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

property they believed was rightfully theirs. A few years later, there was more embarrassment when another brother, William, dabbled in the occult and got himself arrested. He seems to have been looking for supernatural encouragement that the head of the family might die or be killed in battle, enabling William to replace Lord Latimer as the head of their branch of the Nevilles and thus be in line for the earldom of Warwick, vacant since the demise of the Kingmaker. It could not have been very comforting to Latimer to know that one of his siblings was resorting to the black arts to gain his title, but William’s involvement with wizards and soothsayers had also led to charges of sedition, as Henry VIII’s death was prophesied as well. In the end, nothing came of this strange episode but it was an indication of the jealousy and irrationality that pervaded the Neville family’s dealings with each other, and a further source of stress for Latimer.
    At home, his own two children were also in need of guidance and stability. John Neville, then fourteen years old, had had little parental presence in his life. This was by no means uncommon in those days but his subsequent behaviour, as a violent and unpredictable adult and Katherine Parr’s own, indirect comments about young people, point to the fact that he was a very difficult stepson. There was an urgent need for direction, for proper attention to be paid to his education and for inculcating some sense of responsibility in one apparently prone to blame others for his misdemeanours. When, more than a decade later, Katherine Parr wrote Lamentation of a Sinner , she harked back to the frustrations of dealing with her stepson, though she does not, of course, name him personally:

younglings and unperfect are offended at small trifles, taking everything in evil part, grudging and murmuring against their neighbour . . . when [they] see that it is reputed and esteemed holy to commit sin . . . they learn to do that, and worse, and wax cold in doing good and confirm themselves in evil, and then they excuse their wicked life, publishing the same with the slander of their neighbour. If any man reprove them, they say such a man did thus and worse . . . their affections dispose their eyes to see through other men and they see nothing in themselves . . . 2

    Although the sixteenth century did not have a separate category for ‘teenagers’ it is very easy for any modern parent to sympathize with Katherine Parr’s experience, so eloquently expressed, in dealing with difficult youngsters. When first confronted with Latimer’s son and heir, she was not quite twenty-two. She might have been forgiven for wondering whether the confidence of this sulking, lying, over-sensitive boy could ever be won. Yet during her tenure as his stepmother, he does seem, at least, to have avoided the disgrace which subsequent allegations of rape and murder brought to the name of Latimer. Nor did she abandon him after his father’s death; the younger John Neville’s wife, Lucy, was one of Katherine’s ladies-in-waiting when she became queen.
    Thankfully for Katherine, her stepdaughter, Margaret, then a girl of nine, was all together different. Theirs quickly became a close and loving relationship. Margaret had never really known a mother but that gap in her young life was filled by her father’s third wife, who supervised her education, encouraged a love of learning and a devotion to religion which mirrored Katherine’s own journey into spiritual awareness. They were never parted for any length of time until Margaret’s premature death at the age of twenty-one. The child watched her stepmother support her father and appreciated the attention and guidance that she received. She also witnessed Katherine’s personal courage and coolness at times of crisis. Margaret was an apt pupil and her upbringing seems tohave given Katherine great satisfaction. The experience undoubtedly stood Katherine in good stead when,