Maud Green

Maud Green (6 April 1492 – 1 December 1531)[1] was an English courtier. She was the mother of Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of King Henry VIII of England. She was a close friend and lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon. She was also co-heiress to her father, Sir Thomas Green of Green's Norton in Northamptonshire along with her sister, Anne, Lady Vaux.

Lady Parr
Unidentified woman by Hans Holbein, possibly Maud Green.
Born(1492-04-06)6 April 1492
Northamptonshire, England
Died1 December 1531(1531-12-01) (aged 39)
BuriedBlackfriars Church, London, England
Noble familyParr (by marriage)
Spouse(s)Sir Thomas Parr
Issue
FatherSir Thomas Green
MotherJane Fogge

Life

Maud was born on 6 April 1492 in Northamptonshire, the daughter of Sir Thomas Green, of Boughton and Green's Norton,[2] and Jane Fogge, daughter of Sir John Fogge.[3]

Her mother died when she was an infant. She became a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of King Henry VIII sometime after 11 June 1509. She was in constant attendance upon the Queen and was allocated her own rooms at Court on a permanent basis.[4] It is thought that Maud may have named her daughter Catherine after Catherine of Aragon, who was also made godmother to the child.

Education

Maud was a very intelligent and well-educated woman; she was also fluent in French. Queen Catherine held her in such high regard that Maud was entrusted with the organization and control of the Royal Court School which was established for the education of the King's family and the daughters of the Queen's closest friends.[5] Maud had already taught her children to read and write when they were small children, but it was at this Royal Court school that Catherine and her sister Anne would have been taught French, Latin, philosophy, theology, and the Classics.[5]

Marriage

Maud had married Sir Thomas Parr, the eldest son of Sir William Parr and Elizabeth FitzHugh, in 1508 when she was about 16 years old. He was the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, master of the wards and comptroller to the King. Maud and Thomas had three surviving children. Although Thomas Parr inherited properties in the north including Kendal Castle in Westmorland, the Parr's resided at Parr House which was located on The Strand in London. By the time Sir Thomas had inherited the castle, it was in need of repair and eventually became derelict. Parr and his wife were courtiers and stayed close to court. Thomas Parr died of the sweating sickness on 11 November 1517, leaving Maud a widow at the age of 25. She chose not to remarry for fear of jeopardizing the huge inheritance she held in trust for her children.[4] She carefully supervised the education of her children and studiously arranged their marriages.[6]

Issue

Before the birth of Catherine, Maud gave birth to a son shortly after her marriage to Sir Thomas. The happiness was short lived as the baby quickly died and his name was never known. After the birth of their third child, Anne, Maud again became pregnant c. 1517, the same year of Thomas' death. However, there is no subsequent mention of the child, so it was probably lost through a miscarriage, stillbirth, or death in early infancy.[7]

Surviving children of Maud Green:

  • William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, 1st Earl of Essex (1513 28 October 1571), married three times, but produced no issue:

Ancestry

Death

Maud died on 1 December 1531 and is buried in St. Ann's Church, Blackfriars Church, London, England beside her husband.[15] In her will, she left her daughter Catherine a jeweled cipher pendant in the shape of an 'M'.[16]

Notes

  • Mike Ashley "British Kings and Queens", New York; Carroll and Graf Publishing Inc., 1998.
  • Anthony Martienssen "Queen Katherine Parr", McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1973. pg 7, 17, 18, 29-39.

References

  1. James, Susan. "Catherine Parr: Henry VIII's Last Love". 2009. Pg 14.
  2. Anthony Martienssen "Queen Katherine Parr", page 17
  3. Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011. pp. 290.
  4. Martienssen, page18
  5. Martienssen, page 7.
  6. Martienssen, pages 29-39
  7. Linda Porter. Katherine, the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr, the Last Wife of Henry VIII. Macmillan. 2010.
  8. James, Susan E. Catherine Parr: Henry VIII's Last Love, Gloucestershire, England: The History Press, 2009. pg 94.
  9. Anne Parr, Lady Herbert Peerage.com entry of Anne Parr, Lady Herbert.
  10. Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families (Royal Ancestry). Genealogical Publishing Company (June 30, 2004).
  11. Paget, Gerald. The Lineage and Ancestry of H.R.H. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales- Vol. I. p. 95.
  12. Douglas Richardson. Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011. pp. 154-55.
  13. Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011. pp. 290
  14. Burke's Peerage. 1938. p. 2416.
  15. James, page 17.
  16. Susan E. James, Women's Voices in Tudor Wills (Ashgate, 2015), p. 86.
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