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#24 ~ The Last Wife of Henry VIII
The Last Wife of Henry VIII by Carolly Erickson
This was my first foray into books about the wives of Henry the 8th that was not written by Philippa Gregory. I have to admit that I was somewhat concerned that the quality of the writing and the story would not meet my expectations. Thankfully, that was not so. I enjoyed The Last Wife of Henry VIII very much.
This novel tells the story of Catherine Parr, the woman who was to become Henry’s last wife – and one of only two who managed to survive him. Unlike several of Henry’s wives, Catherine Parr did not have ambitions to become queen or to hold any lofty title at that. She remained in Henry’s favor long after she first asked him to intercede on her behalf when settling the issue of her first marriage. From that point forward, it was simply a matter of the right stars falling into proper alignment.
Catherine blamed Henry for the death of her first husband and her unborn child. She cursed him and avoided him whenever possible. She even accepted the marriage proposal of a kindly, yet old, man to “escape” the king’s request that she join the court as one of Queen Katherine Howard’s ladies in waiting. She did not love Lord Latimer, but he was a gentleman in every sense of the word and she enjoyed caring for her stepdaughter. It was while married to him that she met and became lovers with Thomas Seymour, the uncle of Henry’s only male heir, Prince Edward. There plans for marrying after Lord Latimer’s death were thwarted, however, by Henry. As her soveriegn king, Catherine could not turn down his proposal. All that Catherine had left was the courage and the hope to survive her third marriage with her life.
While reading this book, I felt as though I got to know a little of what it was like to live with our King Henry at the end of his life. It was actually quite sad how paranoid and unhappy he became. He started down the slippery slope of believing his own hype years before, but as his health declined, his common sense and ability to discern situations and people quickly deteriorated. He was a man who had everything, yet nothing at all.
May 22, 2007 | Filed Under Books, Henry VIII, Historical Fiction, Reading
Comments
6 Responses to “#24 ~ The Last Wife of Henry VIII”
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Kaethe
Posted: Sep 21st, 2007 at 1:33 pm1Reply to this comment.I just wanted to thank you. I was trying to find out what order to read the Gregory books in, and I found your very helpful post about reading this and Innocent Traitor before The Queen’s Fool. It’s always delightful to run into someone else who likes to keep their historical fiction in chological order.
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Literate Housewife
Posted: Sep 21st, 2007 at 3:03 pm2Reply to this comment.Kaethe,
You are so welcome! I am glad that you found my blog and got the information that you needed. I get a lot of history out of reading these books, so I like to know the order of things. Most of these books could stand alone and are great to read, but like you said, I really like keeping things in their chronological and historical perspectives.
Have you checked out http://www.historicalfiction.org? It’s a board I’ve recently joined and enjoy quite a bit. I need to write a post about that. It’s so easy to think that you’re somewhat alone in reading historical fiction. Thankfully, there are so many people with excellent taste like us.
Jennifer
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pingback:
Posted: Jul 20th, 2008 at 2:55 pm3#70 The Lady Elizabeth « The Literate Housewife ReviewReply to this comment.[...] Even her encounters with Lord Seymour didn’t capture my imagination the way that they have in The Last Wife of Henry VIII or The Queen’s Fool. In fact, they felt a little flat and forced. I’m not sure if this [...]
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pingback:
Posted: Jul 25th, 2008 at 2:35 pm4#52 The Autobiography of Henry VIII « The Literate Housewife ReviewReply to this comment.[...] read all of Philippa Gregory’s Tudor series and the Carolly Erickson’s The Last Wife of Henry VIII first in no way diminished this book. George’s descriptions of the executions of Anne Boleyn [...]
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Sam
Posted: Jul 25th, 2008 at 8:57 pm5Reply to this comment.I don’t know if I am just missing something, but wasn’t Catherine’s first husband old, like Lord Latimer, not Ned, her age? Or am I just under the wrong impression?
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Literate Housewife
Posted: Jul 28th, 2008 at 8:47 am6Reply to this comment.Sam, you’re right about that. Her first husband was Edward Borough, not someone named Ned. The author must have changed that to create drama.
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