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Susan E. James, Catherine Parr: Henry VIIPs Last Love. (Dublin: History Press Ireland, 2010, Rpt. Pp. 352. £8.39, paper); Elizabeth Norton, Catherine Parr. (Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley, 2010, Pp. 277. £18.99); Linda Porter, Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr, the Last Wife of Henry VIII. (New York: St Martin's Griffin, 2010, Pp. 383. $19.99); Brandon G. Withrow, Katherine Parr: A Guided Tour of the Life and Thought of a Reformation Queen. (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P & R Press, 2009, Pp. 187. $13.99); Janel Mueller, ed. Katherine Parr: Complete Works and Correspondence. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011, Pp. x, 645. $65.00.)
The quincentennial of the birth of Katherine Parr in 2012 marked the publication of several new biographies and document collections dedicated to the life and legacy of Henry VUI's last queen, the only one who survived him. A lavish festival, including a reenactment of Katherine's funeral, the first service ever to be conducted exclusively in English, was held at the site where she died after childbirth, Sudeley Castle in Glocestershire. Scholars such as Susan E. James, one of foremost authorities on Parr with her publication of the insightful and meticulous biography, Kateryn Parr: The Making of a Queen Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999), established the queen's impressive religious and intellectual legacy, and portrays Katherine as a politically savvy regent, deeply spiritual advocate for the Protestant cause, as well as a competent author and patron of the arts,...