Wife, widow, mother, survivor, the story of the last queen of Henry VIII.

From a March 2000 conference at the University of Pennsylvania, 16 essays explore such aspects as women's dialogue writing in 16th-century France, Maria Domitilla Galluzzi and the Rule of St. Clare of Assisi, courtly origins of new literary canons, the earliest anthology of English women's texts, and the reinvention of Anne Askew. One of the contri

The sixth and last queen of Henry VIII, and friend of Anne Askew, Katherine Parr (c.1513-1548) has a threefold claim to recognition for her contribution to the literary culture of her time. First, as a loving and adept stepmother to the royal children, who took a directive role in their education; second, as the patroness of a circle of Protestant humanist intellectuals who spearheaded the translation of Erasmus’s Latin Paraphrase upon the newe testamente; and third, as the author of the two vernacular religious works reproduced here, which established her as the earliest woman writer in English to see original works reach print and bear her name.