Page:The Queens of England.djvu/369

 KATHARINE PARR. 329 joining, as one of the leaders, the hand associated in the north of England under the name of the "Pilgrimage of Grace," and headed by Robert Aske, to demand a restoration of the church property and monasteries, which led to an open insur- rection, when an appeal to the sovereign was found ineffectual. Katharine soon after her husband's pardon for his participa- tion in this affair again became a widow, and by this event a large dowry was added to her income, including the manors of Cumberton, Wadborough, and several other estates in Worcestershire. At liberty to follow the bias of her own con- victions, she now turned to the study of that creed which the opposition that might naturally be expected from her late lord had previously prevented her from openly avowing. Assisted in her researches after truth by some of the ablest advocates of the reformation, she soon embraced with pious fervor the tenets she could no longer doubt. The courage evinced by Katharine Parr in thus confronting danger, was no less remarkable than the piety which led her, while yet a youthful and lovely woman, in the possession of great wealth, and uncontrolled mistress of her own actions, to turn from the fascinations of pleasure, and the admiration she was formed to command, to devote her time to higher, nobler aims, in the study of her adopted religion, and the practice of its duties. But the austerity of her life, so unusual in her sex and at her age, did not deter suitors from seeking her hand. Among the most brilliant of these was one who had captivated many a female heart by his personal attractions, gallant bearing, and the art with which these advantages were exhibited when he wished to please. But perhaps the fair object to whom he now directed his attention was less struck by his manly comeli- ness, great as it was reported to be, than by the knowledge that he leaned to the creed she had adopted ; for although Sir Thomas Seymour could not be considered a religious man, the mere fact that he preferred the reformed to the ancient faith, must have pleaded greatly in his favor with Katharine, whose heart, softened by his assiduities, yielded itself to his keeping, and won her consent to bestow her hand on him at no very distant day. Fate had decreed that this marriage was not to be, or at least not then ; for Katharine, who had already been the wife of two elderly widowers, was reserved to become the sixth wife of a third, and of no less a personage than her liege sovereign. That she was already well acquainted