Katherine and Elizabeth: a strange and endless bond

March 24th marks the anniversary of the death of Elizabeth I. Gloriana's glorious rule came to an end #OTD in 1603 and she left the country she ruled in a far better state than when she inherited it. And part of the reason for her success was Katherine Parr.

Katherine's role as a stepmother to the young royal can't be underestimated. It's worth remembering that before Henry VIII married Mistress Parr in 1543, his two daughters had been kept at arm's length. Elizabeth, like her older half sister Mary, was an inconvenience to the king who had famously changed the world around him in pursuit of a legitimate male heir but who, as he approached the last years of his life, found himself with just one son in the succession. The girls he had discarded along with their mothers were potential backstops that he had already treated poorly but ones he hoped would never need to be used.

Katherine worked to restore the relationship between father and daughters and also showed herself to be a kind and considerate stepmother, encouraging Elizabeth's voracious passion for education as well as her interest in the new, reformed faith taking hold in parts of Europe. But she also left her in a vulnerable position. Following Henry's death, Elizabeth spent time in the household of Katherine and her fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, who made little secret of his interest in the young princess, a girl he had already considered pursuing in marriage before tying the knot with the queen dowager.

Quite what happened in the Chelsea home that Katherine shared with Seymour and Elizabeth will never be known. But the early morning antics of a sort of stepfather with his wife's teenage stepdaughter were worrying enough for Katherine to send Elizabeth away. There's little doubt that Elizabeth mourned Katherine greatly when she died just a few months later. But it's interesting to ponder whether the shenanigans of those times impacted her to such an extent as to crystallise her growing determination never to marry. She knew her father had had her mother executed when their union soured and now she'd seen another strong, determined woman apparently under the rule of a man. The fact that Thomas' talents came nowhere near those of Katherine's perhaps only underlined further to Elizabeth that marriage was a game designed for men to win.

Elizabeth's reign became one of the great success stories of English history. While her older half-sister was the one who finally showed that women could rule in their own right, it was Elizabeth who shaped the model of a queen regnant and made the role her own. It took determination, inquisitiveness and determination, all qualities she had seen Katherine exhibit during her tenure as consort, regent and dowager. But it also took a steely will not to share power with anyone else and that, perhaps, was a lesson taught to her by her stepmother, too. Katherine and Elizabeth's bond was strange, sweet and strong. It still resonates today.