SOURCE: Martienssen, Anthony. “The Queen's Ladies.” In Queen Katherine Parr, pp. 185-223. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1973.

In the following essay, Martienssen discusses Parr's humanist intentions and activities, and provides details on the queen's relationship with the religious martyr Anne Askew.

Katherine Parr had now been Queen for some fifteen months. During that period, her main concern had been to establish herself as a loving and obedient wife, and as an affectionate and industrious stepmother. Her few sorties into politics had all been connected with the King's children, and nothing she had done could be interpreted as having any motive other than the well-being of the Royal Family. Even the appointment of John Cheke was easily justified on the grounds of his outstanding scholarship, which Gardiner himself could not deny. Her one outside venture had been the offer of her patronage to Cambridge University, but here, too, Gardiner...