by Mayv 'SpearBourne' Amaia

Created on: March 27, 2010   Last Updated: March 28, 2010

Maud Green was a lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon and the mother of Catherine Parr, the first and last wives of King Henry VIII, respectively.

Maud Green was born 6 April 1495, the daughter of Sir Thomas Green and his wife, Joan Fogge.

Joan died while Maud was still an infant. Thomas died in 1506, leaving young Maud a ward of the Crown until her marriage to a descendant of King Edward III, Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal, Westmorland, in 1508.

The next year, he was knighted and made sheriff of Northamptonshire. He was also master of the wards and comptroller to King Henry VIII.

Having spent much of her time at court, Maud was made a lady in waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon sometime after June 1509. Since she was in constant attendance upon the queen, she was given her own, permanent, rooms at court.

The Parrs also maintained residences at Kendal Castle, in Westmorland, and at Parr House, in The Strand, London.

An intelligent and educated woman, she was entrusted by the Queen with organising and controlling the Court school, where the King's family and the children of the Queen's closest friends would be taught.

In, or shortly before, 1512, Thomas and Maud's first child was born. She was named Catherine after the Queen, who was also her godmother.

A son, William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, was born 14 August 1513. Another daughter, Anne, was born the next year.

On 11 November 1517, Sir Thomas Parr died of the sweating sickness, or English sweate, a highly virulent disease which struck Europe in a series of epidemics in the late 15th through mid 16th centuries whose cause is still unknown.

Maud, a widow at the young age of 22, chose not to remarry so her children's inheritance, held in her trust, would not be jeopardised.

Being in charge of the Court school, she was able to ensure her children had the best possible education. She also began making arrangements for each of them to marry well.

By the time Catherine was approaching her tenth year, Maud, with the assistance of her late husband's brother, William, was already considering which of the forty unmarried peers in England would make a suitable husband for her eldest daughter.

Unfortunately, most of the heirs nearer Catherine's age were already married. This left men who were considerably older than her as the only prospects.

Her son, William, married Anne Bourchier, 7th Baroness Bourchier, daughter of Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Wessex, on 9 February 1527.

Although William was only 14 years old, his endowment was paid out. Henry Bourchier spent nearly all the money that was supposed to have been held in trust for William's sisters.

Maud arranged for Anne Parr to become a lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon, a position she would hold for each of Henry VIII's wives.

Catherine Parr married the first of her four husbands, Edward Borough, 2nd Baron Borough of Gainsborough, a 64 year old widower with married children and several grandchildren, in 1529.

Lady Maud Parr died 20 August 1529 and was buried next to her husband at Blackfriars Church in London.

Her only descendants, including the Earls of Pembroke, come from the sons of Anne and William Herbert, Esquire of the King's Body, who married in February 1538.

Catherine's only daughter, a product of her fourth marriage to Thomas Seymour, likely died while still quite young. There were no children from William's first or second marriages.

But she may be best known for being the mother of Catherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth and final wife, who married 12 July 1543.

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