d wandered somewhat; saying that
she thought she would die, and that she was not being well treated. "Those
who are about me do not care for me, but stand laughing at my grief," she
complained to her friend Lady Tyrwhitt. This was evidently directed
against Seymour, who stood by. "Why, sweetheart," he said, "I would you no
hurt." "No, my Lord," replied Katharine, "I think so; but," she whispered,
"you have given me many shrewd taunts." This seems to have troubled
Seymour, and he suggested to Lady Tyrwhitt that he should lie on the bed
by the Queen's side and try to calm her; but his efforts were without
effect, for she continued excitedly to say that she had not been properly
dealt with. These facts, related and magnified by attendants, and coupled
with Seymour's desire to marry Elizabeth as soon as his wife died, gave
rise to a pretty general opinion that Katharine was either poisoned or
otherwise ill treated. But there are many circumstances that point in the
contrary direction, and there can be no reasonable doubt now, that
although in her inmost mind she had begun to distrust her husband, and the
anxiety so caused may have contributed to her illness, she died (on the
5th September) of ordinary puerperal fever.

She was buried in great state in the chapel at Sudeley Castle, and her
remains, which have been examined and described several times, add their
testimony to the belief that the unfortunate Queen died a natural death.
The death of Katharine Parr, the last, and least politically important, of
Henry's six wives, took place, so far as English history is concerned, on
the day that heralded the death of her royal husband. From the moment that
Somerset and his wife sat in the seats of the mighty there was no room for
the exercise of political influence by the Queen-Dowager; and these latter
pages telling of her fourth marriage, this time for love, form but a human
postscript to a political history.

Footnotes:

[1] _Spanish Calendar_, vol. 1.

[2] The second marriage, by proxy, of Arthur and Katharine eventually took
place at the chapel of the royal manor of Bewdley on the 19th May 1499,
and the young Prince appears to have performed his part of the ceremony
with much decorum: "Saying in a loud, clear voice to Dr. Puebla, who
represented the bride, that he was much rejoiced to contract an
indissoluble marriage with Katharine, Princess of Wales, not only in
obedience to the Pope and King Henry, but also from