Melody Murray's Books

Meticulously researched, accessibly written and long overdue. I think almost everyone knows who Katherine Parr was, but a lot of what everyone knows about her is wrong. This book sets out to unearth the real woman behind the apocrypha, and for my money, succeeds.The analysis of her first two marriages is fascinating. The story of how she came to marry Henry is more well-known but still quite interesting. The growth of Parr's Protestant identity is researched and explained, with a lovely explication of Anne Askew and how her legend relates to the verifiable historical facts. The brief coda, Parr's fourth marriage, is dissected and discussed more thoroughly and convincingly than I've ever seen. Highly recommended for Tudor history geeks.