Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [55]
Five days later, at Hampton Court, Katherine was interrogated by her uncle, Norfolk, and Cranmer. At first she denied the allegations, but then she admitted the truth. In a letter of confession to the king, she begged for his mercy, describing her relationships with Manox and Dereham and explaining why she had not told him before they were married: “I was so desirous to be taken unto your grace’s favour and so blinded with the desire of worldly glory that I could not, nor had grace, to consider how great a fault it was to conceal my former faults from your Majesty.”8
In January, Katherine and Lady Rochford, her lady of the bedchamber, who had arranged illicit meetings, were declared guilty of treason. On February 10, Katherine was moved from Syon to the Tower, passing first beneath London Bridge, where the heads of Dereham and Culpepper, executed the previous year, were still displayed. Two days later, Sunday the twelfth, she was told to prepare herself for death. According to Chapuys, “she asked to have the block brought in to her so that she might see how to place herself, which was done, and she made trial of it.”9 Early the following morning, her preparations complete, Katherine knelt at the scaffold and her head was struck off.10
“This King has wonderfully felt the case of the Queen his wife,” Chapuys wrote. “He has certainly shown greater sorrow and regret at her loss than at the faults, loss or divorce of his preceding wives.”11 By April, it was reported that, since learning of his late wife’s conduct, he had “not been the same man” and was often to be found “sad, pensive and sighing.”12
Following Katherine Howard’s execution, Mary enjoyed far greater favor and presided over court feasts as if she were queen. As a New Year’s gift Henry presented her “with rings, silver plate, and other jewels” among which were “two rubies of inestimable value.”13 However, during those months, the princess suffered repeatedly from chronic ill health, linked to anxiety, depression, and irregular menstruation, although the symptoms varied widely from one episode to the next. In March and April, she had a “strange fever” that brought on heart palpitations and so afflicted her that at times “she remained as though dead.”14 On April 22, Chapuys told the queen of Hungary, “the princess has been seriously ill, and in danger of her life.”15 Yet Mary recovered and on December 17 was summoned to court for the Christmas festivities “with a great number of ladies … they work day and night at Hampton Court to finish her lodging.”16 Chapuys reported that the king “spoke to her in the most gracious and amiable words that a father could address to his daughter.”17
ON JULY 12, 1543, Mary and Elizabeth attended their father’s sixth wedding, in the queen’s Privy Closet at Hampton Court. As Thomas Wriothesley, secretary of the Privy Council, reported to the duke of Suffolk:
The King’s Majesty was married on Thursday last to my Lady Latimer, a woman in my judgement, for virtue, wisdom and gentleness, most mete for his Highness, and sure I am his Majesty had never a wife more agreeable to his heart than she is. Our Lord send them long life and much joy together.18
It was a small ceremony with some twenty people in attendance, presided over by Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester.19 Henry’s bride, the twice-married Katherine Parr, a former member of Mary’s household, had come to the king’s attention during Mary’s frequent visits to court. Katherine had long-standing connections with the princess. Her mother, Maud, had been one of Katherine of Aragon’s ladies-in-waiting, and she had been named after the queen, who had stood as godmother at her baptism. It was soon apparent that Katherine Parr, only four years older than Mary, was to be “more a friend than a stepmother.” She sought to improve