Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr by Linda Porter Page A

as we have seen, found it extremely difficult to extricate himself from this connection back in 1471. It might appear that Katherine’s marriage to John Neville continued the tradition of the Parr obligation to their ennobled kin. But times were changing and the Parrs, through circumstance and intelligent appraisal of their situation, were better placed to reap the rewards of political and religious turmoil. They represented the new and Lord Latimer the old, though this was not yet fully apparent.
    So Katherine had married a much older man who, despite his frequent sojourns in the capital, was very much the provincial nobleman. He was, at heart, a Yorkshireman who was uncomfortable with the foetid air of intrigue that hung over court and parliament in London. He preferred the quiet life, the traditional ways of Church worship, the day-to-day challenge of managing an estate that was already in financial difficulties. In April 1534, with his new marriage very close, he wrote to Thomas Cromwell, the king’s chief minister, about the problems he was encountering in paying off family debts:

As I have been at every prorogation of Parliament nearly these four years, which has been very painful and chargeable to me, as I have not yet paid the king all that is due for the livery of my lands, nor all the sums I am bound to pay by the wills of my father and mother-in-law, I beg you will give me leave to tarry at home and be absent from the next prorogation. I shall be in better readiness to do the kingservice against the Scots when we in these parts are called upon. 1

    In these few sentences, Latimer summed up the problems that beset many of the Tudor nobility: the expenses incurred in inheriting a title, the duties of involvement in national legislation and the obligation to defend the monarch from foreign enemies. Cromwell received so many of these begging letters that he seldom took any notice of them, even when they were accompanied by ‘gifts’ such as the gelding that Latimer provided on this occasion. The horse may have added to Cromwell’s stable, but not necessarily his respect for Lord Latimer. In time, he would ask for considerably more.
    Latimer knew the leading politicians and noblemen of the realm but does not seem to have liked many of them, or been able to influence them. He had few friends at court beyond William Fitzwilliam, the son of a Yorkshire knight, who was a Neville on his mother’s side. Fitzwilliam grew up as Henry VIII’s companion and was very close to both the king and Cromwell; these connections may well have saved Latimer’s life in 1537 in the aftermath of the Pilgrimage of Grace. For Katherine’s husband was not very effective at pleading his own cause. He was inclined to compromise, avoiding confrontation. This may seem sensible, but it was not what was expected of the nobility; strong leadership and unquestioning devotion to the king were highly prized in the 1530s. It could only have been a matter of time before Katherine realized she had married a man who worried a lot, an endearing ditherer who viewed soldiering as a duty rather than an opportunity for heroism, though he had been knighted in Lille during the French campaign of 1513. Her new husband was also slow to make decisions. When he did, they often betrayed a lack of judgement.
    Yet Latimer had many positive attributes. He was neither cruel nor vindictive – he was no wife-beater, like the duke of Norfolk – and he was not controlling or unfaithful. He strove tobe a good provider, even if he was not always a valiant protector. And in fairness to Latimer, his life was very far from straightforward. He was the eldest of fifteen children, with many younger brothers over whom he was supposed (but often failed) to exercise some degree of restraint. They were a quarrelsome tribe and gave him a great deal of difficulty. After his father’s death, two of Latimer’s brothers had wasted no time in pursuing him through the law courts for