On 4 July 1546, an entry made in the Privy Council of King Henry VIII “the executors of John Smyth, late Queen's receiver. . . state that the books remain in your custody to pay these debts; we ask you to show them to him.”1 It seemed that the king was about to get rid of his last queen, Katherine Parr, as he had done with almost all the other wives he had had up to that point. It was through her upbringing, her kind nature and the clever move of appealing to the king's pride that she managed to save her neck from the shackle. Katherine managed to survive this episode and outlived King Henry VIII to be remembered in history as the wife who escaped. Katherine was born to Sir Thomas and Maud Parr in 1512. She had a younger brother and sister, William and Anne.2 Maud served Catherine of Aragon as a lady-in-waiting. It is possible that Katherine and Princess Mary, born within a few years of each other, played or were briefly educated together.3 When Katherine was about five years old, her father died. Maud had to raise her three young children and apparently took her work as a mother and educator very seriously.4 Katherine learned to speak and write in French and English, which was a remarkable feat considering that most some people couldn't even read. English. Katherine's love of learning never ceased throughout her life. As an adult she continued to study Latin and Greek, as well as the religious writings of the time. Katherine composed two separate books, Prayers and Meditations and Lamentation of a Sinner.5 Katherine married Edward Borough at seventeen, but was widowed two years later.6 Her second husband, Lord John Latimer of Yorkshire, was in his late twenties more than Katherine. Latimer was twice widowed in the middle of the charter of a sixteenth-century heretic and saint. Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 4 (Winter, 1999) 1021-1045 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2901834 (accessed April 23, 2013). Latimer, Hugh Latimer, “Second Sermon, June 9, 1537” Sermons on the Charter and Other Discourses, ed. Henry Morley. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2458/2458-h/2458-h.htm“Letters and documents, foreign and domestic, Henry VIII, volume 21 part 1: January-August 1546”. Editors James Gairdner and RH Brodie. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report/aspx?compid=80860. (Accessed April 24, 2014).PBS “The Six Wives of Henry VIII.” http://www.pbs.org/wnet/sixwives/meet/cp_handbook_main.html (accessed April 22, 2013).Trueman, Chris. “Causes of the Pilgrimage of Grace”. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/causes_pilgrimage_grace.htm (accessed 26 April, 2013).