herself and her family. So Catherine Parr married Henry VIII of England on July 12, 1543, and by all accounts was a patient, loving, and pious wife to him in his last years of illness, disillusion, and pain. Catherine Parr was the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr
