Catherine Parr

She survived Henry VIII. The life she chose afterwards would test her in ways the crown never had.

Twice widowed, Catherine Parr hopes her next marriage will be her own choice. With Thomas Seymour, she dares to imagine a future shaped by love, learning, and the freedom to speak her mind.

Then Henry VIII chooses her.

As his sixth wife, Catherine enters a court where a king's affection offers no lasting protection. She must weigh every word, judge whom to trust, and conceal the convictions that could turn her husband against her.

Yet Catherine refuses to let fear define her queenship. She draws Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward closer to their father's court, governs in Henry's absence, and publishes a book under her own name. Her growing authority gives her opportunities she once could scarcely imagine-and makes her a target for men determined to silence her.

When religious suspicion threatens to become an accusation, Catherine must persuade Henry to spare her before his enemies become hers.

His death seems to offer the freedom she has waited for.

At last, she can marry Thomas Seymour. At last, she can build a household beyond the king's shadow. But the man she loves has ambitions of his own, and Catherine's hope for happiness will force her to confront dangers she has been unwilling to see.

From the guarded intimacy of Hampton Court to the troubled household at Chelsea and the final summer at Sudeley Castle, Catherine Parr: The Queen Who Survived the King is an intimate historical novel about a woman whose intelligence helped her survive a dangerous marriage-and whose longing for love made freedom far more complicated than she expected.

Book Four in The King's Women: A Tudor Chronicle.