days usurped the
ancient earldom which Parr had claimed in right of his Bourchier wife,
whilst Katharine's second husband, Neville Lord Latimer, had been so
strong a Catholic as to have risked his great possessions, as well as his
head, by joining the rising in the North that had assumed the name of the
Pilgrimage of Grace and had been mainly directed against Cromwell's
measures. She was, moreover, closely related to the Throckmortons, the
stoutly Catholic family whose chief, Sir George, Cromwell had despoiled
and imprisoned until the intrigue already related drove the minister from
power in June 1540, with the mysterious support, so it is asserted, of
Katharine Lady Latimer herself, though the evidence of it is not very
convincing.[234]

Katharine had been brought up mostly in the north country with extreme
care and wisdom by a hard-headed mother, and had been married almost as a
child to an elderly widower, Lord Borough, who had died soon afterwards,
leaving her a large jointure. Her second husband, Lord Latimer, had also
been many years older than herself; and accompanying him, as she did, in
his periodical visits to London, where they had a house in the precincts
of the Charterhouse, she had for several years been remarkable in Henry's
Court, not only for her wide culture and love of learning, but also for
her friendship with the Princess Mary, whose tastes were exactly similar
to her own. Lord Latimer died in London at the beginning of 1543, leaving
to Katharine considerable property; and certainly not many weeks can have
passed before the King began to pay his court to the wealthy and dignified
widow of thirty-two. His attentions were probably not very welcome to her,
for he was a terribly dangerous husband, and any unrevealed peccadillo in
the previous life of a woman he married might mean the loss of her head.

There was another reason than this, however, that made the King's
addresses especially embarrassing to Katharine. The younger of the two
magnificent Seymour brothers, Sir Thomas, had thus early also approached
her with offers of love. He was one of the handsomest men at Court, and of
similar age to Katharine. He was already very rich with the church
plunder, and was the King's brother-in-law; so that he was in all respects
a good match for her. He must have arrived from his mission to Germany
immediately after Lord Latimer's death, and remained at Court until early
in May, about three months; during whic