Maud Green and Two of Henry VIII's Wives

Today is the anniversary of Maud Green's birth on April 6, 1492. According to the Tudor Times, she was:

the daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Green of Green's Norton in Northamptonshire. She was married at around the age of 16 to Sir Thomas Parr, whilst her sister, Anne, was married to Sir Thomas Parr's step-father, Sir Nicholas Vaux.

Maud was appointed as a Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Katharine of Aragon. It was unusual for a knight's wife to be a Lady-in-Waiting, as opposed to a Gentlewoman of the Bedchamber, but perhaps the two women got on well, or it may have been in recognition of the fact that Sir Thomas was third cousin to the King. In between her duties at Court, Maud gave birth to three children who survived and a further two who did not.

One of those three surviving children was Catherine Parr, whom Maud may have named after her mistress. She was widowed at age 25 and arranged the marriages of her son, William and daughters Catherine and Anne:

Maud remained in the service of Queen Katharine, but died, aged about forty on 1 st December 1531. In her Will, made in 1529 she gives donations to the orders of friars, and then requests the payments of the debts incurred for the marriages of her children. She then gives detailed instructions on bequests of jewelry to her daughters, including pictures of the King (Henry VIII) and Queen (Katharine of Aragon) to her daughter Katherine.

What a bequest!

More about the Vaux family connection here.

Image credit: This portrait originally and now identified as Catherine Parr was wrongly identified as Lady Jane Grey for decades.