Editing Catherine Parr (section)

==Remains==
[[File:Gloucestershire-SudeleyCastle-CatherineParr.jpg |thumb|Detail from tomb of Catherine Parr in St. Mary's Chapel, Sudeley Castle]]
During the [[English Civil War]], [[Sudeley Castle]] was used as a base by King [[Charles I of England|Charles I]], leading to its siege and sack by [[Roundhead|Parliamentarians]] in January 1643, during which Catherine's grave was probably disturbed and her monument destroyed. Contemporary writer [[Bruno Ryves]] reported that:

"There is in the castle a goodly fair church, here they dug up the graves, and disturb the ashes of the dead, they break down the monuments of the Chandoses".{{sfn|Dent|1877|p=260}}

The castle changed hands several times during the war, suffering a second siege, before being [[slighting|slighted]] in 1649, leading to it being largely abandoned, and the royal grave lost.

Catherine's presence at the castle was first rediscovered by the antiquarian Rev. Huggett when researching at the [[College of Arms]], passing his findings onto [[George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers]], the owner of the castle in 1768.{{Sfn|Dent|1877|p=314}}

Joseph Lucas, a member of the local gentry who dwelled in the outer court of the castle, renting it from Baron Rivers, was aware of Huggett's work and searched for the lost grave, discovering it among the ruins of the chapel in 1782. An account of the discovery was later published in ''[[Notes and Queries]]'' by the daughter of a Mr. Brooks, who had been present at the discovery.
[[File:Tomb of Catherine Parr.jpg|thumb|An illustration of the opening of Catherine Parr's coffin in 1782]]
"In the summer of the year 1782 the earth in which Qu. K. Par lay inter'd was removed, and at the depth of about two feet (or very little more) her leaden coffin or coffin was found quite whole... Mr. Jno Lucas had the curiosity to rip up the top of the coffin, expecting to discover within it only the bones of the deceased, but to his great surprise found the whole body wrapped in 6 or 7 seer cloth linen, entire and uncorrupted... his unwarranted curiosity led him to make an incision through the seer cloth which covered one of the arms of the corpse, the flesh of which at the time was white and moist".{{sfn|Dent|1877|p=316}}

The coffin was reopened in 1783, 1784, 1786; and in 1792, when local vandals broke into the coffin and threw the corpse in a rubbish heap, leading to Mr. Lucas reinterring the body in a hidden, walled grave.{{sfn|Dent|1877|p=316}}

The last time the coffin was opened was in 1817 when the local rector decided to move it to the crypt under the chapel. When opening it this final time it was found the body had been reduced to a skeleton, and much of the coffin filled with ivy.{{sfn|Dent|1877|p=320}}

During these various openings of the coffin, fragments of Catherine's dress and locks of her hair were collected, one of which was gifted to Elizabeth Hamilton{{clarify|date=November 2024}}.{{sfn|Dent|1877|p=181}} The majority of these items are now on display at Sudeley Castle.

The coffin was last moved in 1861 to its final location in the fully restored chapel, under a canopied neo-Gothic tomb designed by Sir [[George Gilbert Scott]], with a recumbent marble figure by [[John Birnie Philip]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Tomaini |first=Thea |title=The Corpse as Text: Disinterment and Antiquarian Enquiry, 1700-1900 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |location=Gloucestershire |date=2017 |page=152 |isbn=9781782049517}}</ref>