The 'Firebrand' Trailer Turns Up the Tension In Tudor England

For whatever reason, our pop culture has never been all that interested in the woman who survived King Henry VIII. Everyone knows about Anne Boleyn's beheading and most people are aware that Jane Seymour's died after giving birth to his only son. Even Katherine of Aragon has had something of a moment in recent years, thanks in large part to the Starz series The Spanish Princess that dared to imagine her as something other than the frumpy, religious zealot that history usually likes to remember her as. But Catherine Parr is all too often only seen as notable because she outlived a monster.

Which, let's be clear, is no small feat, particularly given who her husband was and his track record with wives and marriage. But Catherine Parr was an intriguing figure in her own right, and one who deserves the public reckoning and reevaluation the arrival of the period film Firebrand is likely to bring with it.

Twice widowed by the time she married Henry at 31, Parr was intelligent, vivacious, and an accomplished scholar. (She's credited with being the first woman to publish under her own name in the English language in England.) A deeply devout Protestant and strong supporter of the Reformation, her strident religious views often brought her into conflict with Henry's advisors (most notably Bishop Stephen Gardiner and Thomas Wriothesley). She was nearly arrested for treason, but ultimately reconciled with Henry before the Palace could carry out the order to take her to the Tower.