Page:The Queens of England.djvu/374

 334 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. characteristic in Katharine from her early youth ; nor did this love of grave studies prevent her from those feminine occu- pations with the needle to which learned women are seldom prone. She is said to have excelled in embroidery, and to have left many proofs of her rare skill in it. The address of Kath- arine succeeded in maintaining her influence over the bluff Henry — a fact proved by his appointing her regent during his expedition against France in 1544, and leaving the heir to the crown and the two princesses solely in her charge. The king had previously elevated some of Katharine's near relatives to the peerage ; her brother he created Earl of Essex and Marquis of Northampton, and on her uncle, Lord Parr, he bestowed the office of lord chamberlain. Indeed, to all her relatives was the king's favor extended, in compliance with her wishes ; for she was extremely attached to them. The Earl of Hertford was appointed by Henry to take up his abode in the royal palace with the queen-regent during the king's absence — a proof that Henry had conceived no suspicion of Katharine's former attachment to Sir Thomas Seymour, the younger brother of Lord Hertford ; otherwise, with his jealous tend- ency, he would not have furnished occasion, by the residence of the earl in the same house with the aueen, for more familiar intercourse with Sir Thomas. It was probably during Henry's expedition that Katharine wrote the work entitled "The Lamentations of a Sinner," which has acquired her such celebrity ; for, notwithstanding its brevity, it certainly displays remarkable ability and great theo- logical learning, mixed with lavish flattery of the king. The regency of Katharine offers nothing remarkable. If courtiers could find no subject on which to lavish their com- pliments to her, her enemies could find no basis for blame, the best proof of the prudence and caution with which she exercised the power confided to her ; and Henry found on his return, after the surrender of Boulogne, a wife as submissive as before, and anxious to resign her high office into his firmer hands, glad to be released from the heavy responsibility, of which, however, she had proved herself so worthy. The appointment of Sir Thomas Seymour to the office of gentleman of the king's privy chamber, by bringing him into immediate contact with the royal household, must have been painful, if not trying, to the feelings of Katharine. To be exposed to behold daily one whom she had for the first and only time of her life loved, must have reminded her of hopes of happiness crushed when